Teacher Tested: Samsung Tab S10 Fe vs iPad 11 (A16) for Online Teaching Videos
The spiderweb crack spread across my old tablet’s screen right as I finished explaining equivalent fractions to the 12 kids in my 4th grade enrichment class who were leaving for a two-week family trip. My 5-year-old had been chasing the cat around the kitchen table, knocked it off the edge, and that was that. I’d been recording pre-recorded lessons on that beat-up thing for three years, and it was time to replace it. A teacher friend offered to lend me her spare Samsung Tab S10 Fe for a week, and my cousin let me borrow her new iPad 11 with the A16 chip to test. I don’t have a school budget for this, so every dollar counted, and I wanted to see which one actually worked for the quick teaching videos I make every week.
I record almost all my videos at 8 a.m., after I drop my older kid at school and before my first class starts. My setup is messy: a chipped mug of cold coffee, a $20 ring light clipped to the edge of the table, and I draw every step of the lesson directly on the tablet screen while I talk. No fancy desktop setup, no extra cameras—just the tablet, the stylus, and the built-in screen recorder. That’s how 90% of part-time teachers and homeschool parents I know do it, so I tested both tablets exactly that way, no fancy tweaks.
The first thing that jumped out at me with the Tab S10 Fe was the S Pen. It sticks right to the side of the tablet, and it never needs charging. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shown up to record a last-minute video with an iPad and the Apple Pencil was dead. I once waited 10 minutes for it to charge enough to work, and ended up posting the field trip reminder video so late half the kids missed it. The S Pen worked the second I pulled it off, every single time I tested it. Lag when drawing? If you’re writing big enough for kids to see on an 11-inch screen, there’s zero noticeable lag. It was just as smooth as the Apple Pencil for my purposes.
The iPad 11 with the A16 chip was definitely smoother for heavy work, though. When I drew a whole page of tiny chemistry problems for the high school teacher friend I share resources with, there was almost no lag even when I drew fast, whereas the Tab had a tiny split-second delay on the smallest lines. The built-in microphone was also noticeably better. When I recorded the same lesson on both, in the same spot by the fridge, the iPad cut out almost all the hum of the compressor. The Tab picked it up clearly enough that my kids would probably have noticed it in the background. The fix is easy, though: a $15 clip-on lavalier mic gets rid of that noise, and you still save hundreds of dollars going with the Tab.
Battery life surprised me, too. I recorded four 10-minute lessons a week, checked email, and posted to Google Classroom every day, and the Tab S10 Fe went five full days between charges. The iPad went four, which is still good, but the extra day was nice for busy weeks when I forget to plug things in. Where the iPad pulled ahead was editing. I made a 20-minute end-of-unit review video on both, cutting out pauses, adding a few overlay images of the worksheets we use, and exporting it to YouTube. The iPad did it in three minutes flat, no stutters, no waiting. The Tab took 12 minutes, and it froze once when I added the last overlay. If you edit all your videos right on your tablet, that’s a big difference. If you just trim the start and end and upload, the Tab handles that fine.
After a week of testing, I realized most teachers and parents I know fit into one of two clear buckets, and your needs will tell you which to pick. If you’re like me, you make 10-minute or shorter lessons, draw directly on the screen, upload straight to your classroom platform, and you’re paying for this tablet out of your own pocket. The Tab S10 Fe is more than good enough. The no-charge stylus alone is worth it for anyone who’s ever forgotten to charge a device before a big recording. Just pick up that $15 clip-on mic to fix the background noise issue, and you’re set. You’ll have enough extra money to buy a month of classroom snacks, or a new set of manipulatives for homeschool, which matters a lot more than a slightly faster chip for most of us.
If you edit longer videos on your tablet, record a lot of hands-on science demos or craft tutorials with the back camera, already use other Apple devices that sync with your tablet, or rely on Apple-exclusive educational apps, the iPad 11 A16 is worth the extra cost. The camera is sharper for close-ups, the audio is better out of the box, and the A16 chip handles heavy editing way faster. It’s a more powerful device, no question.
I ended up keeping the Tab S10 Fe, and gave the iPad back to my cousin, who uses it to edit full-length science videos for her homeschool co-op, and it fits her needs perfectly. Last week I recorded three fraction lessons back to back before a long weekend, didn’t have to hunt for a charger for the pen, and all the kids got the videos on time. Down the line, if I start making longer, more edited videos, I might upgrade. For right now, the cheaper option works just fine for the kids I teach, and that’s all that matters.
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