After an iPad shortage lasting more than 500 days, Apple is expected to unveil not one but two new tablets as soon as May 2024. The most exciting rumor on the airwaves is a massive upgrade to the iPad Pro, which is expected to receive a New version. M3 chip and OLED screen. The iPad Pro OLED will almost certainly be the best iPad the company has ever created, but it won’t be without some stiff competition on Android.
Apple is actually quite late to the OLED tablet party, with a wide range of Android AMOLED tablets already on the market. According to a recent report, 1.8 million OLED tablets were sold in 2023. Apple’s entry into the market is expected to cause that number to skyrocket, but there are well-established Android alternatives.
So, what are the leading Android tablets on the market that Apple’s iPad Pro OLED will compete with? Here’s a quick look at some of the best current examples on the market, with one very important caveat. Apple’s new iPad Pro is expected to be an OLED tablet, unlike current Android offerings, many of which are AMOLED. There is a difference between the two. AMOLED screens are brighter, but OLED offers better dimming and can give better response times. AMOLED also tends to win in terms of vibrancy and color accuracy, but these displays are often more expensive. So while we know it’s not a fair fight, Android AMOLED tablets are currently the closest thing on the market to an OLED iPad Pro competitor, let’s meet the competitors.
SamsungGalaxy Tab S9/S9 Ultra
Samsung offers a strong rival to the iPad Pro in the form of its Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series. We often joke that the Apple iPad line is pretty confusing, but the Galaxy Tab line isn’t far behind. Apple’s Korean rival offers three models in total, the S9, S9 Plus, and S9 Ultra, respectively. Each comes with Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, between 8GB and 16GB of memory, and an IP68 water resistance rating. They also support Samsung’s S Pen, the company’s Apple Pencil alternative. The S9, S9 Plus, and S9 Ultra come in two colors and measure 11 inches, 12.4 inches, and 14.6 inches, respectively.
This 2X AMOLED display offers HDR10+ content at 120Hz refresh rates. Beyond the screen (which we obviously can’t compare with the iPad yet), the Galaxy Tab S9 has a few advantages over the range of Apple tablets. It supports MicroSD external storage up to 1TB, has the aforementioned water resistance, and of course, comes with a more expansive 14.6-inch display.
Lenovo Tab Extreme
The Lenovo Tab Extreme is one of the few Android tablets on the market to feature a full-fledged OLED display. With a price tag of $949, it certainly matches the price of the iPad Pro. Our friends at Tom’s Guide I think it beats the current iPad Pro M2 in terms of color thanks to that “vivid” OLED display, which offers 3K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate on a large 14.5-inch screen. It also has 12GB of RAM, USB-C (3.2), microSD expansion, and two USB-C ports.
Just like the Samsung line, there’s also a Precision Pen 3 and a Lenovo Tab Extreme keyboard to scratch that peripheral itch. The former is included with every unit (something you definitely can’t boast about on the iPad), while the latter is a modest $150 add-on. The design may leave a little to be desired, but the overall package is certainly impressive. At 14.5 inches, it’s larger than the iPad Pro, but also heavier.
HUAWEI MatePad Pro 13.2 inch
HUAWEI is pretty well known for not being very creative when it comes to product design and marketing, even its flagship outlet looks like an Apple Store. Likewise, its MatePad Pro series is almost identical to the iPad line and even has basically the same name. For this reason, however, the MatePad Pro certainly looks incredibly stylish. It features a 13.2-inch OLED display with 2.8K resolution, 1,000 nits of peak brightness, and a 94% screen ratio thanks to incredibly thin bezels.
For the price, you also get 12GB of RAM, a 16MP front camera for video conferencing, and much more. According to Huawei’s website at the time of writing, buyers also get the HUAWEI Smart Magnetic Keyboard, HUAWEI M-Pencil, and an 88W charger. That’s almost $300 worth of accessories (even if you can’t buy one in the US for obvious reasons).
The OLED battlefield
As you can see, even a quick glance at some competing tablets on the market reveals that Apple has a fight on its hands with the OLED iPad Pro. However, as has always been the case with its mobile products, Apple will likely eschew raw specs and horsepower in favor of the coveted ecosystem and interoperability between Apple devices that many Android competitors can’t match. The M3 chip is no slouch in the M3 MacBook Air, so there’s no doubt that the iPad Pro will be powerful. Most iPad Pro customers will likely already own an iPad and are simply looking for an upgrade, or they will be Apple customers looking to purchase their first tablets. For those people, Android’s appeal probably isn’t that strong. But for hesitant potential buyers, the expansive screens, expanded storage, and cheaper accessories might prove too powerful to resist.
