7 Best Tablets for Excel of 2023

In this article, you can see the best tablets for excel in 2022 that we recommend to you.

When working on something important in excel, we sometimes need to be highly mobile because of our busy schedules. If we constantly move like that, it can be inconvenient for us to do our excel tasks by using our laptop. We may want to use something more compact like a tablet (a smartphone might be too small) instead to facilitate our work.

There are many tablet choices you can use if you want to work on your excel tasks by using this gadget. However, with their different specifications, some tablets can be a lot better at running excel than others. These kinds of tablets will surely help you much better too to get the best results from your excel tasks.

With that in mind, we want to make it easier for you if you want to buy a tablet for excel. We look at many tablets and come up with this list of the best tablets you can use for the purpose. If you need to buy a tablet to do your excel work with, this should help you determine your best choice!

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links from which we earn commission from qualifying purchases/actions at no additional cost for you. Learn more

Want to work faster and easier in Excel? Install and use Excel add-ins! Read this article to know the best Excel add-ins to use according to us!

What are the Best Tablets for Excel?

Without further ado, here are the tablets we recommend for you if you want to get your excel tasks done optimally.

1. Microsoft Surface Pro 9

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is one of the best options if you want to work in excel using a tablet.

As you need to connect to the internet to do the work, this tablet helps you with that. It has fast 5G connectivity to help you go online constantly even when there is no Wi-Fi. You shouldn’t have to worry about having to lose progress on your excel work when you use it.

The tablet is also comfortable to bring around because it has a sleek design. To help with your excel program performance, Microsoft also empowers the tablet with the powerful SQ3 processor. It should help you multitask well and support you when you finish some heavy excel workloads.

For its RAM and storage, the tablet has 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, excellent specs for a work tablet. As for the battery life, Microsoft Surface Pro 9 has an average of 19 hours of battery life. That is quite long for an all-day work in excel.

By looking at those specifications, you should have no regret when choosing Microsoft Surface Pro 9 as your tablet!

Key Features

• 13 inches, 2880 x 1920 pixels
• 3.7 pounds
• SQ3 processor
• 16GB RAM
• 512GB storage
• Up to 19 hours of battery life

2. Apple iPad Pro (M2)

Apple iPad Pro (M2) is the best choice if you prefer to work in excel with an iPad. To tell you the truth, with the Apple M2 processor, this tablet beats most of its Android or Windows contemporaries as well!

The new Apple M2 processor boosts the iPad Pro’s performance significantly when it comes to running applications, including excel. With this processor support, you should have no problem doing advanced excel tasks smoothly.

In terms of connectivity, it comes with Thunderbolt port connectivity, WiFi 6E, and 5G facilities. These specs ensure fast bandwidth for cable connectivity and fast uploads/downloads of excel files. You should be able to work in excel online with your colleagues optimally with the tablet support.

For our high mobility, the Apple iPad Pro with the M2 processor also has up to 10 hours of battery life. Although not as long as Microsoft Surface Pro 9, it should be long enough to work in excel constantly all day.

Overall, we think the Apple iPad Pro (M2) is great if you want to work on some excel tasks with your tablet.

Key Features

• 12.9 inches, 2732 x 2048 pixels
• 1.51 pounds
• Apple M2 processor
• 8GB RAM
• 512GB storage
• Up to 10 hours of battery life

3. Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ is a great tablet to do our excel work with. It can perform excellently without forgetting the dynamism of a tablet too.

Samsung equips this tablet with 8GB RAM and a Qualcomm processor. These specs should ensure a fast performance whenever you work in excel. You also can get up to 512GB of storage (albeit without a cellular internet connection) to save the things you need for your excel work.



One thing that can be important when you want a tablet for excel work is the battery capacity. As for this Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+, its battery can last up to 9.5 hours of constant use and it also has a fast-charging feature. Those things can help you not compromise your work mobility because of your battery performance.

The tablet is also lightweight with a weight of just 1.3 pounds. If you are a mobile worker, then this is a great tablet to carry while you move around.

Looking for a good tablet to help you work in excel? Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ can be the answer for you.

