Does the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra earn its "premium" rating?

Samsung has unveiled a new pair of tablets, and after using one, I can confirm it has a few essential qualities of a good tablet — it can replace a laptop in a pinch and has a certain je ne sais quoi about its portability.

At the "Samsung Galaxy: AI for All" event in New York this week, the two upcoming Samsung tablets — the Galaxy Tab S10+ and the bigger Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra — debuted, boasting a host of helpful Galaxy AI features. (The Galaxy S24 FE smartphone and the Galaxy Watch FE LTE smartwatch also made their first appearances.)

A good tablet should be able to replace a laptop when needed, so we expect a solid display, reliable performance, and a long-lasting battery. But because it is a tablet, we want it to be light, portable, and with good touch and stylus controls.

After going hands-on with the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and its 14.6" display, I'm confident it can be your go-to device on the go. Let's dive into why.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra: Specs

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra: Pricing and configurations

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra's base model costs $1,199.99 and features a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor, an integrated MediaTek Immortalis G720 ray tracing graphics card, MediaTek NPU 790, 12GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and a 14.6-inch WQXGA+ (2,960 x 1,848) 2X AMOLED display.

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra's storage can be upgraded to a 512GB SSD for $1,319.99 . Upgrading to a 1TB SSD also comes with a memory upgrade to 16GB of RAM, and that top-of-the-line model costs $1,619.99 .

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is available now for pre-order. The 512GB and 1TB models will ship on October 3, 2024, and the 256GB base model will arrive on October 18, 2024.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra: Design

The design of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is the same sleek, minimalist chassis found across all of Samsung's consumer electronics. Along the back of the tablet, between the Samsung logo and dual-camera array, there's a magnet to hold a stylus.

Weighing just 2.35 pounds, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is plenty portable. The tablet is also just 0.21 inches thick, so you shouldn't have much trouble fitting the Tab S10 Ultra into a bag, even with its case. While it does have a large, almost 15-inch display, the tablet's full dimensions (12.85 x 8.21 x 0.21 inches) are small enough to be easily portable

With a 14.6-inch 2X AMOLED display, the tablet is a bit large to fit comfortably in one hand, but it rests pretty well along a forearm if you need to free up your dominant hand for note-taking or sketching.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra: Display

The 14.6-inch WQXGA+ (2,960 x 1,848) 2X AMOLED display on the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra offers rich color and enough brightness to cut through glare, so you'll be able to use the tablet even outdoors on bright, sunny summer afternoons. The oversized display makes it a great choice for video streaming or casual gaming.

The tablet withstood the studio-quality lights inside Samsung's West Village storefront with only minor screen glare. However, to be entirely certain of its brightness and vibrancy, we'll need to wait until we can test it in the Laptop Mag testing lab.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra: Performance

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra leverages MediaTek's latest flagship processor, the Dimensity 9300+ chipset. This chipset packages an 8-core Arm Cortex X4 architecture CPU with the Immortalis G720 ray tracing graphics chip and NPU 790 neural engine.

We don't have any test results on this new MediaTek flagship processor, but it is an upgrade of the Dimensity 9300. Geekbench 6 leaks of the Dimensity 9300 processor show a single-core score of 2,207 and a multicore score of 7,408.

While these scores don't rival most modern laptop processors, they're solid for a tablet. Those Geekbench scores rival the Apple A15 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processors used in recent tablets and smartphones. And if the Dimensity 9300+ offers an upgrade on the Dimensity 9300's performance, that can only mean good things for Samsung tablet users.

In my hands-on testing, I found the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra offered quick, reactive performance. The tablet was able to quickly open applications and switch between programs, even with multiple apps open in the background.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra: Battery life

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra has an 11,200 mAh (milliampere-hour) lithium-polymer battery. While it's possible to estimate the battery's life by taking the 11,200 mAh rating and using an estimated mAh of power consumption, the Tab S10 Ultra and Tab S10+ are the first flagship tablets to use the new MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ chipset, which makes power consumption estimates tricky.

Essentially, we'll have to wait until we get the Tab S10 Ultra into our labs to run it through the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test to properly compare it to other tablets.

On our battery test, the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra lasted for 9 hours and 27 minutes. The tablet's 11,200 mAh battery was the same as that of the S10 Ultra, so we would likely expect similar results even though the Tab S9 Ultra used a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550 processor.

What's next

In my limited time with the Galaxy S10 Ultra, I could tell that it definitely earned its "premium" rating.

The tablet has a gorgeous, bright display and sleek modern aesthetics. It weighs a measly 2.35 pounds and is just 0.21 inches thick.

We'll have to wait until we can get a Tab S10 Ultra into our testing labs to be absolutely certain of how it compares to competition like the Apple iPad (10th Gen) or Lenovo Tab Extreme .

And while your mileage may vary if you need it to replace your laptop, it can certainly claim to

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