Verdict
If you like the spacious screen found on the Tab S9 Ultra but want the portability of the Tab S9 , the Tab S9 Plus is the obvious via media . The AMOLED display is bright and vivacious , making it grand for streaming television set display and motion picture , and the usance Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy intend it can handle anything you’re able to throw at it .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
It ’s a well - troddentrope by this point , but until the last yr or so , the Android tablet market , specially at the high end , feel as though it had become stagnant .
Aside from annual iterative updates from Samsung or peradventure the unmatched release from Lenovo , there has been piddling of the heady fervour or experimentation that was seen in the early 2010s .
In 2022 , air current of alteration arrived , and now in 2023 , where there was once doldrums there is now a inviolable headwind , with newfangled and interesting gadget being released at an increasing click , not least by Samsung – previously a byword for boredom .
The Galaxy Tab S9 Plus is one of Samsung ’s late and is second from the top in its lineup for this year . gasconade a top - tier processor , a slight design , a fancy silver screen and more , it has all of the window fertilization expected of a modern premiumAndroid tablet .
There ’s a catch , of course , the price . At a lower limit of £ 999/$999 , this is a pad of paper that is more expensive than many laptop computer , so we arrive at the real interrogative sentence – does it do enough to justify costing such a healthy chunk of alteration ? It is especially apt as the competition from the the like of Lenovo , OnePlus and more continues to heat up .
Read on for the full recapitulation .
Design
As withsmartphones , if there has been one trend in the design of tablets over the years , it has been the standardization of the ‘ ice rectangle ’ look . Tablets have a standard design an expected look , and the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus does nothing to modify that .
It is indeed a glass rectangle , with a tail and position made from Al . It find well - constructed and has nice thin bezels giving it a modernistic face . Whether it face fancy than a lozenge cost £ 500 or £ 300 is a debatable point – it is premium and that is all it ask to be . I would n’t believe it to survive a crash onto a hardwood floor however , thin bezels might expect somewhat but they sure enough do n’t increase durability .
At 5.7 mm , the slenderness of the Tab S9 Plus is well-nigh astonishing , and coupled with the 586 g weightiness , it sometimes beggar belief that there is anything inside it . In general , it think that it is very well-heeled as a reading tablet , or indeed for any other use case that would involve carrying it around .
Two color option are useable , Beige and Graphite , and both are as exciting as the name suggest . Both are entirely office - appropriate , but neither will adjust heartbeat hie . A helpful inclusion is an under - concealment fingerprint scanner , which makes authentication for payments that much childlike , working rapidly and faithfully every time .
The Galaxy Tab S9 Plus charges over USB - C , has four flashy detailed speakers and exclude a headphone jack alone . Storage can be expanded via the MicroSD poster time slot and a SIM alternative is usable for those who require to spend an superfluous £ 150 or so .
An interesting inclusion isIP68 waterproof , with the tablet able to theoretically survive a dunk of up to 1.5 m for a level best of 30 minutes . Though it is very improbable that a tablet might be put in this situation , the extra peace of mind is welcomed .
Given this is Samsung , there ’s also the S Pen to spill the beans about . With a magnetized holding attitude that doubles as a charge point for the pen on the back , it is gentle to take everywhere .
The penitentiary itself is a delight to use , more so than those of much of the competition . It is light , finger like a real pen and the sensation of authorship has enough tactile resistance to feel like paper . For digital artists it will be a delicacy , and for everyone else , it make sign PDFs that much well-situated .
Compared to theiPad Pro , it is light , thinner and more refined , though at 80 gee or so , it is n’t the heavy difference .
Screen
As might be expected of a machine that is functionally a concealment in a frame , any pad live and dies by the quality of its showing . blithely , the 12.4 - inch instrument panel swot into the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus is a banger , as might be expected from the company that make the best filmdom in the stage business .
To commence , as it is OLED , the display on the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus has rich contrast , vivid colour and numberless total darkness that make television receiver shows pop . It freshen up at120Hz , which piddle scrolling more pleasant and the gimmick feel libertine and more antiphonal .
WithHDR10+compatibility , supported content looks particularly good , almost bursting out from the tablet . At over 1080p but under 2 K resolution , it is incisive enough for any use you might have , and while the 16:10 scene ratio is n’t the good for productivity , it works well for multimedia system .
Regarding smartness , the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus copes very well in bright sun , which is strange for a tablet , and it also gets slow enough to be utile for bedtime version . compare to the screen on the 11 - column inch iPad Pro it has a higher result , sportsman OLED , has a higher brightness level and is generally more accomplish all around .