Key Features

• 12.4 inches, 2800 x 1752 pixels
• 1.3 pounds
• Qualcomm processor
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB storage
• Up to 9.5 hours of battery life

4. Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold is the next tablet we recommend to run your excel with. This is a unique foldable tablet that can help you to see several files and applications at once when you do your excel work.

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 tablet comes with an Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB RAM. They should make sure you can do a standard workload well and multitask when working on your excel tasks. It has up to 256GGB of storage to save your work-related files.

The design of this tablet makes it easier to carry around since it is foldable. You can also use it as a laptop easily when you need it since it has a detachable keyboard.

Looking at its overall specifications, this Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold tablet can become a good tablet choice also to support your excel work.

Key Features

• 13.3 inches, 2048 x 1536 pixels
• 5.4 pounds
• Intel Core i5 processor
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage
• Up to 8.5 hours of battery life

5. Apple iPad Air (M1)

Apple iPad Air (M1) is the next tablet that we recommend for you to do your excel work on. It is another tablet from Apple that can give you excellent performance for the applications you run with it.

The processor of this tablet is the Apple M1 processor. It is a fast processor that should be able to run the things you need for your excel work well. It also has a 5G cellular connection so you should be able to access excel online without any problem whenever you need to.

When you can connect to a Wi-Fi network, there is the Wi-Fi 6 technology ready to help you get optimum connection speed. Working online shouldn’t be much trouble with this tablet. You can also connect it to an external Magic Keyboard or Smart Keyboard Folio if you want to so you can use it as a laptop as well.

This iPad is also very light with only 1.02 pounds of weight. Carrying it around should be easy. You can slip it in your bag too as it only has 0.24 inches of thickness.

Looking for a good work tablet that can handle its excel-related tasks well? Consider this Apple iPad Air (M1) too.

Key Features

• 10.9 inches, 2360 x 1640 pixels
• 1.02 pounds
• Apple M1 processor
• 8GB RAM
• 256GB storage
• Up to 10 hours of battery life

6. Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is another great option if you look for a tablet that can support your excel work. It is a fast tablet in terms of performance and has a large viewport too for your work convenience.

Samsung equips this tablet with a Qualcomm processor and 8GB RAM. It is quite good specs to run excel and other work-related software on your tablet. It also offers 128GB of storage to store all of your excel related files.

One thing that quite differentiates Samsung Galaxy S8 Tab Ultra is its large screen. You should be able to view your spreadsheet parts much better if you do your excel work on this tablet. Looking at multiple files and applications should also be easy enough.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra has a respectable battery life for a tablet, with up to around 9 hours of usage. It should be enough for all-day excel work if you don’t push it too much.

Key Features

• 14.6 inches, 2960 x 1848 pixels
• 2.31 pounds
• Qualcomm processor
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB storage
• Up to 9 hours of battery life

7. Microsoft Surface Go 3

Microsoft Surface Go 3 is the last tablet on our recommendation list. It is a sleek tablet that should also be good if you want to use it for your excel work.

This tablet has an Intel Pentium processor and an 8GB RAM capacity. It should be enough to run standard excel tasks smoothly. There is a USB-C port should you need to connect it to an external device/storage

The tablet is easier to carry around than Surface Pro X, with its 10.51-inch screen and 1.18 pounds weight. It also offers 11 hours of battery life, which should be enough to do your excel work on high mobility.

If you look for a simple yet capable tablet to do your excel works with, consider this Microsoft Surface Go 3!

Key Features

• 10.51 inches, 1920 x 1280 pixels
• 1.18 pounds
• Intel Pentium
• 8GB RAM
• 128GB storage
• Up to 11 hours of battery life

Can You Use Excel on a Tablet?

Yes, you can. However, you need an active Microsoft 365 subscription to do that if your tablet size is 10.1 inches or larger.

The alternative is to use excel in Office on the web. However, it has limited features and you cannot work offline if you use it.

What are the Things to Consider When Buying Tablets for Excel?

If you have read the reviews for the tablets we recommend above, you might have already noticed some things we consider.

