Free iPad text and emoji engravings make Apple the fun tablet brand

The fact that Samsung is losing to Apple in the low/mid-range tablet segment is one of the company's most embarrassing moments in recent memory. At least, that's how I see it when I look at the 2025 iPad and how it trashes similarly priced Samsung tablets of poorer quality.

But, for a Samsung fan, do you know what feels even more like adding insult to injury? Watching Apple offer more customization options for its budget-oriented iPad, including extra colorful options and — get this — a free engraving service that lets you add text and even emojis to the back of your iPad.

For me, this is the cherry on top when comparing Galaxy Tabs with the Apple iPad. Samsung, the company that brought us the Bespoke customization service a few years ago, is now losing to Apple in the tablet customization game.

Not only does the 2025 iPad offer more color options and more colorful choices than Samsung's Galaxy Tab slates, but Apple also offers a free engraving service.

That's right. In every market we checked where there is an official Apple online store, you can add a custom engraving to the back of your 2025 iPad for free. You can engrave text, numbers, and/or emojis across one or two rows.

You could argue that adding a custom engraving will lower the iPad's resale value, but then again, it is completely optional and free. Besides, according to Apple, engraving your iPad won't impact returns or trade-in values.

The painful part for a Samsung fan is that Samsung is the company that brought us the Bespoke customization service for phones and wearables a few years ago. At one point, the company even allowed over 70 color combinations for the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

Watching Samsung lose to Apple in the free customization department is disappointing, especially when it relates to something like the mid-range tablet segment, where Samsung should have never allowed Apple to challenge it in the first place.

Am I the only one who feels like he stepped into a parallel universe where things just don't feel the way they should? Maybe. But even so, I think Samsung can and should do better.

I am hoping that 2026 will look a lot different for Galaxy tablets — especially in the low and mid-range segments. I'm not necessarily asking for Samsung to offer an engraving service similar to Apple, but we should at least get better specs and maybe more colors for the price.