When looking to buy a tablet, there are a few factors to keep in mind, such as what you’ll be using the tablet for (entertainment, drawing, work, etc.), your price point, display size, operating system, and more. At ZDNET, we considered all of these factors when choosing the best tablets you can buy, but we were able to test one important factor that can truly make or break your tablet experience: battery life.
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We ran nine tablets through the gauntlet in our lab in Kentucky, where we evaluated each tablet’s battery life under different settings. The tablets that stood out above the rest for battery life included the iPad Pro, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, the base-model iPad, and the Google Pixel Tablet.
Tablets were tested with maximum volume for audio and video, in addition to maximum/minimum brightness. The following tablets were tested:
How we tested tablets
In our Louisville-based lab, we tested each tablet using a dedicated PC with an NI USB-6001 DAQ, eight auxiliary inputs with adapters, and LabVIEW software coded in-house to analyze audio outputs as voltage signals. We tested each tablet’s battery life a total of 12 times: three times with maximum brightness/audio, three times with minimum brightness/audio, three times with maximum brightness/audio on Airplane Mode, and three times on minimum brightness/audio on Airplane Mode.
We chose to measure screen brightness during video playback as the main parameter to test since it is one of the most impactful settings on a device when it comes to how battery life is affected. We also tested with Networking/Bluetooth on/off to measure the additional drain on battery life that regular communication via these connections can have. However, since the video used in testing was downloaded to the devices under test, this had only a small impact on results. Testing battery drain during a stream with an active, in-use internet connection would be a logical next stage in future testing.
During our tests, the only app running on each device was VLC media player. This was chosen due to its availability on all operating systems, relative name recognition with the general public, and compatibility with the level of settings control the lab team wanted to exert. Running in the background allowed the team to confirm standardized volume, brightness, and video repetition in the app and the device settings.
It’s important to note that the video file all devices were tested with was downloaded to the device itself and not streamed from the internet to ensure that the test isn’t subject to failure due to interruption of internet service.
The results
As you can see from our data visualization (Figure 1), we found that the iPad Pro has the most impressive battery life at over 16 hours before having to be charged, solidifying its rank as the best tablet for power users or as a laptop replacement. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra had the second-best battery life at almost 11.5 hours, and the third-best was the Amazon Fire Max 11 at just over eight hours.
Also: The best iPads you can buy
Even though the iPad Pro stood out above the rest, the other two iPads we tested scored low for battery life on maximum brightness, at 5:40 for the base-model iPad and 5:27 for the iPad Air.
The tablet that stood out the most for our test for minimum brightness (Figure 2), was the OnePlus Pad 3 at a surprising 40 hours of battery life. The OnePlus Pad 3 also happens to have a ZDNET Editor’s Choice Award, in part due to its “exceptional battery.”
However, our tests might differ from your own experience, depending on how you use your tablet and what applications are running in the background. But as a general baseline, our testing provides an expert analysis of how long these tablets can last and what use cases they may best be suited for.
Based on hands-on experiences, the 11th-generation iPad is our pick for the best tablet for most people. It has an affordable price tag, 256GB maximum storage, and a lightweight design that’s perfect for working or streaming movies on the go.
However, we recognized other top tablets in our best tablets roundup, including the OnePlus Pad 3 as the best Android tablet for entertainment, the Microsoft Surface Pro as the best Windows tablet, and the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids tablet as the best tablet for kids.
That depends on what you want to use your tablet or laptop for. Digital artists tend to prefer tablets since they’re easier to draw on with a stylus. Tablets are also great for photo editing and streaming movies if you get one with a large enough screen size. But if you want to do things like create spreadsheets, type in a word processing program, or do intensive 3D animation or modeling, you’re better off with a laptop.
There is a big difference in terms of the quantity and quality of apps that are available for iPadOS over Android. Apple and third-party developers have spent years fine-tuning the experience on the larger display device.
Google has all but admitted it gave up on making Android tablets, and developers have taken the company’s lead. You’ll find a lot of apps you can install and use, but ultimately, they’re nothing more than the phone version of the app, and many just don’t work as they should.