As we want tablets that can run excel well, we focus on performance-related specifications of them. Thus, we mainly look at the processor and the RAM specifications of the tablets. They should ensure that excel can perform fast and we can multitask with them without a problem.



As we use our tablet to work on mobile, it should also be lightweight and has long battery life. It is better too if it has large storage so we can save all of our excel works in it.

What are the Minimum System Requirements to Run Excel on a Tablet?

For Windows OS tablets, you should have Windows 10 or 11 running on your tablet to use excel from Microsoft 365 optimally.

For Android OS tablets, you should have one of the last major four versions of Android running on your tablet. You should also have an ARM-based or Intel x86 processor.

For iPad, you should have one of the two most recent versions of iPadOS running on your iPad.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How Do I Install Excel on My Tablet?

If you haven’t, then you can subscribe to Microsoft 365 first by visiting the Microsoft website here.

After you have subscribed, you can install the Office apps from your tablet apps store. After that, just open the app and sign in with your Microsoft 365 account.

How Much Does Installing Excel on a Tablet Cost?

It is free to install excel on a tablet. However, to use it on a 10.1-inch or larger tablet, you need to pay for the Microsoft 365 subscription.

You can check its current subscription price in the Microsoft website link that we gave previously.

What are the Other Spreadsheet Apps We Can Use on a Tablet Besides Excel?

Here are some alternative spreadsheet apps you can use on your tablet besides excel:

• Google Spreadsheet: an online-based spreadsheet app from Google you can use in an iPad, Android, or Windows tablet. One of the most famous alternatives to excel currently
• Apple Numbers: A spreadsheet app that Apple made which you can exclusively use on iPad. You can access Numbers files you save in the cloud on other iOS devices too
• WPS Spreadsheet: a part of the WPS Office software package which is compatible with Microsoft Excel. It has a free version and a subscription version
• Smartsheet: A spreadsheet app that primarily aims to improve work collaboration and management. It can integrate data from various online sources
• Zoho Sheet: Another online spreadsheet app you can use on your tablet. Create a spreadsheet together with your team in it while also interacting with them

How to Maintain the Tablet We Primarily Use for Excel?

Here are some tips to follow when it comes to taking care of the tablet you use for excel.

• Don’t put things on your tablet. Putting something with weight on your tablet can damage its screen and internal circuit over time. If you want to keep your tablet in a healthy state, you should avoid doing that
• Don’t leave it in extreme temperatures. Things like direct sunlight or extreme cold can make your tablet components break. Always try to put your tablet in a normal-temperature environment
• Don’t let the battery runs until it is empty. Charging your tablet frequently only when its battery reaches 0% can reduce your battery capacity. Try to maintain your tablet battery within its optimal state, which is between 20% and 80%
• Carry it in a protective case. Putting your tablet in a rugged place while bringing it around can make it bump frequently. Use a protective case that complements your tablet to make it much safer to bring around
• Use the tablet’s original stylus if you use the tool. If you use a pen stylus while working on your tablet, use the one that comes with your tablet. If you use another tablet’s pen stylus, it may not complement your tablet and scratch its screen as a result

Do those points to maintain the good condition of your tablet!

Wrap Up

As a person who keeps moving, it can sometimes be inconvenient for us to do our excel tasks on our laptops. We need something more portable and smaller and that is when a tablet comes in.

Not all tablets can run excel optimally. Therefore, you need to get a tablet that can do that for you if you often work in excel. With that in mind, we have created this list of the best tablets you can use to do your excel tasks.

Here are all the tablets that we include in our list.

• Microsoft Surface Pro 9
• Apple iPad Pro (M2)
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+
• Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold
• Apple iPad Air (M1)
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
• Microsoft Surface Go 3

We hope one of these tablets can support you to work optimally in excel! Remember, though, that you need to be an active Microsoft 365 subscriber to use excel on your tablet device!

Additional Note

As you can use most tablets with a keyboard now, you probably don’t need to buy a stand-alone laptop anymore! Just buy a keyboard that complements your tablet so you can use it as your laptop too.



Related articles/tutorials that may interest you: