This creator-friendly behemoth might be my new favorite Android tablet

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Android lovers may have no choice when it comes to high-end tablets, but that doesn’t mean Samsung is resting on its laurels. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is a Google-powered alternative to the iPad Pro, with a larger screen and performance that will leave similarly sized laptops in the dust.

It doesn’t do anything by half-measures, simply offering a huge 14.6-inch display, the same anti-reflective technology as the Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone, and double the help in Galaxy AI-powered apps. This is also the first time Samsung has chosen to use a MediaTek processor in its flagship model instead of a Qualcomm chip or one of its internal Exynos solutions.

This means it’s not lacking in power, but that performance comes at a price. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra costs a hefty £1,299 and rises to over £1,700 if you opt for the headliner with 5G support and 1TB of storage. And that’s before you buy the optional keyboard cover. But after some hands-on time before the official release, I can’t help but love how OTT it is.

Design and construction: great slate

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra makes a convincing impression of its predecessor. It’s a little lighter and a little slimmer, but you’d have to look very closely to tell it apart from the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. They’re both just giant slabs of glass and aluminum, here in either Moonstone Gray or Platinum Silver.

It’s still so heavy that I wouldn’t really want to use it with one hand, even for reading, and yet it’s thinner than virtually any smartphone at just 5.4mm. It doesn’t feel tacky though, and the IP68 rating means it can withstand adequate submersion – if you have a sink or toilet bowl large enough to drop it in. As before, the included S Pen party feature involves writing underwater, although I have no idea when I’ll actually need to do that.

The stylus can be magnetically docked and charged on the back, next to the dual camera lenses. Pogo pins on the bottom edge work perfectly with the official Samsung Book Cover Keyboard, available with or without trackpad; the former will set you back £339, although one is included with the tablet if you buy it before the end of 2024.

I haven’t had a chance to try out the under-display fingerprint sensor, but I don’t expect it to be slower than the Tab S9 Ultra’s fast module.

Screen and sound: great size for me

Samsung may not have beaten Apple in panel technology since the latest iPad Pro has moved to an OLED display, but the Galaxy Tab Ultra still wins in terms of size. At 14.6 inches, this thing is gigantic. The 16:10 aspect ratio is perfect for working with two apps side by side, and it handles 16:9 video content well with fewer list frames than Apple’s. The camera notch didn’t bother me in any way, and the frames are appropriately slim.

I didn’t have an iPad on hand to make a direct comparison, but the Galaxy hardly disappoints thanks to its wonderfully crisp 2960×1849 panel. The 120Hz refresh rate ensured that my S Pen sketches simply glided across the screen as I drew, apps they scrolled perfectly smoothly and the animations looked smooth.

It’s no surprise that OLED technology has delivered vibrant, dynamic colors, exceptional contrast, and deep, inky blacks that will make it hard for you to tear yourself away from TV shows on the streaming service. It was fantastically bright during my show, which was indoors but under harsh studio lighting, so I never had any difficulty seeing what was on the screen.

This is also thanks to the new anti-reflective coating, which does a great job of minimizing glare and keeping me from looking at my own reflection when a dark scene appeared on the YouTube demo tape I was testing with. It also didn’t seem to result in any improvement in contrast or viewing angle. If you spend a lot of time outdoors or in brightly lit places, this is certainly a reason to consider the Tab S10 Ultra.

I haven’t properly blasted the four stereo speakers, but given Samsung’s lack of improvements, I expect them to achieve performance comparable to the Tab S9 Ultra.

Cameras: double trouble

There haven’t been many changes to photography, with Samsung bringing back the same four snappers as last year. This means a 13MP main unit and an 8MP ultra-wide camera on the back, and a pair of 12MP sensors in the notch on the front. All of them are suitable for capturing 4K video.

I took some test shots during the demonstration, but couldn’t remove them for a closer look. Even with an extra year of image processing, I expect the quality to be very similar to the Tab S9 Ultra; this means decent rather than exceptional photos in good light, but better in almost all situations than a similarly priced smartphone.

