Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Review – Lower Priced Premium Tablet With More Functional Goodness

For those who have not read our first impression, CLICK HERE to find out more to learn about the tablet.

So since we have done the first impression of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE, we will just go ahead over the full review. Basically the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is part of the FE 2023 series latest offering that pretty much focuses on mid tier performance devices rollout with most of the premium features retained from their mainline flagship series, from their S23 FE, Buds FE and of course the Tab S9 FE which we will talk about here.

Design

Looking at most of the angle, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is built similarly to it’s main flagship Galaxy Tab S9 series. The first thing you will see surrounding the back part of the tablet is the antenna lines that includes both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, such placement will give stronger and stable connections even your router is located slightly away while making it seamless and unified like a single piece constructed up tablet. While the mainline flagship tablet from Samsung this year is IP68 waterproof and dust resistance, the same treatment is there for the Galaxy Tab S9 FE as well. The overall weight is 523 grams with just 6.5mm of thickness, making it easy to carry along while looks wise, incredibly similar to the other Tab S9 series with rounded egdes but symmetrical on all four corners.

Ports and accessibility wise, you have a power button that doubles as a fingerprint scanner, volume buttons, dual speaker placement, dual microphones, SD card slot, S-Pen magnetic attachment at the back (with S-PEN included) and pogo pin slot for attaching accessories such as the book cover which we mention during our first impression article.

Display & Audio

Regarding the display, the SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab S9 FE has a rather large 10.9-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 1440 x 2304 pixels at up to 90Hz dynamic refresh rate (with limited high dynamic range). Even though it is only an LCD screen, you will still find it to have a respectable level of clarity, decent contrast, and color reproduction. Its has a quite limited color gamut. Writing, doodling, and sketching are all supported by the display, which has a brightness capability of up to 250 nits. Games, regular streaming, email responses, social networking, studying, writing, sketching, video conferencing, and e-reading applications will all continue to function satisfactorily on such displays.

Audio wise, you have a powerful dual speaker setup for all your ultimate sound and music experience powered by Dolby Audio and Tuned by AKG for more immersive combined surround sound. Apart from that you can also customize your audio preferences via pre-defined audio equalizer modes and Adapt sound function which lets you adjust the sensitivity according to your age range.

Camera

There is only two camera, a 8MP rear camera and 12MP front camera, both of which are 1080P video recording capable while for normal image capture, you are pretty limited to normal day time and well lit area shots without much of an issue, so call much towards fast capture and upload purposes, but hey, at least you still have high megapixel count front facing camera for all your video conferencing and video call needs.

Hardware Performance, Software, Benchmarks

Performance wise, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is powered by the Samsung Exynos 1380 Octa Core SOC, the same SOC used in the Samsung Galaxy A54 along with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage, which is expandable via MicroSD up to 2TB of additional storage that is useful for storing all your images, documents or even your favorite movies. To be honest the specs listed definitely does not sound flagship to everyone, but the Exynos 1380 is known to be a good contending SOC within the upper mid range market and again, it is proven with the A54 on it’s efficiency, multitasking and still be able to take on some of the latest games listed in Google’s Play Store.

Touching over to the software and features, it came with OneUI 5.1 and Android 13 along with the latest security patches out of the box. Also you will be getting future OS and security updates up for the next four years to come. Besides that, you will be getting all the enhancements and features you would get from the main flagship Galaxy series such as Knox, RAM Plus, S Pen Air Command, Link to Windows, Multi Control, Samsung DeX, Second Screen just to name a few with one exception, that the USB C port does not support external display connectivity.

Experience wise it is great for most every day use, especially when you can multitask things pretty quickly while gaming side, setting up most games like Genshin Impact to low mix medium graphics will get you just fine, it will throttle if you set things too high but for a moderate usage scenario, this tablet works great. All of the S Pen functionality supports all major favorite applications such as PenUp, Adobe Suite, Chrome Remote Desktop and of course, switching to DeX mode makes it real close to a full fledged OS for your everyday use, including multi-tasking and app switching on the fly. Of course, you can also pair it with a mouse and keyboard if you wanted too as well. To charge up the whole device, it will take nearly 100 minutes, capped maxed at 45w.

Based on our benchmarks result, it’s not far away from what we review over the Samsung Galaxy A54, since it uses the same Exynos 1380, while comparing to others, I would say this tablet performs as expected and definitely adequate for most people seeking for a mid tier tablet.

Technical Specifications

Verdict & Conclusion

Overall the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE still brings in some of the most important features and premium goodness to it, from it’s similar design language to the applications included with it, yet more portable and lightweight, not to mention it receives the same love it gets, which is the OS updates and patches for years forward so I would say it is a pretty good choice should you get one, especially if you love scribbling and some work mix with entertainment with it. There is features removed, but it is expected and it is not a totally downside for the most, since the essential is still retained and I would say it is highly worthy to consider one for your all in one tablet needs.

Part of the pictures/images are taken at ATO TTDI Gaming Store in Kuala Lumpur