Amazon continues to make the best inexpensive tablets for media consumption. The Fire HD 8 is the middle of the lineup, hitting a sweet spot for price and performance. The 2022 model boasts a thinner and lighter design along with a faster processor and an hour more battery life (13 hours versus 12) than its predecessor. It’s definitely a good low-cost option for streaming video, reading ebooks and web browsing, but we still recommend waiting to pick it up when it’s discounted, which Amazon regularly does, including right now at $40 off. We also recommend spending an additional $20 for the Plus version, which adds more RAM (3GB instead of 2GB) and wireless charging.

Read our Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus review.

Amazon’s Fire HD 10 is the biggest and most powerful tablet that the company offers. It features a 10-inch screen that’s not only bigger than the 8-inch screen of the Fire HD 8 but also brighter. The Fire HD 10 comes packed with benefits for Prime subscribers, making it easy for members to stream and download movies, TV shows and games. The Fire tablets don’t use a pure version of Android. Instead, they use Amazon’s Android-based Fire operating system, pulling apps from the Amazon App Store. You can still get apps from Google Play, even though you’ll have to install the store yourself — meaning gaming enthusiasts have access to all of their favorite mobile games for an excellent gaming tablet experience. The Fire HD 10 starts at $150 but is currently selling for only $120.

Read our Amazon Fire HD 10 review.

If you want the latest Microsoft tablet, the Surface Pro 9 is it. It offers 12th-gen Intel Core processors, 5G support and some new colors. To get this $200 discount, however, you’ll need to be OK with the standard black graphite color. And also be OK with connecting to the Internet via Wi-Fi; this model doesn’t feature 5G cellular. What it does offer is a modern 12th-gen Core i7 CPU, an ample 16GB of RAM and a relatively roomy 256GB SSD. The 13-inch display offers a crisp 2,880×1,920-pixel resolution. One last note: You’ll need to purchase the requisite keyboard cover separately, unless you have one from an older Surface Pro 8 or Pro X — those are compatible with the new Surface Pro 9.

Read our Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review.

The Surface Pro 8 was supplanted by the Surface Pro 9 at the top of Microsoft’s tablet lineup last fall, but the new model offers only a modest upgrade — newer Intel CPUs, a slightly faster type of RAM, 5G support, and some new color options. When you can find a Surface Pro 8 at a sizable discount, it makes a compelling cost-saving alternative to the Surface Pro 9. This Surface Pro 8 features a high-resolution 13-inch display powered by an 11th-gen Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The list price for this model is $1,200, but the price has dropped by more than $400 at Amazon. You can put a fraction of those savings toward a snap-on keyboard cover, which is not included in the price of this sale model.

Read our Microsoft Surface Pro 8 review.