Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus) vs Apple IPad Air 13" (2024)
59
out of 100
VS
80
out of 100
Here we compared two tablets: the 12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus) (with Exynos 1380) that was released on October 4, 2023, against the Apple IPad Air 13" (2024), which is powered by Apple M2 (iPad) and came out 7 months after. 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
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus)
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Higher display refresh rate – 90 Hz
- Shows 7% longer battery life (31:20 vs 29:14 hours)
- Delivers 30% higher peak brightness (767 against 591 nits)
- Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
- Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 30W)
- Much smaller footprint: 12% more compact case (82 vs 93.5 square inches)
Reasons to consider the Apple IPad Air 13" (2024)
- 3.3x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2536K versus 765K)
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 6400 MHz
- Has 33% more RAM: 8GB versus 6GB
- 2.6x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2585 and 1001 points
Review
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
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Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | TFT LCD | IPS LCD |
| Size | 12.4 inches | 13 inches |
| Resolution | 1600 x 2560 pixels | 2048 x 2732 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 16:10 | 4:3 |
| PPI | 243 ppi | 264 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 90 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | No | No |
| Max rated brightness | 800 nits | 600 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10 | No |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 | Tempered glass |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 84.2% | 86.8% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 | - DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 97.6% | 99.7% |
| PWM | 61100 Hz | Not detected |
| Response time | 28 ms | 45 ms |
| Contrast | 1096:1 | 1018:1 |
Screen space comparison
IPad Air 13" (2024)
13″ (4:3 ratio) = 81.1 in2
Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus)
12.4″ (16:10 ratio) = 69.1 in2
~17% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 285.4 mm (11.24 inches) | 280.6 mm (11.05 inches) |
| Width | 185.4 mm (7.3 inches) | 214.9 mm (8.46 inches) |
| Thickness | 6.5 mm (0.26 inches) | 6.1 mm (0.24 inches) |
| Weight | 627 g (22.12 oz) | 617 g (21.76 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | No |
| Rear material | Metal | Metal |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Silver, Gray, Green, Purple | Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-button | Yes, in-button |
| Area | 529 cm2 (82.1 inches2) | 603 cm2 (93.5 inches2) |
Visual size comparison
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (97th and 37th place)
Android Tablet Ranking (#73rd place)
iPad Ranking (#10th place)
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 1380 | Apple M2 (iPad) |
| Max clock | 2400 MHz | 3490 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (4 + 4) | 8 (4 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55 - 4 cores at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A78 |
- 4 cores at 2.42 GHz: Blizzard - 4 cores at 3.49 GHz: Avalanche |
| L3 cache | 4 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 5 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Yes | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Mali-G68 MP5 | Apple GPU 10-core |
| GPU shading units | 160 | 1024 |
| GPU clock | 949 MHz | 1398 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~303.7 GFLOPS | ~2863.1 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 3075 | 43561 |
| Single-core score | 1001 | 2585 |
| Multi-core score | 2859 | 10090 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 304267 | 841074 |
| GPU | 91303 | 801119 |
| Memory | 135522 | 371059 |
| UX | 234103 | 523068 |
| Total score | 765195 | 2536320 |
| Samples | [73 tests] | Less than 3 |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 98% | 74% |
| Graphics test | 2 FPS | 17 FPS |
| Graphics score | 295 | 2299 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Graphics test | - | 30 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 38 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 30 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 20 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 7827 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 9549 | - |
| Video editing | 6758 | - |
| Photo editing | 25124 | - |
| Data manipulation | 9193 | - |
| Writing score | 14276 | - |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-08-15 (Julian Ludwig) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 3117 |
| 📘 2026-08-15 (Julian Ludwig) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1001 / 2859 |
Apple IPad Air 13" (2024)
No benchmark results yet
Memory
Configuration
| RAM size | 6 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR4X | LPDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 2133 MHz | 6400 MHz |
| Channels | 2 | 4 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 2.2 | NVMe |
| Memory card | MicroSD | No |
| Memory card max size | Up to 1024 GB | - |
Software
| Operating system | Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 14) | iPadOS 17.5 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5) |
| ROM | One UI 6.1 | - |
| OS size | 29 GB | 13 GB |
Battery
| Capacity | 10090 mAh | 10340 mAh |
| Max charge power | 45 W | 30 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Po |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | No | No |
| Reverse charging | No | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (50% in 40 min) | Yes |
| Full charging time | 1:50 hr | 2:30 hr |
| Web browsing | 10:19 hr | 12:05 hr |
| Watching video | 16:16 hr | 11:26 hr |
| Gaming | 09:43 hr | 07:56 hr |
| Standby | 178 hr | 167 hr |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 8 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | - | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Digital | Digital |
| Flash | No | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| 8K video recording | No | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | - | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 8 MP 2) Ultrawide: 8 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - | - Bokeh mode |
| Image resolution | 8 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | f/1.8 |
| Pixel size | - | 1.22 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Image resolution | 8 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | - |
| Stabilization | Digital | - |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 12 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 4000 x 3000 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | - | f/2.4 |
| Sensor | CMOS | CMOS |
| Autofocus | No | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | 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 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - 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 | 5.3 |
| 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 |
| Number of SIM* | 1 | - |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | eSIM |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 18 | - |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Mid-range | Flagship |
| Announced | October 2023 | May 2024 |
| Release date | October 2023 | May 2024 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $599 | $799 |
| Successor | - Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ | - Apple iPad Air 13" (2th Gen, 2025) |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Fingerprint |
| Keyboard weight | 345 g | - |
| Bundled charger | Not included | Yes, 20 W |
*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 Air 13" (2024) is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 30