Best Cheap Tablets 2024: Great value Android picks and our go-to iPad

If you’re on the hunt for a great value Android tablet, the Honor Pad X9 should be of serious consideration. Despite its sub-£200 price tag, the tablet boasts a premium look and feel and a seriously impressive display that blows the similarly priced competition out of the water.

The Honor Pad X9 sports a large 11.5-inch display and a 2000 x 1200 resolution that would’ve already been enough to compete with much of the budget competition, but the inclusion of a 120Hz refresh rate truly sets it apart. The super-smooth refresh rate helps the tablet feel responsive, with smooth animations and better response time when gaming on the tablet.

Despite the middling Snapdragon 685 chipset and 4GB of RAM, the Honor X9 can handle everyday tasks like browsing the web, split-screen multitasking and even gaming at medium graphics levels. 

Throw in great battery life, a landscape-mounted selfie camera for video chats and surprisingly loud speakers, and it becomes an easy recommendation for any tablet buyer on a budget. 

Reviewer: Josh Brown
Full review: Honor Pad X9 review

The iPad 9 is the cheapest Apple tablet we’d recommend to buyers on a budget. Though it didn’t impress us as much as its lighter, more powerful iPad Air 2022 when we got it in for review, the iPad 9 remains the best value option if you’re 100% committed to getting an Apple device.

While the screen doesn’t have a variable refresh rate and the bezel surrounding it is undeniably chunky, you’ll struggle to find a better option at this price, especially if you’re an Apple fan. The 10.2-inch Retina Display is the sharpest you’ll find on this list and, thanks to reliable black levels and high maximum brightness, it is ideal for watching Netflix on the go.

The tablet is also solidly built and comes with a variety of case options, including some with keyboards, which means it’s a good option for older kids who need a device for school work as well as entertainment.

The A13 Bionic chip powering the iPad 9 means that, unless you’re doing high-end video editing or vector graphics, you won’t suffer any performance issues based on our exhaustive testing. The only downside is that, even though it is cheap by Apple standards, the iPad 9 is still the most expensive option on this list, which is why we can’t recommend it for young children.

Reviewer: Max Parker
Full Review: Apple iPad 9 review

Teclast might not be a household name in the tech market, but the plucky Teclast T40S manages to deliver a solid Android tablet experience at just £170, and it’s often found cheaper over at Amazon too, further solidifying its value for money. 

The star of the show is processing power as, despite its cheap price point, it can compete with more established tablets like the Honor Pad X9 and Oppo Pad Air in terms of performance. There’s also a surprising 8GB of RAM on offer to aid multitasking and help chew through ad-laden websites, with an additional 8GB of your 128GB storage also able to be allocated to RAM when performing particularly power-intensive tasks.

That powers a moderately sized 10.4-inch display that we found perfectly usable indoors, though with a maximum brightness of just 350 nits, it’s not a tablet suited to outdoor scrolling. 

There are a few oddities about the tablet – it runs a stripped-back version of Android 12 with bigger buttons and boasts fairly random features like FM Radio support – and it’s not exactly the best-looking tablet around, but for the price, you’ll be hard pressed to find something more capable. 

Reviewer: Josh Brown
Full review: Teclast T40S review

The Lenovo Tab M10 Plus (3rd Gen) is a budget tablet with a premium look and feel, sporting an aluminium unibody with a stone-textured strip along one side of the rear to further elevate its design status. It really is a good-looking tablet, complete with a thickness of just 7.5mm and rounded edges that sit comfortably in the palm. 

The 10.61-inch 2000 x 1200 display sports a 16:10 aspect ratio that keeps black bars to a minimum when watching video content from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, and when coupled with Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers, the watching experience is quite pleasant. The 400nits of brightness isn’t enough for HDR playback, but it’s just about enough for use outdoors. 

It’s just a shame that the MediaTek MT6769V chipset isn’t a little more powerful, with our reviewer noting unpredictable stuttering that would occasionally plague the tablet, and it wasn’t quite enough to run demanding 3D gaming titles either.

It does have a compatible stylus accessory that could make it a tempting option for note-taking students, though it’ll set you back an additional £45. 

