4 Of The Best Android Tablets Under 12 Inches You Can Buy In 2026 – BGR

While a competitor like iOS is currently limited to six tablets on the market, in Android land, there’s a plethora of manufacturers releasing a wide selection of new tablets every year. When you add them all up, there’s no shortage of options to choose from, which is why it’s easy to drill down to specific needs, say, the best Android tablets under 12 inches. With so many options as the market continues to grow, it can still be challenging to find the perfect Android tablet for your niche interests.

This is why we’ve gathered four of the best options on the market, leveraging our expertise in consumer electronics like tablets while considering a range of qualifiers such as user and professional reviews. The result is a list that offers options for many needs. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer who demands a high refresh rate, require ultimate portability for work and play, or simply love reading and taking notes as naturally as possible, these are the best Android tablets under 12 inches that you can buy in 2026.

The one Android tablet most consider the cream of the crop would be the Galaxy Tab S11. Samsung is well-known for its flagship tablet line, and even though the Tab S10 dropped the 11-inch model, the Tab S11 brought the size back at the end of 2025, starting at $699.99 for the 128 GB version. While many Tab S models used Snapdragon processors, Samsung has since switched to MediaTek chips with the introduction of the Tab S10 and has continued with them in the Tab S11.

The Dimensity 9400+ in the Galaxy Tab S11 offers plenty of oomph, nearly on par with a Snapdragon 8 Elite. While Qualcomm can claim better CPU performance scores, MediaTek wins with better power efficiency and lower temps, and it also supports faster LPDDR5X memory, which the Galaxy Tab S11 uses. Where MediaTek doesn’t stack up is emulation, with users on Reddit agreeing that when it comes to emulating PC games, Snapdragon has the edge. Still, the Dimensity 9400+ is plenty powerful enough for demanding gaming.

Of course, performance isn’t the only selling point; the gorgeous 11-inch Dynamic OLED display is also a major reason to pick up a Tab S11. With a 120Hz refresh rate at 2560 x 1600 pixels and 1,600 nits of peak brightness, you can easily see the screen indoors and outdoors. Colors pop, blacks are deep, and whites are bright, with incredibly smooth animations and motion thanks to the high refresh rate. Watching movies is a pleasure, and since the screen is 16:10, modern content like TV shows and games fit with minimal letterboxing, a much more content-friendly shape compared to the 3:2 and 4:3 ratios iPads commonly use.

If you’re looking for something that is much more portable, but don’t wish to compromise on performance, then the Lenovo Legion Y700 Gen 4 should be on your radar. Should, being the keyword, as you’ll have to pick it up as an import. This also means it ships without the Play Store installed, but thankfully, adding the store to the device is as easy as flipping a toggle. More or less, since this 8.8-inch tablet packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and at least 12GB RAM, it’s a powerhouse in a compact size, making it a top choice for anyone who requires a small and portable Android tablet.

Typically, smaller Android tablets are mid to low-end, making it challenging to find models that are compact yet offer solid specs. This is why many users feel the Legion Y700 Gen 4 is a diamond in the rough. While the screen is LED, it’s a 3K panel at 3040 x 1904, complete with a 144Hz refresh rate. Its 500 nits of brightness doesn’t quite compare to something like the Tab S11, but at $459, the Legion Y700 Gen 4 has to cut costs somewhere. Still, you won’t find a more performant Android tablet at this size and price point.

The tablet has received high praise across reviews, with reviewers noting features such as its dual USB-C ports and improved cooling over Gen 3. Even users on social media agree they are pleased with its feature set and build quality, with one Reddit user stating that “what impressed me the most was the build quality.” For what would typically be an overlooked tablet thanks to its need to be imported, it’s well worth the trouble of hunting down a shop that sells it.

If there’s one brand out there pumping out some of the best Android gaming hardware, it’s Redmagic. This company has been manufacturing gaming phones since before it was cool, competing with giants like Asus, but Redmagic is still releasing affordable gaming devices, while Asus has left the phone market entirely for 2026. At the end of the day, Redmagic makes incredibly powerful gaming phones, and one of its latest products is the Redmagic Astra, an Android gaming tablet.

The first thing that makes the Redmagic Astra stand out is the fact that it actually offers active cooling. There is literally a fan inside this tablet that helps keep the Snapdragon 8 Elite cooler than the passive methods you’ll find in just about every other tablet on the market. Its 9.06-inch OLED screen is another selling point, offering a whopping 165Hz refresh rate. While the 2,400 x 1,504 resolution doesn’t quite stack up to the slightly smaller Legion Y700 Gen 4’s 3K screen, this is actually good news for gamers, since games will be less demanding at the native resolution of the Astra, leaving overhead for other things like cranking a game’s graphics settings to the max. This is a gaming tablet after all, and Redmagic has plenty of experience building devices that eke out the most performance possible.

To keep costs low at a starting price of $549, it’s unlikely the tablet will ever be updated beyond Android 15, nothing new for the brand. However, this hasn’t kept reviews from glowing, calling out features such as exceptional battery life, a gorgeous display, and its clean software. The Redmagic Astra is easily one of, if not the best, Android gaming tablet currently on the market.

If Redmagic is often considered the king of gaming on Android, then you should consider Boox as the king of E Ink. Sure, companies like Bigme and Supernote also sell Android-based E Ink tablets, but Boox currently offers the most robust lineup with the latest and greatest screens from E Ink. A current standout is the Boox Note Air5 C, a 10.3-inch Kaleido 3 e-reading and note-taking tablet running Android.

Notably, the tablet offers a Snapdragon 750G, and even though this is a mid-range chip when comparing Android phones, when it comes to Android tablets with E Ink screens designed for e-reading and note-taking, finding an e-reader with a better processor won’t come easy (though the Bigme B1051 can keep up with its Dimensity 1080 chipset).

Another standout feature is the EMR stylus that comes with the tablet. While Boox has mostly switched to the USI standard (which isn’t as accurate as EMR) for many of its modern e-readers, the main reason EMR is the better option is that it offers lower latency, creating a feel much closer to writing on paper. Boox even leans into this with a paper-like matte film on the Note Air5 C’s screen, providing some tactility when using your stylus. All of this ensures the tablet delivers an experience close to that of using a physical notepad, but with digital input. Since the tablet runs Android, a world of apps is at your disposal, on a color E Ink screen that is excellent for reading comics and manga, as well as drawing them.

The Android tablet market is still growing, which means there are a lot of devices out there to choose from. BGR, of course, is no stranger to tablets after many years of covering the subject, and this expertise was utilized when selecting the items in this roundup, while also considering user and professional reviews and opinions across the web. By taking multiple factors into account, we have selected four Android tablets with screens smaller than 12 inches that cover a wide range of interests and are the best in their respective niches.