SamsungGalaxy Tab A9 (SM-X110), 64GB 4GB RAM, WiFi Only, International Version (15W Wall Charger Bundle) (Gray)

I bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 SM-X110 bundled with a power adapter. It's hard to find a reputable manufacturer who offers a mini-sized Android tablet. I rate Samsung at less than a perfect 5 stars because they didn't release this model in the U.S., but released the too-large Galaxy Tab A9+ instead. I rate the A9 tablet itself at 5 stars.Size is just right. Storage capacity and processor speed are good enough. Display is sharp with good color and contrast. I didn't want LTE, and this (specifically X110) tablet doesn't have it - that probably saves on battery life. Despite what other reviewers complain about setting up the tablet to work in the U.S., I had no problems. I chose American English as the language and Santiago Chile as my location since it's in my time zone. I changed the location for weather forecasts to my city, changed temperature units to Fahrenheit, and everything works fine. It came with Android 14 out of the box. I'm annoyed that there's no U.S. warranty coverage but I can live with that for a tablet that offers what I need at a reasonable price.Note that I'm not a connoisseur. My old LG tablet runs Android 7, has half the storage of my new one, and has been getting frustratingly less responsive. So the new one is amazing by comparison. My only regret is that Android 14 won't run the Swype and Dragon keyboard app - the one and only hardly-irritating-at-all tablet keyboard I've found so far. (App developers please take note, and please come out with a not-irritating keyboard option for all of us Swypers.)

I wanted a small tablet to serve effectively as a larger version of my phone for evening couch/lounging browsing, reading, social media, and regular app use. I'm not a gamer and am not intending to do compute-intensive work on this device so I have no need for a high-powered tablet but I did want a device that performs well (little to no lag when opening, using, or moving between apps).I had considered picking up an iPad Mini because of its easy-to-hold-in-one-hand screen size (8.3") and Apple's tablets are generally considered best in class. However, the entry price of $500 (64G version) for a secondary service device is a pretty steep price tag and the impressive power of that device is considerable overkill for my needs. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 was much closer to what I was really looking for. The screen is a bit larger than the Mini at 8.7" but the resolution is much lower (1340 x 800 px versus the Mini's whopping 2266 x1488 px Liquid Retina Display which, taking into account screen size puts the Tab 9 at 179 pixels per inch versus the Mini's super dense 326 ppi). Notwithstanding this rather large difference, the Tab 9's screen is perfectly acceptable for what I need (reading articles in the NY Times app or watching YouTube videos for example is just fine). If you're a gamer or intend to do digital art, this is not the tablet for you.Screen color saturation and contrast are quite good and I only needed to dial the screen brightness up to about 40-50% for it to be comfortably bright (indoors; expect to crank it to ~100% outdoors). As you might expect, audio is just okay (loud enough at 70%-80% max) but isn't exactly going to rattle your rib cage with deep bass or shatter your eardrums with piercing high notes. The Tab 9 includes a headphone jack so I tested a music video with a pair of Apple EarPods and the sound was very good.I haven't tested the cameras but I understand from my research that they aren't great. That's not an issue for me since I rarely ever use cameras on my mobile devices and will likely not do so much with the Tab 9.The Tab 9 is very well constructed with a primarily metal body that looks and feels premium. In the Tab 9's box is the tablet, a USB-C to USB-C cable, a SIM/SD card slot opener tool, and a user guide (which actually has no useful instructions in any of the provided languages). I was pleasantly surprised to see that a USB-C adapter was separately included in the plastic bag containing the Tab 9 box (the black plug in the pictures). The product description does indicate that this is a "15W Wall Charger Bundle" but sometimes on Amazon products what is described isn't exactly what is delivered. This (non-Samsung) adapter isn't going to give you the super-speedy charging of a 30W wall charger but it's really great that this is included in the package since most of us typically have a pile of USB-A port chargers and they only work with a USB-A to USB-C cable. My Tab 9 shipped with about 50% battery charge. After set up, app installation, and software updates, my tablet dropped to 27% remaining charge. I plugged it in for 1 hour which increased the charge to 79% and another 30 minutes pushed it past 90%. Pretty acceptable.I want to reiterate what several other reviewers indicated about this International Version device. My Tab 9 was for the Middle Eastern market (some of the descriptive text on the sticker on the back of the box appeared to be Arabic). This is NOT a problem. The usual set up welcome screens are in English. When asked for your language, English (US) is one of the many available language options as per the usual set up behavior. The next step (indicate location) showed a list of only Middle Eastern countries. Here, you simply select any one of the countries listed (I chose the UAE even though I'm in the US). Beyond that, the remainder of the set up process is exactly what you experience when setting up a US Google device (even the time will be your local time, however, you may want to change the weather widget default setting from Celsius to Fahrenheit given that most Americans still don't understand metric :-)In the short time that I've used this device, it has proven to be exactly what I wanted. Acceptable screen quality, excellent construction, and snappy performance (cold boot ups are a bit slow but once it's on, it runs with no discernible lag). At one quarter the price of an iPad Mini, there really isn't much to complain about here.

I'm upgrading from a Tab A (it was getting crabby and slow), and wanted a tablet that was about the same size, and that's not easy to find these days. This A9 could not be better. The Tab A felt like tablet, with a more limited and specialized set of apps, whereas this A9 has all the great features of my Galaxy phone - just larger, and so far seems to run all the same apps as my phone, while being quite speedy. And while the overall size of the A9 is the same as my Tab A, the screen is larger - an unexpected bonus. I would have to say this tablet well exceeded my expectations, and the price was incredible.

For an entry level tablet, this A9 is hard to beat. True, it is not officially for the US market, so you will have no warranty after your return period. But functionally it works great — just get by the non-English Welcome Page.Other tablets under $150 do not come with a Helio G99 processor. Some reviewers on YouTube even use this for light gaming. The display is unfortunately only TFT WXGA, so don’t expect great text clarity. There is also some display backlight bleeding which I notice near some edges on startup in a dark room, although in a lit room it did not bother me. I currently have a cheap Lenovo M8 FHD tablet, and that IPS display is noticeably better. The sound quality on the A9 was certainly better than expected.I did expect a bit better craftsmanship. The aluminum back is a step up from the plastic used on many others in this range. But on the edges, the transition from glass display to the body is not smooth. It also would have been good to have a taper to the body there, which makes the tablet easier to hold in one hand.My product box did not have any seal on it, and there were marks over some barcodes, so it is hard to tell if these are new or re-manufactured. Mine appeared new. Unfortunately, tablets don’t have a long term hours used meter to verify.