The 12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ ($599.99) is the bigger of Samsung’s two Fan Version tablets, with a much bigger display screen and a better worth than the ten.9-inch, $449.99 Galaxy Tab S9 FE. Each are relative bargains in contrast with the flagship Galaxy Tab S9 line, which begins at $799.99. Thanks partially to its premium supplies and design, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ gives a high-end expertise that belies its comparatively cheap worth. Along with stable efficiency, it options Samsung’s highly effective Android productiveness tweaks and tight integration throughout the Samsung ecosystem, and it comes with an S Pen stylus. On this worth vary, we additionally just like the $499 Google Pixel Pill, which features a stand that turns it into a sensible show, however the Tab S9 FE+ is our Editors’ Alternative decide for Android tablets because of its steadiness of options and worth.
A Premium Really feel With no Premium Value
The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ comes throughout as a close to equal to the pricier, top-of-the-line Tab S9 collection relating to the {hardware}, with high-quality supplies and an identical feeling of class.
It measures 11.24 by 7.30 by 0.26 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.38 kilos. The $999 Galaxy Tab S9+ has the identical 12.4-inch display screen measurement however measures a barely smaller 11.23 by 7.30 by 0.22 inches and weighs 1.28 kilos. For additional comparability, the Pixel Pill measures 10.2 by 6.7 by 0.3 inches and weighs 1.09 kilos, and the $599 Apple iPad Air is available in at 9.74 by 7.02 by 0.24 inches and 1.02 kilos. These latter two tablets have smaller 11-inch screens. If you happen to like the concept of these smaller dimensions, check out the ten.9-inch Galaxy Tab S9 FE, which is available in at 10.01 by 6.53 by 0.26 inches and 1.15 kilos. Each the Tab S9 FE and FE+ can be found in 4 colours: grey, lavender, mint, or silver. The Tab S9 FE is on the market with 5G ($549.99), however solely in grey; the FE+ would not have a 5G variant.
Just like the common Tab S9 collection, the Tab S9 FE and FE+ have a ranking of IP68, which means they’re dustproof and might deal with being immersed in water for as much as half-hour. The Pixel Pill and the iPad Air do not have IP rankings, so this can be a level of distinction for the Tab S9 FE line and invitations eventualities to be used poolside or on the seashore.
The 12.4-inch LCD of the Tab S9 FE+ has a decision of two,560 by 1,600 pixels with a refresh fee of 90Hz. That is one space the place Samsung reduce prices a bit; the pricier Tab S9 collection all characteristic OLED shows and considerably greater resolutions. Colours are nonetheless good on the Tab S9 FE+, however the LCD cannot produce the distinction of a pricier OLED panel. Animations seem clean when the system is just not beneath intense load, however the show’s brightness is not fairly sufficient to deal with intense daylight. Indoors, the Tab S9 FE+ has no drawback with ambient lighting. The bezels across the display screen are a bit of thicker than these of the Tab S9, nevertheless it’s a minor downside.
(Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)Going across the gadget, the wide-angle front-facing digital camera is centered inside the bezel of the lengthy prime edge. The mixed energy button/fingerprint sensor and quantity rocker are to the left and the microSD card slot is to the suitable. The fingerprint sensor labored properly once I held the pill in portrait mode, however I bumped into some error messages when utilizing the pill in panorama orientation. Fortunately it took solely a small adjustment of my finger (or the pill) to unlock the gadget.
There are two AKG-tuned audio system. The grilles are discovered on every brief aspect of the pill. A USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port for energy and knowledge switch is on one brief edge as properly. The opposite lengthy edge options two indentations and three pogo connectors to connect optionally available equipment like a keyboard.
(Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)There is a large sheet of steel spanning the rear with two cameras with a magnetic strip to carry the included S Pen, the Samsung emblem, and antenna traces.
