Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 review

The Galaxy Tab A8 has been one of the most popular budget tablets since it arrived on the scene, so can Samsung follow it up with another hit in the Galaxy Tab A9? 

Well, the Android slate starts at just £169 so it’s already a fair bit cheaper than its predecessor was at launch. 

The 2023 A-series tablet comes with a smaller screen than last year at 8.7in and a number of downgrades to achieve that more affordable price. However, Samsung has introduced the Galaxy A9+ with 11in screen for those wanting something more akin to the Galaxy Tab A8. 

So really this is the Galaxy Tab A9- or A9 mini and the new size in the line-up while the Tab A9+ is the natural successor to the A8, but that doesn’t fit with Samsung’s marketing, of course. 

Design & Build 

• Smaller and lighter 
• Three colours 
• Understated style 

At this new smaller size, the Tab A9 is more akin to the Tab A7 Lite than the Tab A8. It’s a pint-sized tablet that’s easy to hold one-handed, much like classics such as the Google Nexus 7. 

The A9 is just 332g and is 8mm thick so it’s suitably svelte and doesn’t even have a super chunky bezel like most budget slates. 

The look and feel of the device is not what you’d expect for this money. It has a far higher quality finish than rivals with its mostly metal body, clean lines and solid construction.  

It’s more like an iPad mini rival than a bargain tablet in this respect and I particularly like the smart Navy blue colour on offer here, with Silver and Graphite also available. 

It’s a pint-sized tablet that’s easy to hold one-handed

There’s little else to say about the understated design other than it’s designed to be primarily used in portrait orientation with the buttons on the long side and ports (both USB and headphones) on the shorter side. 

You can, of course, use it in landscape mode when needed and Samsung has put the speaker grilles on the top and bottom so that when you do, the speakers are on the sides giving you a stereo setup when watching content.

At this price it’s no surprise to find a lack of waterproofing. Even more expensive devices don’t typically have it and there’s no fingerprint scanner either. 

You can setup face unlock if you like and I found it worked better than expected, unlocking even when I wasn’t looking straight on. It’s not as secure compared to a fingerprint scanner but that’s the compromise at this price. 

Screen & Speakers 

• 8.7in LCD 
• Full HD+, 60Hz 
• Stereo speakers 

With the size of the display at 8.7in, the Tab A9 is much smaller than the Tab A8. We’re back to the compact nature of the Tab A7 Lite here so if you want something bigger the Tab A9+ is 11in and what you might consider full size. 

There are no frills here with an LCD panel and a standard 60Hz refresh rate, though the A9+ is 90Hz if that takes your fancy. 

Still, the display is decent enough with its Full HD+ resolution and reasonable viewing angles, though you get a fair amount of that classic blue tint. Text, icons and even video look crisp. 

The main issue I had was blurry scrolling, but this is the trouble with a low-end 60Hz display. Even scrolling slowly on the Tech Advisor homepage sees headlines leave a ghost trail behind them. 

One of our complaints about the Tab A8 was its limited brightness but I measured the A9 at a decent 459 nits. Not an outstanding figure for outdoor use in really bright light but it should be useable in bright but not direct sunlight. It has more than enough brightness for indoor use.

There’s no S Pen support here but that’s to be expected and you can use an active stylus if you wish. 

A bright screen and pretty good stereo speakers mean the A9 will make for a good sofa or travel companion or even a kid’s tablet

The Tab A8 (and Tab A9+) have quad speakers but this smaller and cheaper design just has stereo speakers. They’re on the sides if you’re holding it in landscape mode and towards the top so your hands don’t get in the way while holding it. 

Like many things on the A9, the speakers are surprisingly good and have more power and poise than budget rivals. Perfectly serviceable for watching some catch-up on iPlayer or some casual tunes when nothing better is available. 

We’re just talking about personal listening here, the A9 won’t fill a large room for a party. It’s also good to see a 3.5mm headphone jack so you don’t have to faff around with Bluetooth headphones – ideal if you’re considering this as a kid’s tablet. /im

Specs & Performance 

• Mediatek Helio G99 
• Up to 8/128GB 
• Bluetooth 5.3 

Budget tablets can arrive with chipsets from a number of years ago but the A9’s MediaTek Helio G99 is from 2022 and had mid-range level specs similar to a Snapdragon 695 (found in the Tab A9+). 

We don’t need to delve into the specs too far but it’s an octa-core chip with some decent speeds on offer at an efficient 6nm process.  

At the entry-level price you only get 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but this is to be expected. If you can afford an extra £40 then these double to 8/128GB and could be well worth it. 

However, there is a microSD card slot for adding storage cheaply and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance on offer from the lower-spec model. 

The Tab A9 isn’t lightning fast. You have to have some patience at close to £150 and so booting up takes a while, animations can be a bit jerky sometimes (mainly swiping between the Google Discover feed and home screen) and more complex tasks can take a few seconds. 

Like a lot of devices, though, it settles down after it’s been on a while and the Galaxy Tab A9 is capable of running two apps side-by-side perfectly well and can even handle games like Asphalt 9 so I perhaps underestimated it based on previous slates this cheap. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 benchmarks

If you’re a casual user, which is what the A9 is aimed at, then it will suffice as long as you don’t try and do too much at the same time. If you want to run a lot of demanding apps then I’d recommend getting the model with 8GB of memory. 

