Samsung Tab S9 Ultra Review 30 Days Later... 🤔
Instead of a rundown about all the specs and features, I want to talk about 6 things which I enjoyed about the Samsung Tab S9 Ultra after using it for almost a month, and some aspects which I don't quite enjoy. We’re going to talk about pros and cons, and hopefully you'll find this video helpful when deciding whether to buy this tablet.
Pros
1. Battery
The first thing I love about the S9 Ultra is the battery. I mean this thing lasts, easily, a few days without charging. And this is with me taking it outside and working 4 to 6 hours at a stretch - although I only do that indoors with the screen on Auto-brightness.
It’s got an 11200 mAH battery, very juicy, but it also takes quite a while to charge. Say, if you’re using a 45W charger, it charges in 2 hours or so, but if you use anything less than that you can expect charging to take a lot longer.
2. Screen
A big factor of why you might be looking at a tablet like this one is the ginormous screen. Same screen size, resolution and refresh rate as the previous model, but they actually made a big improvement here, which is the brightness.
On the S8 Ultra, the screen was quite dim, visible only under shelter. But with this jump from 420 nits to 930 nits of peak brightness, you get a bright, contrasty picture even under the sun, which makes it possible to use this tablet in more situations than ever. Of course, the brighter it goes, the more battery it sips, so I just leave it on auto-brightness to conserve battery.
One missed opportunity here as far as the screen goes is the lack of always on display. The screen is just totally black on standby, which is good for battery consumption, but they could have at least displayed a clock or some notifications. This is probably to save battery because its screen does not support LTPO technology, unlike Samsung’s latest flagship phones. (LTPO varies the screen’s refresh from 1 hz in an inactive state, to 120 hz when active.)
3. Samsung Dex
Samsung Dex is awesome on the S9 Ultra. Dex basically turns it into a laptop experience with resizable windows and drag and drop. Of course you can connect it to an external monitor and have Dex on a bigger screen, but you will need a USB-C to HDMI converter because Samsung doesn’t supply it.
4. S-Pen
Attaching the S-Pen to charge is no longer orientation specific. And you can also attach it to the longer sides of the tablet in specific spots which doesn’t charge the pen, but achieves a flatter profile if you need.
5. This thing screams!
It’s now equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Processor so I could take full advantage of the screen real estate. It’s possible now to open even more windows without losing a beat. Up to four partitions and even more popups can be opened at the same time which is awesome, because I can be writing a script while having multiple product pages on the side to refer to, so I don’t say anything wrong… or stupid.
Obviously this is also going to be great for mobile gaming. Games run very smooth, even on Very High settings, and thermals are fantastic. I barely feel the heat at all even after an hour or two of gaming, playing FPS titles like COD Mobile. The problem is, these apps are really mobile games optimized for phone screens, so they don’t scale properly for bigger screens on Android. This makes FPS games harder to operate with thumbs because the buttons simply get bigger and further away.
6. Its Speakers Slaps!
But whether you’re playing games, watching videos or playing music, the speakers just slaps! It still is one of the best features of this tablet. It’s got four speakers, very loud, clear in the mids, and it even has body in the lower mids and bass so it sounds more like a small portable speaker, but better, because it’s also capable of stereo separation.
There’s no surround sound from it, but you do get some degree of airy-ness if you turn on Dolby Atmos. (Sound Samples)
Those are the things I love about the Tab S9 Ultra. Now we’re going to talk about some areas of improvement.
Areas of improvement
The first thing I want to highlight is the typing experience of Samsung’s default on-screen keyboard. The default keys are very large, but it doesn't feel so smart.
When I'm typing with a regular hand posture as I would an actual keyboard, I get so many false inputs and typos which forces me to type slower. This is even with the enhanced accuracy' option turned on.
But, I've found that the one finger method works best. It's quicker and more accurate to tap on keys with one finger from each hand than using all fingers.
A real keyboard would help make this more of a joy to work with. And instead of a separate keyboard you could get the Samsung Smart cover with a built in keyboard.
The problem is, if you’re purchasing it without a promotion, the keyboard cover alone costs 350 dollars.
Some other issues I’ve encountered has to do with Dex and its limitations, which are related to how Android apps work on tablets. For example some Android apps don’t translate well into windows, being stuck at a certain size with no way to resize except for toggling into a larger or smaller template. This happens with the YouTube Studio app, something that I use a lot.
The tablet version of Dex still will not work with PC’s Samsung Dex app which mirrors Samsung Dex on a laptop screen. The app only works with Samsung phones at the moment, so if you do need a bigger screen to mirror your tablet to, it has to be either an external monitor or a TV through a converter.
Conclusion
That being said, having such a large screen, big speakers and battery makes this a powerful tablet for not only consuming content, but for productivity and creative work too. This video was actually planned and scripted on this device. Still it's still not exactly a laptop replacement yet. I still use the Tab S9 Ultra mostly for consuming content rather than creating. But for what it is, this is the best tablet you can buy now that isn't an iPad.
So that's all I have to say about the Tab S9 Ultra after using it for 30 days. If you’d like to check its latest prices, click on the links to their Amazon and Lazada pages below.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
Amazon - https://amzn.to/3R6Dp6j
Lazada - https://s.lazada.sg/s.bEvzZ?cc
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Also check out…
… My review of the Tab S8 Ultra. It's probably going for cheaper now that there's a new model, and it seems like a good value alternative.
