Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra Review

About the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• RAM: 12GB
• Storage: 256GB
• Display: 14.6-inch 2960 x 1848 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED touchscreen
• Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3
• Wired connectivity: USB-C 3.2
• Cameras: 13MP wide, 8MP ultrawide, 12MP wide front-facing, 12MP ultrawide front-facing
• Battery: 11,200mAh
• Weight: 1.61 pounds
• Size: 12.85 x 8.21 x 0.22 inches

The base model of the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra comes at $1,200, ranging up to $1,320 for the model with 512GB of storage, and $1,620 for the 1TB model, which also steps up the RAM to 16GB. Our device came with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and as tested, costs $1,320.

There are a range of accessories available for the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. It comes with an S Pen stylus, and you can also buy a keyboard cover for it in a bundle with the tablet. We did not get sent the keyboard cover for testing, and while we tested the device with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, we didn’t test it as a laptop, per se. With the Bluetooth accessories, the tablet worked as expected and I didn’t notice any input lag or other issues. If you’re considering this tablet, you’re likely interested in it for productivity and creativity, so it may be worth buying the keyboard cover—though considering we didn’t test it, we can’t vouch for its quality.

What we like

Stunning thin design

This may not be quite as important as other factors, but let’s get one thing out of the way first—the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is stunning. It’s also absolutely huge.

The display on the device measures 14.6 inches, which is bigger than the largest iPad, and that makes for a device that’s wider than many laptops. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though—there are smaller devices in the Galaxy Tab S9 lineup. The giant screen is the appeal, and useful for things like creating digital art and the odd video and photo editing.

The tablet measures only 0.22 inches deep due to Samsung spreading the device’s internal components out over its wide chassis. It really feels like you're just holding a big slab of glass. Coupled with the metal back, the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra looks and feels incredibly premium.

Despite it being thin, it's not lightweight. This tablet weighs in at 1.61 pounds. I found it to be too big and unwieldy to use in bed in any position besides sitting upright. You won’t want to buy this for reading a book by the pool—it’s best used at a desk.

Despite the super slim build, the device has a monster 11,200mAh battery. Now, in any other device, a battery that size would translate to a massive battery life, but since the display is a big 120Hz panel, it likely draws quite a bit of power.

Still, you’ll get a good battery life overall. When used for recreation and entertainment, the tablet lasted four or five days, using it for a few hours per day. When I switched gears to use it as a work device, it easily lasted the full work day, with a little over 40% remaining at the end. I imagine there are users who could drain the battery faster—for example, with heavier gaming—but most will get more than enough juice.

A minor complaint is that the tablet only charges at 45W. That’s faster than the Google Pixel Tablet, for example, and on par with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. But considering the battery's size, it takes a while to fully charge. I hope Samsung improves charging speeds to at least 67W (like the much less expensive OnePlus Pad) for future models.

As with its predecessor, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, the S9 Ultra comes sporting a display notch, which contains a dual front-facing camera array. It makes for a great video-chat experience, as the tablet’s ultra-wide camera allows for a wider view in group calls and for automatic framing if you’re alone in a room and on the move, akin to Apple’s Center Stage.

Beautiful display

The display on the Tab S9 Ultra looks beautiful. It’s bright and vibrant, and even outdoors the display is bright enough to be clear and detailed. While it isn't an LTPO display that can vary its refresh rate like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it does have a super-fast 120Hz refresh rate, so the tablet feels butter-smooth when scrolling through menus and generally interacting with the software.

S Pen works well

I’m far from an artist, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love doodling with the Apple Pencil on the iPad every now and then. For me, using the S Pen on the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra was pretty much the same experience—which is to say, a great one.

I found using the S Pen to feel smooth and natural—like writing on glass with a marker. I mostly used it within Samsung’s stock apps, and the company offers a range of great tools to jot down notes and take quick doodles, along with what can be found in the Google Play Store.

Excellent performance

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is likely to be considered by professionals who want a work-focused tablet—not the average consumer looking for an entertainment machine. Thankfully, the tablet performs very well.

In fact, it’s one of the best-performing Android tablets out there. That’s thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, coupled with 12GB of RAM. If you’re looking for a tablet that can handle all your multimedia, gaming, and productivity needs, the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is up to the task.

Speaking of gaming, we spent some time playing Genshin Impact on the device, which was a joy considering the huge screen. It ran flawlessly, without any stutters or obviously dropped frames.

Benchmark results confirmed the excellent performance. Here are the benchmark results we achieved with the device:

• GeekBench 6: 1,972 single-core, 5,650 multi-core
• 3DMark Wild Life Extreme: 3,850
• AnTuTu: 1,546,272

These are excellent results overall and show a tablet that’s very capable. These scores are more or less in line with flagship Android phones I’ve reviewed, and even a little better considering the fact that this tablet has more RAM than most phone-sized devices.

What we didn’t like

Android apps aren’t often built for tablets

Unfortunately, many Android apps—even some of the most popular ones—still aren’t very well optimized for tablet-sized screens. They’re designed to run on Android smartphones, and it shows.

On the iPad, X (formerly Twitter) has a multi-column layout that fully takes advantage of the larger screen size—while on Android, it’s nothing more than a stretched-out version of the phone app. It looks silly.

Many apps are like this. Google has previously stated it's working with developers to increase the number of tablet-optimized apps available from the Google Play Store, but it’s slow progress. Mainstays, such as Google’s suite of productivity apps, many AAA games—like Diablo Immortal or Civilization VI—and Microsoft’s and Adobe’s suite of productivity tools look and work great on Android tablets with the guts to run them.

Samsung’s secondary DeX mode, which windows the tablet’s mobile apps, as you’d find in Windows 11 or Mac OS, works well enough on the S9 Ultra, to make multitasking reasonably pleasant. But even when using DeX, if you fire up an app that hasn’t been optimized for tablets, you’ll notice it, very quickly.

If you can get past these issues, you’ll be pleased to find that this device is very well-supported by Samsung. The company promises four major OS updates for the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, which is above average for an Android device. This means that you’ll continue to get the latest operating system features, for years. You’ll also get five years of security updates, ensuring your device remains as safe from malware as possible.

Bloat

I don’t love the number of extra apps that come pre-installed on this tablet. Netflix, Spotify, and all of Samsung’s takes on apps that already exist in Android or Google suite of apps (which are installed, as well), like Notes and Files are there waiting for you the first time you start up the S9 Ultra. While you can delete some of the pre-loaded apps, others can only be disabled, removing them from sight. But they still remain in the tablet’s storage, taking up space.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra?

Maybe, if you want a great, big Android tablet

The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is a powerful, well-made Android tablet with a beautiful display designed for professional-level productivity tasks. How productive you can be, however, relies on whether the apps you need are present in the Google Play Store and optimized for use on a tablet—especially on one with as much display real estate as this. If you’re after a workhorse tablet with a display size on par with many laptops, it's a fine choice.

That said, there are some fine alternatives out there. The Lenovo 14.5-inch Lenovo Tab Extreme (which we’ll be testing, soon) is an Android tablet that offers similar specs and a build quality that rivals the S9 Ultra. And, if you’re platform agnostic, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro M2 is blazing fast and offers superior software support–even Google’s services.