Apple Tablet mit Stift und Tastatur

Professional tablets reimagine the laptop as an even more hands-on device, letting you scribble notes, create stunning digital illustrations, or flip the screen on its side to page through a long document. But different tablets are better at different tasks. Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8 is a great laptop replacement for productivity work such as dealing with Excel spreadsheets and marking up PDFs. But if you already have a notebook you like, Apple’s 11-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation) is also a great choice, as it excels at creative work such as digital illustration and has a large stable of touch-friendly apps.

Our pick

Microsoft Surface Pro 8

Great laptop, good tablet

The Surface Pro 8 is a capable laptop replacement with a stylus that lets you easily add handwritten notes to documents and a large screen that makes a full day of work comfortable. But you need $300 in accessories to make the most of the tablet.

Buying Options

Recommended configuration

The Surface Pro 8 is the laptop replacement that Microsoft has been attempting to build since its first Surface tablet in 2012. It ticks all the boxes and offers everything we look for in a great computer, including a fast, high-resolution display, a capable processor that can handle a bunch of applications at once, and enough ports for you to charge and attach peripherals. It just also happens to be a tablet. Like previous versions, the Surface Pro 8 has a kickstand for you to prop it up, and its hinge is perfectly tuned to hold the tablet at any angle. Microsoft also nailed the little details, such as placing the webcam above the screen when you use the tablet in landscape mode so video calls look more professional.

Because Microsoft sells this device as a tablet first, you must also buy Surface accessories, such as the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard ($180) and the Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus ($130), to type or draw proficiently. But they’re well built, and they integrate seamlessly with the tablet.

Also great

Apple iPad Pro (11-inch, 3rd generation, 256 GB)

Great tablet, okay laptop

The iPad Pro has a faster processor and a more capable camera than any other iPad, plus a vivid screen and access to a wide library of finger-friendly tablet apps. But coders, web developers, and anyone who needs to use a lot of external accessories are likely to find iPadOS limiting.

Buying Options

Apple’s 11-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation) is perfect if you primarily intend to use your tablet as a tablet, controlling things with your fingers or the excellent Apple Pencil, but you also want decent keyboard support in a pinch. It features the best design of any iPad, with thin bezels that are uniform around the entire screen. As a result, unlike the standard iPad, this device is much nicer to use in landscape mode for typing and sketching.

All iPads work seamlessly with Macs and iPhones in an Apple-centric workplace, and iPadOS is easy to use and simple to update, back up, and restore. It has a huge library of touch-friendly tablet apps, including lots of options for drawing, writing, and editing photos, audio, and video. And the latest version of iPadOS handles keyboards and mice, external storage, file sharing, and web browsing better than previous versions did. But iPadOS and its apps are limiting if you do any kind of coding or web development.

Budget pick

Apple iPad (9th generation)

The standard iPad offers enough performance to get by, as well as a decent screen, though it’s on the small side and uses a more-limited Lightning port rather than USB-C.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $329.

The standard Apple iPad (9th generation) can do virtually anything the iPad Air or iPad Pro can do—it runs the same library of tablet-friendly apps, multitasking works the same way, and it has a Smart Connector for you to attach an external keyboard. But compared with the Air and Pro models, the regular iPad and its smaller screen feel cramped for any visual work, the older processor drags with big media files, and the Lightning port isn’t compatible with as many accessories as the more versatile USB-C port on the more expensive versions. In addition, this iPad works with only the first-generation Apple Pencil, which is more awkward to pair and charge than the second-generation Pencil. But for $200 less than the cheapest iPad Air, there’s no better value if you want to get work done on a tablet (if you can work around iPadOS’s limitations).

