Best gaming tablet in 2025: Apple, Samsung, and more

If Apple tablets are your go-to, the Apple iPad Pro is the best option you’ll get. It boasts an ultra-sleek design and a huge Ultra Retina XRD OLED display with ProMotion technology. This is combined with a powerful Apple M4 processor, which ensures faster loading times, less lagging, and enhanced battery life.

It’s a super powerful tablet, making it great for working your way through our list of the best iPad games. With a 120Hz refresh rate, it boasts super slick motion while its screen clarity is unrivaled, offering crystal clear, sharp graphics. If you enjoy AR games, the dual camera and LiDAR sensors setup are great for that.

The main downside to the Apple iPad Pro is the cost. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly gaming tablet then this isn’t the option for you. But if you’re looking for a super versatile tablet with a powerful chipset you can use for checking out the latest Apple Arcade games, getting creative, and everything in between, then this is an option worth considering.

The RedMagic Nova gaming tablet is a performance monster, running even the most demanding Android games without breaking a sweat. Not only does it guarantee lag-free gameplay thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Leading Version chipset, but its 144Hz refresh rate means the on-screen visuals look buttery smooth. It’s not as much of an all-rounder as some of the options on this list, but if you’re looking for something to play the best Android games on, you can’t go wrong with this pick.

As with RedMagic’s gaming phones, the Nova tablet is incredibly quick to charge, giving you a full battery from flat in under an hour. You shouldn’t need to charge it too often, though, as we found out while putting together our RedMagic Nova review. You can game for hours and still have some battery life left for a bit of streaming when you hop into bed at the end of the day.

While the Nova is great, there are a couple of things we’d change if we could. For a start, given that similarly priced tablets like the Honor MagicPad2 have OLED screens, we’d love to see RedMagic employ the same display tech rather than LCD. Whether you like it or not, OLEDs just have more depth of color, which brings vivid games like Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero to life.

If you’re a fan of Apple devices but don’t want to splurge on the iPad Pro, then the Apple iPad Air is a strong mid-level option. It comes at a fairly reasonable price – taking into account it’s an Apple product – and boasts plenty of power combined with a sleek design and Liquid Retina display for crisper imagery.

Featuring the Apple M2 chip, the iPad Air is a solid all-rounder choice. It boasts enough power for solid everyday gameplay without the price being hiked up. If you’re not bothered by the features that the pricier Pro offers, such as enhanced refresh rates, additional storage, and a slightly larger design, then the iPad Air is a great option.

The M2 processor is powerful enough to run most games smoothly, even if you do occasionally have to turn the settings down. Of course, the lower refresh rate compared to the Pro does mean that it doesn’t perform as smoothly, but for the price point, it’s a worthwhile compromise.

Admittedly, it’s not the cheapest option, but if you’re looking for a mid-range gaming tablet that’s been made to last, and comes in a wide selection of colors, the Apple iPad Air could be a good choice. If you’re looking for a cheaper Apple tablet, check out the options in our guide to the best iPads.

Whether you’re new to gaming and want a basic tablet to start out with or you just don’t want to overspend, the Amazon Fire HD 10 is an option worth considering. Featuring a 10.1-inch display and up to 13 hours of battery life, this low-cost device is ideal for mobile gaming, streaming, and browsing.

While the design of this tablet is pretty basic – it comes with a plastic outer case and slightly chunkier bezels than most other gaming tablets – it’s still quite durable, making it ideal for use on the go. With a high-quality screen and lots of internal power, this tablet is a great pick if you want the ability to play lighter titles while out and about. But if you’re looking for a device that’s compatible with heavier-duty gaming, this isn’t the right choice.

However, if you’re keen to run games from the Amazon Fire store and across the Luna gaming service, you should find that gameplay is slick and seamlessly smooth. This encompasses a lot of big games, including Minecraft, among others. Who doesn’t love building on the bus? One thing to note is that if the apps you play haven’t been converted into Fire apps, then you won’t be able to access them on this device.

The speakers could sound a bit better, but it’s not like you actively can’t hear things, it’s just a bit tinny. That said, for a budget tablet, the Amazon Fire HD 10 is a solid choice, especially if you’re the kind of gamer who’s happy playing lighter games and would prefer a lower price point.

If you’re looking for all the power of a PC in tablet form, then look no further than the Asus ROG. This hybrid tablet – which you can add a keyboard to and turn into a laptop – has Intel’s 12th-generation processors combined with an RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. It also runs Windows 11, which opens the doors to a huge library of PC games.

Admittedly, this device has a somewhat chunkier design than the other options in this guide – and it’s heavier too – but that’s because it is technically a laptop and is therefore filled with laptop components. It is light by laptop standards though, just heavier than tablets.

If you’re looking for a gaming tablet that offers access to the most games, even powerful recent releases, this tablet is a great pick. It does come with a rather hefty price point but for what you’re getting – a tablet that does double duty as a gaming laptop – it’s actually not that expensive. But compared to tablets alone, it certainly is.

One of the downsides to this option is its battery life, which lasts just six hours. Fairly standard for a laptop that has a lot of processing-intensive tasks to carry out at once, but compared to the standard of tablets at large, it is pretty low. There might also be better options for hardcore gamers, like the Asus ROG Ally X.

If you’re looking for a gaming tablet that boasts an impressive size, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra ticks the box. Admittedly, it’s more expensive than some of the other picks on this list, but if you’re looking for an Android tablet that excels at gaming, it’s a great option.

Taking into account how large the screen of the Galaxy S8 Ultra is, you’d expect the chassis to be bulky, but this isn’t the case – it’s sleek and ultra-thin, making it ideal for use on the go. We were also impressed by how powerful the speakers are on this device, especially when using Dolby Atmos.

With the screen size being so large, using touchscreen controls for gameplay can be a little taxing, which is why we’d advise using a mobile controller where possible. Despite the large screen making some elements of gameplay tricky, the 14.1-inch screen offers a level of immersion that’s unrivaled by other gaming tablets.

Performance-wise, this tablet doesn’t disappoint, offering a solid refresh rate on most mid-level games, such as Call of Duty Mobile and Fortnite. It might lack power compared to the Asus Rog Flow Z13, but for a pure tablet, it performs exceptionally well. If you’re a fan of a digital ecosystem, you can also pick up one of the best Samsung phones and embrace the seamless connectivity.

Starting at $499/£499, the Honor MagicPad2 does plenty to undercut Apple when it comes to offering premium features at a fraction of the cost. You’ll be immediately struck by its gorgeous OLED display, which outputs a crisp 1920×3000 resolution at a maximum of 144Hz – prime for all kinds of gaming sessions. Backed by a hefty 12 GB of RAM, there’s 256 GB of storage alongside to store all your files, videos, images, and apps. We’d love a little bit more storage, but 256 GB is plenty for most mobile games.

The Honor MagicPad 2 runs the MagicOS 8.0 skin of Android 14, coming out of the box with a streamlined experience that is light on bloatware. The includes magnetic stylus can be a little annoying to attach, but using its AI-assisted features proves useful. One feature can turn handwriting into notes, making it easier to read in case, like me, you’ve got scrappy handwriting. The speakers aren’t quite as good as other options on this list, but they’re decent enough, even if middle tones do get lost along the way.