The Best Tablets in Canada of 2026

The 2020 iteration of the iPad Air may be a little more expensive than the entry-level iPad, but you'll be rewarded with an iPad Pro-level experience without the iPad Pro price tag.

Like the Pro, the iPad Air is compatible with Apple’s Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil 2, both of which are accessories that help make the iPad Air a viable laptop replacement for many. That said, you don’t have to buy those accessories to get a lot from the device, considering it offers excellent performance, a great display, an intuitive operating system, and more.

As with any iPad, there’s no shortage of great apps and games on the iPad Air. If you’re an iPhone user, many of the apps you know and love will be optimized for the bigger screen, and you can usually download and use them at no extra cost. No matter which app you’re using, you’ll find iPadOS makes it easy to multitask, split your tablet’s display up between multiple applications, and, thanks to its user-accessible file system, save, shuttle around or send files to the cloud.

Apple has even upgraded the ports for the iPad Air. The device has the same USB-C connectivity as the iPad Pro, meaning that it’s compatible with a range of dongles and adapters, along with external storage. It doesn’t have Face ID like the Pro, but it does have a Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the power button, which is fast and easy to use.

During our battery test, the iPad Air proved able to play the same video file at full brightness for almost eight hours, and when used for productivity, some gaming, and surfing the web, you’ll get even more. One more thing: the iPad Air has a sought-after feature that many tablets and smartphones being produced today lack: a headphone jack.

The iPad Air has a few downsides. It doesn’t have the same high refresh rate display as the iPad Pro, and as mentioned, it doesn’t have Face ID. And while cheaper than the iPad Pro, it is still a bit pricey, which can make it unappealing compared to the base iPad.

The iPad Mini is defined by its size. The Mini is easy to hold for longer periods of time even when reclining or gripping the device with one hand. It’s an ideal tablet for taking notes with the second-gen Apple Pencil. You can support it comfortably with one hand while writing with the other.

Performance remains excellent. It outperforms the base iPad, landing closer to the iPad Air, and is quicker than most PC laptops sold at a similar price. It feels smooth day-to-day and can power through heavier apps like 3D games and photo editors.

We do have a few complaints. The display is good but not as bright and enjoyable as iPad Pro models. Multitasking can be difficult due to the display’s compact size. Like the iPad Air, the Mini lacks Face ID facial recognition login and relies on Touch ID inconveniently bundled into the power button.

Still, the iPad Mini is the best choice for small tablet enthusiasts. Few competitors exist and those that do, like Amazon’s Fire HD 8 and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Lite, are far less powerful. The iPad Mini is as capable as other iPads, but smaller.

There aren’t many companies making high-end Android or Chrome OS tablets these days. Despite this, Samsung decided to go all-out with the Galaxy Tab S7+. It’s a device designed for use by pro users, with a price tag that makes it competitive with an iPad Pro. Unfortunately, while it outperforms anything on this list not made by Apple, it’s plagued with a number of problems, both of Samsung’s and Google’s making, which make it a tougher sell at its price.

The Tab S7+ is a pleasure to carry around and hold throughout a typical workday, despite its large size. The thin bezels surround its vibrant 12.4-in Super AMOLED screen, which makes high-definition video content and games look fabulous.

The Tab S7+’s base configuration comes with 128GB of storage space, which is enough for most users to shuttle around their offline content. You’ll find that background processes and your favourite android apps run smoothly thanks to its 6GB of RAM and speedy Snapdragon 865+ chipset. For more space and more speed, it’s possible to upgrade to an 8GB/256GB configuration. No matter which one you choose, Samsung makes it possible to add up to 1TB of additional storage space via microSD card. If that’s not enough storage space for you and you loathe using cloud-based services, the tablet’s USB-C port allows for high-speed data transfers to and from external storage devices.

It’s no slouch in the battery department, either. During our battery life test, it lasted over eight hours of constant video playback. The Tab S7+ comes with a stylus, which I found to be accurate and fast while taking notes or doodling. It’s designed to clip magnetically to the back of the Tab S7+, when not in use.

Now, let’s talk about the bad stuff.

Samsung insists that this is a tablet designed to take on productivity tasks: a fact backed up by the desktop-like UI provided by its DeX mode. DeX is Samsung’s Windows 10-like user interface which allows you to drag windowed versions of your tablet apps around on your Tab S7+ or a larger display, as if you were using a computer or laptop—provided the apps you use to get things done are compatible. Unfortunately, in order to use DeX, you’ll need to invest in the Tab S7+’s pricey keyboard-and-trackpad case, which drives up the price of this device considerably and has downsides of its own, like the kickstand design that makes it hard to use on your lap. For less complicated tasks, such as writing emails or chatting on Slack with your co-workers, you could use the device’s on-screen keyboard. Unfortunately, doing so makes for an unpleasant experience.

Finally, tablet apps: the Google Play Store doesn’t have a lot of them. While many popular programs such as Microsoft Word, Adobe Lightroom, and Call of Duty Mobile are ready to download, other apps many rely on when using Android for working are only available as smartphone apps. The device's operating system scales the size of these apps up to accommodate the size of its display, but it’s a poor substitute for native tablet apps, the likes of which the iPad Air has in spades.