Perfect for scanning documents, video calls and quick photos when your phone is out of range. I’ll have to spend more time with the Tab to decide whether the ultra-wide-angle secondary cameras actually add anything useful, or if they’re just there because many buyers still think “more is better.”

Software Experience: Full Artificial Intelligence

Featuring the latest version of Samsung OneUI for Android, the Tab S10 Ultra is the new figurehead of Galaxy AI on large-screen devices. Everything that first appeared on the Galaxy Z Fold6 foldable phone appears here, including a generative image editor that can remove objects, create new ones, and fill in gaps when resizing heavily cropped photos.

Transcription, translation and summarization can be delegated to AI, and the Notes app now offers a split-screen view, making it easier to digest long blocks of text. It will record and transcribe in the app too, so you don’t have to switch between it and the recorder.

There’s also Circle to Search, which can be easily done with the S Pen. I liked Sketch to Image the most; turns basic line drawings into more elaborate images in the graphic style of your choice, from pop art to cartoons. Portrait Studio can also turn your friends into animated avatars, which are great for social media and chatting apps.

It’s not as if the Tab S9 Ultra is completely devoid of AI improvements, though: many of them have been added in a software update, and I expect the rest to arrive relatively soon.

Performance and battery life: the next dimension

As the first Galaxy Tab with MediaTek internals, the S10 Ultra has something to prove. The Dimensity 9300 Plus is almost as fast as it gets in the Android environment, delivering a 15 to 30% performance increase in NPU, CPU and GPU-based tasks compared to last year’s Snapdragon-based Tab S9 Ultra.

A quick check of the Geekbench rankings suggests early reviewers have achieved a score in the 7,000-point range, which is a significant step up from the OnePlus Pad 2 and its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset – but still lags the M4-powered iPad Pro.

I can only speak of my brief demo session, during which the Tab S10 Ultra handled three-app multitasking without any complaints. Sketching and editing images was a breeze, and apps opened quickly. Playing the game shouldn’t be difficult either – even in the case of graphics-intensive titles. How well it handles 4K video editing in LumaFusion will show whether it can compete with the iPad for demanding creative professionals.

Choose a model with 256 GB or 512 GB of memory and you will get 12 GB of RAM; choose the 1TB model and the storage will be increased to 16GB. It’s a shame that you have to spend so much on more RAM, considering that a microSD expansion allows you to add additional storage later – and for much less money. All models have faster Wi-Fi 7 support, which is useful if you have a compatible router.

Battery life remains a mystery for now. The 11,200mAh cell in the Tab S10 Ultra sounds massive until you realize it has to power this behemoth of a screen. Last year’s effort took a few days for regular use and a full business day to actually get the job done, so I expect it will be similar here.

It will refuel at 45W via USB-C, but only if you have a compatible charger; Samsung no longer has one in the box.

Preliminary verdict on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra

The biggest doesn’t always mean either the bestbut after a quick demonstration, I can say that this is definitely the case with the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. Samsung’s flagship tablet is improved over its predecessor, offering more power, a glare-free screen, and all of Samsung’s latest AI additions. The longer promise of software updates is also very welcome. Since no one else competes at this end of the Android tablet spectrum, this is effectively a new yardstick.

However, there have only been minor gains over the Tab S9 Ultra, so owners won’t have much of a reason to upgrade. And while it outperforms the 13-inch iPad Pro, Apple’s tablet still leads the way when it comes to third-party creative software.

Therefore, it is a niche product – but at first glance, Samsung has actually filled this niche very nicely.

Technical data of Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra

Screen	14.6 inch, 2960 × 1848, 210 Hz AMOLED
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 9300 Plus
Memory	12/16 GB
Cameras	13 MP + 8 MP rear, 12 MP + 12 MP front
Storage	256 GB/512 GB/1 TB plus microSD expansion
Operating system	Android 14 with OneUI
Battery	11200 mAh with 45 W wired charging
Dimensions	209 x 326 x 5.4 mm, 718 g