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
Final Words
The Galaxy Tab S is easily the most compelling tablet family Samsung has ever released. The devices are incredibly thin, very light and boast displays that can be easily configured to be among the most accurate in the industry. In the Android tablet space it’s often a stretch charging $399 or $499, even for a flagship, given how good the Nexus line ends up being. With the Tab S, I think Samsung has something that’s worthy of a price premium over the more cost effective Android tablets.
The Galaxy Tab S, regardless of size, is easy to hold and has a screen that’s great to look at. These are two of the most important things to get right when building a tablet and the Tab S delivers on both.
The features around the edges are nice additions. The integrated fingerprint scanner works better on the tablet than it does on the phone, and is a decent time saver if you’ve got a long passcode. Having 2-stream 802.11ac support is nice as well, although the implementation isn’t as good as it is on the Galaxy S5. If you do have a Galaxy S5, having the ability to answer calls directly from your tablet is a neat feature.
The devices aren't perfect however. The Exynos 5420 SoC in both tablets is no longer class leading. CPU performance is reasonable but the GPU does seem to have issues keeping up with the high resolution display. If anything, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 805 would probably have been a better fit for the tablets across the board. I suspect Exynos 5420 won out due to pricing, but as a result we end up with a tablet that has the dimensions and display of a flagship and an SoC that is simply good enough.
Battery life is either going to be amazing or below par depending on your usage model. If you spend a lot of time looking at web pages, you’ll find the high resolution AMOLED display to be a power liability. If however you mainly use your tablet to watch TV and movies, there’s literally no better option on the market today when it comes to battery life. Even the tiny 8.4-inch Galaxy Tab S managed to best all of the other tablets we’ve tested in video playback battery life, delivering over 15 hours on a single charge. Start browsing the web however and you’re looking at roughly half of that. It’s an interesting tradeoff for sure.
Overall the Galaxy Tab S feels like a solid reboot for Samsung’s tablet ambitions. The trick from here on out will be to continue to iterate the design without losing focus. A successor with a better SoC might be a good start. Perhaps Snapdragon 808/810 might be a good option next year, or an 805 based solution by the end of this year depending on how aggressive of a schedule Samsung sticks to for tablet releases going forward.
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RobilarOCN - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
Anand, any tests that actually test the battery life using apps? I use tablets for reading mostly and very curious to see lifespan of the Tab S with an app running constantly.Laststop311 - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
I've been hoping for 10"+ oled screens for a long time. Shame they still haven't gotten the rest quite right. Lots of stuttering in simple tasks that shouldn't be there. Is there no micro usb 3.0? If there is no micro usb 3.0 ok but if there is really bad to go with 2. It delivers less power and is slower. The cases are utterly terrible. No 64 or 128GB internal memory options is not so good, i mean at least offer us 64GB. 16GB shouldn't even be an option it should be 399 for 32GB and 499 for 32GB 450/550 for 64GB 550/650 for 128GB.I'm actually ok with the plastic as it's the lightest most durable option and just makes the most sense. Kinda stupid to sacrifice weight and durability just for a more premium look or feel. The exynos chip is once again another let down. The LTE version with a snapdragon 800 will probably run a lot better maybe even better battery life wifi mode vs wifi mode. Disappointing that it will be released so close to the snapdragon 805 making its first commercial appearance. The 2560x1600 resolution would of greatly benefitted from the new GPU and i feel like current gpu tech on mobile soc's was only meant for 1920x1200 maximum. I think the reason samsung didn't bother with that option is the snapdragon 805 doesnt have an integrated lte modem which was samsungs main reason for using a snapdragon in the lte model. So there was no reason to wait and the snapdragon 810 is too far off.
I think these high res tablets are slightly ahead of their time. But it's good they are coming out as it motivates the gpu makers to provide large performance increases to accommodate the new resolutions and still be able to push games graphically.
I think the Galaxy tab s2 will reveal what this new tablet line is truly capable of. A 64 bit snapdragon 810 in the LTE model. Playing all games even graphically intense ones at native resolution smoothly. Wireless charging should be added to the next version too. I see a very bright future for this new S line of tablets and I think they will be sticking around for a long time. I can see the future bringing a 4k oled screen to the line in 2 or 3 years. Can't wait to see what samsung does with bigger oled screens. Would love to see the 12.2" one go to oled as well.
R. Hunt - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
I recently got a Tab Pro 10.1 and after knowing of these new AMOLED tablets I was kinda regretting it. After looking at the browsing battery life results, I have to say that's not the case anymore. Samsung weren't kidding when they said they built these things primarily to watch videos.Aqua1ung - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
It's basically the 16:10 format that's killing these tablets for me. I don't buy a tablet to (primarily) watch movies on it, and I don't know anybody who does.spectrablue - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
how about you start browsing the web in a black background white text power saver format instead of the traditional color settings?spectrablue - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
or even better yet green text...sound familiar?Fidelator - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
What are the scores for the galaxy tab pro 8.4 on the graphic tests?Fidelator - Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - link
And this outdated Exynos shouldn't be used in devices on this price range this far into this year, they could have chosen the same K1 as the Xiaomi tab or the 801/805 depending on availability, going cheap isn't going to get a single dollar from me, I'll see what is released alongside Android L and then I'll chose whether to wait for broadwell or buy something in this league.iPads aren't bad tablets but I need to access the file system without having to go through hell for that
jt194688 - Thursday, June 26, 2014 - link
I'm just learning this stuff and am changing my 1st Gen. iPad. I love my iPad but thinking about switching to the Samsung Tab S; can you use a thumb drive with it? Advice PLEASE!marytattoo - Sunday, June 29, 2014 - link
you can use a micro sd card in samsung devices. not sure, but this one will probably take a 128 g.