SamsungThe Galaxy Tab S9 is Samsung’s most powerful and versatile tablet, and that’s not just thanks to specs and benchmarks. What makes it special is the way the S9 has been designed with creativity in mind.
With its unique blend of hardware features and a stable of pre-installed apps, the Tab S9 enables creative ideas to flow, and more importantly, it inspires them to flow.
For a creative person, the most important function of a tablet like the Tab S9 is that it provides a creative space, an ideal blend of aesthetics, materials, and user experience, that makes you excited to pick it up and get working on that big project. But it also has to provide the power that the best creativity apps demand, without restricting or limiting what you can or can’t do with those apps.
The Galaxy Tab S9 is an ideal creativity choice for users of any age, but we’re going to deep-dive into how primary school-aged kids can rely on the Tab S9 and a range of apps to turn their curiosity into creativity unleashed.
Galaxy Tab S9 hardware highlights
Creativity comes from within, and is expressed outward, whether that be onto a page, the stage, or an amusing YouTube short. On a tablet, software is the key to that expression, and the Tab S9 has a selection of curated apps that can give your child an enormous level of freedom to create… anything!
But before we get into the apps, it’s worth highlighting some of the Tab S9’s hardware features that support those apps.
Art begins with a blank page, they say, and when kids use the Tab S9 to create, the tablet itself is that blank page. Or maybe it’s a canvas? It all depends what you’re working on today!
Size, screen, S-Pen, and more
The display is of course spec’d to make watching movies and playing games smoother than ever – but the Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen is also great for visual artists. At the top of the Tab S9 range, the Tab S9 Ultra is an expansive 14.6-inch canvas, which may let creative apps avoid feeling cramped, while the 120Hz response time limits hiccups or stuttering when scrubbing video or rapidly sketching a new idea. That mix of size, brightness and colour, and response time means the Tab S9’s display is ready for any creative task you want to take on, whether it’s photography, illustration, animation, video, or something else.
The Tab S9 comes with an in-box S Pen, a stylus matched to the tablet’s touchscreen, which allows a creative child to work just as they would have on paper or canvas.
Because the Tab S9 is so easy to work on, it’s normal for a creative kid to want to spend hours on a project. The display includes Vision Booster for outdoor sketching or photography, but perhaps more importantly for concerned parents is the Eye Comfort feature, which adjusts the display to reduce blue light.
That the Tab S9 is very much a premium tablet shouldn’t be something that makes you worry about letting younger children pour their creative minds into it. The IP68 rating means the Tab S9 can handle splashes and spills, and it doesn’t need to be handled with kid gloves1.
Oh, and as a final word on hardware: Samsung hasn’t forgotten budding young writers either. You can add a Book Cover keyboard2 to your Tab S9, which lets your child type more comfortably for longer. If they really want to lean into that old-school word processor experience (it helps with some writers’ creativity) they can use DeX Mode, which turns the Tab S9 into more of a notebook PC, with a user experience to match.
Express yourself with Galaxy Tab S9 apps
The Galaxy Tab S9 range has the hardware to support a huge range of creative interests, but what completes the package and turns ideas into art, is the range of creativity-focused apps.
A great creativity app is one that gives kids the software tools and the space they need to explore the ideas they’ve already had, and then goes further, and gives them inspiration to try new things.
That means an app that’s easy to get into as a beginner, but which has a huge number of advanced functions and features that, at least at first, your child won’t even have thought of needing.
Ideally, as your child explores their creativity and does more, they’ll work out what it is they need their creativity app to do – so it’s important that the app has these advanced features ready to go.
At its heart, the Tab S9 is an Android tablet so the full gamut of Play Store apps is just a download away. The Galaxy Tab S9 series offers new and enhanced apps which lets your child explore their creativity in almost any direction.
- LumaFusioni is a video editing app that gives kids the ability to use simple touch gestures to cut and edit multi-track video. Once they get a handle on the app’s workflow and want to explore more advanced techniques like professionals use, those features are ready and waiting.
- Clip Studio Paintii is the app for the keen young visual artist, who might be focused on sketching right now but may then wish to branch out, even do traditional brush-on-canvas painting. The app supports all this, and there’s the Japanese angle too: For a certain kind of creative young person, Japanese comics and animated films are a massive inspiration.
- GoodNotesiii has a straightforward intention, which is to bring back the free-form doodling and collage-making that you can’t do in your device’s standard note-taking app. A scrapbook or journal is a vital tool for young artists of any kind, and being able to combine the sketching and doodling of pen-and-paper notebooks with the ability to save and organise them like computer files, could be a huge benefit for those sometimes scattery creative minds.
It’s worth noting that Samsung and Adobe have worked to provide versions of Adobe Creative Cloud apps that are tweaked to look their best on that big tablet display. Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Express have the most potential for creative young minds – whether it’s touching-up an old damaged photo for a family history project, or just messing around with photo collages like a 21st century equivalent of doodling on the pad next to the phone, it all depends on your child’s unique creativity.
These apps are all pre-installed on your Tab S9 or can be installed from the Google Play or Galaxy store. Some of the apps are supplied as trial versions and will require a subscription to keep using. They may also include the ability to make in-app purchases, so make sure to review your privacy options before you use any of them.
Ready and equipped for the onward journey
There are thousands of creativity apps on the Google Play Store, so the apps highlighted here are just the beginning.
With your support and patience, the Tab S9 has the potential to be part of your family well into the future. After all, it can function as creative tool, companion, and even guide.
And for these formative primary school years, it’s reassuring to know that both Google and Samsung have extensive safety features baked in, so you know apps from the official app store are legitimate, and that your child’s personal details are not being exposed online.
If you let your child and the Tab S9 work together to explore what creativity means to them and how far they can go with it, don’t be surprised if you quickly feel like you’ve been left behind! The Tab S9 is powerful enough to let advanced creators strut their stuff, and what your child may come up with after even a short time with the tablet might seem impossibly advanced. But that’s only to be expected, when you use a Tab S9.
Read other Samsung articles on GadgetGuy
1 * The Galaxy Tab S9 Series is rated as IP68. Based on lab test conditions for submersion in up to 1.5 meters of freshwater for up to 30 minutes. Not advised for beach or pool use. Ensure the charging port is dry before charging. Please refer to your phone’s user manual for further care instructions and limitations.
2. Book Cover Keyboard sold separately.
i LumaFusion app requires separate purchase and download. Terms of service may vary by country and region.
ii Clip Studio Paint app comes pre-installed in select markets. Clip Studio Paint app can be downloaded from the Galaxy Store and comes with a free 6-month trial for first-time users. Once the free trial period ends, paid subscription to a monthly usage plan is required for continuous use. Terms of service may vary by country and region.
iii GoodNotes app requires separate download and comes with a 1-year free full version. Once the free full version period ends, an additional purchase is required for continuous use. The terms of service may vary by country and region.
