The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is the best beater tablet you can get right now

Even in a world where phones are huge, a tablet can be nice to have around. Whether you’re reading, researching, watching videos, or playing games, you can benefit from a tablet’s larger screen. However, Android tablets tend to be cheap and unpleasant to use or obscenely expensive — there’s not a lot of middle ground. The venerable Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is a rare exception with its mid-range $449 MSRP. That might be a little spendy for an around-the-house beater tablet, but with the current $299 sale, this thing is a no-brainer.

The case for one more screen

I used to think that smart displays were the way we’d interact with larger screens around the house, but voice control has been slow to improve (it may even be getting worse), and smart displays aren’t portable. Google seemingly acknowledges this with the Pixel Tablet, which has a stand that essentially makes it into a smart display.

Increasingly, I like the idea of a tablet that can float around the house. Everyone has a profile and can use the device when the need arises. Whether it’s reading recipes in the kitchen or editing photos from your last trip, a tablet can be superior to a phone. Tablets also have larger batteries than phones, allowing them to sit around asleep for a couple of days before you have to worry about plugging them in.

I’ll freely admit that this isn’t a necessary tech purchase, and that’s a problem because the price distribution of Android tablets is far from balanced. Samsung didn’t even bother to make a base model of the Tab S10 family — the $1,000 Tab S10+ is the cheapest variant. The Pixel Tablet has been my ’round-the-house tablet lately, but it’s $600 with the stand. The Tab S9 FE is a much better deal, even when it’s not steeply discounted. Let’s face it: if you’re going to let everyone in the house fiddle with a tablet, getting it grimy in the kitchen and lost under couch cushions, you don’t want it to be one that costs you a grand.

The good news is an inexpensive tablet can do most of the things you’d do on a more expensive tablet. As long as you’re not expecting flagship performance, the Tab S9 FE will please everyone. And if it breaks, it’s not the end of the world.

Under normal circumstances, the $449 Galaxy Tab S9 FE would be a reasonable choice if you wanted a tablet floating around the house, but it’s on sale for a mere $299 this Black Friday, making this Android slate hard to pass up. It’s a capable, well-supported Android device that is neither slow as molasses nor so expensive you have to worry about damaging it.

Despite the low price, my experience with it has been pretty good. It sports a 10.9-inch 1440 x 2304 LCD, much larger and maybe higher resolution than what you carry in your pocket. The Exynos 1380 processor inside isn’t the most powerful, but it’s more than good enough for casual use — less picky members of the household probably won’t even notice the minor hitches we noted in the review.

The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is thin and light, making it easy to haul around, and the aluminum body is durable. It’s also IP68-rated, so you don’t have to fret if it gets splashed in the kitchen.

The Tab S9 FE also comes with the S Pen stylus, which is already a nice bonus at MSRP. At $299, it’s a potential game-changer. The S Pen feels great in the hand, and I like the way it feels gliding across a glass screen more than the Apple Pencil (which costs an extra $100 with any iPad). Without any additional setup, this tablet can pull double duty as a kids’ coloring book and a way for grown-ups to take notes or create art. I’ve also found S Pen devices to be great for signing documents and filling out forms when tax time rolls around.

Samsung’s software is a big selling point here. The Tab S9 FE gets the same fantastic multitasking features as the flagship devices. While it’s not as fast, you can run simple apps in split-screen and floating mode without issue, making this beater tablet handy even if you need to run phone-optimized apps.

Naturally, you don’t want to expose your household to added security risks, which can be common on cheap tablets that don’t get proper support. The Tab S9 FE is much more reliable than the average $299 slate. Samsung promises five years of security patches, with about four left as of this writing. The tablet is also due to get two more major Android updates.

To summarize, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE is a good tablet at $449, but it’s a great one at $299. The sale price ($329 with a $30 coupon) is only available for a limited time, so don’t spend too long thinking about it.