Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
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One of the largest tablets ever released, this behemoth is taller and wider than many laptops (although obviously much thinner). It’s packed with the most powerful hardware yet found in an Android tablet, along with the best display technology and software. Unfortunately, it’s nearly identical to the old one.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra was certainly an experiment, packing top-of-the-line hardware into a slim yet massive body and wrapping it in the renowned OneUI Android flavor. It’s an impressive laptop replacement and is almost the same device as its successor, which offers few significant upgrades.
Somewhat of an experiment, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra boasts the largest screen we’ve seen on a tablet in a long time. As such, it’s a relatively niche device, but what it does, it does extremely well. Its massive screen multitasks better than almost any other slate PC, and its hardware doesn’t shirk at resource-intensive apps. It’s even better at taking pictures and video than most tablets.
In fact, all those things are just as true of the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra because, to some, they seem like the same tablet. To be clear, they’re not; some subtle but very real differences do make the S9 Ultra better than the S8 Ultra for many users, and a competitor to be thebest tabletaround. And it’s still considerably slimmer than the laptops it can replace, even when you slap adurable tablet caseon it. But not everybody can justify spending so much on the newer model.
Price, specs & availability
More than a year after release, you can sometimes find the $1,100 Tab S8 Ultra on sale from the manufacturer or third-party retailers. At the time of publishing, Samsung offered it at $1,000. That’s $200 less than the S9 Ultra’s nearly eye-watering $1,200 sticker. Naturally, the absolute top-of-the-line flagship will cost a lot. But if you’re going to spend over a grand on a tablet, it better be able to do some interesting things. The Tab S9 certainly can, although the S8 Ultra can do similar things for less.
The S8 Ultra wasn’t meant to be stylish; it was intended to be effective. Samsung also probably didn’t expect to sell a ton of 14.6-inch almost-laptops. So it only offered a single color, Graphite. Presumably, Samsung’s reasonably successful experiment in gigantic tablets convinced it to add a color. That color is the classy-looking but slightly underwhelming Beige that’s now offered across the entire lineup. It’s not super exciting, but it’s a little more interesting than the previous and only choice.
But the biggest design change comes in the form of durability. The Tab S9 Ultra is the first major flagship Android tablet with an IP68 rating, outside some various ruggedized versions that can’t touch it in terms of performance. This opens up both your work and play by eliminating a couple of major sources of potential damage. While the two tablets look identical other than a reshaped camera array, we do consider the official IP rating a victory for the S9 Ultra.
The Tab S8 Ultra’s 1848 x 2960 resolution, 120Hz, AMOLED panel with HDR10+ looks nothing short of fantastic. It’s also absolutely massive and perfect for working within multiple Android apps simultaneously. It’s as crisp as can be, with good color volume thanks to the OLED technology, even if it isn’t super bright at around a 500-nit peak.
While the size and resolution haven’t changed, Samsung has swapped in a new, more capable OLED panel for the new big kid on the block. There’s a 60-120Hz adaptive refresh rate this time, ensuring little to no stuttering even when you’re pushing the hardware to its limits. The peak brightness is also considerably higher, which is especially great with the new IP rating, as outdoor use is much safer and easier. So while the S8 Ultra’s screen will work fine for some people, the S9 Ultra’s promises increased usability in a wide range of situations.
What can we say about Samsung’s OneUI interface that hasn’t already been said? It’s intuitive, highly customizable, and continues to evolve in great ways. Nobody’s arguing against it, and right now, both tablets run Android 13 and OneUI 5.1. They’ll run the same OS for three years or so. By the 17th version of Android, the S9 Ultra will leave the S8 Ultra behind one generation. So you are getting an extra year of software evolution by paying the premium for the newer tablet. Coupled with an important performance enhancement, that’s worth some attention if you plan to use the tablet heavily over the next few years. For now, though, the software situation is a definite tie.
