Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra vs Apple IPad Air 13" (2024)
72
out of 100
VS
80
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship tablets: the 14.6-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) that was released on July 26, 2023, against the Apple IPad Air 13" (2024), which is powered by Apple M2 (iPad) and came out 10 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 Ultra
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Has a 1.6 inches larger screen size
- Comes with 860 mAh larger battery capacity: 11200 vs 10340 mAh
- Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
- Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
- Delivers 9% higher peak brightness (642 against 588 nits)
- Dynamic AMOLED display (versus competitor's IPS LCD)
- Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 30W)
- The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Apple IPad Air 13" (2024)
- 45% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2536K versus 1750K)
- Shows 10% longer battery life (29:14 vs 26:34 hours)
- Smaller footprint: 11% more compact case (93.5 vs 105.5 square inches)
- 10% higher pixel density (264 vs 239 PPI)
- Weighs 115 grams less
- 22% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2585 and 2127 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 | Dynamic AMOLED | IPS LCD |
| Size | 14.6 inches | 13 inches |
| Resolution | 1848 x 2960 pixels | 2048 x 2732 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 16:10 | 4:3 |
| PPI | 239 ppi | 264 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (30-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 930 nits | 600 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | No |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | Tempered glass |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 90.8% | 86.8% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 | - DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 98.2% | 99.7% |
| PWM | 240 Hz | Not detected |
| Response time | 3 ms | 45 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | 1018:1 |
Screen space comparison
Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
14.6″ (16:10 ratio) = 95.8 in2
IPad Air 13" (2024)
13″ (4:3 ratio) = 81.1 in2
~18% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 326.4 mm (12.85 inches) | 280.6 mm (11.05 inches) |
| Width | 208.6 mm (8.21 inches) | 214.9 mm (8.46 inches) |
| Thickness | 5.5 mm (0.22 inches) | 6.1 mm (0.24 inches) |
| Weight | 732 g (25.82 oz) | 617 g (21.76 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | No |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Metal | Metal |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Gray, Yellow | Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | Yes, in-button |
| Area | 681 cm2 (105.5 inches2) | 603 cm2 (93.5 inches2) |
Visual size comparison
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (60th and 37th place)
Android Tablet Ranking (#44th place)
iPad Ranking (#10th place)
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Apple M2 (iPad) |
| Max clock | 3360 MHz | 3490 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 2.42 GHz: Blizzard - 4 cores at 3.49 GHz: Avalanche |
| L3 cache | 8 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 740 | Apple GPU 10-core |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 1024 |
| GPU clock | 680 MHz | 1398 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~2089 GFLOPS | ~2863.1 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 9753 | 43561 |
| Single-core score | 2127 | 2585 |
| Multi-core score | 5667 | 10090 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 605896 | 841074 |
| GPU | 452910 | 801119 |
| Memory | 229430 | 371059 |
| UX | 462701 | 523068 |
| Total score | 1750937 | 2536320 |
| Samples | [134 tests] | Less than 3 |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 98% | 74% |
| Graphics test | 9 FPS | 17 FPS |
| Graphics score | 1153 | 2299 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | 96% | - |
| Graphics test | 21 FPS | 30 FPS |
| Section 1 | 24 FPS | 38 FPS |
| Section 2 | 21 FPS | 30 FPS |
| Section 3 | 18 FPS | 20 FPS |
| Graphics score | 5622 | 7827 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | 79% | - |
| Graphics test | 22 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 3829 | - |
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 17.5 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5) |
| ROM | One UI 6.1 | - |
| OS size | 40 GB | 13 GB |
Battery
| Capacity | 11200 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 (32% in 30 min) | Yes |
| Full charging time | 2:08 hr | 2:30 hr |
| Web browsing | 08:11 hr | 12:05 hr |
| Watching video | 12:20 hr | 11:26 hr |
| Gaming | 07:26 hr | 07:56 hr |
| Standby | 165 hr | 167 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 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | - |
| Sensor | - | CMOS |
| Autofocus | No | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS |
| Additional lens | 12 MP | - |
| 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 | May 2024 |
| Release date | August 2023 | May 2024 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1199 | $799 |
| Successor | - | - Apple iPad Air 13" (2th Gen, 2025) |
| SAR (head) | 0.93 W/kg | - |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Fingerprint |
| 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: 85