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MagyarSamsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra - 3 reasons why Notebookcheck loved the colossal Android tablet
1. Otherworldly proportions with IP 68 rating
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra's proportions seem almost impossible, at just 5.5 mm thick. Its gargantuan 14.6-inch display and corresponding 326.4 mm × 208.6 mm (12.9 in. × 8.21 in.) more than makes up for the thickness, though. While the sleek design can make the tablet nigh impossible to hold in one hand, it sure makes it easy on the eyes and helps when it comes time to slide it into a backpack.
The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra also impresses with an IP 68 water- and dust-resistance rating, putting it ahead of its Xiaomi Pad 6 Max 14 and Lenovo Tab Extreme contemporaries and giving users peace of mind in bad weather.
2. An excellent OLED display, despite PWM flickering
The Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra has one of the best displays on any Android tablet around. Aside from the crisp 2960 × 1848 pixel resolution, 120 Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X variable refresh rate — that allows it to go down to 30 Hz — it's also plenty bright. We measured a maximum brightness of 625 cd/m² from the display, which beats out the Lenovo Tab Extreme's 479 cd/m² and just about matches the Xiaomi Pad 6 Max 14's 628 cd/m².
Colour gamut and accuracy was also very good out of the box, with 98.2% coverage of the sRGB colour space and a colour ΔE value of just 1.9 — colour accuracy which is only surpassed by the Xiaomi Pad 6 Max 14 and the Apple iPad Pro 12.9 2022. As expected, the OLED panel's response times are impressive, scoring just 1.75 ms in the black-to-white test, and 3.18 ms in the 50%-grey-to-grey test.
These results mean the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra will deliver admirably for just about anyone, from those looking to do some office work in a park to on-the-go gamers looking to connect a controller and game on the train.
While the display is undoubtedly high quality, and the bezels are exceedingly thin, users who are sensitive to PWM flickering should avoid the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra.
3. Polished Android skin optimised for the immense display
Samsung's One UI has always been a bit of a controversial topic over the years, but on Samsung's big-screen tablet, One UI 5 certainly adds more to the Android 13 experience than it takes away. For starters, DeX offers a feature-rich desktop-like environment, complete with full multitasking support and a host of optimisations for third-party apps.
What's perhaps more impressive than software optimised for the large form factor is the long software support that Samsung offers. Unlike much of the competition that continues to offer around two or three years of software updates, Samsung has committed to four years of Android and One UI updates and five years of security updates.
Samsung is still a way away from Apple's track record of offering up to eight years of support, but it certainly helps blunt the sting of spending US$1,000+ on a tablet.
Source(s)
Notebookcheck reviews.
