Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra — The Ultimate Samsung Tablet?
Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Speeds And Feeds
Although I'm not normally much of a tablet user, I took advantage of the 120-hertz AMOLED 2X display on the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, mostly for content consumption — a mix of downloaded HDR10+ content and streaming content like Netflix and MLB.tv. I wasn't surprised to see that the Tab S10 Ultra had Wi-Fi 7, which is important to ensure a good streaming experience and good battery life. The Tab S10 Ultra comes in three configurations: 12GB RAM with 256GB of storage, 12GB RAM with 512GB of storage and 16GB RAM with 1TB of storage. I can't recommend the 16GB configuration unless you plan to multitask a lot on this device, especially since there's a microSD card slot with up to 1.5TB of expandable storage. Keep in mind that this is less than the Tab S10 FE, which launched earlier this year at $449 and $599 and supports up to 2TB microSD cards. That tablet also has a much less powerful Exynos 1380 and a smaller 90-hertz display.
The Tab S10 Ultra also comes with a quad-camera configuration, with two cameras on each side of the tablet for the best video calling experience. I don't recommend taking pictures or videos on any tablet, but if there's one tablet to do it on, this is the one. Speaking of cameras, this tablet does support both face unlock and fingerprint-sensor unlock. I found the face unlock to be quick and reliable, but the fingerprint sensor was inferior to the Galaxy S25 Ultra phone that I used alongside it. This tablet also comes with four AKG stereo speakers for an immersive audio experience.
My Hands-On Experience With The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra
My content consumption with this tablet meant watching movies and TV shows on planes and in hotel rooms. I also found it to be a handy companion alongside my laptop when I wanted to view a document while I was writing up a report. The number one use case for me was using MLB.tv to watch Padres games while on the road.
In all of my content consumption, I was truly impressed with the Tab S10 Ultra's battery life. A three-hour-long movie consumed only 15% to 20% of battery power, which meant that the tablet could have easily lasted through a transcontinental flight — showing multiple movies — without running out of battery. Samsung says that this tablet can do 16 hours of video playback, and I believe that those numbers are accurate based on my experience. That's truly impressive when you consider that it is using a 14.6-inch OLED; the same display in a laptop would probably struggle to compete with that kind of battery life. The 11,200 mAh battery helps, but so does a well-tuned display and the power-efficient MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor.
I also tried to use this tablet alongside my Samsung TV and Samsung smartphone, but I found that it was most useful alongside my Samsung laptop. I had never owned a Samsung TV before this year, so I never fully got to appreciate the integrations across the Samsung ecosystem like Smart View mirroring or SmartThings controls; I think Samsung should do more to promote and advertise its TVs alongside its smartphones and tablets to capitalize on these ecosystem integrations. The Samsung ecosystem simply gets better the more Samsung devices you have, just like with Apple.
Having said that, I feel like the focus here is on the smartphone and TV, but I think there should be better ways — beyond basic controls — to integrate the tablet, smartphone and PC along with the TV. I suspect that some of Samsung's challenges with its Bixby virtual assistant may have impeded those opportunities.
Comparing Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Performance Against Apple
Getting back to the Dimensity 9300+ processor, I was able to benchmark it against the rest of the Android field; using GeekBench 6, I found it to be similar in CPU performance to the S24 Ultra phone. (I don't benchmark many tablets, so I didn't have a relevant tablet comp for it at the time.) I also tested this tablet for ray-tracing graphics performance on 3DMark Solar Bay and saw that it was again fairly similar to the S24 Ultra from last year. Testing it on 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, one of the newer 3-D graphics benchmarks for phones, I found it to be slower than the S25 Ultra and the OnePlus 13, both of which feature the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor.
Compared to the Apple iPad Pro M4, this tablet delivered half the graphics performance, so there's still quite a gap between Samsung and Apple there. On GeekBench 6, the iPad Pro M4 nearly doubled the Tab S10 Ultra in both single core and multi-core performance. It is also worth considering that the iPad Pro only comes in 11- and 13-inch sizes, so the Tab S10 Ultra has a much larger display, even though it is similarly priced, given that the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999. Android tablets have struggled to compete with Apple on performance; it's clearly no different this year since we haven't seen many Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered tablets yet. That said, I did just lay hands on the OnePlus Tablet 3, which could potentially be a contender, though I suspect it might still fall short.
