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The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra: A Detailed Review of Samsung’s High-End Tablet

Tablets have not been doing well on the market for a long time. Only ultra-cheap Android tablets, iPads or a few high-end Android tablets survive. One of them is the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, which is the highest-ranking representative of this year’s high-end tablet range from Samsung. However, intergenerational progress is not significant. The Tab S9 Ultra is hard to tell from the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra at first glance, and the tablet’s equipment itself is very similar. What justifies the existence of this year’s model?

Clearly IP68 resistance, which he received, both a tablet and an S Pen stylus. The tablet is more suited to the hands of multimedia or business users, and the fact that you can submerge it under water or even write texts with a stylus under water is a kind of extra bonus. Overall, however, the concept of Ultra nothing significant changedthis is a very huge but pleasantly thin (thickness of 5.5 mm) all-metal tablet, which once again has a 14.6″ display with a cut-out for a dual selfie camera.


The Tab S9 Ultra is a giant tablet from Samsung with a 14.6″ AMOLED display

On the aluminum back, there is a small island for two cameras (13 + 8 Mpx), which come out separately from the body of the tablet, so you only need to last year’s keyboard cover does not fit tightly. The tablet even displays a message that “the keyboard is intended for a different model of tablet, so unexpected results may occur.” In the era of growing ecological efforts, Samsung could save itself a lot of work, it was enough to leave the island as it was, or at least slightly reduce the lenses. Let’s face it, the camera isn’t the most important item in the specs for these types of tablets…

When used in portrait mode, the display area is literally gigantic. This is a dimensional comparison of the tablet and the Galaxy S23 Ultra…

Four speakers from AKG are still prepared on the thin body of the tablet, which are slightly larger than last year and play very well. Sound output has “castles”, rich bass and decent treble, and it will deafen even a larger room. If you cover the speaker outlet with your palm, it will noticeably “shimmer” into your palm. The sound can also be enriched by the Dolby Atmos effect, and at the expense of a very subtle reduction of the maximum volume. And that’s a trade I’m willing to accept.


The display can be controlled with the S Pen, which is included in the basic box. The uniformity of the display is disturbed only by the cut-out for dual selfies

On the sides you will also find volume controls, a lock button and a USB-C connector. All physical controls are controlled very precisely, and this also applies to the display. He literally is a feast for the eyes. It is a large 14.6″ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a resolution of 2,960 x 1,848 (239 ppi fineness), an improved blue light filter and a maximum brightness of up to 1,750 nits. Compared to the Tab S8 Ultra, the biggest addition is the improved Vision function Booster that improves color rendering and contrast in bright sunlight.


You can also buy a cover with a QWERTZ keyboard for the tablet

Adjust the colors two basic display modes. Vivid uses the DCI-P3 color space palette, while Natural is closest to the sRGB space. You can easily adjust the cooler shades of live mode in the settings, with white hue and RGB intensity.

Introducing the Galaxy Tab S9 Series Tablets:

The refresh rate is adaptive, the tablet can switch between 30Hz (static image), 60Hz (games that do not allow higher framerate and videos with higher framerate) and 120Hz, which is intended for everything else. E.g. for animation, menu movement, web browsing, etc.


There is also an optical fingerprint reader near the narrow edges

There is also an optical under-display fingerprint reader near the bottom narrower edge, which worked flawlessly. Even if you “read” the fingerprints in portrait mode, the reader works just as accurately in landscape mode.

The stylus rests on the back

The tablet is a pleasure to work, surf the web or watch movies. That is, provided that you get used to holding and controlling it in both palms, which you sometimes have to stretch a lot (especially when using the tablet in portrait mode, where the 16:10 is disproportionately stretched vertically). Large dimensions are harmful for some types of games, and with such a large tablet you also have to deal with its gentle portability. At least without a flip cover that definitely won’t work.


The stylus rests on the back of the tablet where it charges at the same time, you can clip it to the longer edges of the tablet when carrying it

And not even without a stylus. The one in case of inactivity resting on the back of the tablet and is a great tool for productivity or perhaps for drawing. The display area is huge, the stylus recognizes many levels of pressure, so you can draw with them, draw notes, underline text or control the tablet environment. The stylus rests on the back, where it also charges. It connects to the tablet via Bluetooth and you can use it for touchless actions by drawing in the air, which can be used to replace basic navigation in the system.


Software keyboard and S Pen stylus drawing

It works the same as last year’s Ultra, and you also have touch-free viewing, which scrolls the page when you bring the stylus closer to the display, peeks into photo folders or the video timeline. With the stylus, you can write texts directly in the text fields, in this respect the stylus is a top helper when working with the tablet. Stylus from the back recharges in about two minutesand to keep it from bouncing on your back, you can snap it magnetically to one of the longer side edges.


A large 11,200mAh battery got into the thin body, on the narrow edges there are four AKG speakers with Dolby Atmos support. They play surprisingly well. You can connect an additional keyboard via the POGO connector

The tablet battery itself has a generous capacity of 11,200 mAh this time as well. You can charge it in a little over two hours, but only in the case of a 45W adapter. You have to buy it separately, because inside the box, apart from the tablet and the S Pen, you will only find a double-sided USB-C cable. The battery life is the same as last year’s Ultra, expect a demanding work day and you will still have about a third of the battery left. When not in use, the tablet discharges very slowly.

