Samsung’s latest flagship tablet is quite a media beast

Sep 11, 2014 17:01 GMT  ·  By

IFA 2014 came and went, but we couldn't help but notice that the world’s biggest tablet manufacturer, namely Samsung, didn’t impress that much this year in terms of slates. The company contented itself with rolling out a rugged version of its previously launched Galaxy Tab 4 8.0, but that was it.

The absence of any notable slate coming from Samsung could be explained by the fact that a few months prior to the event, the Korean tech giant unveiled its latest flagship tablets, the AMOLED Galaxy Tab S duo, which is offered in 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch flavors.

Samsung put a lot of effort in building these tablets and the results are quite fabulous.

The two models were designed as upgraded versions of the TabPRO series which the tech giant launched at CES 2014 back in January, so you should expect better specs, an evolved fab look and a pretty awesome display.

In what follows, we’re going to be talking a little bit more about the larger version, the 10.5-inch model.

Design

Right from the get-go, you realize the tablet borrows a lot of design cues from Samsung's past. It has a plastic back plate riddled with dimples and two odd-looking circles at the bottom, that are to be used for snapping a cover accessory to the tab (which is something new).

The plastic comes in contrast with the metal finish edge, that on the white model has a bronze/copper color, which is quite appealing to the eye.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S front view
Samsung Galaxy Tab S front view
We liked the frame factor (10.5-inch) as it turns out to be easily holdable even when using one hand. This aspect probably has to do with the fact that the Galaxy Tab S is insanely light and thin.

In one of our earlier pieces, we did a roundup of the world’s thinnest tablets ever. The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 didn’t beat the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet which is just 0.25 inches / 6.4 mm and weighs only 426 g / 15 ounces, but it came close.

Sammy’s latest greatest is just 0.26 inches / 6.6 mm in profile and weighs 467 g / 16.4 ounces, making it thinner than the iPad Air. That’s why it’s so easy to hold the tablet in your hands, so the device shouldn't be a strain on you if you choose to use it without a companion support accessory.

Around the sides, you’ll find stereo speakers (which is nice to have on a media tablet such as this), microSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone socket plus our average power and volume buttons. Furthermore, there’s an infrared port so you can turn your tablet into a remote for changing channels on your TV or set-top box.

Display

The AMOLED screen is what the Galaxy Tab S is best known for and Samsung has been “furiously” trying to advertise this feature, with countless ads and infographics.

The screen on the 10.5-incher offers the high resolution of 2560 x 1600 (WQVGA) with 280ppi which amounts to a pretty crisp display to have around.

Naturally, Samsung is advertising the tablet as being a media device. That’s because of the beautiful screen, but also because Sammy knows most people buy tablets because they want to consume media on it, be it in video or image format.

At this point, some of you might shrug the whole AMOLED business off as a big fad. Surely, the colors are more vivid and in your face, but that means they will sometime look unnatural and over the top.

Even so, the tablet takes advantage of an adaptive display mode, which should help you adjust the screen’s gamma, saturation and sharpness according to your taste.

Nevertheless, you’ll most likely enjoy the rich color palette while you’re watching a nice movie on Netflix. If more realistic coloring is closer to your heart, Samsung also offers premium tablets with LCD screens, coming in the form of the Galaxy TabPRO bunch.

Power and Performance

As you’d expect form a premium device like this, the Galaxy Tab 10.5 is quite fast and responsive. That’s because Samsung has outfitted the tab with a generous Exynos 5 Octa-core processor with four 1.9GHz cores and four 1.3GHz cores fitted with 3GB of RAM.

Users can opt for either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 128GB via microSD card.

This translates into the tablet being able to take on relatively demanding tasks, although we noticed some lags when trying to load some game titles like Dead Trigger 2 (it took longer than expected to access the game per se and to play the game smoothly).

We ran AnTuTu Benchmark on the tablet and the final result said “Excellent, how can you be so good,” so go figure.

The device scored 34,149 points, outperforming Samsung’s own Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3 and other products such as the Xiaomi MI3, LG G 2 or HTC One. However, the HTC One (M8) managed to surpass Samsung’s AMOLED wonder boy.

We also put the tablet through GFXBench, testing the visual fidelity of the device in high-end gaming among other things. Well, here things weren’t that spectacular with the tablet scoring 3,275 mB PSNR, which places it below the Xiaomi MiPad (4,467 mB PSNR) running the NVIDIA Tegra K1 at its core.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S in GFXBench tests
Samsung Galaxy Tab S in GFXBench tests
It’s no wonder that NVIDIA itself uses the chip for its Shield Tablet, a product designed with gaming in mind.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S follows in the tradition set by the previous-gen Galaxy TabPRO tablets and offers multi-tasking capabilities. So if you want to watch a video and check your Facebook at the same time, this can be achieved quite easily and without noticeable lag.

