4 of the best 11-inch Android tablets - Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Samsung take the fight to Apple's door with midrange powerhouses

Xiaomi takes the fight to Samsung and Apple with the 11-inch Xiaomi Pad 6 that comes in at a little more than half the price of the Galaxy Tab S9. Instead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Xiaomi has equipped the Pad 6 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC, which is slower, although most are unlikely to notice.

A Galaxy-killer would be nothing without a pressure sensitive stylus, though, and Xiaomi's Smart Pen 2 delivers an accurate drawing and note-taking experience with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity. Xiaomi also takes things a step further than Samsung with a 144-Hz display that has support for the DCI-P3 colour space and variable refresh rate. A sizeable 8840 mAh battery also makes the Xiaomi Pad 6 easy to live with.

The Pad 6's biggest weaknesses are, by far, its scant 6 GB of RAM and Xiaomi's contentious MIUI software, which also lacks a built-in desktop mode. That said, the lack of a dedicated desktop mode might not be so bad, since MIUI lets you tile up to four separate windows in split-screen mode.

The Pad 6 is among the best 11-inch tablets around for under US$400, but those looking for a laptop replacement might want to look elsewhere. 

Instead of the standard Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, OnePlus has equipped its 11.6-inch Pad with a MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SoC. It also boasts the largest battery capacity in this round-up, at 9510 mAh. That battery can also be topped up at 67 W thanks to SUPERVOOC charging capability.

The OnePlus Pad has an impressive display, despite being an IPS LCD panel, with variable refresh rate options of 60, 90, 120, and 144 Hz, depending on the application — caveat emptor, most apps are not able to use the full 144 Hz. It delivers support for 10-bit colour and HDR10+ and has a 500-nit maximum brightness and 296 PPI pixel density.

The Pad also has support for a stylus that has a claimed 2-ms latency, 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and 60 degrees of tilt detection. Much like the Apple iPad, though, the OnePlus Stylo will cost an extra US$99.99 as a separate accessory. Even with the added US$99.99, the OnePlus Pad only costs just under US$580.

Coming in at just US$339.99, the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 is by far the cheapest tablet on this list, and it doesn't fall too far behind the rest in terms of specifications or convenience, despite its price. The Lenovo Tab P11 Pro's first compromise comes from its mid-range MediaTek Kompanio 1300T SoC, which acquits itself at about the same level as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G.

The firmly mid-range SoC is accompanied by 4-8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and up to 128 GB of storage that can be augmented with a microSD card. Like the other tablets on this list, the Lenovo P11 Pro Gen 2 is compatible with a stylus. Lenovo pitches the Precision Pen 3 as the ideal drawing and note-taking accessory for the Tab P11 Pro, but artists beware, as reports of untenable pen jitter are commonplace.

In terms of liveability, the Tab P11 Pro has a 120 Hz OLED display with a peak brightness of 600 nits and HDR10+ support. Its battery is smaller than many of the other options on this round-up, though, at just 8,200 mAh, but it should still last fairly long under moderate use, given its low-power chipset.

If you're just taking notes for school, getting some work done on the train, or want something to help fill the gap between your computer and smartphone, the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 is a solid choice at a very affordable price. Just don't expect it to be capable of extreme multitasking or high-fidelity gaming at high frame rates.

Buy the Lenovo Tab P11 Pro Gen 2 from Lenovo.

Parka Blogs, Lenovo (1, 2), Xiaomi, Samsung, GSMArena, OnePlus