Highly effective Samsung Software program
The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ runs on Android 13 and can get 4 Android OS updates and 5 years of safety updates. Samsung’s One UI runs atop Android and permits for seamless actions like taking a name or responding to a textual content if the pill is linked to a Samsung telephone. (iPhones and iPads work collectively this fashion, too.) The S9 FE+ also can act as a secondary wi-fi show for Samsung Galaxy Guide laptops.
Inventory Android permits you to run two apps on the display screen together with a floating video participant. Samsung provides you the choice to tile three apps on the show together with pop-up apps and a floating video window. It can save you app pairs and app trios to the taskbar or the house display screen so you possibly can all the time have your favourite duo or trio launch collectively. The taskbar on the underside of the display screen makes it simple to convey your favourite or most up-to-date apps to the foreground.
(Credit score: Iyaz Akhtar)Whereas some Android apps and options can appear misplaced on bigger gadgets just like the 14.6-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Extremely, they really feel extra at residence on the 12.4-inch show of the Tab S9 FE+. Extra at residence doesn’t imply good—some Android apps nonetheless appear to be large telephone apps with an excessive amount of useless area. This isn’t one thing that iPad house owners need to cope with as a lot for the reason that platform has many extra tablet-optimized apps out there.
Sketching with the included S Pen is enjoyable; the expertise is responsive and feels pure with minimal lag. Urgent laborious on the display screen with the S Pen does result in a rippling impact on the show, so be light. The Tab S9 FE+ gives extra worth than another tablets by together with the stylus. Apple costs $79 to $129 for its Pencil stylus, as an illustration.
Samsung’s Dex software program can also be onboard. It permits you to use the pill extra like a standard pc with an open desktop and taskbar, and functions that may be organized in resizable home windows. You may work together with Dex utilizing contact, nevertheless it typically works higher with an exterior mouse or trackpad and keyboard. Switching from Android to Dex can take a couple of seconds and, when open, will present you a desktop with all of your open Android apps minimized within the taskbar.
For probably the most half, Dex can simulate a desktop working system fairly properly, however when push involves shove, it nonetheless cannot exchange the robustness of a Home windows pill and even iPadOS 17 on the iPad. The Tab S9 FE+ is an effective Android pill that provides you a lot of choices, however Android nonetheless wants some work earlier than it may actually exchange a laptop computer.
Efficiency, Connectivity, and Sound
We examined the bottom mannequin of the pill, which has 8GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. An upgraded mannequin options 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $699.99. Each have a microSD card slot so you possibly can add an extra 1TB or storage should you select. The entire Tab S9 FE fashions are powered by the Samsung Exynos 1380 system on a chip (SoC).
Efficiency is one space the place the Tab S9 FE+ feels much less like a flagship mannequin than the usual line. Typically apps are gradual to load and animations can stutter if a number of apps are operating on the similar time. These points occurred sometimes in testing, however did not happen to the purpose the place it was problematic. The Galaxy Tab S9 Extremely, which makes use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy and has 12GB of RAM, loaded up Dex in about two seconds in contrast with anyplace from 5 to 9 seconds on the Tab S9 FE+. It is attainable the 12GB mannequin will provide smoother efficiency.
On Geekbench 6, a set of benchmarks that quantifies uncooked computing energy, the Tab S9 FE+ scored 1,011 on the single-core check and a pair of,897 on the multi-core check. For comparability, the Pixel Pill, which runs on Google’s Tensor G2 chip, scored 1,415 and three,658. The highest-of-the-line Galaxy Tab S9 Extremely blows them each out of the water with scores of two,069 and 5,408, whereas the iPad Air scored 1,712 and 6,743.
On the PCMark Work 3.0 check, which evaluates normal cellular duties, the Tab S9 FE+ reached a rating of 12,223, which is a bit of higher than the Pixel Pill’s 10,386, however inferior to the Tab S9 Extremely’s 15,606
(Credit score: Samsung)Gaming efficiency was fairly good in testing. The resource-intensive Genshin Affect performed properly even when settings had been set to excessive and 60fps, however there was the occasional slowdown. Throughout gameplay, the pill felt cool to the contact when examined for 20 minutes. Much less-intensive video games like Alto’s Odyssey and Mario Kart Tour performed completely properly.
