4 of the best tablets for taking notes

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Taking notes by hand has always been one of the best ways to retain information while you study or work, and for those who don’t want a laptop, tablets offer a good option. Without giving up the pen, these devices allow you to write down everything that is important during your studies or a meeting. In fact, the market offers a wide variety of devices of this type, but finding the right one is a little more complex.

The iPad is undoubtedly the best-known choice and favorite of many users, but it is not the only one either. There are several great options for those who don’t want to invest in that Apple device or prefer Android. So whether you want a lighter device or a screen that feels more like writing on paper, the best e-ink tablets have you covered.

This is why we have selected the best note-taking tablets taking into account different user profiles and budgets. The main goal is to choose devices that provide good user experience and versatility to everyone who needs one device for everything. In addition to the performance and quality of the pen, we considered value for money, battery life, and the real-world experience of people who use them daily.

Apple products are often a safe choice for many users, and the iPad Air M4 is ideal for anyone who wants a tablet focused on notes. It’s not the most affordable device in the company’s $559 lineup, but it delivers what really matters for thorough note-taking. You get a good quality screen, high performance, Apple Pencil Pro support, and a number of essential iPad apps like GoodNotes, Notability, and more.

The other great thing about the iPad Air M4 is that it’s suitable for more than just reading and taking notes. The M4 chip allows productivity and multitasking apps to run smoothly, so you can take notes while multiple apps are open at the same time. If you prefer a larger screen, the 13-inch version of this model is a great choice, but it costs $749, while the 11-inch version is more portable to carry in a backpack. Plus, you can enjoy seamless integration with your iPhone or Mac thanks to Apple’s refined ecosystem.

However, the iPad Air M4 doesn’t have the 120Hz ProMotion display, which is an iPad Pro-exclusive feature and can make writing feel slightly slow for those who are used to higher refresh rate displays. If you choose to purchase the Apple Pencil, you’ll also have to pay a significant premium. Still, this model is one of the best options for anyone who wants good performance and a premium experience.

If you’re looking for a sturdy tablet for taking notes, prefer to use the Android ecosystem, or just don’t want to pay the Apple tax for an iPad, then the $420 Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is the right choice. The good thing is that you don’t need to spend more money on a stylus, because this model already has an S Pen in the box.

For everyday use, the Tab S9 FE performs well. It comes free with Samsung Notes and integrates with the brand’s ecosystem, while also offering good features for anyone who wants to study. You can take handwritten notes, annotate PDFs, organize notebooks, or even combine text with images. Plus, the screen is 10.9 inches, giving you plenty of room to write, and the 90Hz refresh rate makes navigation smoother.

However, while this doesn’t detract from the primary use of Notes, the Samsung Tab S9 FE does have some limitations in the box. It has an LCD screen and an Exynos 1380 which places it below the premium models in terms of performance and visual quality. Still, if your goal is just to write notes and read, this is an older tablet that’s still worth buying.

For those who want to have a device just for notes and reading, the Amazon Kindle Scribe is a tool focused precisely on that. It also has one of the best screens for this purpose, as the e-ink technology works well for anyone who wants to read documents or books. Additionally, it has an anti-reflective coating that reduces eye fatigue during long sessions. Thus, it offers an experience closer to using paper than other options.

Plus, it already comes with a stylus included in the box, so you don’t need to pay extra to get this product, which is rare on many tablets. A Kindle Scribe’s battery also stands out, with enough power to last for days without recharging. So if you already buy books through Amazon’s ecosystem, the Scribe available for $500 becomes a well-integrated extension of what you already own digitally.

One problem, however, is that when you buy a Kindle Scribe, you don’t get the same versatility as a tablet. These Amazon-made devices focus on reading and notes, so you won’t have functions beyond that. You can’t download other apps that you’d normally find on an iPad or Galaxy Tab, for example. That’s why when you want something beyond reading, the Scribe isn’t the best option.

The Onyx Boox Note Air5 C doesn’t just aim to be a simple e-reader or a good Android tablet, but rather a mix of both. As such, it has a color e-ink display and full compatibility with Android, so you can download apps like OneNote, Obsidian and Google Drive directly from the Play Store. If you have a set workflow on other platforms, you don’t need to change your routine like you do when purchasing a Kindle Scribe.

The 10.3-inch screen also makes complicated tasks easier. Reviewing PDFs, highlighting extracts in different colors and writing with the stylus are more comfortable than on smaller e-readers. Students and researchers who spend hours reading long documents will feel this difference on a daily basis.

However, Android apps are rarely optimized for e-ink displays, so some slowdowns and inconsistencies are part of the experience. The screen’s colors are also much lower than those of an LCD or OLED screen, and they help more with visual organization than actual images. And the $530 price targets users who need that versatility of app access and a decent screen for reading.

When selecting the best tablets for this list, we paid special attention to each model’s display quality, pen support, and battery life, as these are all important factors for taking notes over long periods of time. We also took into account the user experience, including daily reviews and tests. Price was also an important factor since the Galaxy Tab S10 is a newer model, but it is also more expensive than the Galaxy Tab S9 FE, which still works well for note-taking and is therefore a more cost-effective option.

We also chose models for different user profiles, because the needs are very different. So, for those who want to read and take notes, there are simpler devices like the Kindle Scribe that give users a paper-like experience, but not the versatility of a regular tablet. If you want to multitask and have access to apps, iPads and Android tablets are more complete solutions, even at a higher cost.