The feature not available on the Helio G99 compared to the Snapdragon 695 is 5G. However, you can get a 4G LTE enabled Tab A9 if you do want data on the go. However, this commands a £50 premium vs the Wi-Fi-only option which seems a bit steep. 

Cameras 

• 8Mp rear camera 
• 2Mp front camera 

Sadly the Galaxy Tab A9 had to fall flat on its face eventually and it’s in the photography department where it does. Although this is the best place for the tablet to suffer, if you ask me. 

Pixel counts of 8Mp at the rear and 2Mp at the front don’t really matter when both struggle to capture anything remotely decent. 

The Galaxy Tab A9 rear camera struggles with just about everything including focus, exposure, white balance and colour accuracy. Granted the lighting conditions weren’t great in my testing due to the wintery weather so in an outdoor summery setting, things should be a little better. 

The Galaxy Tab A9 rear camera struggles with just about everything

I’d actually rather cheap tablets like this didn’t have a rear camera and more invested in the front camera which is likely to get more usage for video calls and the like. 

The front camera here offers extremely low-quality images and Samsung even bravely offers a portrait mode which is frankly awful. 

It’s somewhat inevitable with a tablet this cheap but there you have it, only use the cameras on the Tab A9 if you absolutely have to.

Battery Life & Charging 

• 5100mAh 
• Adapter not included 
• 15W charging 

At 5100mAh, the battery inside the Galaxy Tab A9 isn’t much bigger than many smartphones but this is a thin and compact tablet. And it’s what you do with it that counts. 

With six out of the eight processor cores being efficiency cores, the Tab A9 does quite well for battery life. It achieved a solid 12 hours and 18 minutes in our usual PCMark battery test at a brightness of 200 nits. 

In real life, it will depend on what you plan to use the A9 for and at what brightness etc. In my personal usage, I saw an hour of streaming video consume just over 10% of the juice. 

Charging is not very fast at just 15W and Samsung doesn’t supply an adapter in the box, just a basic USB-C to USB-C cable. 

Using a 15W Google charger, I found the Galaxy Tab A9 charged a measly 7% in 15-minutes and 15% in 30-minutes. A full charge will take a few hours which can be a pain. 

Software & Apps 

• Android 13 
• One UI 5.1 
• Four years of security patches 

Like a lot of Android devices, the Tab A9 doesn’t come with the latest version of Google’s operating system but Android 13 is still respectable and the slate should receive an update to 14 before too long.

As usual, Samsung adds its One UI over the top and its version 5.1 here. Of course, it’s similar to Galaxy smartphones. 

The edge panel can be summoned by swiping in from the right side of the screen where the grey line is and this gives you quick access to your favourite apps and you can select from other panels including weather, tools, tasks, clipboard and more. 

Samsung also offers a taskbar at the bottom of the screen so when you have an app open the navigation buttons being located at the far-right leaves spaces for app icons (favourites and recents) as well as shortcut to all apps. 

In terms of apps, it’s a familiar situation where Samsung pre-loads the device with a fair whack of software. This includes a suite of Google apps and then Samsung’s own so there are duplicates/choices (depending on how you look at it) of things like app stores and photo libraries. 

It also comes with apps like Microsoft Outlook, Netflix and Spotify. Fortunately, you can uninstall anything you don’t want which might be critical if you’re buying the cheaper 64GB model. 

In terms of longevity, the Galaxy Tab A9 will get four years of security updates. Samsung doesn’t specify how many new versions of Android the device will get but I would estimate it will be three years worth, with only flagship models like the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra getting the four-year guarantee. 

Price & Availability 

The Galaxy Tab A9 is available now and you can buy it from Samsung with prices starting at just £169, getting you a Wi-Fi only model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. 

There are three more SKUs on offer if you want more memory, storage and LTE connectivity. 

• Wi-Fi, 4/64GB – £169
• Wi-Fi, 8/128GB – £209 
• LTE, 4/64GB – £219 
• LTE, 8/128GB – £259 

You can also buy it from the likes of Argos, AO, Very, John Lewis and Amazon. 

At the time of writing, the Tab A9 is not available in the US. 

Check out our chart of the best budget tablets for more options such as the Xiaomi Redmi Pad SE Oppo Pad Air and Nokia T21.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9? 

There are some downsides to the Galaxy Tab A9 but overall, it’s an extremely impressive device considering its bargain-basement starting price. 

The design and build is far better than you would expect for only slightly above £150 and the A9 has generally better specs and performance than the price would suggest. 

A bright screen and pretty good stereo speakers mean the A9 will make for a good sofa or travel companion or even a kid’s tablet. 

There are some inevitable downsides but ones that most people can live with at this price – slow charging and rubbish cameras – as Samsung has focused its efforts on higher priority areas. 

Some value is lost if you’re opting for a 4G LTE model as the £50 premium is a bit steep but if you’re looking for a compact and competent tablet, the Wi-Fi only models make the Galaxy Tab A9 one of the best budget tablets you can buy.

Specs

• Android 13, One UI 5.1
• 8.7in, FHD+, TFT LCD, 60Hz
• MediaTek Helios G99
• 4/8GB RAM
• 64/128GB storage
• microSD card slot (up to 1TB)
• 8Mp main camera
• 2Mp front-facing camera
• Stereo speakers
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• 4G LTE (optional)
• Bluetooth 5.3
• Headphone jack
• USB-C port
• 5100mAh battery
• 15W charging
• 211 x 124.7 x 8mm
• 332g
• Launch colours: Graphite, Silver, Navy