A Tablet That Can Take On The iPad Pro?
The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is an excellent tablet for content consumption, and I was very impressed with its image quality, sound depth and overall battery life. I would have liked to see deeper and better integration with the Samsung ecosystem, which I did benefit from while traveling with my smartphone, though I think there could be better second-screen experiences with the TV and laptop. I did like the extended display experience with the PC but would have loved to see that interaction improve further since so many people use their tablets alongside their PCs.
I think that in the Tab S10 Ultra, Samsung has one of the best Android tablets on the market today, but it's still hard to compete with Apple's M4 SoC in the iPad Pro — which beats even the powerful MediaTek Dimensity 9300+. To be clear, I don't think that performance is a weakness for the S10 Ultra, because everything ran smoothly and quickly, especially after the Samsung One UI 7.0 update. Apple's iPad Pro benefits from a tightly integrated iPadOS experience with blazing fast Apple Silicon, but also has a walled garden of software. I think Samsung still has room for improvement on raw performance numbers, but I also believe that both Apple and Samsung may have reached a point where performance is good enough for the vast majority of users. The S10 Ultra is the first time in a long time that I've enjoyed carrying a tablet along with my laptop, and I will miss using it on the road.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Tesla awards Elon Musk $29 billion worth of shares
Tesla is awarding its CEO Elon Musk a share package valued at about $29 billion. It is made up of 96 million shares of restricted stock. The move comes just six months after a judge ordered the electric vehicle maker to revoke Musk's massive pay package. On Monday, the company said in a regulatory filing that Musk must first pay it $23.34 per share of restricted stock that vests. That is equal to the exercise price per share of the 2018 pay package that was awarded to the company's CEO. In December, Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick reaffirmed her earlier ruling that Tesla must revoke Musk's multibillion-dollar pay package. She found that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. At the time, the judge also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys, who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million. The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk's 2018 compensation package, contending that shareholders who had voted for the 10-year plan in 2018 had been given misleading and incomplete information. In their defense, Tesla's board members asserted that the shareholders who ratified the pay plan a second time in June had done so after receiving full disclosures, thereby curing all the problems the judge had cited in her January ruling. As a result, they argued, Musk deserved the pay package for having raised Tesla's market value by billions of dollars. That pay package carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla's stock price. Musk appealed the order in March. A month later, Tesla said in a regulatory filing that it was creating a special committee to look at Musk's compensation as CEO.
Tom's Guide
15 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
I have a Samsung Galaxy S25 — these are the first 3 things I did to customize it
As impressive as the Samsung Galaxy S25 may be, the genius of this Android phone doesn't lie entirely in its AI features, its bright screen or its ability to provide a full day of use on a full charge. Rather, it's the phone's ability to be like a chameleon that adds to its appeal. With hundreds of customization options to choose from, I can personalize the Galaxy S25 like no other phone. While there are limits to this flexibility, most of the Galaxy S25's major operations can either be turned on and off or extensively modified to meet my personality, mobile needs and spur of the moment whims. While I did dozens of smaller tweaks, the first three big picture changes I made to my Galaxy S25 when I first got my hands on this phone involved customizing the lock screen, adding several widgets and changing what pressing the side button does. The good news is that any of these tasks are easy to do across any of the Galaxy S25 models and should take no more than a minute. It's time well spent because my S25 now is a lot closer to being my ideal phone. The Galaxy S25's lock screen is an evolutionary move forward from previous Galaxy models with the potential to show everything from the time and weather to the battery level. With this version, Samsung has added a Now Bar to surface must-see information. Here's how I make the Galaxy S25 lock screen my own. