The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ is the follow-up to Tab S9 FE+ that we reviewed more than a year ago, and features some updates in its hardware, naturally. But while it features a bigger and higher resolution display, an updated chipset, and stupidly long battery life, it’s still a bit of a hard sell.
What Am I Looking At?
The Tab S10 FE+ ticks off the boxes you’d expect in from Samsung’s tablet lineup. At 13.1-inch, it’s big enough that you don’t have to strain your eyes whenever you read or look at something, and at 6mm, it’s thin enough that you can easily slip it into your bag without a cover, although taking it out can present a problem at time, given how slick the entire thing is. Instead of an under-display fingerprint scanner, Samsung made the wise decision of having the power button pull double duty by acting as the security measure.
Other specifications include the Exynos 1580 SoC, and with my unit in particular, this mid-range tablet comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage with room for expansion via the MicroSDXC card slot. The display’s resolution is rated at 1800 x 2880 and has a maximum refresh rate of 90 Hz.
As with all Tab S Series, the Tab S10 FE+ comes bundled with an S Pen stylus and nothing else. The cover and casing that you see here isn’t part of Samsung’s bundle, and you’ll have to purchase them separately.
What’s Good About It?
The Tab S10 FE+ by its lonesome serves as a great companion, but that’s about all the praise I can heap onto its physical stature. More on this in the next section. The large 13.1-inch display is a boon for reading and watching videos, but frankly, and personally, I like the smaller. Like, 8-inch form factor small.
If you’re used to the Android ecosystem, as well as Samsung’s One UI, then switching to and using DeX is a trifling matter. It’s good to use in a pinch or when all you’ve brought with you on your most recent excursion is the tablet, but personally, I would still revert back to a laptop to conduct my day-to-day tasks.
I honestly cannot preach or praise the battery endurance of the Tab S10 FE+ any harder. At 10,090mAh, it’s the same size as the one in last generation’s Tab S9+, but coupled with the Exynos 1580 SoC, this tablet has legs that may as well let it compete in a marathon, and then some.
Running our usual video loop test on the Tab S10 FE+ is a literal test of attrition. Running a video on loop with 50% brightness and 40% volume, I clocked an average of 18 hours before it entered single-digit territory, and even then, I believe that the tablet could squeeze in another couple of hours.
And to say nothing of the idling time. At one point, I left the tablet alone with 35% of battery for a week – probably longer, now that I think back about it – and the damn thing only lost 3% battery.
What’s The Catch?
As a mid-range chipset, I really can’t expect much from the Exynos 1580. Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 SoC in its more premium siblings, it unfortunately gets blown out of the water in synthetic benchmarks. Gaming is an average affair but to be fair, I’m not a mobile gamer and my use of it is mainly squared away to media consumption. That said, I do find myself spending the occasional hour on the
There are a handful of other avenues in which the Tab S10 FE+ falls short. The fact that its display panel is an IPS LCD, and not Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel is the first letdown. The colour gamut doesn’t look as punchy, although one could argue that it presents a more accurate representation of colour. Oh, and if you turn on the blue light filter, everything just looks so washed out.
The audio quality itself isn’t the best, with my Tab S9 sounding more full and detailed, but to be fair, it’s only got two speakers on the sides, rather than the four of the more premium Tab S9 and non-FE Tab S10 series. But again, that is to be expected of a mid-range tablet.
The quality of the accessories for it is also called into question. Instead of a keyboard cover, the casing and protection that seems to be on offer feels unnecessarily heavy. Instead of a keyboard cover that connects directly to the pogo pin connectors at the bottom of it, the option provided by Samsung requires you to physically clip the tablet into a shell of a cover. The detachable keyboard is Bluetooth, meaning that there is latency and that is noticeable.
Perhaps the worst part of this casing’s design is the exposed S Pen nook at the back. To me, this is just a “my S Pen has gone missing” scenario waiting to happen. There is a nook at the base of the casing but again, there’s nothing to stop it from accidentally sliding out from the sides.
Should I Buy It?
At starting prices of RM2,799 for the Wi-Fi model and RM3,299 for the 5G one, the Tab S10 FE+ feels slightly a bit overpriced. Firstly, the chipset that comes with it is the same one that you’ll find in the Galaxy A56, and that costs RM1,999. For that matter, and on the second point, alternatives such as the Xiaomi Pad 6S Pro offer a more premium experience and hardware at similar prices, albeit at the loss of Samsung-related features and a dedicated stylus.
On the other side of the argument, the saving grace of the Tab S10 FE+ is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, its ridiculously long battery life, both in continuous use and standby mode, the convenience of having the S Pen for those that prefer to write with a tool rather than their fingers, and access to DeX, for those that need an impromptu PC in a pinch. Ultimately, it’s the ecosystem that you’re investing in.