The research

• Why you should trust us
• Who this is for
• How we picked and tested
• Our pick: Microsoft Surface Pro 8
• Microsoft Surface Pro 8: Flaws but not dealbreakers
• Also great: Apple iPad Pro (11-inch, 3rd generation, 256 GB)
• Apple iPad Pro: Flaws but not dealbreakers
• Budget pick: Apple iPad (9th generation, 128 GB)
• What about Chrome OS tablets?
• What to look forward to
• The competition
• Sources

Why you should trust us

Dave Gershgorn has reviewed and covered technology since 2015 at publications such as Popular Science, Quartz, Medium, and now Wirecutter. He has also built, repaired, and largely avoided frying his own computers since 2006.

Andrew Cunningham wrote the prior version of this guide. He has been testing, reviewing, and otherwise writing about PCs and other gadgets for AnandTech, Ars Technica, and Wirecutter since 2011. He has also used every iPad (and every version of iOS/iPadOS) that Apple has ever released, nearly every Surface device that Microsoft has ever released, and dozens of other tablets besides.

Who this is for

Professional tablets take the processing power of a laptop, shrink it into the size of a tablet, and add a stylus for you to write on the screen. They’re great for someone who reviews and annotates PDFs and other digital documents, wants to store their handwritten notes in the cloud, or creates digital art.

These lighter, slimmer devices are also more portable than laptops and can work in a variety of physical configurations, such as when you turn them vertically to read through a long research paper. Pro tablets are also perfect for taking laptop or desktop software into the field, whether you need to operate equipment with niche Windows software or edit photos on the fly.

Deciding which pro tablet is best for you depends on whether you intend to use it as a primary device to replace your laptop or as a secondary device for tasks like quickly checking emails, taking notes, or drawing. In our experience, Windows tablets have performed better as a primary device or laptop replacement since they run the same operating system you can find in a laptop or desktop computer. iPads have proven to be better as a second device, as they offer a much larger ecosystem of drawing and note-taking tools but are clunky when you’re multitasking. Apple tablets also can serve as a second screen for a Mac computer, reinforcing their second-device status.

An iPad can certainly replace a laptop for some people. But for many others, the limitations in multitasking and file sharing, as well as the restricted functionality imposed on mobile versions of apps, would make a typical workday more difficult.

Professional tablets aren’t the best option for everyone. If you don’t need the stylus or the ultrathin construction of a tablet, you’d spend less money on a laptop for the same performance. This also applies to gaming: Although Apple Arcade titles and other iOS games run well on iPads, don’t expect to play the latest PC or console titles on any of these pro tablets. Consider a gaming laptop or a pro laptop instead.

How we picked and tested

We considered a wide range of basic criteria when deciding which of these tablets to recommend:

Performance: After years of sacrificing processing power to accommodate thinner designs and help their batteries last longer, pro tablets have improved in performance—the best current-generation tablets were up to any and every common task in our testing. We tested only those iPads with Apple’s new M1 chips, as well as Windows tablets with Intel’s 11th-generation Core i5 processors. On Windows machines, we recommend at least 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM, or 16 GB of RAM if you work with photos or videos or just have an inordinate amount of browser tabs open. As for iPads, Apple doesn’t allow you to choose most of the hardware specs, but we suggest at least 128 GB of storage.

Software: Windows and iPadOS are wildly different operating systems, as Windows was born of the PC era while iPadOS is an expansion of software originally designed for iPhones. We tested each on the same wide variety of tasks, from basics such as typing and adding attachments to emails to more niche applications like editing photos and doing some light coding. We found that Windows tablets generally worked better as a laptop replacement since they had access to a traditional desktop and Windows apps, while iPadOS was wildly better for art and sketching thanks to iOS-exclusive apps like Procreate. The iPad can also work as a second display for a Mac computer with Apple’s Sidecar feature. Note that we also tested two Android tablets but found that both Windows and iPadOS had better apps and were easier to use.

