In a shift away from earlier Samsung Galaxy A-series Tablets, the newly (officially) announced Galaxy Tab A9 and A9+ come in two totally different sizes and price ranges. The base Galaxy Tab A9 seems to compete with the specs of the iPad Mini 6 with its octa-core Snapdragon processor and 8.7-inch LCD. Price wise, early sources – namely, the South American and Middle Eastern markets it’s already been sold in – suggest it’ll retail for around $190, making it a cost-effective alternative to the iPad Mini 6’s starting price of $499.
The news (which would cap off the month-long swarm of new stuff coming out of every tech giant on Earth, if not for the fact we still have over a week left in the month) comes mere weeks after the new Galaxy Tab S9 FE announcement, which itself came alongside the subsequent commercial release of the aforementioned S9 FE tablet as well as the Galaxy Buds FE.
Designer: Samsung
For those looking to save big on their next tablet, or those who want to dip their toes into the world of Android if they’re already heavily invested in Apple’s ecosystem, the new A9 and A9+ should bring Samsung Galaxy A-series up to snuff with modern specs. All A9 and A9+ models can be configured with either 4 or 8 gigs of RAM. Even though it sounds like the baseline storage space for both is a mere 64 GB, there’s also a microSD slot to expand storage up to 1 TB.
The most important deviation between both versions, aside from the price (which is still unclear), is their screen size. Unlike the A9, which is 8.7 inches diagonally, the A9+ uses an 11 inch LCD display – making it compete directly with the Galaxy Tab S8, which had a similar size. Another big improvement is the 5,100 mAh battery in the A9 and 7,040 mAh battery in the A9+, as well as support for 15W fast charging.
Though the A9 and A9+ come with Android 13 packed in, it sounds like Samsung is limiting the software capabilities of the new tablets. Though, it’s great that they can still use a wide range of multitasking apps like Samsung DeX, which allows up to three multi-active windows in a splitscreen configuration. This means the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 is, at minimum, a strong companion tool for workers, students, and creatives who want to be able to juggle multiple tasks while on the go.
It’s unclear exactly when the new tablets are shipping out in the United States, but it sounds like October 23 is the official global release date, with units already shipping out in India, Australia, and South Korea. The rest of the globe should get the new tablets shortly after.
