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
WiFi
Both Galaxy Tab S devices support 2-stream 802.11ac and can negotiate up to an 866Mbps link speed with a similarly capable router. Peak performance in practice is pretty shy of what we saw with the Galaxy S5 however. While the GS5 was capable of around 430Mbps under best conditions, the Tab S averages around 240Mbps. Compared to the immediate competition it’s not bad, but against everything else we’ve seen it’s less impressive.
Camera
Samsung only gave us a few days with the review samples so I didn’t spend a ton of time focusing on camera performance. The rear facing camera is a 8MP design with F2.4 lens. The front facing camera shoots at 1080p and also has an F2.4 lens. In general the Tab S seems to be a decent shooter in well lit conditions. Low light performance isn’t the worst I’ve seen but it’s not a strong point for sure. Both tablets appear to use the same rear and front camera (Samsung S5K6B2) modules.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 Rear Camera Sample
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akdj - Monday, June 30, 2014 - link
"Contrast is the single-most important part of subjective (ie: what peoples eyes say) display quality - according to every study ever done on it - and AMOLED displays have infinite contrast. Not sure why it wasn't tested here, but the ludicrous contrast makes this screen many-times superior to the iPad screen, IMO."A) contrast is NOT the single most important, subjective performance standard. Brightness and saturation. IE, 'Torch Mode!' That's why every TV at best buy is cranked to vivid, 100% pic and high saturation levels. NOT blacks and shadows. It's important to me, but as you've answered your own question, it's impossible to measure 'infinite contrast'. As OLED displays don't 'turn on' a pixel on black scenes, it's 'truly infinite' and hence impossible to measure. Though I'd argue if it's such a subjective and deciding quality, why aren't we using OLED displays to 'produce, color, and finalize' a motion picture? While DisplayMate's results do indeed separate these tablets, the overall scores are a point apart. Not leagues. I own the Note 3 and iPad Air as well as the retina mini and 5s. They're all phenomenal displays and excellent systems. To argue ones better than the other is like arguing pancakes vs waffles. They're both light years ahead of my Magnavox 13 channel (manual) 13" black and white I had in high school with rabbit ears ...or my first 16 'color' display after a decade in monochrome. LoL, kids these days ;)
mhannigan - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
You obviously didn't understand correctly.spectrablue - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
think again...http://www.displaymate.com/OLED_Tablet_ShootOut_1....
"Based on our extensive Lab tests and measurements, the Galaxy Tab S is the Best Performing Tablet Display that we have ever tested, not surprisingly with performance that is almost identical to the OLED Galaxy S5 Smartphone that we recently tested and found to be the Best Performing Smartphone Display"..."Comparisons with the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX and Apple iPad Tablet Displays: In 2013 the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX Tablets became the top performing Tablet displays in our Display Technology Shoot-Out series, leapfrogging the competition with cutting edge displays using Quantum Dots and Low Temperature Poly Silicon. But with the ever continuing and impressive improvements in display technology the Samsung Galaxy Tab S has now taken the lead for the Best Tablet Displays. The Apple iPad Air, which came in second after the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, now moves into third place for Flagship Tablet models, and the iPad mini with Retina Display, with a very disappointing 63 percent of the standard sRGB/Rec.709 Color Gamut and poor Color Accuracy moves further down the pack for the Mini Tablet models. "
M4stakilla - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Does it contain the usual Samsung "crapware" or is this already a more "standard" Android device, like a Nexus?Linked to the above, does it receive Android updates immediately when they are released by Google or does it still take years before they get updated? (and how long will they be updated after release?)
GC2:CS - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
How long ? About 18 months since release, eg until end of 2015.apandya27 - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Updates will definitely be delayed. 5-6 months is usual for *new* devices. That goes up to 8+ months for older devices.sherlockwing - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
That video playback battery life!!!! If I am getting a new tablet(pretty happy with my Nexus 7 2013) the Tab S would certainly be my pick, Touchwiz be damned.nerd1 - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Touchwiz gives you easy access to many settings, as well as the multi-app multitasking capability, and better camera UI than most. I wonder why everyone hates touchwiz so much.GC2:CS - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
Ok.... Anand did you noticed how much free memory these tabs got ?!?sherlockwing - Tuesday, June 24, 2014 - link
If it didn't take up 4Gb of internal storage for 1000 functions that I don't need & ancient UI elements(gingerbread era) eyesores I'd have a little less problem with Touchwiz. The better Camera UI thing is now irrelevant with the free Google Camera app, and I get to many key settings much faster on AOSP than I do on Touchwiz.