Accessories: A pro tablet is only as good as its accessories—who wants a $1,000 machine marred by a cheap, mismatched keyboard? The best tablet keyboards are comfortably spaced and don’t aggressively bend or flex when you’re typing. They also stay connected to the tablet when you pick it up from a table or desk. Kickstands should be strong enough to support the tablet at any angle. Meanwhile, styluses should write accurately on the screen and feel comfortable to grip, and the best models have programmable buttons to assist in note taking or drawing.

Display: A tablet is mostly screen, so that screen should look beautiful. In the size range of most tablets, screens look best at resolutions of 2560×1440 or higher, referred to as 1440p, 2K, or QHD. Our top picks also have a high refresh rate, which indicates how often the display’s pixels can change per second: Typical monitors have a refresh rate of 60 Hz, while our top picks here offer 120 Hz, making motion and animations look smoother.

Ports: No matter the device, you’ll have to plug something in eventually. Every tablet we considered has at least one USB-C port; the exception is our budget pick, which uses Apple’s Lightning ports. The best devices have multiple USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4, which allow you to send video to one or two external 4K displays, respectively. A headphone jack and some kind of SD card slot are also appreciated (though increasingly hard to find).

Webcam: Since these are tablets intended for the workplace or some professional context, looking good in video calls is important. We considered not only webcam quality but also webcam placement. In general, we’ve found that cameras on the longer edge of a tablet end up being more natural to use since they’re centered on the upper part of the screen when the tablet is in landscape mode.

Design and build quality: The best tablets we tested are made of aluminum, which is sturdy but lightweight. Kickstands integrated into the tablet to prop it up should hold at any angle, and if there’s no kickstand at all, that functionality should be added to an accessory. There’s also a subjective measure here of how good the tablet feels to hold or use in a lap.

Battery life: A great tablet should last for a full day of work on battery power if you use it in place of a laptop and for multiple days if you use it only as a second device or a note-taking tool. For Windows devices, we ran our standardized notebook battery life test, which simulates a typical day browsing the internet, including visiting websites, scrolling, and watching videos on YouTube. For iPads, we used them both for daily work tasks and as secondary note-taking devices.

Price: Professional tablets are typically more expensive than a laptop with the same processor, RAM, and storage. You’re paying a premium for a pro tablet’s thin size and functionality. We’ve found that you typically pay between $1,000 and $1,500 for a great pro tablet, including about $300 for accessories.

Our testing process was meant to simulate typical tasks, including loading dozens of browser tabs, streaming music from Spotify, playing 4K videos, and processing 50,000 rows of data in Microsoft Excel. We also ran popular benchmarking software including PCMark 10 and Geekbench 5 to validate the tablets’ performance, and we checked device temperatures while they were under a heavy workload. To test each tablet’s front-facing camera, we took selfies and a picture of a test target used to determine sharpness. (Although we didn’t test tablet cameras with people of different skin tones, Microsoft claims that its Surface cameras are built to take skin tone into account when setting exposure.) Finally, we ran a battery test on each device three times to simulate a typical day of web browsing and tablet usage.

Our pick: Microsoft Surface Pro 8

Our pick

Microsoft Surface Pro 8

Great laptop, good tablet

The Surface Pro 8 is a capable laptop replacement with a stylus that lets you easily add handwritten notes to documents and a large screen that makes a full day of work comfortable. But you need $300 in accessories to make the most of the tablet.

Buying Options

The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 is a great professional tablet for anyone who wants to keep the core functionality of a laptop but also wants to add a stylus for taking notes or sketching out ideas. Microsoft has built the Surface Pro 8 with a processor that’s quick enough for any office task, a high-resolution 13-inch screen that’s great for reading or watching movies, and a nice selection of ports—including two USB-C ports and an SD card reader—so you can add accessories as you need them.

