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

Samsung officially introduced flagship tablets For 2024: Galaxy Tab S10 Plus and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. While there are some notable changes under the hood, the design hasn’t strayed too far from its predecessors. But before you dismiss this as a move worth delaying, there’s actually a big win here for anyone already invested in Samsung’s tablet ecosystem.

As first noticed sammobileSamsung 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 need to look for new accessories if you’re upgrading from last year’s models, and your accessories like official keyboard covers should work flawlessly with the corresponding model in the Tab S10 series.

Samsung fans with long memories may remember that Galaxy Tab S8 accessories are not compatible with the Galaxy Tab S9 series. Although they look pretty similar, minor tweaks like shifting the S Pen holder and changing camera cutouts meant you had to pay more for new hardware when you upgraded to the Tab S9 series. Fortunately, Samsung has learned from this and avoided repeating the same thing with the Tab S10 series.

Now, if you’re wondering whether there are many reasons to upgrade from the Tab S9 to the Tab S10, you may not find a long list of interesting new features. The highlight of 2024 is the increase in AI intelligence, with the Tab S10 series focusing heavily on its technology suite. Galaxy AI features. But even here, Samsung has transferred most of these AI benefits to the Galaxy Tab S9 series via the OneUI 6.1 update, so the difference between these two generations is not that big.

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

As of now, it appears that users who use the Tab S9 keyboard with a Tab S10 tablet or vice versa may lose the functionality of this dedicated AI button. However, cross-generation compatibility between the Tab S9 and Tab S10 is a win for consumers, saving costs and promoting sustainability.