Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra hands-on: they ain’t getting bigger than this!

Mario Bautista October 3, 2024

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Intro

Samsung typically refreshes its tablets in about 18 months time. However, with the recent race for AI features, it seems the company deemed it necessary to relaunch new Galaxy Tab flagships, or at least some of them.

So, new models were announced, and we had some hands-on time with them. They are the Galaxy Tab S10+ and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. You will notice that the smallest (and cheapest) Galaxy Tab S9 was not refreshed, at least for now.

The big guy — that door-sized Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra — is coming at the same starting price of $1,199.99 and still has the excellent S Pen in the box. But what else is there and is it worth your attention? Here are our first impressions.

Table of Contents:

Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Specs

Top-tier Android tablet

Samsung is probably the only Android manufacturer to regularly launch tablets with premium components and high-tier hardware inside. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is, of course, a natural competitor to the latest Apple iPad Pro 13″. However, Samsung threw us a curveball with the processor used inside:

Specs	Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra
Size and Weight	12.85 x 8.21 x 0.21 in (326.4 x 208.6 x 5.4 mm) 25.50 oz (723.0 g)
Display	14.6″, Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 2,960 x 1,848 px, 120 Hz
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 9300+
Software	Android 14 / OneUI
Cameras	13 MP main 8 MP ultra-wide 12 MP front wide 12 MP front ultra-wide
Battery Size	11,200 mAh
Charging Speeds	45 W wired charge
Prices	12 GB / 256 GB for $1,199.99

You will notice that not a lot has changed here, compared to the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. Aside from that processor, everything is the same down to the battery capacity. So, what’s going on with this tablet?

Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Design and Display

Same thing, 3rd time in a row

The front of the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, vertically, the Sketch app is open

Return of the huge screen (Image credit – PhoneArena)

OK, this is the 3rd time we are getting the same Galaxy Tab Ultra. No complaints here, Apple drags on the same iPad design for years, too. If it works, it works. But we do wish Samsung would’ve tried to at least shrink that display notch that houses the dual cameras, at least a little?

According to on-paper specs, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is ever-so-slightly thinner than the Tab S9 Ultra — 5.4 mm vs 5.5 mm — and slightly lighter too, at 718 g vs 730 g. But those differences are extremely miniscule. Looking at those two tablets invokes the “Corporate wants you to find the difference between those two pictures” meme. And the same goes with the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra.

There’s no change in the material used, but Samsung does state that it’s a 10% stronger aluminum build. That’s a welcome upgrade for a tablet that is so, so thin.

The side of the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, showing how thin it is

It is SO thin! (Image credit – PhoneArena)

That’s fine, so what is new? The display!

The panel itself is still a huge 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X. That’s Samsung’s branding, which basically translates to “These have great peak brightness and a dynamic refresh rate up to 120 Hz”. That’s not new. What is new is the anti-reflective coating on top, which Samsung says only reflects less than 2% light. That is huge!

Closeup of the screen glass, the display is off. Reflections are minimal

Anti-reflective coating (Image credit – PhoneArena)

As a reminder, the Galaxy S24 Ultra phone has a special Gorilla Armor glass on top, which reduces reflectivity by 70%. And it definitely enhances the experience, as the screen is much more vibrant and offers better visibility, even if it didn’t have big upgrades in brightness. We didn’t have a Galaxy S24 Ultra for our hands-on session to compare with, but the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra’s display glass definitely looked like it’s reflecting a lot less. We will make sure to take note and pay special attention to this when we get to the full review!

As for biometrics, we still have an in-screen fingerprint scanner on those models, though a less-secure face unlock option is available.

Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Camera

Don’t hold that one up at a show

The dual cameras on the back of the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra

Dual cameras on front and back (Image credit – PhoneArena)

Cameras on tablets — the ever-contentious topic. Nobody is going to hold up a 14.6-inch tablet to take photos with when out on a hike or tour trip, obviously. But, if you are paying flagship money, you should at least be getting decent cameras.

The ones on the front are most important, when talking about tablets, as you typically find yourself using them for video calls. On paper, it seems that Samsung adjusted nothing here — we have the same 12 MP wide and 12 MP ultra-wide duo. And yes, the Samsung software does have a face-follow feature, so you can use that ultra-wide camera to move around and have it follow you while on the call.

