It’s been a few weeks and I have been enjoying my time with the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra. Yeah, it’s a super massive 14.6-inch tablet that I actually enjoyed using but not in a conventional way even though we have the official keyboard case with us. Let me share my experience with you here today.
DeX, as always
Okay, let’s start with the most obvious of all – Samsung DeX. It’s a staple for Samsung’s devices since it is included in a lot of their devices. For tablets, you can just tap on the DeX button and it immediately transforms into a desktop interface lookalike. Since we have the official keyboard case that also has a trackpad, it can be controlled like a laptop.
There are already a lot of good features built into Samsung DeX. There is the ability to have apps talk with each other – like dragging files from the Gallery to Samsung Notes for example.
Now, while DeX is a very good “laptop replacement” for an Android tablet, it’s still not close to anything like let’s say ChromeOS. I really wish Google will take desktop modes seriously and implement Chromium OS into Android. That would be so much better than what we have now.
That is why this device is still not a proper “laptop replacement”. Because of the nature of my work, I still need a laptop. Whatever we said in the full review of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra still is the same for this Tab S9 Ultra.
Watching videos
So, since DeX is boring, I went on and used it for the second most obvious thing – watching videos. Yeah, this humongous and gorgeous 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen is no joke. Any movies that we play from this tablet will immediately look 10 times better because of the vivid colors, excellent contrast, and brightness. It’s even better if we play HDR movies!
I won’t tell you what I watched – but I can tell you that I watched a lot of stuff using this tablet.
Listening to music?
Hey – even music playing from this tablet is amazing. It has a quad AKG speaker system and Dolby Atmos surround sound – and we’ve already done a speaker test in our full review, but here’s a quick refresher.
Reading books
I also use the Google Play Books app on this tablet to read books. That app is amazing and it works very well with this device. However, not having a proper stand for this tablet to make it stand in portrait mode is just… frustrating.
I’m still not a fan of the back piece that comes with the official keyboard case since it only allows us to make it stand in landscape mode. Having a little section cut off from the back will allow us to make the tablet stand in portrait mode – like the ASUS Vivobook 13 Slate OLED.
To fix this issue, I bought this case. It solved my issue and I think it’s worth the price, though I can’t use the keyboard cover case with this case.
Doing Duolingo
I also started doing Duolingo earlier this year, and I enjoyed doing it on the Fold since then. However, having a bigger screen is actually beneficial for intricate Chinese characters and I can see the tiny details of each of them easily. Well, not like that matters anyway since Chinese characters are very difficult to memorize.
And yes, I don’t know how to read Chinese but I know how to speak some Chinese. This app only works in portrait mode and the app isn’t particularly working well for Android tablets. I have no idea why since it worked find for the Fold and only on slab phones like this.
Shopping, obviously
The next obvious purpose of this tablet is obviously for shopping. Having a humongous screen means that I can look at more listings and bigger pictures at a glance. Buuuuut it’s not entirely the best.
You see, both Lazada and Shopee are just not optimized for anything larger than a standard slab phone. Why? I don’t know. It’s just bad.
Horrendous under-display fingerprint scanner location
Oh – quick interjection while we’re talking about bad interfaces – I use this tablet with no security at all. As in no lock screen at all. The reason is that the under-display fingerprint reader is placed at a horrendous location. Samsung should’ve placed it at the power button like the Z Fold and Z Flip.
How about face unlock then? Well, I don’t want to use face unlock because it’s slow.
Gaming feels weird
And that also goes very well into the gaming experience of this tablet. While that Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can perform the best it can thanks to the tablet itself being a massive heatsink.
But its size is rather unwieldy. Its 14.6-inch screen is just fantastic for everything, playing games using the touchscreen is not. It’s very difficult to reach the buttons that are placed in the middle. For example, Genshin Impact is just difficult to control using this tablet especially because the Android version of this game does not support wireless game controllers.
Emulators do support controllers, and that is a much better experience compared to touchscreen gaming.
Some advanced settings to highlight
If you like to tinker around with the tablet even more, then we can install Good Lock. Then, install the MultiStar module. Here, we can select the “I Love Galaxy Tablet” menu and there are a few more options available.
Samsung separated one setting to force apps to rotate to portrait, and another setting to force apps to rotate to landscape. However, one is placed in this MultiStar module within Good Lock, and another in the settings menu. Honestly, I have no idea why Samsung didn’t just place them both in the Labs menu. Why did they have to separate it?
These settings are rather important too, as some notorious apps like Lazada, Shopee, and Duolingo do not rotate to landscape mode. You’ll have to force it to do so via the settings menu.
Was it enjoyable?
I have listed a few ways that I’ve been using the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra for the past month. There are some of the obvious use cases like web browsing, social media, and all of those stuff in between that I have not talked about. I mean, this tablet is pretty much the “improved” version of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra and I’ve been using these two tablets the same way.
It’s just weird that Samsung didn’t fix up the kickstand to make it stand in portrait mode too because that would’ve been so much better. I mean, I’m not going to buy the official Smart Book Cover for the price of RM439. I mean, if I get this case then I can’t adjust the viewing angle but I do get the ability to make it stand vertically. Either way, nah, I think Samsung could be better with the accessories here – like this case here.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
- That rugged case we mentioned
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