We tested two different versions of the Surface Pro 8, one with Intel’s midrange Core i5 processor and another with a higher-tier Core i7. We found that the Surface Pro 8 with a Core i5 processor is the better choice for most people. In our tests, day-to-day performance was nearly identical between the two processors. Both versions of the Surface Pro 8 outperformed our previous pick, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12, which hit its limit of Chrome browser tabs and applications far before the Surface models did. However, if you deal with video or lots of large photos, or if you’re constantly opening Chrome tabs, you might consider upgrading your Surface Pro to 16 GB of RAM, up from the 8 GB we had in our test tablet.

The Surface Pro 8 runs Windows 11, so it gives you access to every application available on Windows, plus the flexibility of having multiple windows open side by side—something that’s possible in iPadOS but still feels cumbersome there. Outside the office, having a full version of Windows 11 also opens up the ability to control tools that work only with dedicated Windows programs, such as CNC machines or niche measurement devices.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro Signature Keyboard and Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus are crucial for the Surface to function as a pro tablet, and together they cost an additional $300. The keyboard is sturdy and flexes only slightly while you’re typing, and it adds a trackpad plus a full row of function keys to the Surface. The stylus feels comfortable, writes responsively, and has two buttons to trigger customizable commands; when not in use, it slips into a compartment between the keyboard and the tablet.

The Surface Pro keyboard is well matched to the size of the screen, making the Surface Pro 8 feel as comfortable to work on as both a normal tablet and a laptop. That isn’t always the case, as we found with the combo of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and Apple’s Magic Keyboard, which together felt top-heavy and unstable when we moved them at all or used them on a lap. We’ve tried a lot of ultrathin keyboards that are miserable to type on, too, with mushy and unresponsive keys, but the Surface Pro keyboard feels as nice to type on as an average laptop keyboard.

It’s easy to grab the Slim Pen 2 stylus from the compartment in the keyboard to write a quick note or transition into sketching. Rather than having a standard cylindrical pen shape, the stylus is a thin, rounded slab that narrows to a point, but it feels comfortable to grip and is responsive on the screen. It has useful features throughout Windows 11, and as soon as you take it out of its compartment in the keyboard, a small toolbar appears on the screen with a customizable menu of apps. You can flip the stylus over to erase, just as you would use a pencil. The eraser end of the stylus is also a button that you can customize to launch Whiteboard, take a screenshot, or launch any other application on your computer. Advanced Windows tinkerers could easily use this functionality, along with scripting tools like AutoHotkey, to create powerful, pen-enabled macros.

Whereas a lot of laptop displays and most inexpensive monitors refresh 60 times a second (60 Hz), the Surface Pro 8’s display has a 120 Hz refresh rate—similar to that of midrange and high-end smartphones—which makes motion look smoother and crisper. You’re likely to notice that text is easier to read on the screen while it’s moving, in comparison with an older monitor or phone you might have, and Windows 11’s animations for minimizing, resizing, and scrolling look much better with the higher refresh rate. Pen strokes with the stylus seem more responsive, though digital artists have found (video) that the screen’s refresh rate doesn’t affect pen sensitivity. Note that the refresh rate is set to 60 Hz by default, so you’ll have to dive into the display settings to set it to the faster refresh rate. During our testing, the 120 Hz feature drained the tablet’s battery about 15% faster than the 60 Hz option, a result that translated to about 30 minutes less screen time.

Previous versions of the Surface Pro have lacked USB-C, but the Surface Pro 8 fixes that with two such ports; both are capable of Thunderbolt 4 connections, which can power two 4K monitors at once. This model also has a headphone jack and Microsoft’s Surface connector, which in our tests proved surprisingly useful when the USB-C ports were occupied with peripherals and flash drives. The Surface port charged our device by about 70% in an hour.

While the Surface Pro 8 is in landscape orientation, its webcam is located in the same spot as on any laptop, so your camera angle will look normal in Zoom meetings. This positioning is better than on iPads, which put the webcam on the left edge of the screen when you use the tablet like a laptop and thus make the webcam image look awkward. The Surface Pro 8’s webcam also works for Windows Hello, which unlocks your Surface tablet by scanning your face, like Face ID does on Apple’s devices. We weren’t able to test the feature on any additional faces or skin tones, but Microsoft told us that Windows Hello works by employing an infrared scanner to map the physical features of your face rather than relying on a picture from the webcam. When it works, it makes logging in to the tablet extremely fast and easy.

