8 Great Samsung Tablets for Video Streaming, Doodling, and Checking Emails

As one of the best-known makers of computer displays, Samsung tablets shine with their excellent screens. They also benefit from the manufacturer’s experience in building smartphones, and many include nifty accessories, such as digital pens.

What to Look For

Screen size is key when picking out a tablet. The larger the screen, the easier it will be to view your content, and it’s a lot more fun to watch movies on a 12-inch screen than squint at an 8-inch one. That said, smaller tablets have their place as commute- and travel-ready devices. Some people also find it easier to hold a small tablet in one hand.

Consider how you’ll use your tablet when deciding how much memory you need. For light web browsing and streaming music and movies, there’s not much point in investing money for more built-in memory; 64 gigabytes should be fine. But if you plan to store movies on your tablet—handy for times when you don’t have access to an internet connection—then you should have at least 128 GB of memory. Keep in mind that most Samsung tablets have a slot to add more memory in the form of an SD card.

One big decision to make about Samsung tablets is whether you want to use the company’s digital pen. The lower-end models don’t come with this feature. However, I love the S-Pen and highly recommend it for anyone who might want to take notes on the go.

Tap Away: 6 Tablets that can Replace Your Laptop | The Best Tablets for Drawing | All the Amazon Fire Tablets, Reviewed

For this roundup, I chose models that aren’t compatible with wireless carriers, which allow you to get data directly to your device. However, tablets with built-in data capabilities tend to cost more and incur monthly fees from wireless companies. For most people, it makes more sense to use your smartphone as a hotpot or connect via Wi-Fi.

How We Selected

As a technology journalist with more than 20 years experience, I often review tablets, and my work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and many other publications. I mostly use an iPad Pro these days, but I’ve long been an admirer of Samsung’s tablets. I used to own an S7 and enjoy the company’s digital pen. I scoured the web comparing reviews and visited physical stores to test out features when compiling this list. I evaluated each model’s screen size and quality, processor speed, cost, and extras like whether a particular model can be used with the S-Pen.