Why I’m considering a Samsung tablet for gaming

This morning, I found myself on OnePlus’ website looking at the OnePlus Open. Since it was leaked months ago, I’ve been fawning over it quite a bit. I hoped that it would arrive at T-Mobile and give me the opportunity to leverage some sort of wacky trade-in deal to get my hands on it, but that reality never came to be. And though they do have some aggressive trade values on the OnePlus site right now, I’d still be looking at at least a $1000 investment in something I’m worried I won’t love.

Why do I recount this story? Mainly because as I found myself wisely rejecting the idea of buying the OnePlus Open for the time being, I was also drawn to their well-reviewed tablet. You can probably draw the line from large-screened folding phone to tablet pretty quick, but the crux of the issue really revolved around gaming. I want a larger screen to play games like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Mobile, and PUBG Mobile on. I’m getting older, OK? I want a bigger screen for my games!

And as interesting as the OnePlus Tab is, I’m not 100% sold on the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 inside at this point for gaming. I think it might hold its own, but I know the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 definitely does. So that got me going down a totally different rabbit hole, looking for high-performance tablets to be the thing I use for mobile gaming. While I would love to have a phone that doubles as a small tablet, those devices have historically frustrated me on the other parts of the equation that good phones should get right; so I’m just not sure it’s the right move. But a smaller tablet with a high-res, high-refresh screen and fast Internals? That might be the ticket.

I’ve been here before

A few years back, I actually carried the iPad Mini with me in my backpack for just this purpose. I think I originally bought it for something else, but it became my mobile gaming device. Over time, the lack of Fortnite and the 60Hz frame-rate limitations ruined all of that, but I still think back fondly to having a purposed tablet that was really good at playing games. And I think there are still some Android options out there.

And that brought me to Samsung. Of all the OEMs still making Android tablets, they are probably the one that has kept the most success in the market over the years versus the iPad. And then I remembered the sales event they are currently running, and I took a quick look. Turns out, with a trade-in phone I have just lying around, I can get the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 for a little over $500, and it comes equipped with a 90Hz OLED screen. Pretty sweet!

I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but I’m very tempted. While the OnePlus Open is clearly not a smart buy for me right now, a tablet very well could be. My next move is to go by Best Buy and check out a few of the others like the Tab S8 and Tab S9 FE as both of those are even cheaper than the standard S9 right now. My point is, there are options, and I’d love to get my hands on a few of these devices to see if one could be a good fit as a new gaming tablet for me to tote around. I really think it might stave off my deep desire for the OnePlus Open for a bit, and I’m once again excited to carry around a tablet for gaming. Which one it will end up being is still up in the air, but I’ll be sure to let you know where I land and how it goes.