Samsung does this every year. Release a flagship tablet, strip the guts, swap the screen for something cheaper. Drop the price. Call it the Fan Edition. It works.
The Galaxy Tab S10 FE ($500) and its big brother the S10 FE+ ($650) are the latest entries. 8GB RAM. 128GB storage. Reasonable specs. Not exciting specs. Reasonable.
The sizing gets weird if you follow the numbers closely. The FE keeps the 10.9-inch form factor of the old S9 FE. But the Plus model? It jumps to a 13.1-inch panel. That is physically larger than the previous S10 Plus (12.4 inches). And even the standard S9 FE Plus. Size does not always match model names at Samsung.
But you lose quality for that extra glass.
The regular S10 Plus has an AMOLED display. Deep blacks. Vibrant color. This one uses an LCD. It’s bright — hitting 836 nits in lab tests, beating the claimed 800. Good enough. Just… flatter.
Here is the tradeoff though. The LCD saves power. A lot of it.
The battery life on this thing is ridiculous.
17 hours. 45 minutes. Of continuous video streaming. We timed it. That edged out the 12.9 iPad Pro. It even beat the new S11 Ultra. If you just want to binge-watch something while sitting at an airport? You will be fine. It earned a CNET Lab Award for longest battery life. Not surprising, given the numbers.
It’s Slow. Intentionally.
Don’t expect speed. The chip here is the Exynos 158. Not the Dimensity 9300+ found in the expensive S10 Plus. Not the Exynos 138 in the last gen FE models either. A step up? Sure. Powerful? No.
Look at Geekbench 6 scores:
* Single-core: 1,364 (vs 2,127 for S10+)
* Multi-core: 3,922 (vs 7,126 for S10+)
Half the power. Literally half. For benchmarks anyway. In daily use? You probably won’t notice. Browsing. Netflix. Docs. It feels adequate. Smooth enough for what most people do.
If you want speed. If you edit video or play heavy 3D games. Save the money. Get the real S10+ or the upcoming S11. Don’t waste your time here.
“The Galaxy Tab S10 FE series delivers roughly 75% of the experience for a fraction of the price.”
The Good Bits. The Annoying Bits.
It’s lighter than the S9 FE+ by about 4%. Samsung points this out like it matters. It matters if you hold it for hours. It matters less if you just rest it on your lap. At 13 inches, it’s awkward handheld anyway. Grab the smaller FE if you like to carry stuff around.
There’s one ultrawide rear camera gone. Now you just have a single 13MP shooter on the back. Fine for scans. Useless for art.
The front camera is in the short edge though. Smart. Lay the tablet flat and video calls work landscape-style. No vertical video chat awkwardness. Nice touch.
What’s inside the box is where the sting starts.
Samsung included the S Pen. Finally. It’s nice for notes. Sketching. Coloring kids’ apps. A little lag. Missing features artists demand. But for students? Great.
But no cover. No keyboard. You need them if you want the DeX mode laptop vibe. Or even just protection. The pen snaps magnetically to the back near the camera but falls off easily. Without a case. You are asking for a cracked screen or a lost stylus.
Add $100 for a Samsung keyboard. Find cheaper third-party options if you have a dollar.
And the sound? Surprisingly solid. Loud stereo speakers. Clear. You probably won’t reach for headphones for casual movie watching. Good for a media tablet.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t for everyone.
It is for people who watch a lot of media. For students taking notes. For people who need battery that refuses to die. The display isn’t premium. The performance isn’t fast. The price is right, if you accept compromises.
Is it better than last year’s model? Incrementally. Better than an iPad? Maybe in battery. Probably not in everything else.
It hits the right notes. Just don’t expect a symphony.
- Should you upgrade from the S9 FE?
- Probably not. Wait a beat.
