Samsung has refreshed its premium tablet lineup for 2024. The new Galaxy Tab S10 series is full of surprises, and here is a pleasant one you probably didn’t expect: The Galaxy Tab S10+ and the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra are compatible with Galaxy Tab S9 accessories and vice versa.
Such wasn’t the case for the previous high-end tablet models. As some might recall, Galaxy Tab S8 accessories like Book Covers and Book Cover Keyboards were incompatible with the Galaxy Tab S9 series.
Even though they technically should have worked, the camera cutouts and S Pen holder location were slightly different across the 2022 and 2023 tablet generations and their accessories.
It meant that Galaxy Tab S8 users who upgraded to the Galaxy Tab S9 series couldn’t reuse their Covers and Keyboard Cover accessories. They had to spend extra on new attachments if they wanted to deck out their Tab S9 tablets.
Samsung told us it has finally addressed this problem through the new Galaxy Tab S10 series, and we couldn’t be happier that it did.
A most welcomed change for Galaxy Tab S fans
Save for some paint job and negligible dimension differences, the new Galaxy Tab S10+ and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra don’t look all that different from their 2023 predecessors. Although this might sound boring to some, using similar dimensions has one massive advantage: cross-generation accessory compatibility.
Galaxy Tab S9+ and Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra users can repurpose their accessories for the newer Galaxy Tab S10+ and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra without a fuss. Likewise, the new Galaxy Tab S10+ and Tab S10 Ultra accessories are backward compatible with the Tab S9 series.
Evidently, none of this applies to accessories for the base Galaxy Tab S9. There is no base Galaxy Tab S10 this year, and base Tab S9 accessories are too small to fit the larger Galaxy Tab S10+ and Tab S10 Ultra.
If you want to see the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra Book Cover Keyboard in action alongside the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, we test this combination in our hands-on video below. Join us after the break for more details.
There is one other caveat to all this wonderful cross-compatibility between the 2023 and 2024 flagship tablet generations, and it has to do with the Galaxy AI key on the latest Book Cover Keyboards.
Namely, the 2024 Keyboard Covers feature a new Galaxy AI button that replaces the old ‘lang’ key. When pressed, it brings up Google Gemini or Samsung Bixby. So, if you use a Galaxy Tab S9 keyboard with the Galaxy Tab S10 series, you will miss out on that functionality and won’t be able to summon your AI assistant as conveniently.
Likewise, if you use Galaxy Tab S10 keyboards with the Galaxy Tab S9, the Galaxy AI button won’t work. Samsung could address this issue through a firmware update for Tab S9 users. At least, that’s the theory. Whether Samsung will put it into practice remains to be seen.