Portable gaming is on the rise again, long after the golden era of the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS back in the noughties. While the Nintendo Switch was released back in 2017, that was a hybrid device that could also function as a living-room console; the real piece of kit that revived gaming on the go was Valve's Steam Deck, which hit shelves in February 2022.
Ever since, countless PC gaming handhelds have cropped up - and continue to do so, with the ROG Xbox Ally premiering at Gamescom 2025. Alongside some of the new devices at the latest gaming trade show, I also stumbled across the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, which, I'll freely admit, I initially dismissed.
As I peered over the shoulder of someone else testing it out on the showfloor - because my curiosity got the best of me - the graphics looked phenomenal. So I had to sit down and try it out for myself, and while my expectations were low, they were very quickly blown out of the water.
Bigger is better?
The title loaded up to demo the gaming tablet was the free-to-play gacha game Genshin Impact. Now, while this is hardly a super-demanding game in terms of graphics, picking such a colourful game was certainly the right choice to show off how fantastic this AMOLED display is. At 14.6 inches, the display is much larger than any currently available gaming handhelds.
I continued to run around in-game to see if the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra’s performance was as good as its display. The whole time I was playing, I didn’t face any issues with performance. No lag, no stuttering, and no visual glitches whatsoever. I was able to experience smooth, non-stop gameplay thanks to the MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ CPU.
While this is, of course, a mobile-first chip, the MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ CPU is powerful enough to be comparable to some desktop-class processors. I wasn’t able to monitor framerates since this was just a demo session, but the performance I was getting was extremely promising.
Pair this with the healthy 16GB of RAM contained inside the tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is gunning for the best gaming laptops. I was genuinely blown away with the experience I was having with this tablet, and it’s not actually a dedicated gaming tablet like the Asus ROG Flow Z13, but it still delivers excellent performance.
The price of portability
Another factor that seriously sets the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra apart is how thin it is. At just 5.4mm thick, you never have to worry about whether it'll fit in your bag, and at 718g, it won't weigh you down either. By comparison, most gaming handhelds are fairly chunky.
The one let-down of gaming on a tablet is being limited in your controls, having only a touchscreen at your disposal. However, pair this with one of the best mobile gaming controllers for phones or tablets, and you’ve even got yourself the ergonomics and inputs of a gaming handheld. Alternatively, get yourself one of the best wireless mice and a Bluetooth keyboard to pair with it, and you have an ultra-portable laptop that you can game on.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra was plugged in during my entire demo session, so I wasn’t able to actually monitor the battery life, which could be an issue - in our review, we noted that the battery life was a bit lackluster, with about 9 hours of use off a single charge (and probably less if you're gaming, too). That being said, it still annihilates any handheld gaming PC; the 80Wh battery in the MSI Claw will only last you around two hours on average.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra was absolutely amazing, and while previously I’ve turned my nose up at tablets when it comes to gaming, this demo session has really changed my perspective.
My experience was better than many gaming handhelds that are on the market right now, and with so many games now gaining popularity on mobile platforms, including Resident Evil: Survival Unit and Call of Duty Mobile, investing in a high-quality tablet that you can not only game on but also use as a regular productivity device might be a great option for you.
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