Galaxy Tab S9

Android / Linux Samsung Galaxy Devices
1

Coming from a Microsoft Surface 3, and having tested a OnePlus Pad and a Robo and Kala tablet (Windows on ARM), the Tab S9 is an incredible tablet. I didn’t know Android tablets could actually be good.

The S-Pen works most similarly to my old Microsoft Surface 3, and has a nice friction when you write on it. There’s a good amount of features on OneUI that integrate the stylus, they don’t get in the way too much, and can easily be customized or disabled as well.

Overall the entire experience of using the tablet is a very positive one, including the use of the slim keyboard in landscape mode. The only bug I have is that when you are holding the shift key and hit the spacebar, you have to hit the spacebar again in order to actually register a space. This isn’t a bug, you just need to disable the “Change language shortcut” for Shift + Space. Not sure why this would be on by default, a bit strange if you ask me.

As a Google Pixel user, I’ve come to love the Pixel launcher a lot, and have had negative experiences with OneUI on my Galaxy S10 years ago. Though having used the Tab S9 on Android 13, it was such a pleasant experience I almost want to consider buying a Galaxy phone in the future. If only they would let me natively re-map the Bixby button after 4 years have passed…

I got the tablet and keyboard for $650, which was an incredible deal, but knowing now how good this tablet is, if I was in the budget for it I’d absolutely pay the ~$800 that it costs.

7 Likes
2

This is great to hear! Thank you for the update.

3

So why can’t we have a Tab S9w for Windows? Come on Samsung, you can do it - the original Book 12 would be killing it today if you hadn’t bailed…

UPDATE: I would jump on a Book 12 device, WITH pen silo, in a heartbeat, even if it is WOA. That design (OLED, lightweight, Wacom) was killer.

4 Likes
4

Fitting timing as my husband called me to let me know our last surviving one was sitting on my kid’s desk making disturbing fan burst noises, so he shut it down. I’m afraid it may be on its way out as well. I still have the fanless 10.6, but the 4GB of RAM is a real bottleneck for much of anything at this point. They use Android tablets for most things now, but each still has a Windows machine mostly for Minecraft.

I was trying to explain to him how awesome that machine was and how irreplaceable it is.

2 Likes