The Surface Pro 8 stands in its laptop position with the help of a kickstand, which flips out from the back of the device. The kickstand feels sturdy, and its hinge is perfectly tuned to support the weight of the Surface Pro 8 at any angle in its swing. The hinge is actually strong enough to support the weight of a lightly rested hand, as well, so it’s possible to use the stylus without pushing the screen out of position. When the kickstand is pushed to its farthest limit, the device rests at a slight incline that’s great for drawing.

The Surface Pro 8 also features surprisingly nice speakers, which are loud enough for watching a movie or playing background music for a small group of people. You shouldn’t expect audiophile-quality sound from any tablet, but the Surface Pro 8 ranks among the best in this regard. It far outperformed our previous pick, the Lenovo ThinkPad X12, whose speakers sounded tinny and modulated in comparison.

We tested two configurations of the Surface Pro 8, one with Intel’s Core i5-1135G7 processor and 8 GB of RAM, and another version with a Core i7-118G7 processor and 16 GB of RAM. These configurations cost $1,200 and $1,900, respectively, not including the added costs of a Surface Pro Signature Keyboard and a Surface Slim Pen 2.

Microsoft Surface Pro 8: Flaws but not dealbreakers

Windows 11 makes it easy to scribble in OneNote or annotate a screenshot with a stylus, but you won’t find a lot of other Windows applications that were designed to be tap-friendly or stylus-first. There are enough ways to use the Slim Pen 2 that make it feel worthwhile, especially if you’re always taking handwritten notes, but if you’re looking for a pro tablet that also allows you to explore tons of drawing apps or to play touch-based games on your time off, the iPad Pro is a better choice.

Despite having the largest physical battery, the Surface Pro 8 was the worst-performing Windows tablet in our battery test. We don’t see that as a huge problem, since the two Surface Pro 8 tablets we tested both lasted for more than eight hours of continuous use on average.

The Surface Pro 8 lasted a little more than eight hours in our battery tests; when new, it would just barely get you through a workday. Other competitors lasted one or two hours longer.

Microsoft has built the Surface Pro 8 as a premium device and has priced it accordingly. The $1,100 starting price tag is steeper than that of much of the competition and doesn’t include $300 in necessary accessories. This kind of pricing is unfortunately standard for most pro tablets, but considering the capabilities of a great $1,000 ultrabook, it’s hard to recommend a costlier but similarly powered tablet for most people. If price is a more important factor than processing power to you, but you still want note-taking or digital-art capabilities, the iPad (9th generation) is a fantastic tablet and our budget pick for this category.

Also great: Apple iPad Pro (11-inch, 3rd generation, 256 GB)

Also great

Apple iPad Pro (11-inch, 3rd generation, 256 GB)

Great tablet, okay laptop

The iPad Pro has a faster processor and a more capable camera than any other iPad, plus a vivid screen and access to a wide library of finger-friendly tablet apps. But coders, web developers, and anyone who needs to use a lot of external accessories are likely to find iPadOS limiting.

Buying Options

The Apple iPad Pro (11-inch, 3rd generation) is great if you primarily intend to use your tablet for tablet-y things like watching videos, reading, or playing games but you also need to get some work done sometimes, whether that’s a bit of email and writing or a lot of illustrating and visual work. Slim, uniform bezels wrap around the entire screen, so the iPad Pro feels equally natural when you use it in either landscape or portrait orientation. It’s a simple design detail that makes the iPad Pro stand out from competitors and also makes Apple’s pro tablet a pleasure to use.