Whether you want to watch movies , read or do any other activity you might typically use a tablet for , the screen on the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus is but brilliant .
Cameras
It ’s a well - trodden point by now ; there ’s nary a person in the whole across-the-board world who buys a tablet solely on its tv camera chop . devote their inept size and weight compared to a speech sound , there is n’t a situation where they can be more utilitarian , and so this is an area where manufacturers typically scrimp and pull through .
Since COVID and the continued rise of TV calls , however , there has been a returned focus on one special surface area : the front - facing television camera . Even if we are n’t using tab for vacation snap , we are using them to call relatives , so there is a need for clarity and good - quality video turnout .
So , how does the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus fare ?
Starting with the camera app , it is exactly what we have seen from Samsung for years now . That ’s to say it keep an eye on the ‘ standard ’ innovation of photographic camera apps , swiping up and down on the right hand to switch capture modes , the left agree further options and nothing to confuse the mind .
It ’s easy to get in promptly , figure out what you need to do and roll on , and to top it off the app is very snappy , so you are n’t forget waiting when trying to do something childlike .
As for image quality itself , perhaps aided by the ISP in the Snapdragon Gen 2 for Galaxy chip at bottom , detail is snappy , dynamical range is broad , noise is kept to a lower limit and coloration and direct contrast are bold and appealing . Though the 13MP , f/2.0 lens is n’t the most forward-looking or modern out there , it does a beneficial job in most situations , working as well for written document capture as it does for an off-the-cuff tot ginger nut .
The picture in low-toned light predictably is a bit less positive . With night mode participating , contrast , cleverness , item and colour improve , but pretty much any mid - range smartphone today will do a skillful caper .
Coming to the 8MP ultrawide , it exhibit mostly superposable operation , with the proviso that it does n’t have autofocus and has lower resolution .
thing take a routine for the electropositive with the 12MP selfie tv camera , which has an interesting trick – it is an ultrawide too . This entail it ’s wanton to get yourself in anatomy , and for video call option , gives a slew more versatility when try out to find out a convenient posture .
Said video recording tone is surprisingly very good . It shew lots of particular , good colour and low noise , which have in mind that if everyone else is using a laptop , you will by far have the percipient moving-picture show . Audio capture in video is honorable too , frosty and clear , though I would have treasure the inclusion of a ‘ teleprompter ’ feature that is project with Xiaomi and BBK devices , which is very useful for recording video .
Usually , there is n’t a lot of positive to say about the television camera on a tablet . With the Tab S9 Plus this is n’t the character , and as such , has one of the respectable tablet cameras on the market currently .
Performance
Though outdoors of an iPad Pro there is n’t a pad of paper which can match the likes of a laptop for power , that is n’t to say that there is n’t note value in a hefty tablet . While they may not be running the most diagrammatically intensive games or the most intensive video processing software , there ’s still value in a responsive interface .
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus runs a tradition adaptation of Qualcomm ’s bounty chipset dubbed theSnapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy – the same as that in theGalaxy S23 collection , Z Flip 5andZ Fold 5 . That ’s coupled with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage , which paradoxically is more than that disport by many laptops .
For Android it is definitely overkill , and particularly for what many multitude will use a tablet for . If you mainly use tablets to follow telecasting , this is more than you need , though that is n’t a slight .
Providing more performance than necessary is commonly a bright move , give that software system tends to become more demanding and complex over meter . The extra performance gives a chipset overhead to stay on performant into the time to come with fresh updates as they come .
From a purely subjective viewpoint , the Tab S9 Plus office through pretty much anything you could cast at it , including play . If you are a bud Mobile River gamer , it will run well as a consequence , and I did n’t detect any thermal issues . I was capable to execute the the like of PUBG at gamey build rates on gamy graphical preferences without any stuttering , which was pleasant to see .
Coming to benchmark , with a single - core musical score of 2038 and a multi - core score of 5369 , it does n’t correspond Apple ’s greatest blow - for - bump , but it is near the top of the Android head in 2023 .
The four stereoscopic photograph speaker on the Tab S9 Plus are a substantial treat ; tatty and capable of a convincing stereoscopic picture legal separation effect . They do n’t become distorted at high volumes and they make movies and medicine sparkle – these are some of the in effect utterer I have hear on a tablet .
There ’s no 3.5 millimetre headphone jack , though I find Bluetooth performance over audio recording was solid for the most part , barring some episodic connection issues that may have been the geological fault of the buds in enquiry .
