The best tablets under $200

The concept of the 'best tablets under $200 / £200' might sound a little contradictory at first glance. Can any tablet under $200 possibly be any good? After all, the top-specced tablets from the likes of Apple and Microsoft – and Wacom for drawing tablets – can easily cost over a grand. Well actually, you can get decent tablets for this price, as long as you're expectations are realistic.

Below, we've picked out the best tablets at under $200 for both general uses and for drawing, ranging from the cheap to the even cheaper. We've evaluated the tablets based on our own hands-on reviews and feedback from our network of contacts. We've considered the power and performance they offer for a budget price, the quality of the screen and any extra features (See how we test and review for more details of our process). The first five devices are tablets for general use, but below that we move on to the best tablets for drawing under $200. 

Again, you need to be realistic. We think all of these tablets are good at what they do, but they're not really aimed at professional creatives, and they're not going to be able to handle very demanding creative work such as complex image or video rendering. If you're looking for something more powerful, see our guides to the best tablets for video editing and the best drawing tablets. Or if you've got a little more than $200 to spend but still want a cheap tablet, see our list of the best tablets for students. And for bargain prices on more premium devices, see our guide to the best Apple Prime Day deals.

The best tablets under $200 available now

The best general tablets

If you're on a budget, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus is hands down the best tablet for under $200 / £200 today for general use. With a lovely 10.1-inch LCD touchscreen and high resolution of 1920 x 1200, it's a great, cheap tablet for watching TV and movies, browsing the web, and using apps.

With 4GB RAM, its performance is relatively fast for the price, and the 32GB storage should be enough for most people if you're using it for browsing and TV viewing. You can also get up to 12 hours of battery life from a single charge, so it comfortably passes the "watch a few films on a long journey" test.

Of course, being a Fire device, it comes with Alexa built in for voice commands. However, you need to know that the HD 10 Plus runs Amazon's own operating system, FireOS. This means you won't be able to run Google apps like Google Docs, Google Maps, and YouTube. Amazon's own store does have plenty of familiar apps, though, including Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Go, Spotify, Zoom and Audible.

If you're looking for an even bigger bargain, Amazon's smaller Fire 7 comes in way under $200 – way under $100, in fact. You might not think you can get much of a tablet for such a low price, and the Amazon Fire 7 is indeed fairly basic. The 7-inch IPS screen has a relatively low resolution of 1,024 x 600, the single speaker offers only limited audio and with 1GB RAM, you're not going to get lightning-fast performance. There's also the irritation of ads on your screen, which you have to pay a one-off cost to remove.

But? Well, all that aside, the Amazon Fire 7 is reliable for what it is and does its job very well as a basic, highly portable tablet for watching movies, browsing the web and running major apps. It comes with 16GB storage, which can be doubled to a decent 32GB for not a lot more money. Alexa is supported, and you can get up to seven hours of battery life on each charge. You won't find another reliable tablet as cheap as this.

Prefer a tablet that runs Windows? And how about one that connects to a keyboard so you can use it as a basic laptop too? Surprisingly, you can get all this for under $200, with the Avita Magus II HD. 

Windows is fairly resource-hungry, so running it on a low-powered device can be painful, but the Intel Celeron N4000 Processor and 4GB RAM combine here for decent performance. The 10.1-inch IPS display offers a high resolution of 1280 x 800, there's a generous 64GB of storage, and you get up to six hours of battery life on a charge.

The keyboard, which doubles as a case, works well, and it's easy to switch between app-based tablet mode and a desktop-based keyboard experience. Yes, the keyboard is flimsier than what you'd get with a "proper" laptop, but so those on more expensive devices like the Surface Go Type Cover. For such a low price, this is an impressive pakage.

US restrictions on companies working with Huawei remain in place, but Huawei devices are still legal to buy, and this cheap and cheerful device is a great choice if you want to watch TV and movies on long journeys, especially if you have kids. The 9.6in screen with 1280 x 800 resolution provides a nice picture, and the 4800mAh battery provides up to 9.8 hours video playback time, enough for most journeys. 