All of Apple’s tablets perform well, and the Apple M1 processor in the iPad Pro is particularly good. Loading and switching between apps and multiple browser tabs, playing 3D games, editing and exporting photos and videos, and using drawing and drafting apps all feel fast and fluid. And unlike some of the Intel-powered Windows tablets we tested, none of the iPads need a fan. This means that some parts of the tablet can get warm when you’re using it for long periods, but it will always be quiet no matter what you’re doing. Most people will have no problem getting the battery to last a full workday, and with light to medium use your iPad Pro can go multiple days between charges.

The iPad Pro has a large, bright, sharp screen with accurate color, making it ideal for photographers or designers. Like the Surface Pro 8’s display, its screen refreshes 120 times per second (120 Hz), twice as fast as the 60 Hz rate that’s common in less-expensive iPads. This makes scrolling through web pages and documents and transitioning between apps look smooth and fluid. It’s not essential for getting work done, but it looks great.

The Smart Keyboard Folio can tilt the tablet’s screen at two angles; we’d like to see more flexibility, but one of the two will usually work for most people. Photo: Sarah Kobos

The second-generation Apple Pencil is a pleasure to use, which is good since this model is the only stylus that offers full compatibility with iPadOS and its apps. The Pencil has a matte finish and one flat side, which together make it easy to grip and nice to hold for extended periods of time, and it’s very good at adjusting the lines you’re drawing on the screen based on how hard you’re pressing and at what angle you’re holding the Pencil. You can double-tap the side of the second-gen Pencil to toggle between drawing tools, which can be faster than flipping the stylus over to use the eraser tool as you do with the Surface Slim Pen 2. And the Pencil is simple to store, pair, and charge—it magnetically clips to the top of the tablet (in landscape mode; in portrait mode it’s at the right edge), and iPadOS automatically offers to pair it and shows you its battery level.

In contrast to the Surface Pro 8’s add-on keyboard, which is on a par with those of many laptops, the lack of a great matching iPad keyboard is one of the reasons we don’t recommend the iPad Pro for anyone who does a lot of typing work. Aside from the keyboard cases that come from third-party case makers, you have two Apple keyboard case options for the iPad Pro. The $180 Smart Keyboard Folio is less satisfying to type on than other keyboards but is easier to use on a lap or in a cramped space. Apple’s Magic Keyboard adds a trackpad, more comfortable backlit keys, a charging port that frees up the iPad’s USB-C port for external accessories, and a durable aluminum frame, but it costs $300. The Magic Keyboard also makes the iPad Pro harder to use as a tablet, since the keyboard’s hinge opens only partially. The Smart Keyboard Folio, however, flips behind the iPad Pro when you don’t need a keyboard, making the tablet easier to use in portrait orientation. If you need both a keyboard and a trackpad but want to spend less, a third-party case like Logitech’s Folio Touch might be better.

The 1-pound iPad Pro is exceptionally thin and light, which makes it easy to carry around and ideal for holding in one or both hands. It has a face-scanning Face ID camera to log you in, similar to those on iPhones; the process might take some getting accustomed to if you’ve used an older or less-expensive iPad with a Touch ID fingerprint reader integrated into its home button or power button, but Face ID was quick and accurate in our testing. Using Face ID is a little faster than using Windows Hello, but both work well enough that it’s not a huge differentiator. On the back of the tablet, you’ll find a dual-lens camera accompanied by an LED flash and Apple’s LiDAR Scanner, the latter of which can measure the depth of a room for augmented reality apps and other potential uses.

Tapping the second-generation Apple Pencil switches between drawing tools, which the first-gen Pencil didn’t let you do. Video: Sarah Kobos

Apple iPad Pro: Flaws but not dealbreakers

A Mac or a Windows PC (like the Surface) can do many common computery things that an iPad still can’t. Generally you can run only two apps on the iPad’s screen at the same time, as those running in the background may be suspended if the tablet needs to free up memory. Even with a USB-C port, the iPad has limited support for monitors and other external accessories: The latest version of iPadOS can handle many kinds of external drives, but generally you can only mirror the iPad’s display on an external monitor, which is a big downside for heavy multitaskers.