Software
Samsung ’s approach to computer software by now is a known quantity . Its software tegument deviates from the ‘ normal ’ that we might see elsewhere , offer more in the way of features than much of the competition .
For a lot of people this wo n’t be an payoff , but for others some issues can arise , honcho among which is duplication . Despite what Samsung might have you believe , there is n’t a sound reason to have a ‘ Galaxy app computer memory ’ alongside the Google Play storehouse on a single gadget in 2023 .
Beyond the duplicate , the software is full of thoughtful touches . Chief among these is the inclusion body ofSamsung DeX , which allows the tablet to use a proper background experience and work likewise to a full laptop . It works quickly and fluidly , having the ability to easily window apps and twofold filmdom when necessary without missing a beat means that it does quite a convincing impression of a full laptop .
There are a few overlook pieces , not least Android ’s general deficiency of more powerful productiveness apps , but if your work flow means you primarily apply Microsoft 365 or Google apps , then the Tab S9 Plus will in all probability serve you well in most instances .
The ability to mirror the video display as a second cover is also very utile when working across multiple documents . One outlet I establish was that the picture characteristic for conference calls , such as ‘ Auto focal point ’ crashed Microsoft Teams call , which was unfortunate , but this may be desex in a next update .
From the main screen , there ’s wanted little to evidence it apart from the ‘ standard ’ Android experience . A swipe to the left reveals the Google Discover page , while a swipe up shows all apps . That ’s really it , and there are multiple options for customisation . In scope , everything from the phone number of apps in the dock to the size of the gridiron in the app draftsman can be tweaked .
As ever with Samsung , beyond duplication , there ’s also app bloat . We do n’t call for ‘ Galaxy Shop ’ , a competing messaging app , ‘ Samsung Global Goals ’ and more features that feel as though they are there to sell you services rather than allow value . This grate a piffling , given the around £ 1k asking price .
Beyond this , there is n’t a fair criticism to be made . The computer software is quick , fluid and mostly intuitive . If you could know with the duplication and bloat , you ’ll have no issue at all .
Battery life
Despite its exceptionally refined dimensions , the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus has a surprisingly large bombardment inwardly . At 10,090mAh , it is a suitably substantial building block that , in hypothesis , should provide the Tab S9 Plus with sterling survival . There are two complicating factors of course ; one being the powerful and power - thirsty chipset , the other the big brilliant screen . So how does it fare ?
The entirely unscientific psychometric test of meet one hr of an HDR movie on Netflix over Wi - Fi for an 60 minutes see the electric battery cliff by 10 % , which bespeak that you could maybe make it through a transatlantic flight with the S9 Plus if you prefer to hear .
In more general usance , with a mix of electronic messaging , email , watching TV , take on euphony with the room - filling speakers and occupy video calls on it , I recover that it could make it through roughly a daytime and a half before needing a recharge . You should be able to make it through a toilsome sidereal day of body of work , though you will need to reload at the last . Should you have lighter usage habits , it will be able to make it through multiple days , with standby draw negligible .
When the time comes to recharge , the Tab S9 Plus can do so at 45W , which is n’t the fastest on the market . The likes of theLenovo Tab Extremecan do so at 67W , though whether you call for the special stop number is up to you . I establish in general , that it was potential to recharge from 0 to 100 % within around 80 minutes , which is profligate for a tablet but others can do so faster – and you ’ll also need to supply your own charging brick , with none included in the box .
Should you buy it?
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus has a bright projection screen and fantastic speaker unit , make watch movies a goody .
The iPad Pro is a alike monetary value to the S9 Plus and has more powerful productivity apps usable for it .
Final Thoughts
It is very difficult , at any budget , to find a tablet that can do ‘ everything ’ , meaning one that work just as well as a couch fellow traveller as it does as a work slating . It ’s a delight then to report that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Plus comes jolly close to being that ideal , and a spate close than much of the Android competition .
With a slender and svelte design , it is comfortable to obligate , its showing is really a kickshaw to function and its speaker are loud and incredibly well-defined . The customs duty Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 central processor inside is powerful , and the battery life is always enough to make it through a full 24-hour interval . If you are in the market for a premium lozenge , this should be in your sights .
There are drawback , of course . Though it is utile as a work familiar , the iPad Pro has a far more matured ecosystem of pro apps , and although the Tab S9 Plus looks pretty , I would commend it be pass a subject at the earliest opportunity .
Ultimately , these are minor brand against an accomplished intersection that sits near the top of its form in terms of quality and execution .
