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When purchasing a tablet, you’ll typically consider its primary use case (entertainment, drawing, work, etc.), price point, display size, operating system, and more.
At ZDNET, we considered all of these factors when choosing the best tablets you can buy, but we also tested one key factor that can really make or break your tablet experience: battery life.
Also: Cheapest Tablets
We ran nine tablets in our lab in Kentucky, evaluating each tablet’s battery life under various settings. That was one tablet that was better than the rest in terms of battery life m5 ipad proIt received ZDNET’s first official Lab Awards badge.
Other tablets that impressed us in our testing include Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 UltraThe Base-model iPadand this google pixel tabletPerformance data is shown below.
How we tested the tablet
In our Louisville-based lab, we tested each tablet using an NI USB-6001 DAQ, eight auxiliary inputs with adapters, and a dedicated PC with in-house LabVIEW software, which analyzed the audio output as a voltage signal.
We tested each tablet’s battery life a total of 12 times: three times with maximum brightness/audio, three times with minimum brightness/audio, three times with maximum brightness/audio on Airplane Mode, and three times with Airplane Mode at minimum brightness/audio.
Also: How I turned my regular tablet into a full-fledged e-reader (be it iPad or Android)
We chose to measure screen brightness during video playback as the main parameter for testing because it is one of the most influential settings on the device when it comes to battery life. We also tested by turning networking/Bluetooth on/off to measure the additional battery consumption caused by regular communication through these connections.
However, since the test video was downloaded onto the devices under test, it had only a slight impact on the results. Testing battery drain during a stream with an active, usable Internet connection would be a logical next step in future testing.
The tablet was tested at maximum volume for audio and video as well as maximum/minimum brightness. The following tablets were tested:
Test 1: Average battery life at maximum brightness
Test 2: Average battery life at minimum brightness
During our tests, the only app running on each device was VLC media player. It was chosen due to its availability on all operating systems, relative name recognition with the general public, and compatibility with the level of setting control implemented by the laboratory team.
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Running in the background allowed the team to confirm that app and device settings were set to standardized volume, brightness, and video repetition.
It is important to note that the video file used to test all devices was downloaded to each device, not streamed from the Internet, to ensure that the test does not fail due to interruptions in Internet service.
Result
As you can see from our data visualization (Figure 1) The M5 iPad Pro has the best battery lifeWith a little over 15 hours at maximum brightness before needing to charge, it solidified its rank as the best tablet for power users or as a laptop replacement.
The latest iPad Pro model is not only the best in standby power management, but is obviously the best choice for those who travel and require high-brightness use.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra had the second-best battery life at about 11.5 hours, and the Amazon Fire Max 11 had the third-best battery life at just over eight hours.
While the iPad Pro earned high marks, the other two iPads we tested gave relatively low scores for battery life at maximum brightness: five hours and 40 minutes for the base-model iPad and five hours and 21 minutes for the iPad Air.
The tablet that excelled the most in our minimum brightness test (Figure 2) was the OnePlus Pad 3, which had a surprising 40 hours of battery life. The OnePlus Pad 3 also received a ZDNET Editor’s Choice Award due to its exceptional battery.
Too: The best iPads you can buy
In particular, your experience with these tablet models may differ from our lab-tested results, depending on how you use your tablet and what applications are running in the background. But as a general baseline, our testing provides an expert analysis of how long these pills can last and for what use cases they may be best suited.
Based on hands-on experiences, the 11th generation iPad is our pick as the best tablet for most people. It has an accessible price, enough storage and RAM to handle everyday tasks, and a lightweight design that’s perfect for working or streaming on the go.
However, we’ve recognized other top tablets in our best tablets roundup, including the OnePlus Pad 3 as the best Android tablet for entertainment, the Microsoft Surface Pro as the best Windows tablet, and the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet as the best tablet for kids.
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It depends on what you want to use your tablet or laptop for. Digital artists prefer tablets because they are easier to draw on with a stylus. Tablets are also great for photo editing and movie streaming, especially if you get a tablet with a large enough screen.
Also: This handheld e-reader has effectively replaced my Kindle, and I can’t argue with the price.
But if you want to do things like creating spreadsheets, typing in a word processing program, or doing intensive 3D animation or modeling, you’re better off with a laptop.
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