Samsung's Galaxy Tab S10 FE crushes its predecessor with 40% speed boost in leaked benchmark

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE appears to have taken another step closer to release after benchmarks appeared on the Geekbench website. The scores show a big step forward from the company’s previous mid-range tablet — the Galaxy Tab S9 FE — but performance still falls well short of the premium Galaxy Tab S10 range.

The listing for a device labelled SM-X520 appeared on the site yesterday and shows the tablet’s chip — rumored to be the Exynos 1580 — producing scores of 1,349 in single-core tests and 3,882 for the multi-core equivalents.

Turbo boost

That’s a significant boost on the Exynos 1380-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus. Our review measurement came on a different version of the benchmarking software and is therefore incomparable, but a listing for the Tab S9 FE on the Geekbench site using the same test gave it scores of 1,005 and 2,923. So we’re looking at a possible boost of 32-34%.

But it’s important to note that “Fan Edition” remains something of a misnomer, given it relates to lower-cost versions of popular Samsung brands, and thus performance isn’t really comparable to the non-FE versions. The same appears true here: the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Plus achieves scores of between 1,600 and 2,200 for single-core and 6,000 to 7,200 for multi-core performance.

But then the Tab S9 FE cost $450 when it arrived in October 2023, and with Samsung choosing to skip the regular 10.9-inch Tab S10 in favour of just Plus and Ultra models last year, prices start at an intimidating $999.

That could make the Galaxy Tab S10 FE an appealing alternative — especially as it’s rumored to reintroduce the regular-sized 10.9-inch model alongside an even bigger 13.1-inch Plus version. The smaller model is tipped to pack a 2,304 x 1,440 LCD screen, while the latter opts for 2,880 x 1,800. The extra screen space creates more space for a larger battery too: 10,090 mAh for the larger model against 8,000mAh for the smaller version.

Outlook

Renders based on leaks show a device that will look familiar to fans of Samsung’s tablets, with the S Pen tipped for inclusion once again. The screens are expected to get 200 nits brighter than the previous FE tablets, and buyers should be able to configure their purchases with either 8GB or 12GB RAM, and 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage.

The tablets have previously been tipped for a release “in the coming weeks” and this appearance on Geekbench seems to back that up. Given the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge has been tipped for an April launch, it’s possible these cheap and cheerful tablets will be the support act.