Samsung Galaxy Tab S
The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5 are Samsung's latest flagship devices,built to show off the very best of the company's hardware and
software prowess.
They're designed as upgrades to the Tab Pros we saw earlier
this year, with some spec bumps, a slightly evolved look and,
of course, different screen sizes, just in case you were foolishly
expecting Samsung to follow any kind of pattern as far as display
dimensions are concerned.
Apart from the screen sizes there's very little difference between
the Tab S models, so this review combines the two tablets into one.
I'll talk primarily about the 8.4-inch model and include additional
It's a brutal battle down at the budget end of the tablet market —
one that Apple refuses to get involved in — but here we're very
much at the premium end of the scale. The Galaxy Tab S devices
have been built to go toe-to-toe with Apple's slates,
a brave and perhaps foolhardy undertaking.
First impressions are good, though: these devices feel like
they're made by a company that has perfected its art.
Both models have a 2560 x 1600 pixel WQXGA Super
AMOLED screen, which works out at 287 pixels-per-inch
on the larger model and 360ppi on the smaller one.
The internals are identical, comprising 3GB of RAM, 16GB
of storage, an 8MP rear camera and 2.1MP front-facing camera.
The Samsung Exynos 5 Octa CPU inside these tablets
combines 1.9 and 1.3GHz quad-core processors with the
faster taking over from the slower when required at the
expense of some battery life.
Key features
Samsung has never been one to shy away from packing in as many
bells and whistles as it can, and the Tab S is no exception.
Like the Galaxy S5, the tablet boasts a fingerprint scanner
It recognised my print every time, but because you need to
swipe the home button rather than just put your finger on it,
the process can be fiddly - especially the larger tablet, which
meant some precise holding to make the function work.