Reviewer: Josh Brown
Full review: Lenovo Tab M10 Plus (3rd Gen) review

If you’re in the market for a good-looking tablet with a high-res display for watching movies, the Nokia T21 is a solid option at a rather tempting price.

The T21 does a good job of hiding its budget price tag with a premium build that includes a solid-feeling metal rear with a two-tone design. It’s also surprisingly lightweight given the 10.3-inch display on offer at 471g, making it easy to use one-handed.

That 10.3-inch IPS LCD display is one of the main reasons to opt for the Nokia T21 as it boasts a 2K resolution (1200 x 2000) that’s great for watching movies from apps like Netflix and videos from YouTube. There is also wireless second-screen functionality on offer, but it’s laggier than more premium alternatives.

It also lasts pretty long on a charge thanks to a large 8,200mAh battery, usually providing around eight hours of use split across a few days.

Part of the reason why it lasts so long is that the tablet is notably underpowered, featuring the almost-unknown Unisoc T162, a chipset similar to the Snapdragon 660 released in 2018. That means you won’t be playing games or doing anything too processor-heavy as the tablet simply lags and can’t handle it.

Reviewer: Sean Cameron
Full review: Nokia T21 review

If portability is one of the key factors in your buying decision, the Oppo Pad Air should be of serious consideration. At 440g and 6.9mm thick, the 10.36-inch tablet is lighter than Apple’s iPad 10 and even the lightweight iPad Air while still delivering that large-screen experience.

It’s not just lightweight either; the gunmetal aluminium shell is smooth and sleek, helping the tablet feel more premium than it actually is, and it comes with handy features like a microSD card slot to expand the 128GB of storage on offer.

The 10.36-inch IPS LCD display is sufficiently sharp at 2000 x 1200 and is perfectly serviceable for scrolling through websites and watching movies on Netflix, though with just 360 nits of brightness, it’s not the best in bright outdoor conditions.

It’s not a powerhouse of processing power either, with the Snapdragon 680 delivering fine – but not rapid – everyday performance, though it can’t quite handle high-end AAA games so gamers may want to look elsewhere. Even certain worlds in Roblox would slow the Pad right down.

It’ll last around 15 hours on a charge with decent standby times and although it takes over two hours to charge, that’s in line with the iPad 10 and Xiaomi Pad 5.

All this boils down to a lightweight, portable tablet that’s great for scrolling through TikTok, browsing the web and watching movies on Netflix, though it’ll probably not suffice for the majority of gamers.

Reviewer: Josh Brown
Full review: Oppo Pad Air review

The Amazon Fire Max 11 is the latest in a long line of Amazon Fire-branded tablets from the retail giant, though this one looks and feels different. 

Sporting a more mature design that’s more than a little bit reminiscent of Apple’s iPad Air, complete with rounded edges and a slightly raised single camera bump on the rear, the tablet feels much more premium than its price tag suggests it should.

The 11-inch 2000 x 1200 IPS LCD display might not boast OLED tech of more premium tablets, but what it does have is a fully laminated screen. It might not sound like much, but it means there’s no air gap between the front glass and LCD panel like Apple’s cheaper iPads, removing that cheap hollow feeling when you tap and swipe on the display. 

The big display is designed for productivity according to Amazon, and even sells dedicated stylus and keyboard case accessories for the tablet separately, further separating itself from the rest of the budget Fire collection. 

But for all Amazon’s efforts to position it as a productivity workhorse, the lack of pro-level apps on Amazon’s limited Fire OS and Appstore stop it from achieving its aim. Even the built-in word processing app doesn’t fit the tablet’s display properly.

That’s a real shame too, as the chipset within easily beats just about everything else in our charts, and by quite a way too. Still, it does mean it’s great for gaming and general day-to-day use, as long as the apps and games you enjoy are available on the Fire OS platform. 

Battery life is also solid with exceptional standby times that allow it to last over a week when not in use, though charging can be slow with only a 9W charging brick in the box. 

Reviewer: Lewis Painter
Full review: Amazon Fire Max 11 review