Best Tablets with a Keyboard
After the meteoric rise of tablets over the last few years, these devices have grown more powerful, faster, and larger by the day. The overall growth of the tablet has now evolved to the point where it can essentially be used as a laptop replacement. Bigger tablets mean more screen real estate to enjoy, but it also leads to a much larger device to hold, which makes the art of texting a difficult task, hence an accompanying keyboard becomes a necessity.
In this post, you’ll find the absolute best tablets with a keyboard so you can avoid finger cramps and the need to invest in two separate devices. As a side note, if portability isn’t an issue, you can also check out the best large-screen tablets to go along with a keyboard attachment. For now, let’s focus on portability and power with a beautiful screen.
Products at a Glance
How we picked the best tablets with a keyboard
To choose the best tablets with a keyboard, we considered the portability offered by the keyboard, so it acts as an enhancement more than a drawback. Thus, the first thing we consider is weight and size, then we check how well the keys on the keyboard respond to touch, and lastly, we check for the specific device’s overall price.
Features and considerations
One of the most important aspects behind tablets is their portability factor. These devices allow their users to go anywhere with little to almost no bags, as one can simply carry the tablet on their person without breaking a sweat. The additional keyboard must be an attachment that lives under that very same premise. When buying a tablet with a keyboard, the weight, size, and portability of the additional piece of equipment must be considered.
Best Tablets with a Keyboard
- Versatile
- The keys have a nice "thunk" sound
- Backlit keys
- Good size touchpad
- Amazing design
- A little heavy
- Pricey
Attaching a keyboard to a tablet is a metamorphic change. It will completely alter your tablet and your mindset toward a more productive realm, ensuring you get work done faster and more efficiently. In other words, the tablet stops being a tablet the moment a keyboard is attached and evolves into a laptop.
For that reason, the iPad Pro 12.9 takes the cake in this category. Even though it may not have the best screen or price on the market, it presents us with the most powerful processor currently available on a tablet. The M1 chip is fast, strong, and built to produce the best content.
Once you have a powerful processor like the M1, a keyboard attachment makes the device feel like a full laptop, or even better. The important part here is that the magic keyboard is unlike any other – it’s magical.
The magic keyboard attaches to the tablet without any cable or difficult joint. The keyboard was built in such a way that it allows the iPad to float. The iPad is magnetically stuck to the keyboard stand and you can tilt it forward or backward according to your needs. Thus its accompanying keyboard makes the iPad Pro 12.9 one of the best tablets with a keyboard because of its simple usability and portability.
- Lightweight
- Has the “FN” key
- Does not consume too much battery
- Very portable
- The touchpad could be improved
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra has the best screen on the market. The beautiful contrast of the super AMOLED display will submerge users in videos and varied experiences, as it is one of the best tablets for gaming after all. Even though we may be talking keyboards, this tablet’s amazing screen is definitely a feature worth mentioning.
When we try a keyboard with a tablet, it’s important to note the full experience with both working in tandem. The feel of the attachment must submerge its users in any form of workflow. That’s why this screen in addition to a durable and well-designed keyboard is the perfect combo.
The Samsung keyboard attaches to the tablet magnetically, much like the iPad Pro, and allows you to tilt the device in any direction to use it at your preferred angle. It has a solid set of keys with a “function” button that adds an extra tile of keys to the attachment. When compared with Apple’s magic keyboard, the Samsung iteration takes on a great advantage.
If you are looking for a durable, lightweight keyboard with an included case, this is the second-best option among the best tablets with a keyboard. It’s also not too pricey when compared with other devices, so it’s a solid choice when on a budget.
- Thin and portable
- Very nice price
- Trackpad has gesture options
- The keys are a little mushy
- Could be bigger
A Chromebook is a piece of technology made for enterprise workflows. It’s intended as a budget option to get day-to-day tasks done without spending an arm and a leg to do them. Out of all the many various Chrome OS tablets on the market, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet takes first place, and if you’re looking for more among the best Chrome OS tablets, we’ve got you covered.
When it comes to this device’s accompanying keyboard, Lenovo presents a respectable lightweight attachment. It can easily be attached to the tablet via magnets. The feeling of the keys is not the best, but it’s still as good as you’re going to get for the price. I would also prefer a larger keyboard, but that would mean a bigger screen and a heavier device overall, thus sacrificing the portability aspect, which is a characteristic that made me love this tablet in the first place. Despite the size, Lenovo manages to make a good key distribution so it’s not too hard to handle.
- Speedy i5 or i7 processor
- Lightweight and portable
- Beautiful display
- Works well with a stylus as well as
- Expensive
This is a very powerful tablet, which luckily is super compatible with the accompanying keyboard – the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard. It comes with the speedy i7 processor or slightly slower i5, both of which are good options for light to medium computing tasks such as photo editing or gaming.
The design is of a high quality and the tablet feels well made, with a sturdy aluminium case and two USB 4.0 ports. The screen has a fantastic 2880 x 1920 resolution and a mega 120 refresh rate, making it a great option for gamers on the go. You’d expect this from a tablet of the price, but it’s good to know your bases are covered.
It also runs with the Slim Pen 2, a lovely stylus which charges via the keyboard cover. All in all, this a well integrated tablet with a keyboard. But it is a little expensive.
And that’s the list of the absolute best tablets with a keyboard. Apple seems to always win in the space of tablets, as their devices are just designed to be far more robust and have the most features for all kinds of varied workflows. Lenovo and Microsoft prove to be on a similar level with their keyboard designs, but that M1 chip just takes the cake in almost every category.
Our Verdict
If you’re looking to use a tablet with a keyboard, then you’ll want something with the same levels of productivity exemplified by the laptop. The power and responsiveness underpinning Apple’s M1 processor are what makes the iPad Pro simply better than all the rest. It doesn’t need to have the best screen or portability to enchant us, as it already feels like a tablet that’s better than the majority of laptops on the market.