Key Takeaways
- Not just phones — upcoming tablets are exciting too, with Apple and TCL leading the charge in 2024.
- Rumored iPad Air going big, Pro with OLED, mini 7 in the works — Apple keeping its tablet lineup fresh and powerful.
- Galaxy Tab S10 and Surface Pro 10 are anticipated to make waves in the tablet market.
Generally, the upcoming smartphones tend to draw big headlines. We’re excited about the latest Samsung Galaxy S series phone and Apple iPhone models. Still, many tablets are on the horizon that are just as exciting as their smaller phone counterparts. Often, we don’t hear as many rumors about upcoming tablets outside the iPad, but we’re keeping our eyes peeled for any that do surface.
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We’ve dug through the deepest trenches of the internet rumor mill to find the five most exciting tablets coming in 2024. Whether you want an expensive, large slate or a budget-friendly option, there’s a likely a tablet set to release this year that’ll work for you.
1 Apple iPad Air 12.9-inch
The lightweight Air will get bigger
We’ve arrived in the year of the iPad Air. Apple has been heavily rumored to announce a larger 12.9-inch iPad Air, which should be a perfect option to bridge the gap between the high-end Air and the top-of-the-line iPad Pro. The Pro is currently the only model with a giant screen offered by Apple, so it would be wise for the company to provide a big tablet with a slightly lower price tag.
As far as what else to expect from a 12.9-inch iPad Air, it’s rumored to feature an LED-based liquid retina display and not feature any upgrades to the screen tech. There’s also a rumor that the camera housing will receive an update that includes a flash, a feature we don’t typically see on tablets.
2 Apple iPad Pro with OLED
What if the iPad Pro had an even more vibrant display?
The Apple iPad Pro is the company’s best and most expensive tablet, and it’s going to be better in 2024. Apple hasn’t announced anything officially as of this writing, but the rumors have suggested that the iPad Pro is going to get an OLED display this year, which should make the large tablet look even nicer. While there’s nothing wrong with the mini-LED screens offered on current iPad Pro devices, OLED should be a big step forward.
The iPad Pro is expected to come in 11 and 13-inch sizes, so we don’t think much will change in that regard. One place we do think things will change is the processor, which should bump from the speedy M2 chip to the even more powerful M3. We’re also heard that MagSafe wireless charging could be included, but we’ll have to wait until it gets closer to release to find out.
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3 Apple iPad mini 7
Don’t call it a comeback (even though it is)
Things have been quiet in the iPad mini realm, but if the rumors are to be believed, we could finally see the iPad mini 7 released in 2024. The iPad mini 6 launched at the end of 2021, so it’s been far too long since we’ve seen a new portable iPad hit the market.
Despite the long gap between iPad mini releases, the prevailing rumors suggest the iPad mini 7 won’t undergo a gigantic design shift over the last model. We haven’t heard much about the processor that’ll be in the iPad mini 7. The current model runs on the A15 Bionic chip, and we’re certain the new one will receive a sizable upgrade from that, but we’ll have to see if it gets an M-series chip or one of the A-series ones.
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4 TCL NxtPaper 14 Pro
Is it a tablet? Is an eReader? Yes
TCL is an underrated tablet maker — the company is more well known for its televisions. However, the NxtPaper 14 Pro is worth having on your radar, with the awesome way it blends eReader and tablet together. This one isn’t a rumor, as TCL announced its impending arrival. However, the company didn’t announce a price or release date for its latest slate, but we do know it’s coming to the US in “early 2024.”
The tablet can switch between a black-and-white reader mode that feels sort of like E Ink and the standard tablet mode with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The screen is a 14-inch 2.8K model that’s reported to look nice in both modes, but we’ll have to get our hands on it to see just how smooth it is. For what it’s worth, we didn’t love everything about the TCL NxtPaper 11, but hopefully, the firm has made smart improvements to this larger model.
5 Samsung Galaxy Tab S10
iPad quality from Samsung
Outside of Apple’s iPad devices, few tablets generate the same level of hype as Samsung’s. And of those Samsung devices, the S-series always creates the biggest headlines. The Galaxy Tab S9 received a perfect score from Pocket-lint, and we called it “one of the best Android tablets money can buy,” which makes us even more excited about what Samsung might bring to the table in 2024 with the Tab S10.
We’re expecting the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 to arrive in August, as that’s when the company typically announces the S-series tablets. The Tab S9 launched at $800 to start with, so we’d expect the new one to be at least that expensive. Outside of that, the release is still far away, so rumors have been quiet. We’ll keep this updated as more breaks, though. Regardless, if you’re not sold on the current Samsung tablets, this is one to keep on your radar.
6 Microsoft Surface Pro 10
It’s like a laptop and a tablet in one
The Microsoft Surface Pro 10 is a bit different from the other models featured here because it blurs the line between tablet and laptop. With the removable keyboard, though, it’s definitely a tablet when it wants to be. The current rumor suggests the latest Surface Pro will hit the market in late spring or early summer, so we’re looking at a few more months until we hear anything official. We’ve already heard that the design of the Pro 10 will be similar to that of its predecessor, which isn’t surprising.
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An 11-inch display is expected, which is smaller than the 13-inch display on the Pro 9. That definitely helps with portability but also decreases multitasking. That 11-inch screen is expected to feature a 120Hz refresh rate. Outside the smaller screen, rumors have been minimal, so we’re not sure what sort of processor to expect outside of it being something relatively high-end.
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