Both Samsung and Apple have come out with new top-of-the-line tablet options this year, with Apple introducing the M4 iPad Pro back in May and Samsung debuting the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra earlier this month. Given the similarities between the two, we thought we'd see how Apple's high-end iPad Pro compares to Samsung's best Galaxy Tab.
In terms of design, Apple makes the iPad Pro in 11-inch and 13-inch size options, while Samsung's tablets are bigger at 12.4 (S10+) and 14.6 inches (Ultra). The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra looks a lot like the iPad Pro with slim bezels, a thin design, and rounded squircle corners. Like Apple, Samsung is using OLED display technology, and there is a new anti-reflective coating this year, but it's not quite as good at cutting down on glare as Apple's nano-texture display.
Samsung added a lot of Galaxy AI features to the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, and some of them are similar to what Apple will bring with Apple Intelligence in iPadOS 18.1. There's a Note Assist option that can auto format notes with headers, bullet points, and paragraphs, which is useful if you just want to write, and Galaxy AI can also provide summaries of notes and voice recording summaries. Those summaries also extend to the web browser for quick summaries of long articles.
In Samsung's image app, you can sketch an object onto a photo and AI will create a more realistic version of what you sketched, adding it in to your picture, plus you can use portrait studio to change the look of your images. There's also built-in access to the Google Gemini chatbot, and with Circle to Search, you can circle anything on your screen to get more information about it.
Year over year, Samsung's Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is a lot like the S9 Ultra, but with AI features. Samsung is advertising an 18 percent increase in CPU performance and a 28 percent increase in GPU performance, but it doesn't come close to M4 chip performance.
Samsung's tablets come with the S Pen, and there are optional Book Cover Keyboards, but the keyboard isn't as premium or as nice as Apple's latest Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. The trackpad just doesn't come close, and you might be better off with the keyboard that doesn't have trackpad functionality. Samsung does still come out ahead at multitasking and it's simpler to use multiple apps on the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra than on the iPad Pro, plus there's DeX for a desktop-like experience.
Pricing on the 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra starts at $1,200, while the 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,300. Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below.
