Artist Review: Samsung Tab S10 FE

Not a sponsored review

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE and S10 FE+ were released in April 2025. I could consider these tablets to be in between the Tab S9 and Tab S9FE in the tablet line up.

Here's a comparison of these tablets:

The main changes from the Tab S9 FE are:

• Exynos 1580 (4nm) from Exynos 1380 (5nm)
• RAM from 6GB to 8GB
• Thickness down from 6.5mm to 6mm
• 10.9-inch weight down from 523g to 497g
• FE+ model display size from 12.4-inch to 13.1-inch
• FE+ model weight increased from 627g to 664g

The increase in RAM is appreciated, and now you can even get the tablets with 12GB RAM. The reduction of thickness is also noticeable.

If you have the Tab S9 FE or even an old Tab S7 FE that's still working, there should not be any compelling reason to upgrade unless your old tablet can't do the work you used to do.

Specifications

Price

Things included

• Tablet
• USB-C to USB-C charging cable
• Samsung S Pen
• SIM ejector
• User manual

The tablet supports 45W fast charging but there's no charger included.

Design

This is a beautiful tablet with thin bezels. The 12MP landscape front camera has face unlock and auto-brightness. Corners for the body and display are rounded off. Build quality is solid and feels premium.

Power button has a fingerprint scanner that works fast and effectively. Nearby are the volume control buttons.

At the bottom is a USB-C port with USB 2 transfer speed and cannot output video. Charging speed is up to 45W.

Speaker grille is now a single slit instead of a row of circular holes. Audio is loud, clear and has good surround. Audio quality is good. The Tab S9 or S10 four way speakers have slightly better treble and mid.

On the other side is the microSD card slot for storage expansion. 5G cellular is an optional upgrade.

Design of the back is clean and simple. The included S Pen can snap magnetically to the back, and also to the top side of the tablet.

The 10.9-inch tablet weights 497g and is noticeably more compact and easier to handle compared to the larger 13.1-inch model which weighs 664g. 10.9-inch is the one to get if you're looking for a portable digital sketchpad. The larger display is better for split screen mode, SamsungDex and when used as an external wireless display.

Display

Resolution of the 10.9-inch is 2304 x 1440 (249 PPI). Brightness is up to 600 nits with High Brightness Mode up to 800 nits when outdoors. Colours look good.

This tablet may even have less IPS glow compared to the Tab S9 FE but unfortunately I no longer have the older tablet to compare side by side.

This is a bright, vibrant and sharp display. The LCD quality is good.

Refresh rate of 90Hz makes the tablet feel more responsive because animation for pan, zoom, rotate and scroll all look smoother.

Display is also laminated so there's almost no gap between the line and pen tip.

Only downside is the display has no anti-reflective coating and is very reflective. Samsung actually sells anti-reflective screen protectors for the S10 FE tablets and those are worth buying if you want to reduce glare.

Performance

Overall performance feels responsive. There are no issues with multi-tasking with many apps in the background. Apps can launch fast and run smooth.

I recommend getting the model with 12GB RAM if you can stretch your budget slightly.

Gaming is of course possible but don't expect to play graphics intensive games at the highest resolution.

OS and software

This tablet runs the latest Samsung One UI 7.0 on top of Android 15. Samsung One UI has many useful features and is a huge selling point over other Android tablets.

Samsung provides seven years of OS and software updates for the Tab S10 FE tablets.

SamsungDex is included. This is the desktop mode that provides familiar user interface that's quite similar to Windows desktop. This is a useful feature that works better on larger display. Unfortunately, there's no way to use SamsungDex on external display since the USB-C port does not output video.

The tablet finally has the side panel called Edge Panels that I use often on my Samsung phone.

And there's official support for Google Play Store.

S Pen

The Samsung S Pen is included and this is one of the best digital pens for writing and drawing.

The pen supports tilt, 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. The pen is not powered by battery so no charging is required. The pen does not use Bluetooth so no pairing is required for usage.

There is one side button which is customisable depending on the app you use. The pen tip has a soft tip which also provides some resistance on the glass display. The pen tip is firm and has no movement when in contact with the display. The pen tip does not make tapping sounds thanks to the soft tip.

Since the pen uses Wacom EMR, it is possible to use other S Pen alternatives too.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro.

1. Initial activation force is low. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. Slow diagonal lines can be drawn without noticeable diagonal line wobble or jitter.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back to thin is smooth. This is also a diagonal line and there's no diagonal line wobble.

4. Consistent line width can be created by maintaining consistent pressure.

5. No issues with drawing dots.

6. No issues with cursor misalignment.

This is a sensitive an accurate pen. Tilt sensitivity and palm rejection both work well.

Drawing experience

Drawing experience is good and enjoyable, just like all the Samsung Galaxy tablets before. Samsung S Pen performance has always been predictable and consistent across generations thanks to the Wacom EMR tech that's used. Lines are able to come out just the way I expect them to.

The 11-inch form factor is a wonderful size for a digital sketchpad. It's more convenient to carry around, and easier to pull out and start sketching.

Apps with plenty of UI elements, eg Clip Studio Paint, Krita, or even Medibang Paint, work better on the larger 13.1-inch Tab S10 FE which has more desktop space. The larger display is also more useful when placing reference images inside the app, and better when used as an external wireless display.

This was drawn with Medibang Paint Pro.

This was drawn with Infinite Painter using the Dry Ink brush. I was able to get the tilt effect to appear exactly how I expect them to.

This was drawn with Concepts app.

I did not experience any issues with the various drawing apps that I have tested.

Overall drawing experience is very enjoyable. You can definitely create professional art with this tablet if you want to. The pen is accurate enough even if it's not as precise compared to pen displays.

Should you consider other Samsung Galaxy tablets

The Samsung Tab S10 FE is a good tablet, but if you're still using the Samsung Tab S7 FE or Tab S9 FE, and those tablets can still do what you want, there should not be any compelling reason to upgrade.

If you're deciding which Samsung Galaxy tablet to buy as your first tablet, it can be confusing since there are so many options. Which tablet to get mostly would come down to how much you want to spend.

I consider the Tab S10 FE to be between Tab S9 And Tab S9 FE. I won't recommend the Tab S9 FE when the Tab S10 FE exists because the extra 2GB RAM upgrade is useful. And the Tab S9 is still quite expensive even though it was released almost two years ago in August 2023.

Battery life

Battery life is 7 hours with maximum brightness and up to 13 hr with auto-brightness.

Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE and Tab S10 FE+ are great tablets for those who want a great user experience but don't want to spend too much money. These are tablets I can recommend easily and I don't think you will be disappointed with them when you already know what to expect.

The display looks good, audio sounds good, performance is fast and smooth, pen performance is great, battery life is long. The downsides mostly come in the form of missing features when compared to the more expensive Tab S9 and S10 tablets. So the question is do you want to spend more to get more features, or spend less to save more money?

Samsung tablets also get good discounts quite often during sales so you're not in a rush to buy the tablet, I recommend you wait for sales. For example here in Singapore, the official retail price is S$828 for the tablet I bought, but I was able to get at at S$100 lower on Shopee SG during a sale, and at the time of writing, there's even a better sale than what I've got.

Pros and cons at a glance

Availability

If you're in Singapore, you can get the S10 FE Wifi, S10 FE 5G, S10 FE+ Wifi tablets from Shopee SG. If you find the displays too reflective, you can buy the anti-reflective screen protector for the 10.9-inch tablet or 13.1-inch tablet.

The tablets are also available for sale on Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP

If you have intention to buy the tablets, considering using the affiliate links above to make your purchase to support my blog and the work I do here. Thanks.