Samsung Tab S10 Fe vs 11-inch iPad (A16): Teacher Tested Which Works Better for Online Teaching Videos
Last Sunday in October, I’m at my kitchen table at 7 p.m., half-eaten peanut butter toast congealing next to my ring light, my 10-year-old’s chewed eraser and half-finished math worksheet scattered between the tablet stand and my lesson notes. My old 2019 iPad died three days before, after three years of being dropped on gym floors, coated in dry erase marker smudges, and pushed nonstop to film pre-recorded lessons for my 4th grade flipped classroom. I needed a new tablet fast, so I borrowed two of the most popular mid-range options to test for a week: my roommate’s new 11-inch iPad with the A16 chip, and a display model Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Fe my cousin who works at Best Buy let me take home. I wasn’t looking for a fancy status device; I just needed something that could film clear online teaching videos where my students could actually read my writing, without me dropping half my annual classroom budget on extra accessories.
I started with the iPad first, since that’s what most teachers in my elementary ed Facebook group recommend. I propped it up on my $12 Amazon adjustable stand, plugged in my $20 Target ring light, and pulled up my lesson plan for the water cycle. The first thing that hit me, even before I hit record, was the cost of entry. My roommate already owned an Apple Pencil USB-C, so I got to use it for testing, but if I was buying new, that Pencil adds $129 to the iPad’s $449 starting price. For context, the entire Tab S10 Fe retails for less than an iPad plus its Pencil. That’s not a small difference when you’re already buying most of your classroom supplies out of pocket.
I hit record anyway, talking through condensation as I wrote key terms and drew a quick diagram of cloud formation, just like I would for a real lesson. It only took 30 seconds for me to notice something off: when I write fast while talking (which I almost always do, since I don’t like to drag lessons out for 10-year-olds), the line on the screen lagged just a little behind the tip of the Pencil. It was barely noticeable to me at first, but my daughter looked up from her math homework and said, “Mom, why is your writing all wobbly?” When I played back the video, she was right. The lag made my lines look jittery, and if I squinted, I could see the gap between the pen tip and the ink. It wasn’t unwatchable, but it was distracting enough that I knew some of my kids would zone out before I finished explaining what precipitation is.
I switched to the Tab S10 Fe the next night, keeping my exact same setup—same stand, same ring light, same kitchen lighting next to the front window, same water cycle lesson. The S Pen was already in the box, charged and clipped to the side of the tablet, no extra purchase needed. I started writing as soon as I opened the camera app, and there was no lag at all. Even when I scribbled a quick diagram of rivers and oceans as fast as I could talk, the ink showed up exactly where the pen hit the screen. I played it back for my daughter, and she just shrugged and went back to her homework—no wobbly writing comment.
I tested all the little things that matter for filming teaching videos, not just writing. I often switch to the rear camera to film hands-on demos, like that day I showed how salt crystallizes when salt water evaporates. The iPad’s camera was fine, a little more saturated in color, but it washed out my handwritten notes when I switched back to the front-facing camera and left a weird yellow tint from my warm kitchen overhead lights that I would have had to edit out. The Tab’s camera handled the indoor lighting much better, with no weird tint, and the text on the screen was just as sharp as the iPad’s in playback.
Glare was another surprise. I film at my kitchen table next to a big window, and even on overcast days, the iPad’s glossy screen picked up a clear reflection of my overhead light that showed up in the video. I had to reposition the stand twice to get it to go away, and you could still see a faint smudge of light on the screen during playback. The Tab S10 Fe’s anti-glare screen cut that reflection down so much I only had to adjust the stand once, and no reflection showed up in the final video. That’s a small thing, but it makes a huge difference for kids trying to read what you’ve written.
After a week of testing, I filmed six back-to-back videos on a Sunday to check battery and overheating, which was the death of my old iPad. The A16 iPad went from 100% charge to 27% after three hours of recording, and got warm enough that it popped up an overheating warning after the last video, which would have made me lose work if I’d been recording when it shut down. The Tab dropped to 46% over the same three hours, and only got slightly warm, no warnings, no slowdown.
None of this is to say the iPad is bad. If you already own an Apple Pencil, and all your lesson plans and files are synced to iCloud, and you have the budget for the extra accessory, it works perfectly fine for online teaching videos. The A16 chip is fast, and app selection for education is still a little bigger than Samsung’s if you need niche classroom tools.
But for most teachers and parents I know—people paying out of pocket for gear to make lessons for co-ops, flipped classrooms, or kids missing school due to illness—the numbers add up. I ended up buying the Tab S10 Fe, and after a month of use, I still had enough left in my classroom budget to buy the set of magnifying glasses my kids have been asking for for our nature unit. It’s not perfect; I’ve had to find a free replacement for one small reading app I used on my old iPad, but the replacement works fine for what I need. It’s just a tool, after all. It doesn’t need to be the fanciest, it just needs to work every Sunday when I sit down to film, and so far, it has.
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