Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab S
Believe it or not, there’s a lot of choice when it comes to tablets that don’t involve a company at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino CA. Samsung is a perfect example of this as they have a wide variety of tablets to choose from. The one that I’m going to review today is the Galaxy Tab S supplied by Telus. It’s an 8.4″ tablet that is one that merits a serious look if you’re in the market for a tablet. Now the Galaxy Tab S is an 8.4″ tablet that is easy to hold unless you really have small hands. The back (non removable by the way) has a look and feel of the Galaxy S5. It’s not going to slip out of your hands and it looks very classy. It’s also very light. I compared it to an iPad Mini 3 and it was lighter than that. But the real star of the show is the screen. It’s a 2,560-by-1,600 panel using Samsung’s AMOLED technology and it is stunningly good. It’s bright and colors are perfect even in bright light. It does collect fingerprints, but not at a rate that would make the screen unusable after a while. Kudos to Samsung for that. All the buttons are on the right hand side of the tablet along with the IR for the IR blaster and the slots for the SIM card and MicroSD card. A MicroUSB port is on the bottom along with a headphone jack.
Here’s what the Galaxy Tab S has under the hood:
- 8.4” Quad HD Super AMOLED Display 2560 x 1600
- 8 MP rear camera (1920 x 1080) with auto focus and LED flash
- 2.1 MP front camera
- 1.3 Ghz Octa Core Processor
- 16 GB storage with expandablity up to 128 GB via MicroSD
- 4G LTE
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth 4.0 LE
- Android 4.4.2
As you can see, Android KitKat is on board and it has been tweaked with some useful extensions such as Samsung’s dual-paned multitasking mode. That I liked. I also liked the fact that Samsung’s software sits a little more lightly on this tablet than it previous ones I’ve tested. It felt speedy for the most part, though I did note that complex pages slowed Google Chrome down. In terms of speed via LTE, I got an average of 22.11 Mbps downstream and 5.93 Mbps upstream on the Telus network. The Galaxy Tab S comes with 16GB of storage, of which 11.5GB is user-accessible. That makes an SD card a requirement the second you buy the tablet as media will fill it up quickly.
In terms of the camera, the 8MP camera is in the back is very very good when I tested it at my usual testing location out at Pearson Airport in Toronto. First, some video at 1080p. Now I should note that I shot this at 4:3 aspect ratio for reasons I will get to in a second. Set it to full screen and to 1080p:
Now some still pictures which were taken at the same time as the video which is a handy feature to have. Click the images to see them at full size:
Now the reason why I shot this in 4:3 aspect ratio is that it was the only way I could get 8MP still pictures as this resolution is only available in the 4:3 aspect ratio. Thus if you take stills and video, you either have to make do with lower resolution stills or 4:3 video. It’s not the biggest deal in the world though.
Battery life on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S is outstanding. I clocked in at over 10 hours of life. So if you want to use this tablet as much as possible without being tied to an AC outlet, you can. Pricing for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S is very aggressive. You can pay $580 outright for it which is a very reasonable price. Or if you opt for a 2 year term, it’s $100 up front plus $20 a month for two years via their Easy Tablet program. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S is great for those who want a tablet for media, reading, checking e-mail or almost anything else. It has a great screen and a price that is alluring. If you’re looking for a tablet, put this one on your list.
Leave a Reply