The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE has all the look and feel of the premium models – just not the same quality

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ and S10 Ultra stand apart as the best Android tablets for business right now, but there's just one reason why buyers might be looking at alternatives like the Huawei MatePad Pro 12.2 or OnePlus Pad 2. With prices starting at $899, they're simply too expensive for some budgets.

This is where the new Galaxy Tab S10 FE and Tab S10 FE+ come in, giving you a stripped-back version of the Tab S10+ for substantially less money. The S10 FE comes in at $499 while the S10 FE+ is a little more at $649. The cost-cutting involves some downsizing, with the S10 FE getting a 10.9in screen and the S10FE+ a 13.1in display, whereas the S10+ and S10 Ultra had 12.4in screen and 14.6in panels, respectively. But are there other areas where you lose out by going for a cheaper model? Having spent more than a week with the Galaxy Tab S10 FE, it's all a question of where your priorities lie.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE: Design

The S10 FE borrows its design language from the premium versions. It's a simple, slimline aluminum-backed slate with nicely rounded corners and 8.5mm bezels that are just big enough to grip without covering the screen. Despite the screen being 1.5in smaller than the display on the S10+, it makes for a very sleek, ultra-mobile tablet that's just 254mm wide, 166mm tall, and a mere 6mm thick. At 497g, it's also extremely lightweight. For comparison's sake, the 11in iPad Air measures 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm.

The most obvious differences from the S10+ are the single 13MP camera at the rear – the S10+ has a 13MP main camera and an 8MP wide-angle camera – and the lack of an inset magnetic strip to house the bundled S-Pen stylus. The S10+ still comes with an S-Pen, but there's no clear spot where you can clamp it for charging. However, it will stick on to both of the longer edges or attach at the rear next to the cameras.

There's still no headphone socket on this model, and the speed of the single USB Type-C port has dropped from USB 3.2 Gen 1 to USB 2, which means it's now really just a charging port rather than something you might use to connect, say, external storage. You have Bluetooth 5.3 and WiFi 6 onboard for wireless connectivity, but not the faster WiFi 6E.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE: Display

One of the glories of the S10+ was its stunning 2800 x 1752 resolution AMOLED 2X display, but the S10 FE has to make do with a 2304 x 1440 resolution IPS display. That means you miss out on the deep blacks and perfect contrast of AMOLED, and the colors aren't as vibrant and intense.

However, on its own terms, it's still a very decent screen. It can hit SDR brightness levels of 612cd/m2 or 794cd/m2 with adaptive brightness turned on and a torch shone in the front-facing camera. It covers 97.7% of the sRGB color gamut and 83.9% of DCI-P3. Color accuracy isn't perfect if you use it in its Vivid mode with an average Delta-E of 2.67, but it's pretty close if you switch to Natural at 1.18.

It's a good screen for touch-friendly applications, browsing, and everyday productivity, and even better for watching video, where the four edge-firing speakers come into play. Not only can the Tab S10 FE go surprisingly loud, but the output is crisp and beefy.

The cameras remain a big step up from those on your average tablet, with the rear camera capturing good, well-exposed, and detailed stills and video even in low light conditions, and the front camera providing video that's noticeably clearer and more balanced than you get from many laptops. In fact, the handling of detail and exposure is so good that the Tab S10 FE makes a fantastic option for video calls and meetings, particularly in places where a laptop might not always be so practical.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE: Software and accessories

It's worth getting one in any case because the Tab S10 FE still has the classic Galaxy Tab trick of working like a laptop once in DEX mode, where it switches Samsung's standard One UI interface for something closer to a Windows desktop. Samsung didn't supply the dedicated S10 FE keyboard cover for this review – it's currently free for a limited time with the tablet. However, used with a Logitech MX Keys Mini keyboard and Bluetooth mouse, the Tab S10 FE made a small but effective laptop substitute, complete with floating resizable windows, a taskbar, rapid app switching, and split-screen views. Using Google Docs and Google Sheets, or your own choice of Android productivity apps, it's possible to get some serious work done.

The Tab S10 FE's other key strength is the extensive integration of the S-Pen. Business users probably won't have much need of the digital painting and coloring book capabilities of Samsung's PenUp app, but with Samsung's Notes app or Google Keep Notes the Tab S10 FE makes a formidable note-taking tool. What's more, Samsung's AI features work here as on the premium Tab S10 models to transform handwritten scrawl or recorded voices into editable text, even translating where necessary. It's not always perfect, with attempts at handwriting in Google Docs resulting in a mess of repeated words and garbled sentences, but most of the time it just works.

What's more, you have Google's Gemini onboard for AI queries, along with a range of Samsung AI enhancements. You can circle to search by long-pressing the virtual Home button then drawing a ring around text or an image on the screen, and use Samsung's tools to remove unwanted objects from your photos, trim video automatically, or clean up noisy audio. The results with image editing aren't quite as good as with Google's Pixel-specific Magic Editor, sometimes leaving a telltale mess when you remove unwanted objects, but the Tab S10 FE's AI capabilities are genuinely useful – and growing more so all the time.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE: Specs and performance

Where the Tab S10+ and S10 Ultra paired a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ CPU with 12GB of RAM, the S10 FE uses Samsung's own Exynos 1580 plus 8GB of RAM. This has an inevitable impact on performance. The S10FE's Geekbench 6 scores of 1358 (single-core) and 3928 (multi-core) are a long way behind the S10+ with 2154 and 7154. In Geekbench 6's GPU Compute test, it scores 3928 whereas the S10+ scores 12020. In 3DMark's 3D graphics tests, the difference is even more marked; the Tab S10 FE only scores 1262 in the Wild Life Extreme test for a miserable 7.56 frames per second. The Tab S10+ scores 12020 with 30fps.

In more demanding apps or in Chrome with a dozen browser tabs open, there's a good chance you might see the difference in performance, but in everyday use, the Tab S10 FE feels slick and snappy. You can switch between apps quickly and there's rarely any pause for cogitation. In the end, it's a bit like having the standard Apple A16 iPad instead of the M3 and M4-powered iPad Pro or iPad Air. Power users running powerhouse content creation apps are going to want the higher-end tablets, but for a wide range of workers, the lower-end model will be perfectly fine.

What's more, the Tab S10 FE has one major advantage over its premium siblings: a longer battery life. In our standard HD video rundown test with the screen brightness set to 170cd/m2, Samsung's tablet kept playing for 17 hours and 24 minutes before shutting down. Even the S10+ gave up after 13 hours and 45 minutes, and you should easily get through a working day before having to plug the S10 FE back in for a recharge. Better still, when you do, it's quick. A 30-minute charge was enough to get an exhausted tablet back to 37%.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE: Is it worth it?

Mostly yes. Buying the Tab S10 FE instead of the Tab S10+ means taking a drop in screen size, display quality, and performance, but that's fair enough given the corresponding drop in price. Samsung's One UI remains one of the most polished Android implementations, with AI features within easy reach, while the combination of DEX and the S-Pen makes the Tab S10 FE a superior option for business use.

There's some stiff competition out there from the OnePlus Pad 2, while the entry-level iPad Air has the advantage of a superior app ecosystem and the desktop-class Apple M3 CPU, and only costs £100 more. All the same, those in the market for a business-grade Android tablet will find the Tab S10 FE a strong mid-range contender.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ specifications