Choosing the best tablet will ultimately come down to what you need it to do, but there are a few points to keep in mind. We’ve explained these below:

Ultimately, it depends on what you’re buying a tablet for. On-the-go streaming or gaming will lend itself better to a smaller tablet – between 8 and 10 inches. If you want a viable laptop alternative, you’ll find a screen that stretches up towards the 13-inch mark will give you more room to work with. Generally, smaller tablets are cheaper and less powerful, and larger ones cost more because you get more.

The majority of the tablets we’ve reviewed and included in our best tablet list measure around the 10-inch mark. There are a couple of exceptions, but between 10 and 11 inches seems to be standard, and tablets of this size hit a sweet spot of usability and portability.

It’s then a case of deciding which is the best 10-inch tablet from this selection if you want a device for entertainment, work, and everything in between.

When it comes to buying the best tablet, how much you should spend really depends on how much you can afford. You don’t always need to spend a fortune to get decent specs, but, as a rule, the more expensive the tablet, the more it offers in terms of features, design, battery life, storage and so on.

To give you a range to work with, the most expensive model in our list below costs from £799, but some can cost in excess of £2,000 – the price of a decent laptop – if you opt for all the bells and whistles. The cheapest comes in at just £109.99. The rest of the models sit at various points in between, and there is a great selection of top tablets in the mid-range market.

We recommend that you decide why you want the tablet in the first instance. Is it a family device? Will you use it more for streaming or working? How important is having built-in storage versus storing files in the cloud?

If you’re looking for the best gaming tablet, for instance, having one with a great display and refresh rate will be a priority. If it’s going to be used for remote working, a lower quality display but better battery life may be more important.

iPad Pro, £749

Best tablet money can buy

Pros:

• Lightning-fast; built for working and creative tasks
• Bright, sharp and vibrant display
• Easy to set up and use, especially for existing Apple customers
• Sturdy, industrial design with easy-to-use controls
• Support for Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard to boost productivity

Cons:

• Expensive, especially if you want decent storage
• Heavy and chunky – which dents its portability somewhat

Key specs:

• Available with an 11-inch Liquid Retina display or a 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR display
• The 11-inch offers 64GB or 256GB, the 12.9-inch offers 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB built-in storage
• The 11-inch is powered by the A14 Bionic chip with neural engine; the 12.9-inch runs on the M1 chip borrowed from MacBooks
• Both have support for the second-generation Apple Pencil (£119, sold separately)
• 12MP Wide and 10MP Ultra Wide cameras on the rear, 12MP TrueDepth and Ultra-Wide camera on the front
• Apple App Store gives access to millions of entertainment and productivity tools, games, TV shows, music, podcasts, books, notes, reminders and more

If money was no object, we’d recommend the iPad Pro all day long. In fact, even where money is an object, if you can stretch a little to buy this flagship tablet, you won’t regret it.

Want a fantastic display for streaming and gaming? You’ve got it. Want an immense amount of power, capable of carrying out even the most intense creative tasks? Sure. Want a tablet that doubles up as a viable laptop replacement? Apple has you covered.

If you’re a hardcore pro user, there is a 12.9-inch model with a Liquid Retina XDR display, up to 2TB of storage, up to 16GB RAM, a 12MP wide and 10MP ultra-wide camera setup and five studio-quality microphones. Many of the technologies and components on display in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro are borrowed or adapted from those seen on Apple’s range of MacBook computers. This should be your first indication as to just how effective the iPad Pro doubles up as a work computer.

If you can’t stretch to this flagship model but want many of the same specs and features, then the 11-inch version comes with the same M1 chip but offers slightly lower-spec storage and display technology – all for around a £200 reduction in price.