Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra vs Apple iPad Pro M4: door-sized AI machines

The divide in performance is massive here. One can argue that the iPad Pro M4 doesn't do much with that power, as iPadOS is allergic to native multitasking. Well, there is the new Stage Manager mode for the UI, where it kind of lets you juggle multiple apps at the same time, but there's a learning curve to it as Apple typically does things "the Apple way". What can definitely be said about the iPad Pro is that it will edit and export 4K video faster, and there are more pro tools for designers and musicians in the App Store. There are also AAA games, literal console-grade games by Ubisoft, Capcom, Kojima Productions (not Raid: Shadow Legends type of console-grade), probably with more to come.

Even then, that's a lot of power for a mobile device, and you will often hear people in the tech sphere saying the M4 is wasted on iPadOS and begging Apple to put MacOS on the iPads.

That said, we can't say that the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra feels slow. No, it performs great and can run apps like a champ. Even if you open 5 floating windows, which the huge screen definitely allows you to do. You can run it in DeX mode natively, which looks a lot like a desktop or a laptop's UI, so it's instantly more intuitive. And, to Samsung's credit — it does try to offer pro apps and features. Samsung even partnered with the LumaFusion developers, bringing the massively popular video editor to Android. To my understanding, after asking Samsung about it, this partnership continues — while LumaFusion is available across Android devices, it is tested on and first features arrive to Galaxy Tab tablets.

Can we talk about the software without mentioning... AI? In 2024, no. Give it another year.

So, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra ships with Galaxy AI on board. This features various useful and other such features as transcribing and summarizing audio recordings, summarizong web pages, generating images from your S Pen drawings (even if you draw on top of a real photo), smarter Bixby, and live translations.

Apple's iPadOS 18.1 should come any day now, with the first batch of "Apple Intelligence" features, which will do much the same. Including a calculator that's embedded in the Notes app and gives you the results of equations and automatically edits graphs even if you delete a number and change the equation input at any point. Plus various little tricks like making your handwriting prettier and learning your own cursive style so it always looks like it's written by you.

No surprise there, Samsung is also adding those features. But since we are talking about the pens so much, it's worth noting that the excellent S Pen comes with the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra in the box, while the Apple Pencil (or Pencil Pro, which matches the S Pen features) is a separate purchase, which drives the iPad Pro price further north.

If you are keen on using either of those tablets as a laptop replacement — you can. Both will work with external Bluetooth keyboards, but truly shine if you get their proprietary accessories. The Apple Magic Keyboard is, indeed, excellent. The keys feel great, the trackpad is bigger and also feels very precise and laptop-like. The Samsung Book Cover Keyboard folio is... OK. The keys are a bit mushy, and Android still doesn't feel super-great with a trackpad, but it's usable. But for the asking price, it did make us wince.

Understanding that people will use the cameras on tablets mostly for video calls, Apple added an interesting feature a few years ago — Center Stage. The 12 MP selfie camera has an ultra-wide lens, but it doesn't show your mug in an unflattering ultra-wide. Instead, the software crops and zooms in to your face, and even follows you around as you move. If a second person enters the frame, it appropriately zooms out. We were a bit iffy on that feature when first announced, but multiple video calls and meetings have shown that it's actually a good quality-of-life improvement. Why? Because you don't need to be nailed down to one specific point where the camera is looking at — you are free to somewhat move around, rock in your chair, grab something from the desk on the side.

You can still turn it off, and the camera will use a cropped-in frame instead of an ultra-wide view that exposes your whole apartment.

Samsung took note of this and the Galaxy Tab S models since the S8 have the "Auto Frame" feature. Which works in the same manner. The difference here is that the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra has two 12 MP cameras on the front — one "normal" and one ultra-wide. If you turn Auto Frame off, it doesn't need to crop in and supposedly capture a lower-grade image, it just switches to the normal selfie camera.

But that's also the reason why you have an awkward cutout in your screen with two tiny eyes staring at you. 

On the back, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra has a 13 MP main camera and an 8 MP ultra-wide camera. The former takes good-enough photos for capturing documents, or quick fleeting moments. The latter is... mostly unused? And not great, being an 8 MP sensor under an ultra-wide lens which typically makes things softer and fuzzier. Apple seems to have realized that, which is why the iPad Pro M4 doesn't feature an ultra-wide camera on its back, while past Pro iPads did. Now, it only has the 12 MP camera — again, it's "good enough", kind of around iPhone 12 quality — and the LiDAR sensor for AR apps and games (which, we feel, haven't really taken off yet, have they?).