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What is your choice for Android tablet of 2023?

  • OnePlus pad

    Votes: 2 9.5%
  • Samsung Galaxy tab s9 and derivatives

    Votes: 15 71.4%
  • Google Pixel Tablet

    Votes: 3 14.3%
  • Lenovo OLED or high end tab

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other OEM

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Samsung A7/A7 lite, a8,a9 or other affordable Android tablets.

    Votes: 3 14.3%

  • Total voters
    21

Technerd108

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 24, 2021
2,931
4,111
It is the end of the year and a few really good tablets came out in the Android space.

Cast your vote and post what and why is your favorite. Try to list features, performance, battery life, design and anything else you care to add.

My vote is the Samsung Galaxy tab s9 11".

It is the only 11" AMOLED tablet I know of. I like OLED and I like 11". Everything is great about this tablet. The screen. The speakers are louder and have more bass. The battery life is better. The performance is better. The build quality and design is about the best I have seen. Samsung always takes care of it's repeat customers and I can generally trade in at a higher value than I could sell and allows me to be able to afford a new tablet every other year or more often. One UI is improved.
 
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Awesomesince86

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2016
2,472
3,287
Is it just me, or have tablets in general just stagnated? iPads still lead the pack by a mile and they haven't had a meaningful upgrade in years. Just seems like tablets time in the sun is about over with. Laptops are becoming more portable, foldable being a little more mainstream, and laptops OS's being overall very weak there just isn't much use for tablets beyond media consumption on the go or as another home office screen.
 

jimimac71

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2019
483
198
California
Is it just me, or have tablets in general just stagnated? iPads still lead the pack by a mile and they haven't had a meaningful upgrade in years. Just seems like tablets time in the sun is about over with. Laptops are becoming more portable, foldable being a little more mainstream, and laptops OS's being overall very weak there just isn't much use for tablets beyond media consumption on the go or as another home office screen.
No it isn't just you. Kind of like Chromebooks are everywhere but Chromeboxes are rare.
I did not vote as I don't have a top Android tablet.
I think it is all about Samsung or Apple.
Seems like phones are everything.
I agree with having a device that is portable but not a phone versus a tablet. Everyone who knows me and my vision issues, knows a phone is too small.
Even my new Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 is just a bit too small.
 
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Klyster

macrumors 68020
Dec 7, 2013
2,231
2,641
My S8 Ultra is still my media king.
The S9 Ultra wasn't worth upgrading to.

There's nothing bad I can say about my tablet, but I only use it for comics and video/streaming.

An iPad couldn't replace it.
 
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Awesomesince86

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2016
2,472
3,287
I still have an s7 plus that I use for media consumption while working from home. But I wouldn’t use it for anything more than that.
 
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sracer

macrumors G4
Apr 9, 2010
10,292
13,027
where hip is spoken
The best Android tablet value (price for performance), IMO, for 2023 was the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2022 model) when it was on sale. It often went on sale for under $250 and was regularly available during the holiday shopping season for between $200-$220.

I'm a big fan of the 9th gen iPad, but the S6 Lite has been head and shoulders over it. The quality of the screen, performance, packed on S-Pen, and micro SD card support has made it an overall better device for productivity, and digital notetaking, journaling, and planning. Media consumption (of locally stored music, video, ebook/comics) has been very enjoyable as well... just pop in a 256GB card and load it up.
 

Technerd108

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 24, 2021
2,931
4,111
The best Android tablet value (price for performance), IMO, for 2023 was the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2022 model) when it was on sale. It often went on sale for under $250 and was regularly available during the holiday shopping season for between $200-$220.

I'm a big fan of the 9th gen iPad, but the S6 Lite has been head and shoulders over it. The quality of the screen, performance, packed on S-Pen, and micro SD card support has made it an overall better device for productivity, and digital notetaking, journaling, and planning. Media consumption (of locally stored music, video, ebook/comics) has been very enjoyable as well... just pop in a 256GB card and load it up.
I agree with you in terms of value. I had one I got in blue for $249 on sale and it was a fantastic tablet. Loud stereo speakers. Great 2k screen. Incredible build quality for the cost. An s pen included!