Apple doesn’t allow coding apps like Xcode or Visual Studio in the App Store, and even third-party web browsers on the iPad need to use the same rendering engine Apple uses for Safari, so the iPad is a bad choice for coding apps or testing web pages.

There are no repairs you can perform yourself on the iPad Pro. If you don’t have AppleCare+, Apple’s extra warranty coverage, the device can cost $700 to repair.

We’ve already pointed out the iPad’s less-than-optimal first-party keyboard options, but we think it’s a big enough downside that it deserves to be mentioned again if you’re considering an iPad and plan to type a lot. The more affordable Smart Keyboard Folio and its stiff, shallow keys are merely fine, not great—the keys aren’t backlit, and the case doesn’t include a trackpad.

Budget pick: Apple iPad (9th generation, 128 GB)

Budget pick

Apple iPad (9th generation)

The standard iPad offers enough performance to get by, as well as a decent screen, though it’s on the small side and uses a more-limited Lightning port rather than USB-C.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $329.

The 128 GB version of the Apple iPad (9th generation) represents a step down from more expensive iPad models, but it’s an excellent value for people with less than $500 to spend. It doesn’t have as nice (or as large) of a screen, it uses a less capable Lightning port instead of USB-C, and the first-generation Apple Pencil it supports isn’t as nice to hold as the second-generation Pencil and is more awkward to pair and charge. But it runs the same operating system and the same library of tablet-friendly apps as the iPad Air and iPad Pro, multitasking works the same way, and it has a Smart Connector for attaching external keyboards.

Performance is where the iPad shines. Apple’s A13 processor handles multitasking, multiple browser tabs, and iPadOS games without problems. The other iPad models are faster and equipped with more memory, so you can use more layers in some photo-editing and drawing apps, but the vast majority of the time this tablet is snappy and responsive. Its battery also has no problem lasting through a full day of work, and it can go days between charging if you’re using the tablet for only an hour or two a day.

We cover the iPad (9th generation) more extensively in our guide to the best tablets.

What about Chrome OS tablets?

We’ve tested tablets running Google’s Chrome OS for this guide in the past, but we don’t think they’re a good choice for most people. Current models such as the Lenovo Chromebook Duet are inexpensive, but they’re also small and underpowered, with slow processors and not enough memory to manage even a handful of apps and browser tabs at once. Older models like Google’s Pixel Slate had larger screens and better performance, but these days you can buy them only secondhand. And regardless of the hardware you’re using, Chrome OS features neither the large library of finger-friendly tablet apps you get with an iPad nor the more complex, powerful apps you can run on a Windows PC. Chromebooks are still a good choice if you’re seeking an affordable, easy-to-use laptop, but if you want a tablet, you should look elsewhere.

What to look forward to

Microsoft has announced the Surface Pro 9, a new tablet to replace the Surface Pro 8 that promises faster processors, 5G connectivity, and some AI-assisted webcam features. The new tablet will come in two different varieties: one without 5G connectivity that’s powered by Intel 12th generation processors, and a second with 5G connectivity which instead uses Microsoft’s SQ3 custom processor. (This SQ3 processor is required if you want to use Microsoft’s latest video effects on video calls, like Automatic Framing and Eye Contact.)

Other than that, not much has changed about the device. It keeps the same 13-inch display, which has a resolution of 2880x1920 and is capable of a 120Hz refresh rate. Promotional materials show that Microsoft has swapped the locations of a few ports, putting the two USB-C ports on the left side of the device rather than the right side. The company has also removed the headphone jack entirely.

Meanwhile, Apple just announced new 11- and 12.-9 inch iPad Pro models powered by the company’s latest M2 processor. They also offer faster connectivity with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 and some new camera features lifted from the iPhone 14. There are no design changes.

