Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra review: My new ultimate Android tablet

introduction

Android fans may be spoiled for choice when it comes to top-of-the-line tablets, but that doesn’t mean Samsung is resting on its laurels. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is Google’s iPad Pro replacement with a larger screen and performance that blows away similarly sized laptops. It just has a huge 14.6-inch display and no half-assed features. But that was also true of last year’s model.

This latest version shakes things up with the same anti-reflective screen wizardry as the Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone, dual app assistance incorporating Galaxy AI, and a MediaTek CPU. This is the first time Samsung has harnessed the power of Dimensity rather than Qualcomm chips or one of its in-house Exynos efforts.

So while it’s not lacking in power, its performance comes at a price. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is priced at a respectable £1299, but if you opt for the 5G-ready headliner with 1TB of storage, it’s over £1700. That’s before purchasing the optional keyboard cover. But after spending a week glued to that gorgeous AMOLED screen, I can’t help but love how OTT it is.

Design and construction: great slate

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra gives a convincing impression of its predecessor. It’s a little lighter and a little thinner, but you’ll have to pay close attention to distinguish it from the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. Both are simply giant plates of glass and aluminum, available in Moonstone Gray or Platinum Silver.

It’s still quite heavy, so you don’t want to use it with one hand, even for reading, but it’s still just 5.4mm, thinner than virtually any smartphone. However, it doesn’t feel flimsy at all, and it’s IP68 resistant so it can withstand even a decent amount of water submersion. However, all you need is a sink or toilet bowl large enough to drop into. As before, the included S Pen’s party trick is writing underwater. Although I can’t think of when I would actually need to do that. I didn’t feel like knocking bills out of a hotel pool on a recent trip, but some may disagree.

The stylus magnetically docks and charges next to the twin camera lenses at the rear. Samsung’s inclusion of the Apple Pencil in the box is very welcome compared to the extra money Apple is asking for the Apple Pencil.

Pogo pins on the bottom edge of the tablet work well with Samsung’s official Book Cover keyboard, with or without a trackpad. The former costs an eye-watering £339, but will come with your tablet if you buy it before the end of 2024. It doesn’t float as gracefully as Apple’s official iPad Magic Keyboard. Neither do I. I think it’s just as comfortable to type. There’s a fair amount of key travel, and the keys are all full-sized, which I didn’t expect given the price, so typing felt hollow.

The under-display fingerprint sensor was just as fast as the Tab S9 Ultra’s unit. On devices this large, I prefer to use facial recognition. On the Tab S10 Ultra, it only works if you want to skip the lock screen, which works perfectly. I can’t log into my banking app.

Screen and Sound: Super Size Me

Now that the latest iPad Pro has switched to OLED, Samsung may not be losing to Apple in panel technology, but the Galaxy Tab Ultra still wins in sheer size. At 14.6 inches, this is huge. The 16:10 aspect ratio is perfect for working with two apps side by side, has less letterboxing than Apple’s, and also handles 16:9 video content better. The camera notch isn’t distracting at all, and the bezels are suitably smooth.

I didn’t have an iPad with me so I couldn’t do a side-by-side comparison, but the Galaxy is hard to beat with its wonderfully crisp 2960 x 1849 resolution panel. With a 120Hz refresh rate, S Pen sketches glided easily across the screen while drawing, apps scrolled perfectly smoothly, and animations looked fluid.

Unsurprisingly, OLED technology delivered vibrant, dynamic colors, exceptional contrast, and deep, inky blacks that you’d be hard-pressed to pull away from TV shows on streaming services. It was fantastically bright during the day, so even when I went outside in direct sunlight, I had no trouble seeing what was on the screen.

This is partly thanks to a new anti-reflective coating, which works wonders at minimizing glare, so you no longer have to stare at your reflection when dark scenes appear while streaming video. Ta. There doesn’t seem to be any negative impact on contrast or viewing angles. If you spend a lot of time outdoors or in bright light, this is definitely a reason to consider the Tab S10 Ultra.

The quad stereo speakers haven’t changed much from the previous generation and still deliver impactful performance. I have to put the newest iPad at number one. They generally have a more balanced sound, but with these headphones you don’t have to rush out to buy headphones.

Camera: double trouble

There were no major changes to the photo shoot, and Samsung brought back the same four snappers as last year. That means it has a 13MP main unit, an 8MP ultrawide on the back, and a pair of 12MP sensors in the front notch. All of these are suitable for capturing 4K video. The centrally located front pair is conveniently located for horizontal video calls, but isn’t very useful when holding the device vertically.