In our battery check, by which we stream HD video over Wi-Fi with the show at full brightness, the pill’s 10,090mAh battery lasted 7 hours and 23 minutes. As compared, the Pixel Pill’s 7,020mAh battery lasted 5 hours and 25 minutes, the Tab S9 Extremely’s 11,200mAh battery lasted 9 hours and half-hour, and the iPad Air solely reached 5 hours and 11 minutes.
There isn’t a charger supplied within the field, however the Tab S9 FE+ can quick cost at as much as 45W. We discovered that it took 1 hour and 40 minutes to cost from 0% to 100% at that charging pace. A 15-minute cost introduced the battery as much as 19% in testing.
The pill options Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, and as talked about, 5G is on the market on the smaller Tab S9 FE.
When linked to a Wi-Fi 6 entry level in testing, peak obtain speeds on the Tab S9 FE+ hit 463Mbps and uploads topped out at 17.1Mbps (that gradual add pace is extra a operate of the ISP than the pill). For comparability, the Pixel Pill reached 388Mbps down and 12.2Mbps up when examined in the identical spot. Taking the Tab S9 FE+ as far-off as attainable from the entry level in my condo noticed speeds drop to 163Mbps down and 13.2Mbps up, whereas the Pixel Pill reached 156Mbps down and 13.7Mbps up. In different phrases, Wi-Fi efficiency is kind of comparable between the 2 Android slates, with Samsung doing barely higher on the community’s edge.
The audio system are fairly loud and clear, however the bass is a bit on the weak aspect. Testing the audio system with The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” we discovered the bass to be OK, however a pair of Bluetooth headphones or a Bluetooth speaker will finally give you a greater expertise. The audio system reached a most quantity of 95.3dB and did not distort even with the quantity maxed out. The Google Pixel Pill in the meantime, reached a peak loudness of 97.5dB.
One Good Digicam, Two Competent Ones
The 2 8MP rear cameras are common shooters that produce photos which can be a bit of oversaturated in coloration, which is commonplace throughout Samsung gadgets. Photos are comparatively clear, however zooming in you possibly can see that high-quality particulars are misplaced. When utilizing the 8MP ultra-wide digital camera, photos seem distorted within the viewfinder, however the ensuing photos have lens correction utilized to take away that fish-eye look in order that straight traces seem straight and never warped. Nonetheless, there may be nonetheless warping evident when the topic is an individual on the fringe of the body.
The 12MP front-facing digital camera can produce higher photos than the 2 rear cameras. This is no surprise, as you might be extra probably to make use of the pill for video calls than taking snapshots.
For video conferencing, the front-facing digital camera does an excellent job. It gives a pointy picture with loads of element and the microphones seize clear audio. In contrast to the iPad Air, Samsung locations the front-facing digital camera on the lengthy fringe of the bezel, which makes it rather more pure to make use of when the pill is in panorama mode. At the moment, the one iPad with a front-facing digital camera in the identical orientation is the $449 Apple iPad.
A Excessive-Worth Android Pill
If you happen to’re a fan of Samsung’s Android customizations and you’ve got different Samsung gadgets you possibly can join it with, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ is the Android pill to get, providing related performance to the flagship Tab S9 for lots much less cash. It is not fairly as highly effective as the usual Tab S9, however the Tab S9+ FE has an interesting, high-quality construct and greater than sufficient efficiency for sending emails, taking part in video games, and watching movies. Like most Android tablets, the Tab S9 FE+ continues to be not a laptop computer substitute, however contemplating its worth, that is simple to forgive. Moreover, Samsung’s Dex mode and extra multitasking software program make it a greater productiveness decide than the Pixel Pill, and that earns it our Editors’ Alternative award for Android tablets. If you happen to discover the Tab S9+ FE too large or costly, nevertheless, we advocate the marginally smaller and cheaper Tab S9 FE in equal measure.
