With the exception of Google’s Pixel Tablet, there might as well be one name in town when it comes to quality Android tablets, and that’s Samsung. If you have Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A8 from 2022, you might be considering a step up to the new Galaxy Tab S9 FE, which is costlier but not as expensive as a full-fledged Tab S9. Is it worth the jump?

As you might expect leaping from an early 2022 budget tablet to a late 2023 mid-range option, there’s a lot to gain here. For starters the display expands from 10.5 to 10.9 inches, and you get a sharper 2304 x 1440 resolution paired with a smoother 90Hz refresh rate. The A8’s screen is fine, but you’ll notice the difference.

The Tab S9 FE also combines Samsung’s Exynos 1380 processor with at least 6GB of RAM, and 8GB on some models. The A8 performs well enough with its Unisoc Tiger T618 chip, but that and no more than 4GB of RAM puts a low ceiling on what the tablet can do — the S9 FE is a much better device for things like gaming or image and video editing.

Storage options on the S9 FE switch to 128 or 256GB, completely ditching 32 and 64GB, which is fine considering that those are too small to do much with. There’s still a microSD slot with support for cards up to 1TB, which is good news if you have a large app or media collection.

Other upgrades on the S9 FE worth mentioning are a fingerprint scanner on the power button — there are no biometrics at all on the A8 — and improved wireless tech including Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and (on cellular models) 5G instead of just 4G. There’s also a sharper 12-megapixel front camera for video calls, and you get an S Pen in the box instead of having to buy one.

Battery tech has also been improved, but we’ll cover that in a later section. We’ll end this one by noting a couple of downsides — there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack on the S9 FE, and no bundled charger, so you may need to buy some accessories.

There isn’t much to talk about here, but that’s actually a good thing. A tablet should be little more than a window into your apps and media, and that’s what you get with both products. There isn’t much aesthetic difference between the two, and some people might even prefer the A8.

The S9 FE (above) is a bit wider, taller, and heavier, but not in any meaningful way. The A8 (below) was already 508g (about 1.1 pounds), so neither tablet is something you want to hold one-handed for more than a few minutes.

We have yet to fully review the S9 FE, so we don’t yet have many specs on battery life beyond Samsung’s claim of 18 to 20 hours of video playback. It does however have an 8,000mAh battery pack, substantially larger than the one on the A8, which can already last two days under a mix of streaming, web browsing, and social media. The S9 FE could potentially be more power-hungry owing to superior display and processor technology, but we’ll see.

While the new tablet doesn’t ship with a charger, it does offer much faster charging capacity, topping out at 45W versus the A8’s meager 15W. You should be able to fully recharge the S9 FE in as little as 90 minutes — assuming of course you have a USB-C adapter capable of 45W or higher.

Samsung is still selling the A8, and it’s even cheaper than it was at launch, sliding under $200 if you get can get away with a 32GB Wi-Fi model. There’s a good reason why — an A9 is already on the horizon, if still without a firm release date. The company is presumably trying to clear out as much inventory as it can.

The Galaxy Tab S9 FE started shipping to some retailers on October 5, 2023, with plans for wider distribution on October 10. Samsung has been cagey on US pricing and the roster of countries it’s targeting, but chances are that if Samsung sells electronics somewhere, the S9 FE should arrive sooner or later.

Perhaps. You’re vaulting from a budget tablet to a mid-range one, and you’ll definitely enjoy the improvements in display, performance, and charging technology. It’s a shame that the S9 FE doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack, but that’s par for the course these days, and you do get a bundled S Pen. That lets you dive straight into notetaking and drawing, or at least leaving fewer fingerprints on your screen.

Of course, the obstacle here is that the S9 FE can easily be twice as expensive, despite being relatively cheap next to an iPad Air, an iPad Pro, or a regular S9. If you want to stay within budget territory it may be better to wait for the A9, which could be shipping within a matter of days or weeks. Just don’t expect any radical improvements — in fact, it’d be wiser to wait for an A10 or A11 if you want to see meaningful feature advances in the budget realm.