Tablets at Stiftung Warentest: expensive iPads in the front, cheap tablets also good

Stiftung Warentest brings the latest iPad Pro generation and new Android tablets to the laboratory. Apple's sinfully expensive devices are test winners, but significantly cheaper competitors are hardly rated worse. If you don't have to have an iPad, you can easily save 500 euros.

The significant downward trend in iPad sales continued in the spring. According to IDC, Apple sold 30 percent fewer devices in the first quarter than in the same period last year. Overall, the industry is also going downhill, which is clearly demonstrated by a minus of 18 percent. But there are two exceptions. Samsung and Lenovo were able to increase the trend by around 4 and 2 percent, respectively.

This is probably mainly due to the fact that they have tablets in their range that are much cheaper, but technically not much worse than the iPads. At the electronics retailer Euronics, for example, the (2.1) Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019), which was well rated by Warentest, is one of the winners in the corona crisis, which you can get for just under 270 euros. The device is not included in the foundation's most recent test, but other inexpensive tablets sit close to Apple's expensive top dogs.

With an overall grade of 1.7, the big and the small won iPad Pro the test victory. The testers are enthusiastic about the displays and praise the functionality of the devices, which cut a very good figure when surfing, emails, office applications, videos and 3D games. In addition, the iPad Pro duo offers powerful cameras and also has something acoustically on the slim box. Stiftung Warentest likes the duration and handling. However, the iPads are very expensive: the model with a 12.9-inch display costs at least 1100 euros, the 11-inch version does not cost less than 880 euros.

Samsung just behind Apple

If you reach for the third place, you will have to dig far less. The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active Pro With a 10.1-inch screen, the quality rating of 1.8 was hardly lower than Apple's noble tablets, but German online retailers already sell the device from 480 euros. Amazingly, the LTE variant has the better price here, the wifi model is only available from around 500 euros. Display, functions and handling got good reviews. Samsung even received the grade 1 for the battery because the Galaxy Tab Active Pro is one of the few tablets on the market where you can change the battery yourself (35 to 50 euros).

It is even cheaper Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, which took fourth place with an overall grade of 2.0. The tablet with a 10.4-inch display is available from 350 euros, the LTE variant from 400 euros. It performed almost as well as the more expensive Samsung device in all areas, but no replaceable battery.

Good tablets are also available for less than 200 euros

If you feel comfortable in Amazon's ecosystem, you get with that Fire HD 19 (2019) already for 205 euros (ad-free) a tablet with an overall grade of 2.2. Here, too, the examiners gave good marks for functions, display, battery and handling.

With the small tablets with an eight-inch display, Lenovo took overall victory with the Smart Tab M8. The Android tablet only costs around 140 euros, but also received the 2.2 rating. Mainly because he lacks the strength and the cameras are just average, Warentest finds the functionality only satisfactory. However, the display and handling are good and there was even a smooth 1 for great endurance.

. (tagsToTranslate) Technology (t) Stiftung Warentest (t) Tablet-PC (t) iPad (t) Apple (t) Samsung (t) Lenovo (t) Amazon