Samsung's bundled S Pen puts the $1,399.99 Tab S12 Ultra $198 under a 13-inch iPad Pro with Pencil

A manager buying one large tablet for someone who takes handwritten notes in meetings ends up comparing two carts. Samsung's holds the 14.6-inch Ultra with its pen at $1,399.99 ^[1][5]. Apple's holds a 13-inch iPad Pro and a Pencil at $1,598 ^[1]. The gap is $198.01 per tablet ^[2]. Both carts still need a keyboard, because each company sells those separately ^[6], and neither review lists keyboard prices.

Samsung's speed claims compare the new tablet with last year's Samsung ^[8]. On the Ultra against Apple's M5, Engadget wrote that benchmarks would show only the "tiny differences in speed between the two tablets" and that "real world experience will be impacted more by how you use your device" ^[7].

For most people, how they use the device comes down to the screen. The Ultra is sold only at 14.6 inches, the same size as last year's Tab S11 Ultra ^[9]. Engadget found the extra space "makes a noticeable difference when multitasking in split-screen apps or reviewing detailed documents" ^[10]. Apple built its Ultra Retina XDR panel for contrast accuracy and color precision. Engadget said creatives who rely on Apple-only apps and color-management workflows may prefer the iPad Pro ^[11].

Battery life is harder to call. Apple rates the iPad Pro for up to 10 hours ^[14]. Engadget still would not name a winner: "Without a side-by-side test, we can't tell you if either tablet lasts significantly longer" ^[15].

The operating system decides which apps a person can keep using. The Ultra runs Android 17 with One UI 9 and the iPad Pro runs iPadOS 27, and Trusted Reviews called that difference "perhaps the reason you'll choose one over the other" ^[16].

I'd sort each person on two answers: whether they write on the screen most days, and whether the apps they depend on run only on iPadOS. Daily pen users with portable apps should get the Ultra, with the bigger screen at the lower price ^[2]. The tradeoff is that Engadget points color-critical creative work toward the iPad Pro ^[11]. Anyone tied to Apple software who also writes on the screen needs the iPad plus a $99 Pencil, and on the 11-inch model that totals $1,298 ^[5]. Apple-dependent staff who never pick up a pen cost least on the bare 11-inch at $1,199 ^[3]. For people with neither a pen habit nor an Apple dependency, the Ultra's premium over the 11-inch iPad Pro gets them 3.6 more inches of screen diagonal ^[6].