M4 iPad Pro vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra: A CLEAR Winner?

With the introduction of OLED displays, a thinner design, and more in the M4 iPad Pro, we thought it was worth taking another look at Samsung's flagship OLED tablet, the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, to see how the two compare and which one might be the better purchase for you.

Both tablets offer excellent OLED displays, though the Tab S9 Ultra's 14.6-inch 16:10 display is better optimized for video consumption than the ‌iPad Pro‌'s 13-inch 4:3 display. The wider aspect ratio on the Tab S9 Ultra means widescreen video content fits much better on the display, offering a larger content view with much less letterboxing than on the ‌iPad Pro‌.

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Apple's M4 iPad Pro vs. Samsung's Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra

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[rawdiggitydog]

The aspect ratio on the ipad effects media consumption. The Samsung tabs have the perfect aspect ratio for movies. Also for some reason silent mode mutes volume of games on the ipad. Two big items to whoever is considering these devices.

[akarshJD]

Reminder: you don't need to charge the S pen to use it

[Heyjadid]

This sets you apart from the fakes who call themselves "tech reviewers." You can separate your love for the Apple ecosystem and give a balanced review. Most others can't, and it's obvious in their biased reviews.

[vukasika]

I bought the S8 Ultra out of curiosity. It was larger than my M1 iPad Pro 12.9 & I like writing my notes… less than 3 years later I’ve stepped almost entirely out of the Apple walled garden.

The M4 is a senseless upgrade to the hamstrung iPadOS. Dec is still better than Stage Manager. The “new” iPad design is finally slightly thinner than the S8 Ultra & the new pencil pro features are finally approaching the S Pen features.

Regarding the apps optimization issue was noticeable 10 years ago, not so much any more. Apple needs to step its game up.

[fishnsteve]

I'm a 20-year professional graphic designer and have used the Tab S9 Ultra for 1.5 years since its release. I can confidently say, without a doubt, that the best tablet is indeed the M4 Galaxy Pad S9 Pro Ultra 5G.

[michael-k]

Have an S9 11" and a an iPad Pro 11". if we are just talking about screens, they both are amazing and anyone would be extremely happy with either. However, the tandem oled display is the best display I have ever seen. Yes it's brighter, but it's not just that, the tandem oled display is near perfect>. OLED displays usually use ABL, which limits the full screen brightness after a short period of time. The tandem oled display does not have this issue. It always looks bright full screen, even at lower brightness. All that being said, I still prefer to watch content on the Samsung, because of its aspect ratio (less black bars being used) so you get more screen to actually use, rather then being "blacked out" due to the films aspect ratio.

[dirkfireflash]

If you’re going to have a tablet docked to a keyboard 99% of the time then why not save some money and just buy a laptop?

[vlcheish]

imagine the tabloid headlines if hartley got caught with a samsung product

[impulsesystems]

SD card? Dex, iPadOS file handling? I am an iPad user and I see these as Samsung advantages.

[WhatsYourDadSnap]

I bought the Z fold 5 and the S9 ultra together for work and personal use and love them. S9 ultra is def the best tablet I've ever owned and I still cant get over how huge its screen is.

[jvwong]

I just bought the 12.9 M2 iPad Pro and for me its really an ecosystem thing because the Tab S9 Ultra has been tempting me but I like being able to use continuity on everything else in my home and I don’t have to figure out how to support yet another device since iOS is pretty easy across devices whether its an iPad, iPhone, and even MacOS.

[motorjack]

Aspect ratio is a big thing as well. On the Ipad you get big black bars on the top and bottom, even worse the subtitles won’t display on the black parts. The 11” version has a better ratio, imo.

[kasakka]

I went with the Tab S9 Plus recently to replace my aging iPad Pro 2017.

The Samsung was just massively cheaper than an equivalent iPad Pro, it has much better multitasking, much higher degree of customization, a stock keyboard that can do predictive typing in my native language (come on Apple!), comes with the S-pen and otherwise is close in spec to the latest and greatest OLED iPad Pro. Apple had nothing even close to comparable in the same price range.

[josesabat]

I have both ecosystems. I prefer the tabs s9 ultra.

[Chris._P._Bacon]

I traded my ipad 10th Gen 64GB for the S9 Plus, what a great decision, not to mention I got $288 back for that ipad, and overall I paid $541 with the discoutns.
I'm very please with the 12.x tablet, makes a big difference and also, I pretty much switched everything apple to Samsung Galaxy, phone, watch, headphones, tablet and definitely will not be switching back.
I like how I can slap a USB-C card reader or a USB-C flash drive on the Galaxy tab and it's ablel to recognize, open and use that storage my ipad 10th which never open my USB-C flash drive.

I carry my back pack around and I also use a dash cam....how will you be able to slap a USB-C card reader, put the microSD card in then in the iPad (usb-c port) w/o having some incompatible issues? You can't! With Adroid, it just works. Nope! I ain't never going back to apple and their incompatible OS.

[rfguys]

The fact that you can use S9 as an external monitor with S pen input in windows is a huge deal for me. I taught math to elementary kids after school through online meeting. Writing to power point slides directly with a S pen just makes the teaching so much easier.

[techinrl]

Not sure where you got the 1750 nits from for brightness on the S9 Ultra. Samsung specs and reviews show it has a peak brightness of 930 nits in HDR. In SDR, it’s around 400 nits. I have one of these and its brightness is nowhere near that of the iPad Pro.

[VPuffy]

Basically if you've spent money on other apple devices, go for the iPad. In every other case, go for the Samsung..

[draz]

I dip my Tab S9 Ultra in the lake just because I can. Water resistance in a tablet caught my wallet

[McWhCl]

One of the only reason I don't choose the iPad bcs of Samsung Notes. It's just too good and prefer the spen bcs of the functionality.