4 Of The Best Android Tablets According To Consumer Reports – BGR

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A tablet is a great buy if you want the portability of a smartphone in a larger form factor. Whether you need a device that will be great for watching movies and TV shows or just random videos on YouTube while sitting comfortably on your couch, an Android tablet can be the perfect option for you. 

But go online and search for Android tablets, and you’ll be bombarded with a myriad of options, making selecting the best option a challenge. Fortunately, you don’t need to trouble yourself with research while there’s a team of experts at Consumer Reports that reviews such gadgets for a living. 

The site reviews a wide selection of tablets and, because of this, is better positioned to give you the best advice on what to get if you’re looking to buy your first Android tablet or need an upgrade to your aging model. By relying on their expert advice, you automatically steer clear of the worst Android tablets whose users regret buying.

If you need an Android tablet that performs well across the board, from performance to camera quality, battery life, and even display quality, you should go with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11. The display measures 11 inches (with a 120Hz refresh rate), and the device is powered by an 8,400 mAh battery, which, according to Consumer Reports, lasted for 11.1 hours in their web browsing test. If you’ll be using the tablet mainly to watch videos, you’ll get even more battery life, as Consumer Reports achieved 15.7 hours of uptime. 

And when you run out of juice, you can charge the Galaxy Tab S11 via the USB-C port, which supports up to 45W charging speeds. This tablet supports the S Pen, and you do get it out of the box. The S Pen comes in handy for drawing and scribbling notes, but also adds a variety of convenience features, such as controlling your tablet from a distance using the built-in remote control feature. The tablet comes with a single 13MP main camera at the back and a 12MP camera at the front for selfies, both of which are capable of shooting 4K video. 

The base model ships with 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but you can select higher storage options if you need more. Alternatively, you can get the base storage option and buy an external microSD card for additional storage. You can buy the base 128GB model of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 for $649.99 and the 256GB option for $709.99. Both come in either gray or silver.

The Galaxy Tab S10 FE (Fan Edition) is yet another tablet that was released by Samsung in 2025 and stands out as one of the best Android tablets you can buy, according to Consumer Reports. As expected from an FE version, this model is a bit cheaper than the Galaxy Tab S11, thus a perfect alternative if you want almost all the goodies of the latter for less. After all, it’s a pretty solid tablet that only misses out on the top spot by a few points in Consumer Reports’ rankings. 

It comes with a 10.9-inch 1440p IPS LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate support for smoother scrolling. There’s a 13MP main camera at the back and a 12MP selfie camera, just like what you get on the Tab S11. An 8,000 mAh battery powers the Tab S10 FE, and it supports 45W fast charging via the available USB-C port. Under the hood is a 4nm Exynos 1580 processor, which Consumer Reports has found to be inferior to the Dimensity 9400+ that runs the Galaxy Tab S11. 

The Galaxy Tab S10 FE does come with a dedicated slot for a microSD card, but the base model includes 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which might be more than enough for some. The base 128GB Galaxy Tab S10 FE is available on Amazon starting at $324, depending on the color, while the 256GB Tab S10 FE is selling for $469.99. You can buy either model in blue, gray, or silver.

If you want the best Android tablet from anyone but Samsung, Lenovo’s Legion Tab Gen 3 is what you’re looking for. It ranks as the third-best Android tablet in Consumer Reports’ ratings and misses out on the second spot by just a few points. There’s also one thing special about this tablet: the compact size. While most tablets have 10-inch screens and above, the Legion Tab Gen 3 has a compact footprint with an 8.8-inch display. That display has 2.5K resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling feel smooth. 

It’s marketed as a gaming tablet, and sports Qualcomm’s 2024 flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and 256GB UFS 4.0 storage, all of which come in handy for playing games. The battery isn’t as large as the previous options from Samsung, with 6,550 mAh capacity, but Consumer Reports says the battery life is good. The team got 16.4 hours of running time for web browsing and 13.5 hours for playing video, which is impressive despite the battery capacity. Perhaps this could be because of the smaller display. 

This tablet supports 68W wired charging via USB-C, and it includes a charging brick and USB-C to USB-C cable, saving you from an extra purchase. Lenovo also includes an assortment of accessories out of the box, such as a screen protector, a case, and a magnetic flap. This device has two USB-C ports, a dual camera setup on the rear (one 13MP and a macro lens), and a single 8MP selfie camera. But don’t expect award-winning photos from this tablet, as Consumer Reports notes it earned a “middling score.” You can buy the Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 from Lenovo for $389.99.

If you’re looking for the best Android tablet for your kid, you can’t go wrong with the Fire HD 8 (Gen 12). Consumer Reports recommends this as one of the best tablets for kids because it has solid battery life with up to 15 hours of video playback time. It’s also affordable, which is no surprise since Amazon makes some of the cheapest iPad alternatives. The Fire HD 8 (Gen 12) is also small, measuring just 8 inches and is lightweight, too. The processor isn’t as powerful as other mentions on the list, as it received “below-average” scores, but Consumer Reports says it’s more than enough for basic tasks. That said, the tablet runs on Amazon’s Fire OS — a modified version of Android — so make sure to download some essential apps on your Fire tablet to make the most of it.

It ships in two variants, one with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage and another with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage. That storage might be limiting, but thankfully, both models have expandable storage via a microSD card slot (up to 1TB capacity). It charges via USB-C, although it uses the older USB 2.0 standard, which means it won’t be fast. Sure enough, the product’s listing on Amazon notes it will take five hours to charge. 

This tablet has a 5MP rear camera and a 2MP selfie camera, which received below-average scores, similar to the processor. The display isn’t great either, but for a child, it’s more than enough. The Amazon Fire HD 8 (Gen 12) is available on Amazon for $69.99 (32GB) or $99.99 (64GB). There’s also an Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet, optimized for kids with colorful cases and a six-month or one-year Amazon Kids+ subscription starting at $64.99. 

We based our recommendations on the list of the best Android tablets by Consumer Reports. The site reviews a variety of devices on several metrics such as battery life, build quality, performance, and display quality. The way each model performs on each metric earns it a specific score between one and five, and then the team aggregates these scores to get an overall rating. 

This overall rating is what informs the site’s ranking of the best tablets to buy. The four tablets in this list are among the highest scorers, and we’ve discussed them based on the overall score, from highest to lowest.