The Galaxy Tab S10’s stale design has at least one unexpected advantage

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

Samsung has officially unveiled its flagship tablets for 2024: the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. While they pack some notable changes under the hood, the design hasn’t strayed too far from their predecessors. But before you dismiss that as a snooze-worthy move, there’s actually a big win here for anyone already invested in Samsung’s tablet ecosystem.

As first spotted by Sammobile, Samsung has made the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra fully compatible with accessories from the Galaxy Tab S9 series — and vice versa. This means you won’t have to hunt for new accessories if you’re upgrading from last year’s models, and your accessories — like the official keyboard covers — should work flawlessly with the corresponding model from the Tab S10 series.

C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

Samsung fans with long memories might recall that the Galaxy Tab S8 accessories weren’t compatible with the Galaxy Tab S9 series. Even though they looked pretty similar, tiny adjustments — like shifting the S Pen holder and changing the camera cutouts — meant you had to fork over more money for new gear if you moved to the Tab S9 lineup. Thankfully, Samsung has learned from that and avoided repeating it with the Tab S10 series.

Now, if you’re wondering whether there’s much reason to upgrade from the Tab S9 to the Tab S10, you might not find a long list of compelling new features. The main highlight for 2024 is a boost in AI smarts, as the Tab S10 series focuses heavily on its suite of Galaxy AI features. But even here, Samsung has already ported many of these AI perks over to the Galaxy Tab S9 series through its OneUI 6.1 update, so the gap between these two generations isn’t huge.

Ryan Whitwam / Android Authority

However, there’s one small catch. The new keyboard covers for the Tab S10 series come with a dedicated Galaxy AI button that activates your choice of voice assistant. This button replaces the “lang” key found on the Tab S9 keyboards, as seen in the image above.

As of now, it seems that users employing a Tab S9 keyboard with a Tab S10 tablet, or vice versa, might lose the functionality of this dedicated AI button. Nevertheless, the cross-generation compatibility between the Tab S9 and Tab S10 is a win for consumers, offering cost savings and promoting sustainability.

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