Behind the Scenes
Large-Tablet.com exists because of a ZIP file (Yeah, a ZIP file).
In 2023, I spent over $1,000 on an iPad. When I sat down to do actual work, I discovered it couldn’t open a ZIP archive without a workaround. The file just sat there. That was the moment I stopped treating spec sheets as the truth and started testing large tablets the way people actually use them: as the machine that’s supposed to replace your laptop, at least some of the time.
Between 2021 and 2023, I worked as an independent mobile device consultant. My job was repairing, troubleshooting, configuring and evaluating Android and Apple devices for businesses and consumers. That experience, combined with years of hands-on testing, shapes the methodology I use on Large-Tablet.com today.
Five years and more than 50 devices later, Large-Tablet.com came into existence.
Who’s behind it?
One person: me, Dan Mercer
I test the devices, take the photos, run the benchmarks, write the verdicts, and answer the emails. I don’t use AI to write reviews, test devices, or form opinions, the way I see so many sites doing now. Every measurement, every photo, every verdict, and every published word is mine, hand-edited, and I stand behind all of it.
Read my full bio and testing background →
What Large-Tablet.com covers
Large tablets; 12 inches and up. Sometimes the keyboards, styluses, and accessories that decide whether they’re a laptop replacement or an expensive Netflix screen.
Here’s what that buys you: every device on this site goes through the same hands, the same two weeks, and the same test conditions. So when I say the Surface Pro 11’s LCD can’t match the iPad Pro’s tandem-OLED contrast, it’s because I put them side by side in the same dim room, not because one spec sheet says OLED and the other doesn’t.
Comparisons here are actually comparisons.
How the testing works?
Every tablet reviewed here becomes my primary device for a minimum of two weeks. Not a weekend hands-on. Not a benchmark session. My only computer, carried to cafés, docked to a 4K monitor, and used on flights. I do this until its real weaknesses surface, and they always do, usually around day ten.
Benchmarks (Geekbench 6, 3DMark Wild Life Extreme) run under identical conditions every time: 50% brightness, Wi-Fi 6E, 22°C room. Battery tests run separately at a calibrated 200 nits. Then every device runs my laptop-replacement gauntlet. This includes the ZIP-file test that started this site. Full details, including the running list of every device tested and where each unit came from, are on the How I Test page. I publish the numbers I measure, not the numbers manufacturers claim. When Apple says 10 hours and I measure about 6 under sustained creative work, you get both figures and a clear label on which is which.
The Truths You Deserve
How the site makes money?
Large-Tablet.com is reader-supported. If you buy through links on this site, I may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. Commissions never decide verdicts. The proof is in my reviews, every single word is honest, sometimes bitter, but true.
The full policy, including how review units are handled, is in the Ethics & Affiliate Policy.
Where the devices come from?
Every review states, up front, whether the unit was purchased at retail, provided as a manufacturer review loaner (and returned), or borrowed. Manufacturers never see reviews before publication and have zero input on scores. No exceptions, no “early previews,” no sponsored verdicts.
When we get it wrong
It happens. Specs change, prices move, software updates flip conclusions. Halfway through 2026, both Apple and Samsung raised the launch prices of tablets in my main guide — the figures I’d published were suddenly a year out of date, and I corrected them in place with a dated note. Errors are corrected visibly, never silently. Report one directly: dan@large-tablet.com.