If your budget doesn’t allow for the purchase of an Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab, Amazon’s Fire 10 HD could be the device you’re looking for. While it’s not made of shiny aluminum like our top picks, its plastic construction feels surprisingly sturdy and pleasant to hold. Available in multiple colours, the 10 HD is the largest tablet in Amazon’s family of Fire devices. Measuring 10.3 x 6.3 x 0.4-inches and weighing just 17.4 ounces, it's easy to forget it's in your bag. However, during extended use, it was very easy to remember that the device was made of plastic, as our hands became damp with sweat over time, especially while streaming movies from a Plex server or locally stored video—both caused the device’s temperature to noticeably increase.

This model comes with either 32GB of storage or 64GB. Fortunately, the 10 HD’s storage can be expanded by an additional 512GB, via MicroSD card. It’s nice to have this option, but with such low-base storage options, you may feel forced to buy a MicroSD card to upgrade the tablet’s storage to make it more useable, thus driving up the price of ownership.

The 10 HD’s display is capable of playing 1080p videos, with reasonably true colours and black levels. However, when used for reading or web surfing, the text that the tablet generated was a little janky compared to the Apple and Samsung devices. That said, given the low price of this device, this issue falls within the realm of acceptability. During battery testing, the 10 HD performed well, offering up to seven hours and 18 minutes of continuous video playback. When the time comes to recharge it, you’ll be able to do the job relatively quickly, thanks to the 10 HD’s USB-C port, which you won't find on previous-gen devices from Amazon.

You should know that while the 10 HD is technically an Android tablet, its deeply modified operating system and user interface make this almost unrecognizable. Some things, such as navigating the device's user interface, will feel somewhat familiar to Android aficionados. However, its user interface is deeply focused on making it easy for users to access Amazon-branded content, such as Kindle books, Audible audiobooks, and Amazon’s Prime Music and Prime Video services. Tempting you to make purchases from the Amazon store also seems to have been a design priority. If you’re deeply invested in Amazon’s content ecosystem or include Alexa in your daily life, these will sound more like perks than a problem. For others, having the company’s content placed first and foremost could make it difficult to enjoy using this device.

Additionally, Amazon curates the relatively small collection of apps available to Fire users with an iron fist. Many of the popular apps that Android users take for granted, such as Google’s suite of free entertainment and productivity applications, aren’t available. This is because Fire devices don’t come preloaded with the Google Play Store. It is possible to side-load the store onto Amazon Fire tablets, but doing so requires a small amount of device hacking that many users may not be comfortable with.

The Surface Go is a fabulous little computer for anyone looking for a lightweight, well-built device designed to handle productivity tasks and some very light gaming. Unfortunately, it’s a lousy tablet.

One of our testers owned a Surface Go (8GB/128GB) for over a year, finding it excels at handling word processing, email, scheduling and even a bit of photo editing. If an application can be installed on Windows 10, it can be installed on the Go. However, with the device’s low-powered Intel Penguin Gold Processor 4415Y, don’t expect any fancy apps to run terribly well, if at all.

It’s possible to load Fallout 4 on the Surface Go, for example. But with the game’s graphics and draw distances turned down to the bare minimum, it’s laughably unplayable. And, as with most low-to-mid-powered Windows 10 devices, having more than a handful of Google Chrome tabs opened at once will slow the Go to a crawl. All of this feels acceptable, given the device’s 10-inch display, 1.15-pound weight, and reasonable battery life.

When using it to type and edit during a typical workday, we squeezed up to 6.5 hours of use out of its battery. While running battery tests with the device’s display brightness and volume jacked up to maximum, the Surface Go was only able to manage four hours and 40 minutes of playback time—not bad, but not great, either.

It’s when you attempt to use the Surface Go as a tablet, instead of a traditional laptop-style computer, that things go downhill, fast. Over the past few years, Microsoft has made a significant effort to turn Windows 10 into a mature, easy-to-use operating system for personal computer users.

Unfortunately, this usability doesn’t extend to the OS’s touch computing interface. Navigating the Surface Go’s various menus and programs can be frustrating to tap and swipe away at with your finger. Multitasking is hit-and-miss in tablet mode. We were also deeply disappointed to find that Microsoft’s offerings of tablet-centric applications from The Microsoft Store are meagre and, in many cases, kind of terrible.

With its low price and sturdy build quality, the Amazon Fire 7 is cheap enough to give as a gift at your office Christmas party and has enough features to make receiving it as a gift feel like a win.

As its name suggests, this device comes equipped with a seven-inch display. Don’t expect any high-definition miracles here: it’s only capable of outputting 720p content. The Fire 7’s onboard storage options—16GB or 32GB—are insufficient for most people to do much of anything outside streaming. If you plan on using this device to host local audio, video, or other files, you’ll need to invest in a microSD card for a little digital breathing room. The Fire 7 can use MicroSD cards up to 256GB in size.

That this model is made of plastic instead of aluminum and glass doesn’t mean that it’s any less durable than many of the premium tablets out there, and it held up well in our testing. With its low price and rugged construction, it could be a fine choice for parents with little ones that need to be connected to the internet on the cheap.

Unfortunately, when it comes to using the Fire 7, even for the most mundane tasks, it can be irritatingly slow. This is no doubt due to the fact that it ships with 1GB of RAM and a pokey Quad-Core 1.3GHz processor. You’ll find no stereo sound here, either: in order to keep costs low, Amazon designed this tablet to come with a single speaker, taking much of the joy out of watching movies on it or kicking back with a few tunes. Finally out of all of the tablets reviewed for this guide, the Fire 7 is the only one that charges via MicroUSB: an older, more fragile connection technology, which charges and transfers data at a much slower rate than USB-C can.