Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 – Cheaper mini tablet

The name of this plate is a bit misleading. The Galaxy Tab A9 is a product family with two tablets, the Tab A9 and the Tab A9 Plus. It would be natural to assume that the Tab A9 is a sequel to Samsung's cheap tablet Tab A8. But it is rather the Tab A9 Plus that is that tablet, while the Tab A9 is indeed a cheap tablet, but with a small screen of 8.7 inches. We're talking the same size class as the Ipad Mini, and Galaxy Tab A9 Mini would have been a more accurate name. It might be added that the Tab A9 Plus has a different chipset than the Tab A9, so the two tablets simply don't have much in common.

But a cheap mini-tablet can be a nice product for those interested in the format, given that you have the right expectations. In this price range, you don't get Samsung's fantastic Amoled screens or top performance. Rather, my experience with the Tab A7 series is that performance is on the verge of being a problem when using the tablet because it is so slow. Here, the Galaxy Tab A9 is a noticeable improvement. The chipset in the tablet is a Mediatek Helio G99 which isn't exactly blindingly fast, but it gets the job done and I never wonder if the tablet hangs when it just needs to think for a moment. For a price tag of under SEK 2,500, the performance feels completely reasonable.

Weak screen in focus

The screen is probably the most important feature of a tablet and it does its job on the Galaxy Tab A9 but is certainly not a luxury. It is of the LCD type, not particularly bright, changes color a bit when you angle it and is fairly low-resolution. It doesn't have an increased update frequency either, and it shows. The colors are also quite pale and the only thing that really speaks in the screen's favor is that it is larger than a mobile phone's screen.

The plate feels quite thick and the frames on the short side are thick, while those on the long sides are less noticeable. The metal back almost feels like an unnecessary luxury when you skimp on most everything else. but headset jacks are here, and stereo speakers. The speakers are far from Samsung's best, but they provide decent sound when watching movies.

One reason to buy a Samsung tablet is to gain access to Samsung's entire ecosystem, and perhaps sync things easily to a phone that is also from Samsung. With the Galaxy Tab A9, you just barely get it. You can sync notes with Samsung Notes between the devices, but the tablet doesn't support Samsung's Pass password service, perhaps because the device lacks a fingerprint reader. Instead, there is Google Wallet, which can save your passwords, but if you've already saved your logins in Samsung Pass, it can feel annoying to have to redo it when it's normally possible to sync between Samsung devices.

The battery life of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 is quite okay, especially considering that it does not have a more power-efficient AMOLED screen. I get almost eight hours of screen time with the screen at maximum brightness. No charger is included, and when I charge with a standard charger, the plate needs a good amount of time to fully charge.

The camera on the back is nothing more, but it is sufficient, for example, when you want to scan QR codes and take pictures of memory notes, which is perhaps the only thing you ask for from a tablet. Perhaps more of a shame then that the selfie camera is so weak that it affects the result if you want to use the tablet for video calls.

The tablet is available with or without a SIM card slot for mobile network connection, it has a memory card slot regardless, and with 4/64 or 8/128 GB of memory. The variant we tested has 64 GB of storage and 4 GB of working memory, so if anything you can expect the variant with 8/128 GB to feel faster as it has more working memory to buffer apps in.

The price for the different configurations is:

Wifi, 4/64 GB: SEK 2400

Wifi, 8/128 GB: SEK 3,000

LTE 4/64 GB: SEK 2900

LTE 8/128 GB: SEK 3,500

The cheapest version is the one that feels the most affordable here, for SEK 2400 I can feel that I am getting a perfectly okay compact tablet, which does have a rather uninspired screen but is not as tough as many other tablets for that price tag.