Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra Tablet REVIEW

Sleek premium tablet with a stunning display.

For the past two years, I’ve been gaming daily using my iPad Pro. At first, it was the 6th generation iPad Pro (12.9-inch), but I upgraded to the 13-inch 2024 model this year. With the 6th gen model, I was experiencing a lot of overheating issues, but the 2024 model hasn’t had those issues at all. My game of choice is Call of Duty: Mobile and part of the reason I started playing on a tablet was so I had a bigger screen than my mobile phone. I realized that I just wasn’t seeing as much as I could so the larger tablet screen made all the sense in the world.

Then, I tried to connect my iPad to an external monitor so I could have an even BIGGER screen. The issue I ran into was that even though the iPad’s native screen has a resolution of 120hz, the output signal to a monitor gets capped at 60hz. It’s a hardware-locked safety precaution that was enabled by Apple to prevent issues like overheating and to preserve battery life.

Because of this roadblock, I ventured down a vast rabbit hole attempting to find an answer to this external monitor refresh rate question. Because I am an Apple user, I thought I would try two other primary avenues — Android mobile devices and gaming phones, which are also Android-based. This led me to try out the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, which is an extraordinary device for all types of tasks — just not gaming on an external monitor at 120hz.

About Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is a premium tablet that combines modern technology with a sleek design, making it ideal for both professional and entertainment purposes. Featuring a massive 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display with a stunning 2960 x 1848 resolution, the Tab S9 Ultra delivers vibrant colors and deep contrasts, perfect for immersive viewing and creative work.

Under the hood, the tablet is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, ensuring fast performance and smooth multitasking. It comes with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage, offering ample space for all your apps, files, and media. The S9 Ultra also supports expandable storage via a microSD card.

For creators and professionals, the S9 Ultra includes the redesigned S Pen, which magnetically attaches to the tablet and offers low latency for precise writing and drawing. The tablet’s dual rear cameras, including a 13MP main camera and an 8MP ultra-wide camera, along with a 12MP front camera, allow for high-quality photography, video conferencing, and content creation.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra runs on Android 14 with Samsung’s One UI, providing a user-friendly experience with customizable features. The tablet also boasts a long-lasting 11,200mAh battery, supporting fast charging, and it offers 5G connectivity, making it an excellent choice for on-the-go productivity and entertainment.

Main Features

• OS: Android 14
• Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• Battery Capacity: 11,200 mAh
• IP68: water and dust resistant
• Color: Graphite or Beige
• Main Display Resolution: 2960 x 1848 (WQXGA+)
• Main Display Size: 14.6 inches
• Display Technology: Dynamic AMOLED 2X
• Color Depth: 16M
• Weight: 1.61 lb
• Front Camera: 12.0MP + 12.0MP
• Rear Camera: 13.0MP + 8.0MP, Flash, Auto Focus
• Video Recording Resolution: UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) @ 30fps
• RAM / Internal Storage: 12GB (RAM) + 256GB • 12GB (RAM) + 512GB • 16GB (RAM) + 1TB
• External Memory/microSD Capacity: up to 1TB
• WiFi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax 2.4G+5GHz+6GHz, HE160, MIMO, 1024-QAM
• USB: USB 3.2 Gen 1
• Bluetooth: v5.3
• Bluetooth Profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, DI, HID, HOGP, OPP, PAN, PBP, TMAP
• Location Technology: GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
• NFC: No
• PC Sync: Smart Switch (PC version)
• Audio Playing Format: MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM
• Video Playing Resolution: UHD 8K (7680 x 4320) @ 60fps

What’s in the Box

• Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
• S Pen
• Data Cable
• Ejection Pin

Pricing & Availability

The list price for the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra starts at $1,199.99 for 12GB (RAM) + 256GB storage.

Unboxing & Setup

The Tab S9 Ultra doesn’t come with a lot of extra items. It does have the S Pen with it, which is a very nice add-on as the screen is very responsive to touch controls. The setup process is fairly standard for an Android device — although with it being a Samsung device I was prompted to enter details for both a Samsung account and a Google account. In addition to the standard setup items, I also enabled Developer Options on the tablet so that I could do additional testing on it.