Alongside the new M2 chip, which enables ProRes video capture, the new iPad Pro also supports the Apple Pencil’s new hover feature. Pro users can interact with their iPads without having to press the Apple Pencil to the screen, up to 12mm away.

We’ll be testing the new Surface Pro 9 and the 2022 iPad Pro models in the coming weeks, but if you have a Surface or a newer iPad Pro and it’s functioning well, we don’t see a need to rush out and upgrade.

The competition

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X12 Detachable was our previous top pick in this guide. But its screen is smaller and lower resolution than that of the Surface Pro 8, and the keyboard felt more cramped to us. It was the only Windows tablet we tested that couldn’t handle our simple performance tests, which included opening a dozen Chrome tabs and a few background applications. We also found that the magnetic attachment between the keyboard and the tablet wasn’t particularly strong, so if we grabbed the tablet while the keyboard was out, there was a good chance the keyboard would detach and fly off.

Apple’s iPad Pro (12.9-inch, 5th generation) was our upgrade pick in a previous version of this guide. Its larger size still represents an upgrade for those who use their tablet for digital art or sketching, but the additional screen space doesn’t add much value for anyone else, especially those who are looking for a more traditional work device.

Apple’s iPad Air (4th generation) was a previous top pick in this guide, and it’s still the cheapest way to get an iPad with a USB-C port and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil. It’s a small step down from the 11-inch iPad Pro in most ways: It’s slower, its screen refreshes only 60 times per second, it starts at 64 GB of storage rather than 128 GB, and it uses a Touch ID fingerprint sensor integrated into its power button rather than the iPad Pro’s Face ID camera.

Refurbished units of the iPad Pro models released in 2018 or 2020 (the 1st- or 2nd-generation version of the 11-inch Pro and the 3rd- or 4th-generation version of the 12.9-inch model) are still good deals if you can find them. They aren’t quite as fast, but these models are by no means slow, and they work with all the same accessories, run all the same apps, and have the same warranties. They’ll get new iPadOS updates for years to come, too.

HP’s Elite x2 G8 is similar to the Surface Pro 8 in design and processing power, as they use the same kickstand design and both run on an Intel i5-1135G7 processor. However, the x2 G8 is about $500 more expensive for that same configuration, even after you factor in the cost of the Surface Pro 8’s additional accessories.

The Microsoft Surface Go 2 is a smaller, lighter, cheaper version of the Surface Pro with a 10.5-inch screen. The upgraded configuration we tested with 8 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD felt slow when running multiple apps, even with the extra-cost upgraded Intel Core m3 processor.

Samsung’s S7 and S7+ tablets run the Android operating system, which has significantly fewer apps for productivity and art. They do have a feature called DeX, which allows you to plug your tablet into a monitor and use it like a desktop PC. However, we found this arrangement to be less convenient than having the full laptop experience on the Surface Pro 8, which doesn’t need an additional display and peripherals.

We don’t recommend any devices that use 10th-generation (or older) Intel processors. We also dismissed tablets with low-end Intel Celeron and Pentium processors, as well as models with older Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.

This article was edited by Arthur Gies and Mark Smirniotis.

Sources

1. David Nield, Forget MS Paint—get these digital drawing tools and apps instead, Popular Science, July 25, 2017

2. Cale Hunt, 10 Best Windows Apps for Surface Pen Users in 2019, Windows Central, January 10, 2019

3. Serenity Caldwell, Best drawing apps for iPad and Apple Pencil, iMore, April 4, 2018

4. Christine Chan, New keyboard shortcuts in iPadOS, iMore, September 24, 2019

5. Brad Colbow, M1 iPad Pro Review, YouTube, May 19, 2021

6. Brad Colbow, Google Pixel Slate Review - An Artist Perspective, YouTube, December 3, 2018