Samsung Galaxy Tab S Review (10.5 & 8.4-inch)
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 24, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy Tab S
Display
In addition to the dramatically reduced chassis thickness, the move to a Super AMOLED display is the other flagship feature of the Galaxy Tab S lineup. Both devices feature a 2560 x 1600 Super AMOLED panel. The 10.5-inch model features a derivative of the S-Stripe RGB subpixel layout and geometry we first saw in the Galaxy Note 2.
Each pixel features loosely spaced red, green and blue subpixels, with the latter being a thin strip in comparison to the more traditional rectangular red and green subpixels:
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, S Stripe RGB
Choosing different geometries for the blue subpixels makes sense as they have lower luminous efficiency than their red and green counterparts. Through balancing of subpixel size and drive power this design should allowed for equal luminance among all three subpixels. The uneven spacing is something new for the Galaxy Tab S 10.5, as the design looked far more structured back in the Note 2 days.
The 8.4-inch model by comparison uses a diamond PenTile RG,BG layout:
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4, Diamond PenTile
This is similar to what we saw on the Galaxy Note 3, and just like before you get two subpixels per unit pixel instead of three in a traditional RGB stripe. Thankfully the pixel density on the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is high enough that I wasn’t able to discern individual pixels or be bothered by the diamond PenTile layout. I will admit that I’ve never been the most sensitive to PenTile or PenTile-like sub pixel arrangements, so your mileage may vary.
With the Galaxy S5, Samsung finally delivered a reasonably accurate out of box display calibration as an option. In bringing AMOLED to its tablet lineup, I wondered if Samsung would do the same here. Thankfully the answer appears to be yes.
The new displays have the same adaptive setting as the GS5, which adjusts display tint based on ambient light temperature. There are three predefined color settings, down from the five on Galaxy S5, if you prefer something a bit more predictable.
Although Cinema ends up being the most accurate on the GS5, AMOLED Cinema doesn’t get the same treatment on the Galaxy Tab S. It’s actually the new basic mode that most closely tracks with sRGB. The two AMOLED modes trade off color accuracy for more saturation. I ran our display suite through all of the modes on the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 to illustrate the difference:
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 Color Profiles | |||||||||
| Average White Point | Grayscale DeltaE 2000 | Gamut DeltaE 2000 | Saturation Sweep DeltaE 2000 | GMB ColorChecker DeltaE 2000 | |||||
| AMOLED - Cinema | 7540K | 5.2572 | 6.8855 | 5.9306 | 7.0418 | ||||
| AMOLED - Photo | 6576K | 1.7425 | 4.8109 | 4.5933 | 3.3633 | ||||
| Basic | 6516K | 1.8378 | 2.8114 | 2.6195 | 2.4249 | ||||
| Basic (Galaxy Tab S 8.4) | 6294K | 2.3914 | 3.4564 | 2.7639 | 2.2186 | ||||
I’ve also included all of the CIE diagrams and test swatch comparisons in a gallery below if you want to have a closer look at what the AMOLED modes do. In short, both the photo and cinema modes oversaturate just in different ways. Photo appears to saturate evenly across all colors, while cinema mode compresses some while pushing out others.
As it’s the most accurate setting, I ran all of our comparison data with the basic mode enabled. In this mode the Galaxy Tab S’ display is among the best we’ve ever tested. On top of having good color accuracy, the new display delivers the awesome contrast ratio that AMOLED displays are known for. As you’ll see later on, there are definite power benefits as well when it comes to watching movies on these displays.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 - Basic Profile
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 - Basic Profile
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kyuu - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Right. So I guess if you were looking for an iOS tablet you'd be shopping around for a used OG iPad, and not an iPad Air? Because I mean c'mon, it's the same software. The only difference is the specs.Or if you were looking for a Windows tablet you'd find a deal on one of those ancient pre-iPad slates, right? I mean it'll run full Windows, so the software is the same. The only difference is the specs.
And I don't really get what you even mean to imply when you say "Oh right. It uses Android." No one will deny that iOS has the best app market, but I don't think Android has any shortage of software. In fact, you can get a lot of software that Apple simply won't allow on their app store.
sonicmerlin - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
How about an OS that can scroll web pages smoothly? Android still stutters.genomecop - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
To be fair iOS has its share of stuttering and other problems that are always associated with Android.ESC2000 - Sunday, July 6, 2014 - link
Not anymore. My nexus 5 and nexus 7 2013, each on 4.4.4, run like charms. Literally no lag ever. And I only spent $600 on both devices with no contracts. Check yo $800 iPhone and $500 ipad. And my devices don't freeze and crash due to low RAMNintendo Maniac 64 - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
On the Galaxy S5 the "photo" mode corresponded to the Adobe RGB color space. It would have been a good idea to test that.GiantPandaMan - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
What's with all the iOS users being so angry? It's a tablet review, not a discussion about gun control.xype - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
Tablets don’t kill people, people kill people!!11oneeleventy:D
I’m an iOS user and I’ll likely never switch, but damn, it’s really nice to see the quality of Android tablets being pushed (even if Apple is the biggest reason Android manufacturers even give a damn) forward. It’s such a shame that Android users keep getting bombarded with cheap plastic and shitty build quality tablets most of the time. People deserve better than that.
And, yes, I’ve just been to the local electronics store and checked out the isle with 30+ nearly-identical Android tablets a few days ago… and they mostly felt like crap in the hand and when looking at the display. And the salespeople kept pushing them on people. :-/
althaz - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Love the hardware. First Android tablet I've been tempted to buy since my old Motorola Xoom.That said, I don't rate Android very highly for tablet use. If this had Win 8.1 or probably even Win RT on it, I'd be all over it as I feel Windows is a many times better user experience on tablets. Of course there's the app situation, but seeing as there are more Windows tablet apps than Android tablet apps (somewhat alleviated for Android by the possibility of using phone apps), for somebody like me who doesn't play games on their tablet, it's really no contest (for gamers it's a whole other story, tablet gaming on Windows tablets is in a pretty bad state by comparison to especially iOS but also Android).
I especially love the screen on this device, AMOLED displays just look so much better to me than LCD screens.
marytattoo - Sunday, June 29, 2014 - link
you might not have the windows experience, but you can have several windows open at the same time, and as far as i'm concerned, i have found everything i need in the Play store. i have and have had several ipads, and there is only one reason i have an ipad still - a knitting program, which most people probably wouldn't want. everything else, i get from android. i can also bring all of my computer music to android via a micro sd card. i have tons of uploaded music from my cds and audio books.Lavkesh - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
No matter what they do, unless their tablets ship with stock Android, it remains a piece of junk. They may be good at hardware but their software sucks.