Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus - Superb Tablet

Despite the fact that tablets have been around for 15 years or more, the fundamental excitement about their justification has never really faded. The most obvious purpose of a tablet is to get a larger screen than on a mobile phone. But implied in that is that the tablet is then a complement rather than a replacement or something that stands on its own, and from that follows "at the lowest possible price." If the tablet is to replace something, it is rather the laptop, for which there are excellent cases with keyboards and touchpads, but the system sets its limitations. When it comes to adding something unique, it is primarily as a drawing tablet for creators using a stylus that the tablet has a niche.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab S10 series wants to be all of this except cheap.

There are two models in the series, Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. No standard model, then, here Samsung chooses to continue with the Tab S9 in the lineup. There are differences between the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Ultra in memory configurations and front camera, but the only significant difference is the size, where the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus has a 12.4-inch screen and the Galaxy Tab S24 Ultra has a 14.6-inch screen. It is the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus we have tested.

The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is only small in comparison to its big brother Ultra, but tablets over twelve inches are becoming the new normal, from around ten inches which was previously more common. Then there's a difference in inches and inches, compared to, for example, Xiaomi's and Oneplus's 12-inch tablets, the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus has a more elongated format. Good perhaps for modern TV shows, less good for documents or if you want to work with the tablet in landscape mode.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus costs from 14,000 kronor with Wi-Fi connection and 256 GB storage, but if you want built-in 5G connection and 512 GB storage, the price goes up to 17,500 kronor. The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus thus costs more than most top models of mobile phones. A pen is included in the price in all versions, but protective case, keyboard, or charger you have to buy separately.

Best Screen

If you're going to pay 14 grand for a larger screen, it should at least be a good one. And the screens in the Tab S10 series are definitely among the best you can find in tablets. To start with, the Tab S10 Plus has an AMOLED screen that provides brighter colors, true blacks, and no shifts when you tilt the tablet at different angles. There are LCD screens in tablets that come close to Samsung's OLED screens, but there's still something special about a large-format OLED screen. The screen also has a fast response with 120 Hertz. New compared to the Tab S9 Plus is that the screen has received an anti-reflective treatment that reduces glare. The anti-reflective treatment doesn't work miracles; you still get reflections, but they are more subdued and less distracting. On the other hand, I find the screen to be extra sensitive to fingerprints, which are clearly visible when I watch movies.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab S series delivers tablets with top performance, and when it comes to top chipsets, Samsung usually alternates between its own Exynos chipsets and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 chipsets. Therefore, it comes as a surprise that the Tab S10 series is equipped with the Mediatek chipset Dimensity 9300+. Mediatek usually struggles to compete in the same class as Qualcomm, but Samsung assures that the Tab S10 Plus and Ultra have 18 percent faster processors, 28 percent faster graphics processors, and 14 percent faster neural processors than the Galaxy Tab S9, and this seems to match our comparative measurements. The Dimensity 9300+ is not quite as fast as the fastest chipsets, but still faster than last year's top chipset.

AI as marketing

The reason Samsung is launching the Tab S10 series now, and not as usual in the spring one and a half years after the previous model, is certainly that they want to have completely new devices that can run their new Galaxy AI. The Galaxy Tab S9 can probably do this too, so it's partly about making it appear that this year's performance boost and Galaxy AI are a technological leap, which they are not.

When it comes to Galaxy AI, in other words, we find all the features introduced during the year with Samsung Galaxy S24 and Z Flip and Fold 6. These include language features such as audio transcription and direct translation, features that currently do not work in Swedish but where Samsung promises Swedish language support before the end of the year. Additionally, there are image processing features like moving or removing objects in an image and having the empty space behind auto-generated. We have written a lot about this feature, but it can be summarized that the value of the result is questionable.

One of the features that works well on the tablet is the ability to draw something in an image and then have Galaxy AI translate your strokes into something photorealistic. Partly because it's easier to draw on a larger screen, partly because you have a pen to draw with. This way, you can add cars, dinosaurs, and other things to photos in a way that feels somewhat realistic and natural. But for most people, this is probably more of a fun than a useful feature.

You can also generate AI images from sketches in Samsung's note-taking app. You get more of a drawing than a photorealistic image. The result I get when I draw and let AI interpret can best be described as unpredictable. Sometimes it interprets my drawing more as an instruction to be freely adapted, my jagged horizon turns into a mountain landscape, but without the AI using my horizon line or other lines from my original sketch. Other times, the AI uses my lines exactly as they are and fills in with content between them, which often leads to surreal effects. Now, I'm not particularly good at drawing sketches, but that's precisely why I might need a little help from AI.

Solid sound

If we look at the tablet outside the screen, it has thin bezels around the screen, a back in extra hard aluminum, and the tablet is thin and reasonably light for its size. You unlock it with a fingerprint reader located in the screen. I don't think it's entirely practical on a tablet with a fingerprint reader in the screen, but at least you can tap on the screen to see where the fingerprint reader is located.

Around the screen, there are four speakers with excellent sound for movie watching. Samsung has an AI-based feature to enhance dialogue sound in movies so that you can hear the lines more easily, but most people might prefer it to sound as the filmmakers intended.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus has no features that answer the question of why you should pay 14,000 kronor for a tablet, at least if you're not an illustrator. But if money is not an issue, it is in every way an excellent device for your tablet needs. Whatever they may be.

Questions and Answers

How is the keyboard you can buy separately? Samsung has not provided a keyboard this time. However, we assume that, just like for the Galaxy Tab S9, it is excellent.

Can the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus replace a computer? It depends on what you plan to use it for. Browsing the web, managing emails, sure. But if you start moving images or documents between different apps, Android quickly shows its limitations as a computer system.

How is the battery life? Quite average for a tablet, despite the AMOLED screen supposedly consuming less power.

An alternative

The iPad Pro is probably the product Samsung wants the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus to compete against. Samsung's screen is sharper, but the iPad has better support for customized apps for creators.