Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5

[lopri]

6.6 mm thickness is pretty amazing. Looking forward to seeing 2560x1600 AMOLED screen in person. Like Ravynmagi I want to see black bezels so that bezels disappear in dark environment.

 

[Dari]

The Tab Pro was announced in Jan and released in the US in Feb. The Tab S was announced in June and will be released in July. 5 months give or take.

I still disagree - I feel like annual product refreshes are so outdated with how quickly technology incrementally improves. Why should any buyer in the 2nd half of a product annual cycle have to 'settle' for not up to date product.

I don't feel like 2X a year refreshes are ridiculous. However in truth this is going to be a bit of the outlier since these AMOLED screens weren't ready in Jan. So I wouldn't be surprised if these high res AMOLED screens became the new flagship standard for Samsung and the 'Pro' and S lines converged at the end of the year.

It is ridiculous. Refreshes within a reasonable time frame and with enough product differentiation is smart business. Samsung's organizational planning is a complete mess if what you're saying is true but I suspect they're trying anything to make a notable product. You have regular Tabs, Note Tabs, Tab Pro, and now Tab S. All with various resolutions. I guess it's good for today's gnat-life society whose view of time is logarithmically compressed. But it can't be good for the bottom line and investors since consumers value progress and predictability and investors value money.

Anyway, we will agree to disagree and time will tell how smart this strategy is but history has not been kind to companies that act like this.

 

[lopri]

Not that I care but I think this might actually be a signal of Samsung's intention to consolidate tablet lines. Or at least more clearly differentiate each segment. Basically in parallel to its phone lines. S series with AMOLED, Note series with digitizer, and another line for more wallet friendly versions. Until now tablet market has been quite volatile with 7 inchers, 8 inchers, 9 inchers, 10 inchers, different aspect ratios, etc.. Samsung may look to settle with 8, 10, 12 seeing last 2 launches didn't introduce 7 inchers.

 

[lopri]

16 GB is a BS on a tablet of this caliber, btw.

 

[Rdmkr]

Are the screen modes with lowered saturation any good on this..? When I had a Samsung S4 in hand I found it absolutely essential to put it on a color mode with a lower saturation than standard. I've seen color charts of these "cinema" modes in Erica Griffin's reviews and they usually looked extremely wonky with curved lines and a misplaced white point... That sucks when it's the mode you're most often going to run it on.

 

[you2]

16GB is fine since it has an sd slot. Kind of wish they upgraded the cpu/gpu to 805 and family.

 

[desura]

16GB is fine since it has an sd slot. Kind of wish they upgraded the cpu/gpu to 805 and family.

IIRC only the 32 model has an sd card slot. And android 4.4 doesn't allow installation on sd cards of apps.

I'm pretty intrigued by this. Don't much care for Samsung in general but I really like AMOLED, and this is the largest AMOLED device available short of a $4000 television set.

 

[bigboxes]

IIRC only the 32 model has an sd card slot.

You are incorrect. The 16gb models have an SD expansion slot as well.

 

[gorcorps]

All these tablets from Samsung are confusing. I wonder what'll happen to their Pro line now? Will they be discontinued or be relegated to mid-tier? Confusing as all hell considering they're the same resolution as the AMOLED displays.

Something tells me that Samsung is trying to recreate the magic that brought about the Galaxy Note series: throwing anything and everything at the wall to see what sticks. Gear watches. And now AMOLED tablets that debut months after similar tablets. What a cluster****.

I agree. I have no idea what tablets are new, and which are old, or if they're new and designed to be midrange or high end. It's so confusing I don't even look at Samsung tablets anymore. The amount of research I'd have to do just to know what I'm looking at is silly.

 

[Arcadio]

Damn. Luckily I didn't buy the Tab Pro. This tablet looks great. Now to wait for Google to come out with its new tablet at the end of the month to make the final decision on which one to get.

 

[desura]

Ideally we'd have this hardware plus iOS or windows 8.

if only...

 

[Commodus]

Ideally we'd have this hardware plus iOS or windows 8.

if only...

Really, this is a response to the iPad Air (and to a lesser extent, the Xperia Z2 Tablet). Very thin, very light and similar performance with an ultra-sharp screen. I doubt you'll get a 2560x1600 AMOLED panel in an iPad any time soon, but it's not like 2048x1536 is exactly ugly. On a Windows tablet, it might be harder -- we need tech like Intel's Cherry Trail before the platform can offer this kind of display in a slim, lower-cost device.

