Purpose: This paper aims to present the design of a compact quad-band coplanar-fed monopole antenna for tablet computer applications. Design/methodology/approach: The antenna has the smallest size of 26 × 14 mm and supports GSM, Wi-Fi, WIMAX and Bluetooth. The proposed antenna consists of a coplanar fed main radiator, c-shaped stubs and parasitic meandered stub. The inverted c-shaped stubs enhance the bandwidth of upper frequencies. The resonance at 2.4 GHz is individually controlled by the coupled meandered stub. Findings: The percentage bandwidth in the four operating bands are 8.7/4.12/27.8/13.3%. Furthermore, the antenna is integrated with the mock-up ground plane and specific absorption rate (SAR) calculations are performed. The estimated SAR is less than 1.6 W/kg for a 1 g body tissue. The gain and efficiency of the antenna are 3.56/4.37/4.97/6 dBi and 82.4/85/97.1/89.3%, respectively. The measured impedance and radiation characteristics of the fabricated prototype are in good correlation with the simulated results. Originality/value: In the proposed work, vias and lumped elements are not used for lower band excitation, and most of the wireless applications in the tablet computers have been covered. Further, the effect of antenna with different orientation has been tested for the estimation of SAR. © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.