Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus Review – Flagship Android productivity tablet with Galaxy AI tested

We previously unboxed and gave our first impressions of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10+ tablet where we shared about its specifications and design that is surprisingly compatible with accessories for the Galaxy Tab S9+ and Tab S9 FE Plus. After field testing, here’s our Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus review where we share if it’s worth your money.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus Review – Performance and Benchmarks

In our first impressions feature, we went over its more salient points, namely that it has cross compatibility with keyboard cases and accessories from the prior Galaxy Tab S9+ and Tab S9 FE+ but yet is slightly lighter than the Tab S9+ while having a same sized but brighter screen on account of a new anti-glare coating on the display. 

The improved Galaxy Tab S10 Plus also notably has a more durable Armor Aluminium chassis too that is 10% tougher and more scratch resistant than its predecessor the Tab S9+ while retaining an IP68 dust and water resistance. It also ships with an S Pen stylus across the board though keyboard cases are typically sold separately. Fortunately, we managed to also get a slim keyboard case in to review alongside the tablet itself.

Under the hood, our Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus review unit has an array of flagship-grade hardware. Powering the phone is the MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor that offers higher clock speeds compared to the earlier Dimensity 9300.

Based on a 4nm+ process, the Dimensiy 9300+ processor has a faster 3.4GHz Cortex X4 prime core compared to the base Dimensity 9300 processor while retaining a similar clock speed and configuration for the trio of 2.85GHz X4 cores and quad A720 2.0 core along with the Immortalis G720 GPU. The MediaTek Dimensity also notably has an upgraded 790 AI Processing Unit (APU) that offers improved performance in AI tasks.

While storage configurations tend to vary by region, Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Tab S10 Ultra units intended for Malaysia get 12GB LPDDR5X RAM along with 256GB of onboard storage that can be expanded via the microSD card slot with support for up to 1TB cards.

Both models also get your choice of either 5G enabled or WiFi only variants with the later going for a lower price. There is a slight difference here as the larger Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra supports faster WiFi 7 while the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus maxes out at the current WiFi 6E standards.

Of note with our Galaxy Tab S10 Plus review sample is that it runs the latest Android 14 with their new One UI 6.1.1 which has support for the full Galaxy AI suite for generative text and art creation. The tablet also has the ability to assign up to 8GB of virtual RAM off onboard storage though this feature can be disabled entirely to save on storage space. Here’s how our Galaxy Tab S10 Plus review unit stacks up on paper:

 

Price	RM4,599 (WiFi), 5,249 (5G)
Display	12.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 1,752 x 2,800 pixels, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+
Processor	Mediatek Dimensity 9300+
OS	Android 14 w/ OneUI 6.1
Memory	12GB RAM/ 256GB storage + microSD card
Cameras	13MP F/2.2 [rear] / 8MP F/2.2 [front]
Battery	10,090mAh w/ 45W wired charging
Size/Weight	285.4 x 185.4 x 5.6mm / 571g

The large dimensions of a tablet form factor also lend it an exceptional advantage as it allows for a much larger vapour chamber than what a typical smartphone can cram in which lends it better stability when undertaking heavy workloads. When subjected to benchmarks with the default 8GB of RAM Plus settings, our Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus review unit scored the following: 

3D Mark Solar Bay	7,381
3D Mark Solar Bay Unlimited	7,013
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme	4,383
3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	4,197
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light	1,907
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited	1,740
Geekbench 6 Single core	2,109
Geekbench 6 Multi core	7,026
Geekbench 6 OpenCL	12,247
Geekbench 6 Vulkan	14,115
Geekbench AI Quanticised Score	3,029
PC Mark Work 3.0	16,246
PC Mark Work 3.0 Battery Life	10 hours 30 minutes

When compared to its Galaxy Tab S9 series predecessors which ran the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, our Galaxy Tab S10 Plus enjoys marked improvements all around in single, multicore and graphics performance, easily outpacing the older tablets.

Under practical field conditions, our Galaxy Tab S10 Plus did not disappoint and tackled 4K video editing on CapCut smoothly and even managed to tackle demanding games like Genshin Impact on high settings while remaining cool to the touch. Naturally, more mundane games like Call of Duty Mobile can be handled on high settings smoothly making it an excellent Android gaming platform.

Our Galaxy Tab S10 Plus review unit’s large 12.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display has a 120Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 650 nits and 2,800 x 1,752 pixels resolution.

In ideal conditions indoors. It offers superb colour rendition and sharpness with pin-sharp text and vibrant hues for movies and gaming alike. On paper, these specifications match its predecessor the Tab S9+ but the addition of improved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and the anti-reflective layer markedly improve screen clarity. 

The Tab S10 Plus’s display is also quite a step up from the Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus which we previously reviewed has a similarly sized screen but uses an LCD panel, has a slower 90Hz refresh rate and a slightly lower 2,560 by 1,600 pixels resolution.

The improved anti-reflective coating on the display does as it says on the tin and mitigates much of the harsh glare of sunlight to make the display more viewable though you’ll still have to max out screen brightness for any clarity.

Of note is the tall 16:10 aspect ratio that makes multitasking, especially in DeX mode with multiple windows a more pleasant experience. Browsing web pages was less of a chore as well and spreadsheets were easier to see with the 16:10 aspect ratio. Of note are the quad speakers flanking the display that offer excellent volume and a good level of detail.

The bundled S Pen stylus worked a treat, gliding smoothly on the display on account of its 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. It comes into its own especially with Galaxy AI, allowing for more precise tweaking and editing of images especially for the Sketch to Image mode to generate realistic art on an existing photo and AI Eraser to selectively delete unwanted parts of an image.

The other Galaxy AI features are invaluable especially for students and knowledge workers having to plough through a ton of paperwork, lectures and text.

With Galaxy AI, the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus can perform live translations for video calls and translate text from foreign languages on the fly, summarise, rewrite or translate lecture notes or text capture in Samsung Notes and even write text or suggest replies for texts and emails with a few prompts. It’s a life saver.

Combined with Galaxy AI, the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus shines in its role as a day to day productivity platform for paperwork and light content creation work. Incoming emails, texts and briefings could be summarised and compiled while onerous texts on Whatsapp and Facebook were magically reworked into cogent, polite gems of corporate messaging.

On its own, each of these Galaxy AI tricks sounds trivial but they all add up to save quite a bit of time wasted on menial tasks to free up more bandwidth for actual work. The combination of a keyboard case and stylus also allowed for writing on the go and precise editing of photos which came in handy to get an email or article done on the go.

Battery life is excellent with 10 hours and 30 minutes with WiFi on and 50% screen brightness in benchmarks and is equivalent to about a day and a half of usage before it needs a top up. While the tablet didn’t come with a provided charger, a third party one that supports 45W charging like something from UGreen can easily top it up in short order with a full charge from zero taking about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus?

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus is a potent flagship tablet that has the hardware to tackle gaming and paperwork with equal ability. Samsung also places equal if not more emphasis on the software this time with Android 14 and their OneUI brought to its fullest potential with their Galaxy AI capabilities, their versatile DeX mode and a bundled S Pen stylus to make the tablet both powerful and versatile too.

Add in an optional keyboard case and you have a light and potent productivity platform for general computing albeit one that doesn’t come cheap. An impressive 7 years of OS and security updates elevates this to be one of the best Android tablets that money can currently buy.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus review unit courtesy of Samsung Malaysia. To purchase please visit https://www.samsung.com/my/tablets/galaxy-tab-s10/buy/