Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE 10.9" Lavender 2024

The S9 FE is a great note-taking tablet trapped in a 2014 hardware body. Buy it for the S Pen and DeX, but don't expect it to keep up with modern tablets.

The Snapdragon 600 quad-core chip lands in the bottom third of tablets we track, and the 1GB of RAM is essentially the worst we've seen. That's a brutal combo in 2024. And yet, for the basics it works. Note-taking apps feel responsive, video playback is smooth, and DeX mode handles light productivity without throwing a fit. But forget about keeping more than a couple of apps alive at once. The moment you start switching between a browser, a notes app, and a video call, you'll feel the grind. The 128GB of storage is a nice touch though, well above average for this price bracket.

Against the Apple iPad Air M4, this thing gets absolutely demolished. The Air has a chip that's roughly five generations ahead and RAM that isn't a joke. The Xiaomi Pad 7 and Lenovo Yoga Tab Plus also run circles around the S9 FE in raw performance, though they cost more. Where the S9 FE wins is the stylus experience out of the box. The S Pen comes included, while Apple makes you pay extra for the Pencil. If notes are your entire use case, that's a real advantage. But the moment you want to edit video, play games, or keep a dozen browser tabs open, any of those competitors will leave the S9 FE in the dust.

At $296 USD, this is a tough sell brand new. You're paying for the S Pen and the Samsung ecosystem, not the specs. The renewed units make more sense if you can snag one in good condition, but even then, the RAM ceiling is a hard limit. If you need a dedicated note-taking machine and nothing else, it's justifiable. If you want a general-purpose tablet, spend your money elsewhere.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is a weird mix of genuinely great ideas and oddly dated hardware. You get the S Pen included, a bright 10.9-inch display, and Samsung's excellent DeX mode, but then you look under the hood and find a Snapdragon 600 from a decade ago paired with just 1GB of RAM. That's not a typo. For note-taking and media consumption it holds up surprisingly well. For anything resembling heavy multitasking or gaming, it's going to choke.

If you're looking for a tablet that can handle gaming, heavy multitasking, or anything beyond note-taking and streaming, walk away. The 1GB of RAM and ancient Snapdragon 600 will frustrate you within a week. Get an iPad Air M4 or a Xiaomi Pad 7 instead. If Wi-Fi stability is critical for your workflow, the reported connectivity issues alone should send you elsewhere.

The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is a one-trick pony, but it's a good trick. If you're a student or artist who wants a reliable note-taking tablet with an excellent pen and don't care about multitasking, it does the job. For everyone else, the dated internals are a dealbreaker. The 1GB of RAM alone should make you pause. Buy it for the S Pen and DeX, not for performance.