Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Samsung’s surprised me this year with snappy looking and quite premium feeling set of Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablets. I had the opportunity to check out and video both 10.5 and 8.4-inch versions, I’ve also been testing the smaller Galaxy Tab S 8.4 inch model.
Like many consumers, I’ve become somewhat confused with the blurred lines between Samsung’s recent Galaxy Tab and Note models. SPen styli aside, it takes a while to make out one product line from the other, especially in the last year when there was an abundance of white used across the board.
Well, there’s no confusing this year's Galaxy Tab S line. Exceedingly slim, these tablets have gilded borders and buttons, sport eye-catching high-resolution Super AMOLED displays and have climbed up various notches in terms of style as well as updated look and feel of materials.
The Galaxy Tab 8.4 is one of the thinnest 7-9-inch tablets in the market right now at 6.6mm thin, this becomes apparent when you look at the headphone jack and see they had to add a bit more plastic to make it possible
This thinness is surprisingly counterbalanced with a solid feel and good balance which makes this tablet easy to hold and carry, even for prolonged periods of time.
The updated focus on design extends around the back and even to the accessories. The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 inherits the Galaxy S5’s stippled finish which isn’t anywhere as pretentious as the faux leather of years past and is quite enduring and easy on the eyes.
Two circular clips are for quick integration with the new slimline covers and cases, which add very little girth to the tablet. The material and finish of these cases also feels more premium and the colour palette is subdued (so as not to mess with the gold accents).
You get an IR blaster as well as stereo speakers which are reasonably loud. There's also a decent 8 megapixel rear camera and the requisite front facing shooter is of the 2.1 megapixel variety.
The Super AMOLED display is the real star here. The 8.4’s 2560x1600(WQXGA) resolution is quite phenomenal and the brightness, contrast as well as clarity on this display is simply breathtaking. Being an AMOLED display, some colours might appear oversaturated and that’s something users just have to get used to since there’s no changing this aspect.
Samsung’s added a chock full of innovation as well, like adaptive display, which smart senses which content needs to be tweaked for better viewing. There’s 3 Screen Modes that let you choose among AMOLED Photo, AMOLED Cinema and Basic Mode according to your current usage regardless what app or function you are using. This seemed to work well for certain apps like Kobo Reader and video playback. There's also the first attempt at fingerprint security on a tablet with the on screen fingerprint scanner. BYOD and corporate users will be happy to know that Samsung's security apps and features like KNOX for enterprise are also on tap.
What I liked about the Super AMOLED display in this tablet is that it is still quite bright even when dimmed and the contrast ratio as well as the high resolution make it easy to read even at an angle. Samsung’s also coated the glass element so it is far less reflective than previous Galaxy Tab displays and a bit better to use outdoors although not under bright sunlight. Watching movies and videos on this tablet is a pleasure.
The Tab S 8.4 has the exact specs and performance as the larger model. This means the Exynos 5 Octa processor and 3 GB of RAM are offer a lot of muscle to run apps buttery smooth as well as multitask with impunity. This becomes useful when you engage many of Samsung’s TouchWiz features like forced multitasking (Multi Windows) as well as the cool SideSync 3.0 functionality that allows you to pair a nearby Samsung Galaxy S5, in order to transfer files, mirror apps and games as well as take and make calls.
Battery life is quite exceptional, thanks in part to the Super AMOLED display’s miserly consumption but also because they managed to somehow squeeze in a 4,000 mAh battery which enables 10 hours of browsing over WiFi. Nowhere as long lasting as the iPad mini’s 12 hours but still longer than many devices. Expansion for up to 128GB microSD is also available.
Samsung has bundled a variety of software and some apps they’re spinning as “gifts”. Some of these are notable such as NextIssue (with free trial subscription), Marvel Unlimited (3 month subscription). Games like Asphalt 8, Cut the Rope 2, Fruit Ninja, Kindle for Samsung (free book each month) and a stunning series of free subscriptions to Bloomberg BusinessWeek+, WSJ, NYT, The Economist, Vogue and GQ.
It’s great that Samsung is taking a more wholistic approach to their devices, not just by presenting great technology and skewing the Android user experience to their own look and feel, but also by considering who will use their devices and more importantly how they can add value by establishing content partnerships that make sense to the end user.
I still don’t think the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 has enough to pry users away from their iPads, but this is an exceptional Android tablet, one that stands out in a sea of wannabe devices that have very little in terms of feature or experience differentiators. It's arguably the best tablet Samsung's made so far. Still, it would have been cool to see some water resistance feature at this price point. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4's SRT is $419.99.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 might change some minds and turn users on to a slightly larger form factor. In fact, I never considered my Nexus 7 2013 an ageing product until I used the Tab S 8.4. And sure, the Tab S will never get pure Android and is more expensive, but it feels like it can do more and you can’t beat the bundled content package it comes with. It makes a great upgrade to many previous generation 7-8 inch Android tablets.
Rating: 4 out 5