How to Get More for Your Money When Shopping for Tech Products

Price Range: $65 to $1,500

Why are some models so pricey?
Top-of-the-line tablets have beautiful, high-resolution displays with silky smooth scrolling—for reading e-books, playing games, and viewing movies and video clips. They feature higher-quality cameras, lots of horsepower for tasks such as photo editing, and extra storage space (128 to 256 gigabytes) for music, games, and movies. Many have batteries designed to give you many hours per charge (sometimes more than 20 hours of video playback).

Is it worth paying more?
People who want a handheld screen with the power of a laptop—as in frequent travelers, serious gamers, and pop culture fans with extensive media collections—may enjoy the benefits of a premium model. If you just want a tablet for reading books, watching YouTube clips, and staying on top of the news, you don’t need all that extra performance, but you should still look for one with a large, high-quality screen (a resolution of 2360×1640 pixels or higher) if you love to watch movies or TV on your tablet. If you mostly read emails, the news, and e-books, or you prefer to start your day with a game of Wordle, there’s no need to spend a lot. A $95 Amazon Fire tablet can serve you just as well as Apple’s high-end iPad Pro. In other words, there’s a good choice for you at every price level.