Evaluation

We use a combination of benchmarking tools and real-world tests to evaluate mobile devices and PCs. We look at different facets of the device such as overall design, network speed, gaming ability, and general performance to rate it as fairly as possible. Here is what we found out about the Tab S9 Ultra.

OVERALL DESIGN: Being an iPad user for so many years, I was genuinely impressed with the build quality of the Tab S9 Ultra. Even though the display is 14.6 inches, the tablet doesn’t feel bulky or awkward to hold. It’s very thin and the screen is incredibly crisp. Everything I viewed on it — games, videos, photos — was very high-quality. The colors are vibrant and everything was very responsive. I didn’t think the camera was anything to brag about. It does take decent photos, but I wouldn’t want to use it as a main camera. The speakers were loud and I could hear clearly, but similar to the camera, I didn’t think it was exceptional. I didn’t have any issues with the battery life. In fact, I left it idle for approximately 36 hours and it still had a charge.

NETWORK SPEED: Our home network is powered by AT&T Fiber networking. When I completed the network speed test on the Tab S9 Ultra, it was connected over Wi-Fi and was approximately 20 feet away from the router. I used speedtest.net by Ookla to check the speed of the connection and I got a download speed of 403.46 Mbps with a ping of 15ms. I also tested the speed of an iPhone 14 Pro at the same time and got a result of 376 Mbps with a ping of 15ms.

GENERAL PERFORMANCE: When it came to testing the performance capabilities of the tablet, I ran two main benchmark tools — Basemark 3.0 on Chrome and Geekbench.

Basemark 3.0 is a cross-platform tool that is used to evaluate the performance of web browsers and devices. When run using Chrome, several categories are tested including WebGL 2.0 and 1.0, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3, and DOM Performance.

• Score: 880.02
• CSS Capabilities: 60.46%
• HTML5 Capabilities: 92.97%
• Page Load and Responsiveness Capabilities: 91.93%
• Resize Capabilities: 75.74%

Unfortunately, Basemark 3.0 doesn’t have a public comparison list of scores. That said, it can be expected that newer devices running Android 14 would receive scores between 750 to 950.

I also ran Geekbench on the Tab S9 Ultra to measure the CPU and GPU performance, which simulates real-world tasks in order to evaluate the device.

• Single-Core Score: 2102
• Multi-Core Score: 5652

The top Single-Core Score for Android is from a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (2146), which uses a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. And, the top Multi-Core Score was from the same device (6706). Based on the results from the Tab S9 Ultra, it was only 7% lower than the S24 Ultra for Single-Core and approximately 16% lower with the Multi-Core Score. Given that the Tab S9 Ultra uses a slightly older processor than the S24 Ultra, I felt this was a great score.

GAMING ABILITY: As I mentioned at the top of the article, Call of Duty: Mobile was my primary reason for seeking the Tab S9 Ultra out. I was impressed with how well CODM ran on the Android tablet. It was powerful enough to run the game at the “Ultra” setting, which translates to 120fps in the game. The display of the tablet natively runs at 120hz (if the correct settings are adjusted), but just like the iPad Pro, the refresh rate drops to 60hz as soon as it’s plugged into an external monitor. I also attempted connecting the Tab S9 Ultra to the monitor through a dock and the output refresh rate dropped to 30hz. As a gaming device, the Tab S9 Ultra works very well, but it doesn’t provide the external monitor output as I hoped. Samsung does offer Dex, which gives users a desktop-like experience from a mobile device, but that doesn’t change the monitor refresh rate.

Conclusion

While the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra offers a powerful and immersive gaming experience on its native screen, it falls short when it comes to external monitor support at higher refresh rates, much like the iPad Pro. The tablet excels in overall design, network speed, and general performance, making it a top contender for gaming and other tasks on the go. However, for those looking to connect to an external monitor with a higher refresh rate, it may not be the ideal solution. Despite this limitation, the Tab S9 Ultra remains an impressive device for both work and play.

For more information, visit samsung.com