The only way the software’s an issue applies to both tablets. Android apps aren’t known for their tablet optimization, especially on a tablet this incredibly large. You’ll have some awkward layouts, and the unsatisfying interface looks until devs focus more on large-screen Android app usage. But you’ll run into that problem with any large Android tablet.
Performance
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 inside the Tab S8 is fast. It’s faster than most other tablet processors of its generation not made by Apple. It can do things midrange chipsets can only dream of. And the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy SoC inside the Tab S9 is even better.
The “For Galaxy” designation denotes an overclocked boost speed, in the same way Qualcomm designed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ vs. the standard Gen 1. But with the second generation, it sees more than just an improved clock speed. There’s also an efficiency component, with Qualcomm claiming 40% less power usage and significantly improved multi-core performance. Furthermore, the improved efficiency and updated throttling profile mean the newer model can sustain its peak workload for longer. So, while you’re able to get plenty of heavy work done with the S8 Ultra and not notice any major slowdowns, you’ll really rip through your productivity with the S9 Ultra.
RAM and storage options also see improvement. The move to DDR5X RAM makes both the 12 and 16 GB versions quicker, and there’s now a gigantic 1TB internal storage option. In other words, Samsung pulled out all the stops to ensure this big tablet offers big performance.
Battery life
Battery life on the Tab S8 Ultra raises no complaints, even over an entire day of heavy usage. We’ve even had good experiences playing processor-heavy games like Civ VI on without seeing a devastating dip in battery life. So it’s unsurprising that Samsung left the same 11,200-mAh battery inside.
But the real difference here comes with the new Snapdragon chipset. Qualcomm’s claim of 40% efficiency gains may not translate directly to real life, but it does make a difference. Multitask and play resource-intensive games all you want, and you’ll still have a hard time killing the battery on the S9 Ultra. This marks another win for the new one that’s hard to see at first, but will definitely become more apparent as time goes on.
The S8 Ultra had the best cameras of any non-Apple tablet, although that’s not saying a ton. They weren’t and aren’t terrible, but they clearly won’t touch the quality of cameras found in today’sbest midrange phones. Thankfully, Samsung does continue to tweak its imaging algorithm, but you can only do so much with the 13MP and 12MP rear and front-facing cameras.
In this respect, there’s only a tiny upgrade for the S9 Ultra. Both have the same 12MP ultrawide selfie camera, but the S9 Ultra sports an 8MP rear ultrawide compared to the 6MP ultrawide of the S8. This isn’t a massive difference, but we’ll take what we can get.
Which is right for you?
The Tab S8 Ultra was not meant for record-breaking popularity but rather for high-powered productivity. It did a great job of that, and Samsung learned exactly what it needed to when developing an even better 14.6-inch tablet. In that light, the S9 Ultra is essentially what the S8 Ultra wanted to be. Its significantly brighter and smoother screen, more powerful processor, and better battery and thermal efficiency make it a powerhouse that’s hard to argue against.
Yes, it’s usually $100-$200 more expensive than the S8 Ultra, but if you demand the best, this is it. Get the S9 Ultra with full-time multitasking and extensive mobile gaming if you plan to push it to the max. Plus, it’s waterproof.
Processing power, screen brightness, a dynamic refresh rate, and IP68 waterproofing come together to make this huge tablet even more awesome than the one before it. If you know you need the extra performance, visibility, and ruggedness; it’ll be worth the higher price.
With all that said, though, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the Tab S8 Ultra. It’s a fantastic and beautiful machine that will only get more efficient and easier to use with continued Android updates and Samsung tweaks. If you can do without the waterproofing, enhanced SoC speed, and a few hundred nits of brightness, you can save a decent amount of money with the S8 Ultra and still have one of the nicest tablets on the planet.
Samsung’s brave foray back into the world of large-format tablets was an impressive one, yielding great performance and battery life behind a fantastic-looking (if not as bright as possible) AMOLED display. While its newer relative is better, it’s no slouch itself for simple and complex tasks.