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. I start, predictably, in the Settings app by selecting the entry for Lock Screen and AOD. From there, tap on Edit Lock Screen to see an editable version of the screen. You can also customize your lock screen by pressing on the screen itself, and then unlocking your phone when prompted. The same interface pops up, ready for changes. The customization screen is a power tool that can change any of the parameters in real time. I can add, change or delete any element, such as remake the clock, alter the wallpaper or work with lock screen widgets. By default, there's a phone icon on the Galaxy S25 lock screen, but you can opt to swap that out for another shortcut or turn it off. Tap on the phone icon to see a wide variety of replacements, including instant access to the flashlight, Dark mode or opening a variety of other applets. Don't forget to tap Done in the upper right or the changes you make will disappear. There's a way to bypass the lock screen altogether by using Samsung's Extend Unlock. Whenever the phone is being held, near home (with the Location feature turned on) or next to a trusted device, your S25 stays unlocked. Just tap Extend Unlock and enter the phone's PIN to activate it. To make Extend Unlock work, you'll also register trusted devices such as a Galaxy Watch. Beware: using this feature will drain the phone's battery faster. The S25's widgets may be small but they are some of the most powerful items in the phone's customization arsenal. By creating shortcuts on the lock screen to any of my favorite tasks, widgets can streamline using my phone. Here's how to add them. From the Settings app, tap Wallpaper and Style. There, thumbnails show the lock screen on the left and the home screen on the right. Tap on the left thumbnail to start customizing the lock screen. If this is your first widget rodeo, use the Add widgets link that shows up under the clock. That opens the list of potential widgets available. The item's actions can now be customized, as in choosing between the two battery level widgets. Otherwise, go to widget town and include any of the ones on the list. As you can see above, I added one for direct access to the camera alongside widgets for the battery gauge and optimizing the phone. Then, I added the Calendar widget. There're six different formats to choose from, but I went with the simple day and date arrangement. A long press on any widget allows it to be moved around inside the lozenge or disappear entirely if you don't like the addition. Tap on the red minus (-) in the upper right of every installed widget to make it go bye-bye. Don't forget to tap Done, or all your widget work will be gone. The side button on the Galaxy S25 can do more than wake the phone when it's off. It's a powerful key that's ripe for individualizing a phone for an assortment of uses. There's no way to change the button's default action of putting the phone to sleep and waking it up with a short press of the side button. However, there's a lot that can be done to the side buttons assignments. Here's how to customize the side button to your liking. Go to Settings and select the Advanced Features section. Once there, the page offers the choice of using a double press to start any of eight possibilities, ranging from turning on the flashlight to firing up the Voice Recorder to an app. Tap on any option to set it up. (I'm using my side button to launch the camera.) In fact, I went a step further by tapping the Settings gear and picking to open the video shooting screen. All I need to do is press the red button and say, 'Action.' A long press of your side button will launch either the Google AI digital assistant, Samsung's much maligned Bixby assistant or the traditional Power off menu screen. It can turn the phone off, restart it or make an emergency call. The potential to customize the S25's settings is so deep that my phone now looks and acts just the way I like. When I'm using it, I hardly think about tasks and taps. I just tap and go.
Android Authority
15 minutes ago
- Android Authority
Pixel 10 series users could get free access to Google's smartest features (APK teardown)
TL;DR Code within the latest version of the Google app suggests the upcoming Pixel 10 series could come with a free trial of Google AI Pro. The length of the trial is still unconfirmed, but based on past promotions, it could be between six and twelve months. Google is set to announce the Pixel 10 series flagships in the coming weeks. While the phones are well-rounded in specs, Google's trump card is the software experience, with the company going all in on providing meaningful AI features. Many of those features are expected to be on-device, but a few may require cloud access and potentially even a Google AI Pro plan. Thankfully, it seems that Google could bless Pixel 10 series buyers with a free trial of Google AI Pro, letting them enjoy all of the company's AI features. ⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. Within Google app v16.30.59, we spotted code suggesting Pixel 10 series users would be getting a trial of Google AI Pro plan with their purchase, giving them access to all the good Gemini perks they would need on their phone. AssembleDebug / Android Authority This list of devices dictates which devices are eligible for free Google AI offers. We spotted the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 as new additions to this list recently, and Samsung eventually went on to announce that Fold 7, Flip 7, and Flip 7 FE buyers can get six months of Google AI Pro with 2TB of cloud storage for free with their phone purchase. It's unclear what the Pixel 10 series devices will offer in terms of trial tier and duration. Based on past trends, we speculate that Pixel 10 series users could get between six and twelve months of Google AI Pro with their phone purchase. Note that the Pixel 9 Pro phones came with one year of free Google AI Pro, while the base Pixel 9 came with a six-month trial, so Google could opt for a similar split again. We hope to learn more when the Pixel 10 series flagships launch in the coming weeks. Follow
