Hands-on with the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Plus – slimmer slates with Galaxy AI coming to Malaysia

Samsung has finally taken the wraps off premium Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10 Plus flagship tablets along with the pleasant surprise addition of the Galaxy S24 FE budget flagship phone.

This time around, Samsung has opted to only issue the largest sized and midsized versions of their flagship tablet series with the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra succeeding the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra and the Tab S10 Plus succeeding the Tab S9 Plus.

At present, there is no base Tab S10 version though the Galaxy Tab S9 with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage  is still available in the Malaysia market at the time of writing.

Both of the new designs are slimmer and lightier than their predecessors while retaining similar screen sizes on account of narrower bezels while utilising improved Armor Aluminium that’s 10% tougher than the material used in the older  Tab S9 tablets and both new tablets have an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.

On paper, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is actually 14g lighter at 718g than the prior Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra while also being 0.1mm slimmer. The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus on the other hand weighs 571g, making it 10g lighter than the outgoing Galaxy Tab S9 Plus while also being just 5.6mm thin, making it 0.1mm thinner too.

Of note this time around is that both the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S10 Plus run Android 14 with the latest OneUI 6.1.1 with full access to all the new generative Galaxy AI features including all the usual tricks like auto formatted notes, audio transcription, voice summary with AI, voice to text transcripts as well as Galaxy AI Generate to turn sketches into AI generated art. 

There is also the vaunted Circle to Search with Google but with added S Pen interactivity which means you can circle text to translate it instantly or images to have them searched instantly on Google. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Tab S9 Plus will both enjoy 7 years of OS and security updates.

Samsung OneUI staples like DeX mode are retained and the interface can be swapped around from the standard Android version to the DeX interface which has a taskbar and the option for multiple resizable app windows.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Specs

The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra has a 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and 2,960 x1,848 pixels resolution. What has improved this time around is that Samsung has added in an improved anti-reflective coating that has even better clarity in direct sunlight than its predecessor. It also has eye safe certification and low blue light emissions certification too. Flanking the display are a set of quad speakers.

Key improvements to the hardware under the hood include a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor. Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 used in the Galaxy Tab S9 series, the Dimensity 9300+ chipset has significant improvements with 14% better NPU performance, 18% better CPU performance and an impressive 26% in GPU performance which bodes well for gaming, editing videos and general overall smoothness and performance. The Dimensity 9300+ CPU also gets a 1.48x larger vapour chamber than the one in its predecessor for better cooling under sustained loads.

Malaysia will only get one storage configuration which is 12GB RAM with 256GB of storage with expandable storage that supports up to 1.5TB microSD cards along with your choice of either WiFi 7-only or both 5G and WiFi 7 enabled variants.

On the rear, the tablet has a 13MP main camera and 8MP ultra wide angle camera while the front has a dual 12MP camera setup with one camera being an ultra wide angle camera. Keeping the whole affair powered is an 11,200mAh battery with 45W wired fast charging.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus Specs 

The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus retains the same 12.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz display with 2,800 x 1,752 pixels resolution as its predecessor the Tab S9 Plus albeit with the improved anti reflective coating and low blue light and eye safe certification as the larger Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra.

The smaller Galaxy Tab S10 Plus uses the same MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ CPU, also features 12GB RAM and 256GB of expandable storage and a similarly upsized vapour chamber. The Galaxy Tab S10 Plus however uses slightly slower WiFi 6E and has both WiFi only and WiFi/5G enabled versions available.

Where it differs slightly from the Ultra is that the Galaxy Tab S9 Plus has 5G and slightly slower WiFi 6E connectivity and has a single 12MP camera up front for videocalls. The rear has the same 13MP+8MP camera setup as the Tab S10 Ultra. The battery is slightly smaller at 10,090mAh with 45W wired fast charging.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Ultra accessories

This time around, Samsung isn’t bundling a case with the tablet but it will ship with the S Pen stylus in the box. There will be a protective case that dubbed the Samsung Smart Book Cover has an origami-style foldout kickstand and, interestingly, two different optional keyboard cases with one dubbed the Samsung Book Cover Keyboard Slim featuring just the keyboard and another dubbed the Samsung Book Cover Keyboard that has both a keyboard and an integrated touchpad with the former being much slimmer than the latter. 

While not seen at the special preview, Samsung said that there will also be a ruggedised Outdoor Cover as well as a NotePaper Screen and Privacy Screen protector available at launch for both tablets in Malaysia.

Both the Book Cover Keyboard Slim and Book Cover Keyboard feature kickstands for the tablet itself and can be separated from the keyboard portion if you just want to tote the tablet around to game or watch movies though the keyboard portion needs to stay connected via pogo pins at the base to retain functionality. The keyboards also have a dedicated Galaxy AI key in the fashion of Microsoft’s Copilot key that can summon GalaxyAI for added convenience.

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Tab S10 Plus Malaysia availability

In terms of colourways, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra will only ship in Moonstone Gray while the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus will get Platinum Silver and Moonstone Gray as colour options.

As mentioned earlier, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and Tab S10 Plus will only have one 12GB RAM/256GB storage configuration but will have  WiFi only (WiFi 7 for the Ultra and WiFi 6E for the Plus) and 5G-enabled versions available for purchase. The Galaxy Tab S10 series tablets will be available for purchase in Malaysia from 3 October 2024 onwards.

Here are the exact prices for Malaysia with all configurations featuring 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage:

Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra 5G    RM6,649
Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra WiFi  RM5,999
Galaxy Tab S10+ 5G           RM5,249
Galaxy Tab S10+ WiFi         RM4,599

While stocks last, purchases of any Galaxy Tab S10 series tablet will get a free Book Cover Keyboard Slim (worth RM949) and an RM500 instant trade-in rebate when you trade in your old device. For more details, check out Samsung’s official page here.