Even with an additional year of image processing, the quality looked very similar to the Tab S9 Ultra. This means decent snaps, not great snaps in good light, but in almost all situations smartphones in its price range are better. However, it’s fine for document scanning, video calls, and quick snaps when your phone is out of reach.

As for whether the ultra-wide-angle secondary camera actually does anything useful, or whether it’s just there because many shoppers still think “the more, the better.” is not completely convinced.

Software Experience: All about AI

Featuring the latest version of Samsung’s OneUI Android interface, the Tab S10 Ultra is the new representative of Galaxy AI on large-screen devices. Everything appeared first on foldable phone Galaxy Z Fold6, including a generative image editor that lets you delete objects, create new ones, and fill in gaps when resizing hard-cropped snaps will be displayed here.

Transcription, translation, and summarization can all be taken over by artificial intelligence, and the Notes app offers a split-screen view to make long blocks of text a little easier to digest. You can also record and transcribe within the app, so there’s no need to go back and forth between the app and the voice recorder.

Circle to Search will also be introduced. This can easily be done using the S Pen. I liked Sketch to Image the most. Transform basic line drawings into more fleshed out images in the graphic style of your choice, from pop art to cartoons. Portrait Studio also lets you turn your friends into animated avatars, perfect for social media and chat apps.

However, the Tab S9 Ultra isn’t completely without AI improvements. Many have been added via software updates, and I think we’ll see the rest fairly soon. And how much to use each day is still up for debate. Once I tested each feature, I rarely went back to them. That said, if your job involves a lot of meetings and note-taking, I can see the appeal.

Otherwise, Samsung’s Android UI works fine on the big screen, with useful toolbars and shortcuts for launching apps side by side. DeX provides a laptop-like working environment, and the Android file manager app is much easier to use than anything on the iPad. You’ll get seven years of software support here, and as of this writing, Android 15 isn’t far away.

On the other hand, Apple still has the upper hand when it comes to creative software. Full-featured Photoshop is available on the iPad, while Photoshop Express is available on the Galaxy Tab. Final Cut and Logic Pro are the go-to apps for video editors and music creators, but there are far fewer options on Android. Gaming is also more limited on Samsung. It certainly feels like a compromise by choosing this over the iPad.

Performance and battery life: the next dimension

As the first Galaxy Tab with MediaTek internals, the S10 Ultra has a point to prove. The Dimensity 9300 Plus is about as fast as it gets in the Android world, promising 15-30% performance gains across NPU, CPU, and GPU-based tasks compared to last year’s Snapdragon-powered Tab S9 Ultra.

That held true in my benchmark tests, where Geekbench scores in the 7000-point range were well ahead of the OnePlus Pad 2 and its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, but still behind the M4-powered iPad Pro. .

But in day-to-day use, the Tab S10 Ultra handled multitasking across three apps without complaint, running the most demanding apps seamlessly and opening each new app instantly. Sketching and image editing felt perfectly responsive, and graphics-intensive games worked perfectly even after cranking up detail settings. 4K video editing in LumaFusion was also painless, so it can compete with the iPad Pro for demanding creatives who don’t mind learning the ins and outs of a few new apps.

If you choose the 256GB or 512GB storage model, you’ll get 12GB of RAM. Choosing the 1TB model boosts the memory to 16GB. It’s a shame to have to spend extra for more RAM, considering you can add more capacity later with microSD expansion. And it takes a lot less cash. This is something you won’t find on any iPad. All models support high-speed Wi-Fi 7, which is great if you have a compatible router.

The 11,200mAh battery inside the Tab S10 Ultra sounds huge until you realize it has to power a huge screen and flagship-grade chipset. Luckily, I was able to get several days of use out of a single charge, even with lots of video streaming, gaming, and image editing. A serious 4K video edit can take up to a full day.

Refueling via USB-C goes up to 45W, but only if you have a compatible charger. Samsung no longer includes it in the box.

Verdict on Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra

the biggest doesn’t necessarily make sense the bestbut I would argue that it definitely does with the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. Samsung’s flagship slate improves on its predecessor in all the right ways. The anti-reflective screen is comfortable to use even on sunny days. The added features of AI are really helpful if you often take notes. I never say no. For even more performance. Long-term commitments for software updates are also welcome. With no other competitors in this area of ​​Android tablets, this is effectively the new standard.

However, the benefits gained from the Tab S9 Ultra are minimal, so owners don’t see much reason to upgrade. And while not as good as the 13-inch iPad Pro, Apple’s tablet still leads in terms of third-party creative software. I also prefer Apple’s official keyboard add-on.

So this is a niche product, but one that Samsung has actually filled very well.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra technical specifications