Samsung isn’t one to shy away from blowing its own trumpet, so when the company goes to the effort of making this huge 14.6-inch tablet IP68 rated, it’s going to talk about it. That’s right, this is – according to Samsung – the first premium tablet to get this rating.
I’m going to overlook the fact that Sony had IP65/68 protection on the Xperia Z4 Tablet back in 2015, to celebrate that the Galaxy Tab could indeed be the tablet for all your bathing needs. And it’s not just the tablet that’s protected – the S Pen also offers IP68 protection. But what else is new?
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
First impressions
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is big, bold, and amazingly premium. The glorious display and slim but solid build give the Tab S9 Ultra appeal – if you can figure out how to use all that space.
Design and build
- 208.6 x 326.4 x 5.5mm, 732g
- IP68 protection
In reality, not a huge amount is new. The Ultra model of the Galaxy Tab family was introduced with the Tab S8 Ultra in 2022, so this is very much a follow-up, presenting the same questions as the original tablet. It certainly targets a particular type of user, as this isn’t a tablet you can easily use one-handed or without something to prop it up. In that sense, there’s very much the feeling that the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is a lightweight replacement for a laptop, rather than something you might pick up to watch Netflix on the move.
But what does remain is the high-quality build. The dimensions and weight are still just about the same, tipping the scales at over 732g – although that’s only about 50g more than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, while packing in an inch and a half more display. The bodywork is aluminium again, and it feels reassuringly sturdy, while being almost impossibly thin at 5.5mm.
As I said in the introduction, there’s now IP68 protection, which is great for peace of mind for what is, admittedly, an expensive tablet (starting at $1200 or £1200). Yes, you’re unlikely to want to take it into the bath, but you could prop it up in a case at the side to watch your favourite show. I suspect that waterproofing will be more useful for protecting from water leaking into your bag when you get caught in the rain, or when you knock that third glass of wine over it. Samsung is also going to offer a case that extends protection to MIL standards too, so it will be properly protected.
Incorporated into the body are 20 per cent larger speakers – four of them – tuned by AKG and supporting Dolby Atmos to make any media consumption all the more sumptuous. I didn’t have time to test the performance during my hands-on time with the new device, but good sound quality will certainly boost the entertainment experience.
Flip the tablet over and there is a dual camera on the rear, now with separated lenses, so it looks like the Galaxy S23 family of phones. Alongside this is the magnetic dock for the S Pen, which will charge your pen whichever way you slot it into place. In addition to the standard pen that comes with the tablet, there’s a new S Pen Creator Edition, which supports multiple tips and has enhanced tilt detection for a more dynamic drawing experience. I didn’t test this, but digital artists might want to pick one up.
First impressions match what we felt about the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra: it’s undoubtedly large, but in many ways, only as useful as the case you might attach to it.
Display and hardware
- 14.6in, Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 60-120Hz
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, 12/16GB RAM, 256/512/1TB storage, microSD to 1TB
- 11,200mAh
Samsung hasn’t confirmed the actual resolution of the 14.6-inch display, but we suspect it’s the same 2960 x 1848 pixels as the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra. At first glance you can see this is a Samsung AMOLED display, rich in colours and punchy – it just looks great. On the previous edition of this device, we found it great for consuming content and we’d expect that to be the same on the Tab S9 Ultra, although we haven’t had the chance to test that so far. There’s new competition in the massive tablet market from the likes of the Lenovo Tab Extreme, which also sells itself on its great big display.
The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra offers a 120Hz refresh rate to keep your content scrolling smooth, while supporting HDR formats too. Everything I’ve seen so far looks great, but we’ll have to test out a lot more content before we deliver any sort of definitive verdict.
It’s worth mentioning that this 16:10 aspect isn’t the most common, but it does work pretty well on a larger device. A number of laptops use this aspect to give a little more height in the display which is more convenient when working with documents – and it’s hard to see that anyone would opt for the Tab S9 Ultra without considering it for working. The Tab S9 Ultra feels natural in landscape (reinforced by the two front-facing cameras), but in portrait it just feels too big. If that’s what you want, the smaller Tab S9+ is probably a better option.
Moving over to the hardware and Samsung leverages the agreement it has with Qualcomm for a specially-clocked version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. That “for Galaxy” hardware means it’s just a mite more powerful than other tablets on the same platform. There are storage options, meaning you can choose 12/256GB, 12/512GB or the top 16GB and 1TB storage pairing. The prices ramp up dramatically as you spec up, so be warned.
There’s a large 11,200mAh battery which should see you through a day, depending on what you do with it.
A mind for creativity
- DeX mode
- Multi Control
- One UI
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra comes with support for features that will make it more useful than just an entertainment tablet. There’s DeX mode, allowing a desktop-like working experience, as well as comprehensive split screen options. With Google now putting more effort into supporting larger screen devices (as seen in some of the Pixel Tablet experiences), the user interface for tablet users on Android is slowly getting better.
But Samsung has been at the forefront for a lot of the time, making tweaks and changes in One UI to make it more useful. There’s support for creativity apps like LumaFusion, Clip Studio Paint and ArcSite – with the announcement of the exclusive addition of GoodNotes too. This is the most popular note-taking app on iPad and now it’s coming to Samsung Galaxy Tab too.
Then you have Samsung Multi Control so you can control your Samsung phone from your Samsung Tablet to take advantage of the ecosystem a little better. There’s lots about the experience I still have to explore and I’m not expecting it to be hugely different to the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra – but it should all be faster.
The cameras
- 13MP main, 8MP ultrawide rear
- 12MP ultrawide front
I’m not going to dwell on the cameras for too long, because tablet cameras don’t get the same sort of use that smartphone cameras do. Unless you’re that person waving a tablet around at the school performance filming your kids with a giant slab – in which case, please stop.
Needless to say, Samsung’s aim is to give you cameras that deliver when you want to use them – likely for ad hoc capture or video calling, rather than for snapping sunsets or selfies. So the fact that Samsung just says there’s a 13-megapixel main camera on the back supported by an 8-megapixel ultrawide – along with a pair of 12-megapixel ultrawide cameras on the front is just about sufficient. I didn’t test them during my hands-on time.
One of the useful features of the front cameras on the Tab S8 Ultra was face unlocking, meaning you don’t have to worry about using the under-display fingerprint scanner. But again, in my time with the S9 Ultra, I didn’t explore this function.
First impressions
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra impresses with its slim build and bold display, wanting to give you access to a rarer big screen tablet experience. It unapologetically packs in the specs to help it perform, leaving you to decide exactly what you’ll do with all that space. With pre-order offers including a slim book cover keyboard (in some regions), it’s a veritable Android laptop replacement. For digital artists the space will have appeal and if you want to pack this into your bag instead of a laptop, it certainly looks like it will deliver.
The app experience around Android tablets isn’t as mature as it is for iPad – and this larger Samsung tablet just about undercuts the price of the iPad Pro 12.9, so you can see where Samsung thinks the customers will come from. We’ll be exploring the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra in a full review as soon as we can.