Galaxy Tab S9+ (Plus) vs iPad Air 13" (2th Gen, 2025)
74
out of 100
VS
82
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship tablets: the 12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+ (Plus) (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) that was released on July 26, 2023, against the Apple iPad Air 13" (2th Gen, 2025), which is powered by Apple M3 (iPad) and came out 1 year and 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+ (Plus)
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Shows 7% longer battery life (30:03 vs 28:03 hours)
- Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
- Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
- Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 20W)
- Dynamic AMOLED display (versus competitor's IPS LCD)
- Much smaller footprint: 12% more compact case (82 vs 93.5 square inches)
- The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 13" (2th Gen, 2025)
- 58% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2764K versus 1750K)
- 45% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3044 and 2102 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
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | IPS LCD |
| Size | 12.4 inches | 13 inches |
| Resolution | 1752 x 2800 pixels | 2048 x 2732 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 16:10 | 4:3 |
| PPI | 266 ppi | 264 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (30-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 600 nits | 600 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | No |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | Tempered glass |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 84.2% | 86.8% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 | - DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 98.5% | 99.9% |
| PWM | 120 Hz | Not detected |
| Response time | 2 ms | 36 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | 1214:1 |
Screen space comparison
iPad Air 13" (2th Gen, 2025)
13″ (4:3 ratio) = 81.1 in2
Galaxy Tab S9+ (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 | 5.7 mm (0.22 inches) | 6.1 mm (0.24 inches) |
| Weight | 581 g (20.49 oz) | 616 g (21.73 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | No |
| Rear material | Metal | Metal |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Gray, Yellow | Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-button |
| Area | 529 cm2 (82.1 inches2) | 603 cm2 (93.5 inches2) |
| Repairability | - | Average (2.59/5) |
Visual size comparison
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (54th and 30th place)
Android Tablet Ranking (#40th place)
iPad Ranking (#8th place)
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
| Max clock | 3360 MHz | 4050 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) | 8 (4 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A710 - 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715 - 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X3 |
- 4 cores at 2.75 GHz: - 4 cores at 4.05 GHz: |
| L3 cache | 8 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 740 | Apple GPU 9-core |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 1152 |
| GPU clock | 680 MHz | 1380 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~2089 GFLOPS | ~3179.5 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 9760 | 45545 |
| Single-core score | 2102 | 3044 |
| Multi-core score | 5600 | 11749 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 605896 | 770486 |
| GPU | 452910 | 1024172 |
| Memory | 229430 | 312462 |
| UX | 462701 | 657090 |
| Total score | 1750937 | 2764210 |
| Samples | [134 tests] | [4 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 98% | 70% |
| Graphics test | 9 FPS | 20 FPS |
| Graphics score | 1153 | 2695 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | 91% | - |
| Graphics test | 21 FPS | 39 FPS |
| Section 1 | 24 FPS | 52 FPS |
| Section 2 | 22 FPS | 38 FPS |
| Section 3 | 18 FPS | 28 FPS |
| Graphics score | 5623 | 10356 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Graphics test | 23 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 3890 | - |
Memory
Configuration
| RAM size | 12 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 4200 MHz | 6400 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| Storage size | 256 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | 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 18.3 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5) |
| ROM | One UI 6.1 | - |
| OS size | 40 GB | 23 GB |
| OS updates | - | 5 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 10090 mAh | 10340 mAh |
| Max charge power | 45 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 40 min) | Yes (50% in 70 min) |
| Full charging time | 2:04 hr | 2:30 hr |
| Battery cycles | - | 1000 cycles |
| Web browsing | 10:15 hr | 09:17 hr |
| Watching video | 16:47 hr | 13:08 hr |
| Gaming | 08:55 hr | 07:13 hr |
| Standby | 163 hr | 170 hr |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 13 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 4128 x 3096 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Digital | Digital |
| Flash | LED | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| 8K video recording | No | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | - | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 13 MP 2) Ultrawide: 8 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - | - Bokeh mode |
| Image resolution | 13 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | f/1.8 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | - |
| 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 | f/2.4 |
| Sensor | - | CMOS |
| Autofocus | No | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | No |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6E (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 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | Yes | 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* | 20 | - |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | 4.0 | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | July 2023 | March 2025 |
| Release date | August 2023 | March 2025 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $999 | $799 |
| Successor | - Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 | - |
| SAR (body) | 1.35 W/kg | - |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Fingerprint |
| Keyboard weight | 380 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" (2th Gen, 2025) is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 4