New Snapdragon, Android 13 and DeX

The computing power of the tablet is provided by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy with an overclocked processor and graphics, which later found its way into other Androids from other manufacturers (without the “for Galaxy” label). We tested the tablet with 12GB of LPDDR5X operating memory and 512GB of UFS 4.0 storage. And you can even expand it with microSD cards. Benchmarks show that the tablet has a very high performance that lasts for a long time, although the graphics performance gradually decreases in games depending on its heating, but you will definitely not encounter hardware limits during normal gaming.



Antutu a Geekbench 6 u Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (vleft) au Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra (vpravo)

Android 13 with Samsung’s One UI 5.1 superstructure is available in the environment, but you can switch to the DeX desktop interface directly on the tablet. The system works briskly without any reservations, and is full of “enhancers” from Samsung, i.e. various accessories, gestures and extended functions. On the other hand, nothing fundamental has changed in the system compared to last year. In addition, you can count on top software support like the Galaxy S series.



Slowdown of chipset and graphics depending on temperature. Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra on the left, Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra on the right

A taskbar awaits at the bottom of the display, you can place up to four applications on the display panel at one time and, if necessary, you can cover them with floating windows. You can easily slide applications onto the desktop from the Edge side panel, and of course you can also work in a screen-width layout. You enter texts on the touch keyboard with vibration response, or with the stylus or on the keyboard, which is part of the optional cover.


The tablet display will also serve as a second (wireless) display for your computer or laptop with Windows 11. You can duplicate the system on it or expand the interface. However, you can also switch to DeX mode directly in the tablet

And if you don’t want to use the DeX interface directly on your tablet, you can easily display the “Android computer” environment wirelessly on your home TV, for example. All you have to do is turn on the mirroring mode on it, which applies, for example, to LG and Samsung televisions. Alternatively, you can start it in the application on your computer.


Android 13 user interface with One UI 5.1 superstructure

Wireless DeX works independently, even with active mirroring you can continue to use the tablet or control DeX on the TV with a virtual touchpad and touch keyboard, or use their wireless variants. Even with my AMD laptop, I could connect the tablet in Windows 11 as a second display and either duplicate or expand the desktop.

Cameras for conference calls and scanning

Cameras have never been the most important item in a tablet’s specs, and that’s true this time as well. On the back of the tablet there is a 13 Mpx main sensor (F2.0) with automatic focus and an 8 Mpx wide sensor with fixed focus. Both were supplied by Hynix. Two 12Mpx selfies are placed in the display cutout. One is wide-angle with an aperture of F2.2, the other is ultra-wide-angle (F2.4).


The camera’s user interface is familiar, just scaled up adequately

The interface of the photo application is the same as that of other Samsungs, only, depending on the orientation of the tablet, the touch shutter button is much more at hand. Handling such a large tablet is much more difficult after all. When taking photos, HDR is automatically applied, and the system also turns on the scene optimizer. There are several photo modes, there is also a night mode or a Pro mode. Rest assured, you won’t be taking photos of ordinary scenery with a tablet.


The primary function of the camera will be to “scan” documents

You will most often use the rear camera to “scan” documents, which the software will automatically recognize and offer to crop and then share, and you will use selfies for conference calls. In both cases, the quality is more than sufficient.


Double zoom is only in the form of cut-outs

If you were to take photos in nature with the tablet, you will get a very decent photo quality from it in the sun. Photos are sharp, have a wide dynamic range and watchable colors. Širokač has decent quality, although the colors are no longer so vivid, but they are all the more true to reality. Details are decent, but far from ideal. Even with videos that you shoot in maximum 4K resolution with 30 fps, it turns out that the camera is not the core function of the tablet. Stabilization is only electronic.

Sample photos:


Sample photos from the interior and exterior


Basic and wide-angle selfies

Sample video:

Few intergenerational changes

The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is aimed at owners of the Galaxy Tab S6 and Galaxy Tab S5e who are looking for a replacement with a larger display. And the tested Ultra fulfills this aspect to the letter. However, those who bought last year’s Ultra need not be sad. The differences are not that big. Outside of the processor, they are mostly cosmetic. However, Samsung takes a rather “sporty” line of tablets, because it is one of the few that can at least partially compete with iPads with its top-of-the-line tablets.


Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra on the left, Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra on the right. You can tell this year’s and last year’s generation of Samsung’s highest-end tablet only by the cameras

However, this does not change the fact that the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is the top of its category. It has a pleasantly thin metal body, newly also increased durability, and you get the stylus directly in the basic box. Expect maximum performance, top AMOLED with improved readability in the sun. And of course, rich software with DeX as the icing on the cake. In many respects, however, it is exactly the same as last year’s Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, which you can review extensively you can read here.


Big, bigger and biggest. The Galaxy Tab S9 series includes three tablets, starting at 11 inches and ending at 14.6 inches

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is offered in the Czech Republic in two memory variants. The 12/515 GB version costs CZK 37,999, the 16GB/1TB variant costs CZK 44,999. In the Czech Republic, however, smaller versions of the tablet are also available, namely the basic Galaxy Tab S9, as well as the Galaxy Tab S9+, which is somewhere in the middle in terms of dimensions. Tablets differ in body size, battery capacity, screen size, and in some cases, the number of cameras. The rest remains the same.

Pros:

The best Android tablet on the market Enhanced IP68 resistance (including stylus) Top computing and graphics performance Giant display with improved sunlight readability Dual SIM, microSD, fast charging, optional 5G

Minuses:

Few changes from the previous generation Very large device for easy portability High selling price Basic box without charger

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2023-10-20 14:55:09
#Samsung #Galaxy #Tab #Ultra #review #Water #resistance #repraks

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