Home > Tablet comparison > Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 vs Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021) – which one to choose?

Galaxy Tab A9 vs iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)

44 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9
VS
62 out of 100
Apple iPad mini 8.3
Galaxy Tab A9
iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)

Here we compared two tablets: the 8.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 (with MediaTek Helio G99) that was released on October 5, 2023, against the Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021), which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 2 years and 2 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments (3)

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each tablet
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9
  • Shows 14% longer battery life (25:21 vs 22:16 hours)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)
  • 2.8x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1412K versus 508K)
  • 83% higher pixel density (327 vs 179 PPI)
  • Ability to record video in 4K resolution
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks
  • 2.9x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2148 and 729 points
  • Weighs 40 grams less

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 and Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021) crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
4 / 64 GB
VS
4 / 64 GB
88.0
(Very good)
Value Index
71.1
(Good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Tablet:
Galaxy Tab A9
vs
iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)

Display

Type TFT LCD IPS LCD
Size 8.7 inches 8.3 inches
Resolution 800 x 1340 pixels 1488 x 2266 pixels
Aspect ratio 5:3 3:2
PPI 179 ppi 327 ppi
Refresh rate 60 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 500 nits 500 nits
HDR support No No
Screen protection Tempered glass Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 81.9% 77.8%
Display features - - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 81.2% 99.6%
PWM Not detected 178600 Hz
Response time 44 ms 32 ms
Contrast 1389:1 1133:1
Screen space comparison
Galaxy Tab A9
8.7″ (5:3 ratio) = 33.4 in2
iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)
8.3″ (3:2 ratio) = 31.8 in2
~5% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 211 mm (8.31 inches) 195.4 mm (7.69 inches)
Width 124.7 mm (4.91 inches) 134.8 mm (5.31 inches)
Thickness 8 mm (0.31 inches) 6.3 mm (0.25 inches)
Weight 333 g (11.75 oz) 293 g (10.34 oz)
Waterproof No No
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Silver, Gray, Blue Gray, Pink, Purple, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner No Yes, in-button
Area 263 cm2 (40.8 inches2) 263 cm2 (40.8 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (140th and 93rd place)
Android Tablet Ranking (#110th place)
iPad Ranking (#24th place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 and Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)
SoC
Chipset MediaTek Helio G99 Apple A15 Bionic
Max clock 2200 MHz 2930 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 6 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A76		 - 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Blizzard
- 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 6 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Mali-G57 MP2 Apple GPU 5-core
GPU shading units 64 640
GPU clock 1000 MHz 1338 MHz
FLOPS ~128 GFLOPS ~1712.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 and Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 1294 -
Single-core score 729 2148
Multi-core score 1943 5541
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 214958 419310
GPU 35695 378571
Memory 119172 144604
UX 138729 470170
Total score 508554 1412655
Samples [3 tests] [31 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Graphics test 1 FPS -
Graphics score 130 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 82%
Graphics test - 14 FPS
Section 1 - 18 FPS
Section 2 - 14 FPS
Section 3 - 10 FPS
Graphics score - 3696
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 82%
Graphics test - 16 FPS
Graphics score - 2752
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 8547 -
Video editing 5137 -
Photo editing 15786 -
Data manipulation 7328 -
Writing score 11901 -
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-16 (ZION)AnTuTu 12659300
📘 2026-04-09 (Ji-Su 8090)AnTuTu 11409449
📘 2025-10-30 (Trung)AnTuTu 11508554
📘 2025-09-20 (ZION)Geekbench 6 GPU1294
📘 2025-09-20 (ZION)Geekbench 6 CPU729 / 1943
Add View all (6)
Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021)
No benchmark results yet
Add

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 4 GB 4 GB
Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2133 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 64 GB 64 GB
Storage type UFS 2.2 NVMe
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 1024 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 13 iPadOS 15 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5)
ROM One UI 5.1 -

Battery

Capacity 5100 mAh 5177 mAh
Max charge power 15 W 20 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging No No
Fast charging Yes (50% in 60 min) Yes (50% in 40 min)
Full charging time 2:30 hr 1:30 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:04 hr 07:46 hr
Watching video 13:21 hr 09:54 hr
Gaming 05:24 hr 04:53 hr
Standby 143 hr 136 hr
General battery life
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 8 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution - 4032 x 3024
Zoom Digital Digital
Flash No Quad LED
Stabilization Digital Digital
8K video recording No No
4K video recording No Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion No 240 FPS (1080p)
Lenses 1) Standard: 8 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
Camera features - - Bokeh mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 8 MP 12 MP
Aperture - f/1.8
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 2 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution - 4032 x 3024
Aperture - f/2.4
Sensor CMOS CMOS
Autofocus No No
Stabilization No Digital
Video resolution 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display		 - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 3.1
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort No Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS
NFC* No No
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 13 18
5G support No Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack Yes No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Budget Mid-range
Announced October 2023 September 2021
Release date October 2023 September 2021
Launch price (MSRP) $159 $499
Successor - Samsung Galaxy Tab A11 - Apple iPad mini 8.3" (7th Gen, 2024)
SAR (body) 0.51 W/kg -
Sensors - Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass		 - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Yes, 20 W
Further details
Notes on Galaxy Tab A9:
    - Doesn't have S Pen support.
Notes on iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021):
    - Supports Apple Pencil 2.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021) is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which tablet would you choose?
21 (56.8%)
16 (43.2%)
Total votes: 37

Related comparisons

1. Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021) vs Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
2. Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021) vs Apple iPad mini 8.3" (7th Gen, 2024) (2)
3. Apple iPad mini 8.3" (6th Gen, 2021) vs Apple iPad 10.9" (10th Gen, 2022) (2)
4. Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 vs Lenovo Tab M9
5. Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
6. Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ (Plus)
7. Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 vs Lenovo Tab M11
8. Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2024)
Compare other tablets (80+)

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
Abs October 13, 2024 at 01:02 AM
I own the Tab A9, it feels great, performs well, generally no issue. Of course the display screen could have been better but this is a budget tablet.
0 Reply
Avatar
Tobias of Sweden May 18, 2024 at 04:08 AM
For me, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 would be a way better choice than the disgustingly expensive iPad Mini 6.
+4 Reply
Avatar
Android is the best November 8, 2024 at 06:02 PM
iPad mini 6 may be disgustingly expensive, but it has one of the best SOCS in the world. The apple a15. The apple a15 has 200% more power than any of the helio socs. And the camera, the camera is 12mp both rear and front and has a very high resolution. It even has a fingerprint scanner, is lighter and has a smaller form factor. It has updates upto 7 years?
0 Reply
EnglishРусский