The 10 Best Tablets

It's tough to believe the tablet market has exploded as quickly as it has since the first iPad debuted almost four years ago. After all, smartphones, tablets, and laptops all fulfill similar needs, and the feature sets of these devices don't vary wildly. Often it comes down to whether you want to check Facebook, email your pals, or watch House of Cards on a 5-, a 7-, or a 13-inch screen.

At the same time, here we are four years later, and there still aren't really many tablets that will truly replace both a laptop and a smartphone. A tablet is basically an extra thing to buy and carry. You probably don't need a tablet, but that doesn't mean you don't want one.

And if you know you want a tablet, you probably also have some idea whether you want an iPad, an Android, or a Windows model. (An important note: This list focuses mostly on lower-cost media-consumption tablets. Though there are some Windows 8 tablets listed here, if you're looking for a convertible tablet or one with with a laptop-grade processor, whose main task is productivity, The Best Windows 8 Tablets focuses on those models.)

There are some other important factors to consider as well. Do you need a tablet that offers hundreds of thousands of apps? Do you want a slate that you can easily hold with a single hand, or one with a larger 10-inch screen? Do you need memory card slots for additional storage? How about 4G cellular connectivity so you can use your tablet to get online anywhere? You get the idea.

If you're unsure which tablet to get, we present this list of the 10 best tablets we've tested as a good place to start your search. The list comprises Android, Apple, and Microsoft models. And since one tablet size doesn't fit all, we picked five large-screen (8.9- to 11-inch) and five small-screen (7- to 8-inch) winners to come up with our top 10. And since we're reviewing new tablets all the time, we'll update this list periodically.

For more in-depth tablet-shopping advice, read Android, Apple or Windows: How to Choose the Right Tablet. If you're all about Android, take a look at the Best Android Tablets. And for the latest lab-tested reviews, check out the Tablet Product Guide.

Large-Screen (8.9-to-11-Inch) Tablets