Best 8 inch Tablets in the UK

From a price perspective, the Huawei MediaPad M5 stacks up about average compared to most 8-inch tablets. Yet, the difference between this gadget and its peers is, at times, staggering. The screen's pretty great and the hardware is nothing to sneeze at, we'll get to these details. Before that though, what separates the product first and foremost is audio, which's surprising, no doubt about that.

Normally, tablets come adopting second-rate sound systems but "normally" does not apply here. Here, the device's presenting a quad-speaker system made in collaboration with Harman Kardon®. This system can blast precise, fine-tuned concert hall audio effects, produce more bass, and very little distortion. The bass output has an excellent impact (by tablet standards) and decent extension. Between all these speakers, the tablet produces rich soundscapes, delivering multi-layered, penetrating 3D surround sound.

Now, this is no drawing tablet, we will not be claiming otherwise. Having said that, the gadget can easily double as one at times. Its touchscreen is sensitive and responsive. Depending on the package, you'll receive the company's stylus boasting 2048-layer pressure sensitivity (or can purchase one separately), using which you'll be able to jot down notes, write memos, even doodle basic sketches.

The Galaxy Tab A can be called a lite version of a Samsung tablet without any mind-blowing bells and whistles but with great performance and great build quality, which the company’s products are known for.

First things first, let’s take a look at what’s under the hood of this 8-inch tablet. The processor the gadget comes equipped with is one of the most popular quad-core mobile CPUs from Qualcomm - an SDM 429 that has a base clock rate of 2.0 GHz. We didn’t expect any miracles here, but the processor can surely deliver in terms of performance, especially if you usually run multiple applications in the background or in a split-screen mode.

Although the onboard memory is not something to write home about, 32 GB should be more than enough for installing the most essential applications alongside your favourite music tracks and a couple of movies on top. But it doesn’t end there, the internal storage can be expanded up to 512 GB without breaking a sweat using a microSD card at any given time.

Moving on, owing to the minimised bezel, you almost don’t notice the frame of the tablet, which makes browsing the internet, watching your favourite TV shows, movies, and playing games without any distractions.

The VANKYO MatrixPad S8 costs practically nothing. At this moment, the tablet comes at less than 80 quid, which's ridiculous considering everything that the gadget is offering. Yes, keeping the price this low, the product does not come without its weak points, you cannot avoid those without raising the price. But, can you really complain that the main camera caps at 5 megapixels and the front-facing one stops at 2? Not really, not without understanding that you're paying pennies here. Sure, the battery life is not great, maxing at 8 hours but, as it is always the case with tablets, you'll seldom receive the full 8 hours. Again though, relative to what you're coughing up here, the model's battery life is actually almost commendable.

Dropping the whole "but look at the price first" schtick, tablets start with the hardware inside them, not unlike most computers (technically speaking, they're still computers). Looking inside, you'll see the Spreadtrum SC7731 (1.3 GHz quad-core) processing unit and the 2 GB RAM setup. Needless to say, the CPU is not the greatest processor we've seen yet but, between its quad-core setup and the aforementioned 2 GB RAM module, the processing unit enables decent integration, quick app launches, smooth playback, and responsive, lag-free performance.

From the storage space perspective, the tablet is not lagging behind its more expensive competition, offering no less than 32 GB (excluding what the Android 9.0 eats up) and the obligatory micro SD slot that lets you expand its storage facilities even further. Plus, there's no pre-installed bloatware clogging its memory, nothing but the essentials.

The Acer Iconia One is not iconic quite yet but we can see the line getting there. As the people behind the product have put it, this product packs all the stuff you require to get into the tablet game, all whilst keeping the price modest. Still, the gadget has its flaws, including a few significant ones.

First things first, you're offered only 1 GB RAM, which's not great. With so little RAM, the tablet cannot handle running multiple apps simultaneously, even the least system-intensive ones. Opening more than two will produce noticeable lags, slowing the gadget down. The upside is the speedy MediaTek MT8163 (1.3 GHz quad-core) processing unit, packing enough computing muscle to make sure the device can handle even the most recent, hottest games.

Equipping the tablet with an above-average CPU makes sense but adding no more than 16 GB storage space to that mix makes a little less sense. Now, this is not the biggest issue since the manufacturers did not forget to include a micro SD slot, so you can add as much as 128 GB and store as many songs, podcasts, pictures, and videos as you want.

What's a little odd is that the tablet's shipped with an outdated Android 5.1 operating system, which is an easily fixable issue since you can always update the system without paying a dime but why the gadget is not shipped with an updated one is beyond us.

The Teclast P80X is an affordable tablet, even more affordable than most models within the budget class. But because the name behind the product has no brand recognition, the tablet manages to keep the price low yet the specs pretty high.

Generally speaking, budget 8-inch tablets are not offering anything more impressive than one quad-core CPU capping at around 1.3 GHz. Here, we have an opposite approach, with the gadget flexing its speedy Unisoc SC9863A (1.6 GHz quad-core + 1.2 GHz quad-core) processing unit. When you also take into account the 2 GB RAM setup, there's very little this tablet won't let you do, from managing large databases and complex spreadsheets to small-time scientific modelling and different compression/decompression tasks. Even the greediest, heaviest, most gluttonous apps will not be able to slow down this gadget. You'll be running multiple system-intensive applications at the same time without experiencing any discomfort.

As always, rounding the CPU and RAM up is the model's storage capacity, not necessarily contributing to its performance but, without available storage space, there's no performance, so its importance cannot be underestimated too, even though the amount needs are subjective. From the get-go, the device offers 32 GB, which is nothing to scoff at since most budget tablets are usually stopping at 16. Plus, not unlike its peers, this tablet comes fitted with a micro SD slot that accepts SD cards up to 128 GB, so you can expand the storage space quite a lot.