My biggest complaint with it was the processor was slow. But it wasn't terrible just annoying at times but overall if you weren't doing anything heavy it was responsive and fun.

I was able to trade it in for the tab s8 for about the same price I bought the s6 lite for.

The s6 lite is the default budget tablet I always recommend. I hope that Samsung continues to keep this line and upgrade it every year or so. An s9 lite would be nice to see with a better Samsung Exynos processor and more ram and storage. An upgraded model for 2024 starting at MSRP if good enough would still be a really good deal.
 
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LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,780
10,844
I have the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra (since pre-order), and still very happy with like it's still new. So for that reason, I voted "S9 and derivatives", since there's not much difference.

I'm still itching to get the Pixel Tablet, but I'll wait for gen 2.
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,640
22,144
Singapore
Is it just me, or have tablets in general just stagnated? iPads still lead the pack by a mile and they haven't had a meaningful upgrade in years. Just seems like tablets time in the sun is about over with. Laptops are becoming more portable, foldable being a little more mainstream, and laptops OS's being overall very weak there just isn't much use for tablets beyond media consumption on the go or as another home office screen.
I feel that hardware-wise, there isn't really anything much that I desire in a tablet, which is in part why I am still holding on to my 2018 iPad Pro. Even an OLED screen, while arguably nice, isn't going to let me do anything more that I couldn't already do. Likewise, camera quality doesn't seem to matter as much to tablet users as they do to smartphone users. 5g or 6g or whatever comes afterwards. Does it really matter when you can already stream Netflix comfortably?

I think that moving forward, it's going to come down to software features and app support. Like how some continue to argue for macOS to come to the iPad, while the rest swear by iPadOS. I really don't know what is the right answer here either.
 

Awesomesince86

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2016
2,472
3,287
I feel that hardware-wise, there isn't really anything much that I desire in a tablet, which is in part why I am still holding on to my 2018 iPad Pro. Even an OLED screen, while arguably nice, isn't going to let me do anything more that I couldn't already do. Likewise, camera quality doesn't seem to matter as much to tablet users as they do to smartphone users. 5g or 6g or whatever comes afterwards. Does it really matter when you can already stream Netflix comfortably?

I think that moving forward, it's going to come down to software features and app support. Like how some continue to argue for macOS to come to the iPad, while the rest swear by iPadOS. I really don't know what is the right answer here either.

That’s why I went with a S7 plus when I bought my last tablet instead of an iPad. I knew I’d be using it almost exclusively for media consumption and I’d rather have an OLED panel than an LCD or miniLED which significant light bleed.
 

Heat_Fan89

macrumors 68030
Feb 23, 2016
2,549
3,251
I have two iPad's and two Galaxy Tabs S7 FE and S7+. I rarely use either and if I do it's for Samsung TV. I mostly use my iPad's and that's just for the internet and YT videos. For me tablets 12 years later have run their course. It's probably why Apple for the 1st time in the iPad era did not release a single new iPad in 2023.
 

Technerd108

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Oct 24, 2021
2,931
4,111
Not surprisingly Samsung is leading the pack in the poll.

I would really love to see some new players really disrupt the market in Android tablets. And not just with Hardware but offer some long term OS support and new features.

Asus could make a great Android Tablet in the $300-$500 range and include an OLED display, decent performance, and good build quality and speakers.

I want to see the Google tab 2 to be a much more premium tablet offering with the latest/next gen Tensor chip instead of a generation behind or a very late release of the latest tensor. I want to see an OLED screen with 120hz and Gorilla glass 3 at least, better quad speakers with more bass and more volume, 12gb ram, 256gb ufs 4.0 storage and NO darn dock/speaker needed. But I would like to see a free stylus like Samsung includes on the tab s series. This would be a beast and with a clean Pixel Tab UI it would be a dream tablet for me personally. I really hope Google steps up their game later this year and gives us a proper Google tablet. Just like the old Nexus tablets I don't care if it has a plastic shell as long as it is well made. If Google priced aggressively at say $399 and gave us all the good internals and display but cut a little cost on the shell material to keep the MSRP low I would not care at all. This would be my choice for tablet of the year 2024 but for 2023 Samsung Tab s9 11" holds that honor for performance, quality, value, long term OS support, build quality, etc.
 
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