On the back, we have a 13 MP wide and 8 MP ultra-wide camera. Again, no change. In our experience, the main camera is decent enough for what you want a tablet camera to do — take a quick picture of something you want to share in a chat right now, or scan a document to sign, or something in-between. The ultra-wide camera, we haven’t used in the past beyond testing it. Again, it’s decent, but not as good as on flagship phones like the Galaxy S24 series.

Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Performance & Benchmarks

Surprise! It’s not a Snapdragon

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10+ from the front, screens are on, showing the default homescreen

A wild MediaTek has appeared (Image credit – PhoneArena)

In a weird turn of events, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra does not come with a Snapdragon processor. Instead, it’s powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+, built on a 3rd gen 4 nm process. This is weird, considering that Samsung has that partnership with Qualcomm, and the Samsung phones come with special, overtuned Snapdragons wearing the “Made for Galaxy” moniker with pride.

What’s going on here? We couldn’t find out. But Samsung does claim that this processor offers an 18% CPU speed increase and 36% GPU performance improvement over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that powered last year’s Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra.

To be clear, we are not worried about performance. We’ve had experience with the Dimensity 9000 series — we are specifically thinking about the ROG Phone 6D Ultimate that shipped with a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ in 2022. Back then, it was hitting just as hard as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which was its contemporary rival. And the phone itself felt snappy and ran perfectly well.

We are still curious how well Samsung has optimized for the new silicon, how thermals are handled, and how well it will do in sustained performance. We do have to wait to put a review unit through torture tests, though.

Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Software

Samsung’s software is definitely a huge selling point for Galaxy devices. The company takes the Android operating system and dresses it up beyond recognition. And, over the years, One UI has become both pretty and functional. You can quick-launch into splitscreen app duos, you can have apps floating in window versions for multi-tasking (hey, you do have a 14.6″ screen to fill up), you have a plethora of apps that have been coded to work perfectly with the S Pen stylus. Not just Notes, you can even mark and draw over your Calendar!
Of course, the big thing this year is AI. It’s worth noting that the Galaxy Tab S9 series did get the AI features that came out with the Galaxy S24 phones. This includes the summarizing of websites, notes, and voice recordings, Circle to Search, Chat Assist, translation, and the generative image editing features for deleting or re-adjusting objects in photos.

With the Galaxy Tab S10 series, we are getting the Sketch to Image feature, which was introduced with the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Basically, you can draw within Notes, or you can draw something on top of an actual photo, and the AI will generate an image of what you drew, in multiple styles. We also now have equation-solving within Notes, powered by Galaxy AI. Wink, wink, response to the calculator notes with Apple Intelligence on the new iPads.

It’s 2024, everyone needs an AI key (Image credit – PhoneArena)

The new Book Cover Keyboards will also now feature an AI key to quickly open up Gemini or Bixby, depending on your choice.

Are those two features too complex to be pushed to the Galaxy Tab S9 series via an update? We are perplexed, but who knows — we will see in due time.

Galaxy Tab S10 Battery

Same size

The bottom side of the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, the USB C port and two speaker grilles are visible

USB C to charge (Image credit – PhoneArena)

Same tablet, same size, same 11,200 mAh battery. The difference in endurance here will come mainly from the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ processor, but we don’t expect a huge change in battery life, compared to the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. In fact, you may be able to squeeze a bit more out of it, as with the non-reflective glass, you may end up using the screen at a lower brightness setting most of the time.

But those are just assumptions. The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra gave us about 7.5 hours of vide streaming, 10 hours of web browsing, or almost 6 hours of 3D gaming. If the MediaTek processor improves the gaming endurance of the S10 Ultra, that’d be a welcome upgrade.

Should you wait for the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra?

We are having a hard time finding huge upgrades here, for people that might have the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra or Tab S9 Ultra. It’s definitely an upgrade that looks to keep the Galaxy Tab S current and on top of the Android foodchain, so first-time buyers have something to go to that’s recent.

It’s definitely still a premium-feeling, well-designed tablet, and the new anti-reflective glass is a very welcome upgrade. We do have to test it extensively against the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, for sure, but for now — we are not seeing huge excitement over this model. More to come!