 

[Arcadio]

Does anyone know what type of glass do these tablets use?

 

[s44]

AT review up. Ridiculously nice screens, as you would have guessed.

 

[lopri]

It looks better calibrated for sure but I suspect Samsung is recycling old AMOLED "fab" instead of using the latest ones that made into the Note 3 and the S5.

Which means lower brightness and more prone to burn-ins, more heat, and all that.. Overall not so great longevity-wise.

At least Samsung gets to shut up the review crowd who seem to be hell bent on color accuracy on mobile devices.

 

[lopri]

Oh, geez. They really need to make up their minds on display mode labels. Something like:

• Dynamic Mode
• sRGB Mode
• Adobe RGB Mode
• Store Demo Mode ()

Would (and will) have done it long time ago. Why the unnecessary confusions?

 

[Ravynmagi]

16GB is fine since it has an sd slot. Kind of wish they upgraded the cpu/gpu to 805 and family.

Just wait 3 months and they'll have another model out with the 805.

 

[dawheat]

It looks better calibrated for sure but I suspect Samsung is recycling old AMOLED "fab" instead of using the latest ones that made into the Note 3 and the S5.

Any particular reason you think so? Just curious.

 

[lopri]

Well, there is no proof or anything. Hehe, it's a suspicion based on brightness/power measured by DisplayMate.

http://www.displaymate.com/OLED_Tablet_ShootOut_1.htm
http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_S5_ShootOut_1.htm

The tables are near the bottom of the pages.

Edit: Oh, and the great discrepancy in battery performance between web browsing and video playback is quite reminiscent of last year's AMOLED.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s4-review-914p3.php (S4, Web browsing 6:58, Video playback 11:29)
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s5-review-1064p3.php (S5, Web browsing 9:36, Video playback 11:05)

Granted the S4's screen is not a bad one, but compared to the Note 3's screen the difference can be seen (brightness) and felt (heat) without assistance of lab tools. The Tab S' screen seems to have other improvements, though, such as lower reflection which should help outdoor viewing.

Edit 2: Cursory reading tells me the reviews are largely positive except for the usual suspects for usual reasons. (e.g. The Verge) I am curious about what the troll @Arstechnica will write about it. lol. As for me I am looking forward to seeing it in person.

 

[rh71]

Samsung puts out a ton of devices, but there's usually still some kind of stratification going on. Here, the Tab S costs exactly the same at a given size as the Tab Pro. There's virtually no reason to get the earlier model (which is just a few months old!) unless you find it on sale.

Just going by Amazon, the Tab Pro 8.4 is $329 (has been for a while now) whereas the Tab S 8.4 is $399. So I'm not sure what you mean.

Trying to decide whether to get the Tab Pro or the Ipad Mini for the kids. Don't need latest and greatest. Battery life on Apple is a huge sell though. So tired of watching & worrying about my battery % every day.

 

[squarecut1]

Get the iPad mini. I'm no apple fan boy by the way. I use samsung s4 phone. But between the above two choices, I would go for the mini

 

[Dari]

Yeah, stay away from the Pro if you don't want your kids bothering you about the tablet going dead. When it comes to a digital babysitter, nothing beats an iPad. Battery life is other-worldly.

 

[you2]

engadget found the tab s battery life to be quite long; bit surprise it is that much longer than the tab pro (esp the 8.4 version; more than 2 hours longer).

 

[ponyo]

Disappointing battery life on both Tab Pro and Tab S. Underpowered SoC for the display. Wait for version 2 and skip this gen 1 beta tablet.

 

[dawheat]

Just going by Amazon, the Tab Pro 8.4 is $329 (has been for a while now) whereas the Tab S 8.4 is $399. So I'm not sure what you mean.

Trying to decide whether to get the Tab Pro or the Ipad Mini for the kids. Don't need latest and greatest. Battery life on Apple is a huge sell though. So tired of watching & worrying about my battery % every day.

Apps for kids would sway me toward the Mini, as well as the greater number of child proofing accessories.

However, if your kids do watch mostly movies/Netflix and 2D games, the Tab S battery life looks pretty impressive.