The Huawei Mediapad T3 also comes with a blue-light filter and low-light display mode to help go easy on the eyes, and there's a children's mode to make sure they only access suitable content. It isn't the best tablet for general use since its a little slow with just 2GB RAM, and you're limited to only 8GB storage. However, if viewing video content is your main requirement, this has a lot to offer for a low price.

If you're looking for the best tablet under $200 specifically aimed at children, just take a look at the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition. While the funky, protective case gives it a very kid-friendly look and feel, it's no toy. The tablet comes with 32GB of storage and the ability to add a microSD card for up to 1TB more. The battery can last up to 12 hours, and the quad-core, 1.3GHz processor keeps everything running fairly smoothly. 

As you'd expect, this tablet comes with good parental controls, allowing you to set screen-time limits and educational goals remotely from your smartphone via Amazon Parent Dashboard or the tablet itself. You also get a two-year "worry-free" guarantee and a year's subscription to Amazon Kids+. This gives the little ones access to thousands of apps, games, videos, books and audiobooks, including content from Disney, Nickelodeon and Sesame Street.

The best tablets for drawing under $200

We'll turn now from general use tablets to the best tablets under $200 aimed at artists. Unlike the tablets above, these drawing tablets can't be used on their own. You'll need to plug them into your computer and use them with desktop software. This allows you to draw on the tablet, and see what you're drawing on your larger PC or Mac monitor.

For our money, the best drawing tablet under $200 today is the XP-Pen Deco Pro. No, it doesn't offer the kind of high-end performance you can get from the best drawing tablets overall. But for a very low price, you get something that can do the basics well. The award-winning device has an 11 x 6in working area, giving you a decent amount of canvas for your artwork. The battery-free stylus (included) responds quickly and smoothly to your hand, and it offers up to 60 degrees of tilt function and up to 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity. 

The software is a bit clunky, the stylus is basic, and you won't get the added extras that come with pricier tablets, such as an eraser. But the XP-Pen Deco Pro offers a very nice digital art experience at a surprisingly low price. 

For more details, see our full XP-Pen Deco Pro review.

Want an artist's tablet that comes with its own screen? Then let us point you towards the XP-Pen Artist 12. It's not a standalone product: like most tablets aimed at artists you still need to connect it to a computer. However, it does have its own 11.6in screen, which allows you to view your work both where you're drawing and on a larger monitor simultaneously.

The internal screen boasts a 1920x1080 HD display resolution paired with 72% NTSC Color Gamut and 178° viewing angle. The battery-free stylus (included) has a nice hexagonal design and provides 8,192-levels of pressure sensitivity. You get some nice extras too, including a pen holder, eight replacement pen nibs, a cleaning cloth and a drawing glove. All this makes the XP-Pen Artist 12 one of the best tablets for drawing under $200 that you can buy today.

Wacom is famous as a maker of premium tablets for drawing, creating industry leading products used by professional artists, designers, film-makers, animators, and other creatives. But facing increased competition from cheaper devices, it's also started making affordable tablets of its own.

The Wacom Intuos Graphics Drawing Tablet has been specially designed for beginners in drawing, painting or photo editing. It allows you to draw in conjunction with your Mac, PC, Chromebook or Android device. Despite its compact size, it offers a good active area of 6.0 x 3.7 inches. You get 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. And the pen, which is designed to suit both left- and right-handed users, has a lovely ergonomic design for ease of use.

Really short on cash? The Huion H430P offers a really cheap port of entry to the world of digital drawing. The 4.8x3in drawing area isn't the largest, and overall, this is a very basic tablet and pen. That said, to get something that works this well for such a rock bottom price, is quite amazing.

The battery-free stylus offers 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and eight replacement nibs are included. When we reviewed the tablet, we appreciated the four programmable shortcut keys, which we found to be an impressive inclusion for such a cheap price.

See our full Huion Inspiroy H430P review for more details.

Read more:

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