Software and Functionalities

What makes the Samsung Galaxy Tab S even more special is the fact that you can do a lot with it. And we mean a lot.

The tab runs Android 4.4.2 KitKat out of the box, with Samsung’s latest version of TouchWiz software plastered on top (Magazine UX), which overall proves to be a nice enough experience.

You’ll notice that now recent apps appear at the bottom of the screen, and if you swipe in from the right, you will get to access the Multi-window feature which lets you do more than one thing onscreen, as we told you above.

A downside side of Magazine UX is that you have to use the proprietary “Email” and “Calendar” apps in order to get the full experience. For those who prefer Google Calendar or Gmail, all we have to say is tough luck. Use them and the quick planner tiles are rendered quite obsolete.

The tablet also takes advantage of SideSync 3.0 which is quite neat if and only if you have a compatible Samsung smartphone on your hand. If this is the case, it means you can receive things like texts and calls on your tablet.

Something we haven’t seen on other tablets coming from Sammy is the Kick app – which is a football application which keeps you up to date with the current news in the field.

On top of that, users will be able to take advantage of the new Papergarden service, which opens access to a digital magazine library. Sadly, the service is not available in some territories.

Last but not least, users will notice the presence of the Milk Music app, Samsung’s own audio streaming service, which arrives pre-installed on the tablet.

If you’re located in the US and currently eyeing the Tab S, you should know that Samsung will be throwing some other extras, like a 3-month subscription to Marvel Unlimited comic, permission to download the smash hit “Gravity” from the Google Play Store, while the Kindle for Samsung app will offer free book samples each month.

Multi-tasking on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S
Multi-tasking on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S
Like the flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone, the Tab S takes advantage of a fingerprint scanner for unlocking your device. Setting up the system is quite easy, just go in the Settings panel and swipe your finger in the Fingerprint Scanner section.

You’ll be asked to choose an alternate password to help with unlocking your device, in case your trusty sidekick wants to use the tablet, but you’re not around.

The fingerprint scanner is also useful if you want to pay using PayPal and X.

The tablet riles on a 7,900 mAh battery which lasts us about two days of intense use, and when we say intense, we mean constantly fiddling with it for various purposes, whether to run benchmarks or to stream video.

Note that increasing the brightness on the display might reduce the overall life span of the product, and the same effect will come about if you choose to keep the Wi-Fi on at all times.

Cameras

The Galaxy Tab S 10.5 takes advantage of an 8MP camera on the back and 2.1MP one up in front for selfies and such.

The snapper located on the back also takes advantage of LED flash, which is a neat addition. Take a look at the gallery to see some of the images we took.

Tablet photography hasn’t really taken off, but if you don’t mind walking around with a 10-incher shooting things, you'll be relatively happy with the end-results.

After all, Samsung offers a variety of modes and effects you can add on top of your images to make them look better.

Audio

With this being a media tablet, we expected the overall sound quality of the speakers to be quite advanced, but sadly this isn’t the case.

The speakers are located on either side of the device and are quite average. They aren’t bad but they aren’t good either, so we guess average might be the right way to put it.

If we were to compare them to something, we’d say they are capable of delivering the same experience as your usual laptop, with sounds lacking much body or overall depth.


The Good

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S is an extremely light and slim tablet, making for a super sleek media companion. Its beautiful screen, capable of delivering rich tones and colors, is also on our favorite list.

The Korean tech giant surely knows how to market this device, as those who purchase it can take advantage of a whole host of free goodies.

Not to mention, the tab comes with some pre-installed apps you’ll find nowhere else. Also note, the device is the first slate to come equipped with a fingerprint scanner.

The Bad

As you probably expect, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is not a cheap tablet. The 16GB version retails for about $499 / €386 (the Wi-Fi variant). The LTE model is bound to cost even more, so many customers might be put off by the amount of money they would have to spend.

Furthermore, if you want to couple the tablet with an accessory like a keyboard stand or folio, you’ll need to take out more cash from the bank.

Some people might dislike the fact that you can’t disable the Magazine UX interface, so you’ll be stuck with it for all times.

The plastic back might also not agree with some users either, but those accustomed to Samsung design shouldn't be bothered by it much.

The Truth

The tablet is highly portable, cute and has a great display. So if you need a media device to stream all your movies and browse all the awesome Tumblr galleries, you have come to the right place.

On top of that, there are plenty of things you can do with it, from pairing your smartphone and relaying your calls and messages on the tab to controlling your TV.

Our overall impressions are good, but as always things could be better. Bottom line is that the Galaxy Tab S is really a top notch product from the Android ecosystem.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5-Inch Tablet (62 Images)

Samsung Galaxy Tab S frontal view
Samsung Galaxy Tab S front viewSamsung Galaxy Tab S back
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