Samsung sells a dizzying array of tablets, with seven new models released this year so far in addition to the three 2013 models still available. The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is one of the South Korean giant’s latest tablets and while at first glance it doesn't appear that different from the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 , it’s actually a substantial improvement.
Screen
The most significant new feature is the screen. It’s one of the first tablets to use an AMOLED screen and it’s stunning. While previous AMOLED screens suffered from fuzzy text and over-saturated, unrealistic-looking colors, that’s not the case here. It’s even sharper than the iPad Mini 2’s screen due to its 2560x1600 pixel resolution, while colors are vivid yet look accurate.
It’s also so bright that it’s almost dazzlingly painful to use at full brightness. However, Samsung’s claim that the increased contrast lets you see hidden details in dimly lit videos and photos proved baseless. We saw no
difference in either our own holiday photos or in films with dark scenes such as The Dark Knight and Alien.
Annoyingly, the Tab S has thin borders on the left- and right-hand sides of the screen (when held in portrait orientation) much like the iPad Mini. This means there’s little space to rest your fingers, so we often unintentionally triggered onscreen controls when we were merely resting our fingers. The iPad Mini has thumb-rejection technology to counteract this, but the Tab S has nothing like it so you’ll have to hold it more carefully.
Tab hardware
Unsurprisingly, the Tab S looks like a larger version of Samsung’s Galaxy S5 smartphone with a dimpled plastic rear similar to the S5’s. Although it’s not as rigid or as classy looking as the iPad Mini 2’s metal back, it feels less slippery in the hand and it is lightweight at just under 300g. Unusually the Tab S has two circular holes for snapping Samsung’s optional screen covers into place. These ungainly fastenings aren’t as secure as the Mini’s equivalent maagnetic fixtures, with the covers coming away easily when jostled in a bag or handled roughly.
Like the S5, the Tab S has a fingerprint reader built into its home button, making it one of the first Android tablets to have such a feature. You can use this instead of a passcode to lock and unlock the tablet. It’s more reliable than the S5’s reader, recognizing our fingerprints quickly.
Another feature it shares with the S5 is the eight-core processor, the Exynos Octa 5420. It’s actually two quad core processors joined together and while it wasn’t that much faster than the quickest quad-core tablet processors in our
benchmark tests, it still did well. This made its responsiveness problems all the more surprising - it sometimes struggled to keep up with our finger movements as we scrolled through long websites and documents.
We had no complaints about battery life, though. It lasted 13-and-a-half hours when playing video continuously which was impressive. Although it didn’t quite match the 16 hours achieved by the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, it exceeded the iPad Mini 2’s 10 and a- half hours.
The Tab S is surprisingly choosy about which chargers it will work with. It refused to work with our Lenovo and Apple USB chargers, but worked fine with our Amazon and Asus chargers. Another disappointment is the lack of a USB3 port for fast data transfers. USB3 is present on the Galaxy Note 3 so its absence here in favor of USB2 is odd.
Android Touch Wiz
The Tab S runs Android 4.4 KitKat, but with Samsung’s Touch Wiz interface added on top. Although Touch Wiz is far less cluttered than it was before, it still has annoying features that you can’t remove such as the widgets showing your
calendar, inbox and news headlines. Far more useful is the file-manager app which lets you transfer files between the tablet and your Dropbox account. The Hancom Office app for working on Microsoft Office documents is also included.
The Tab S also comes with SideSync, an app that lets you use the tablet with other devices in interesting ways. For example, you can control the tablet using your Windows computer’s keyboard and
mouse, letting you reply to text messages using your larger and more comfortable computer keyboard. You can also view the tablet’s screen in a window on your
SPECIFICATIONS
8.41n 2560x1600-pixel touchscreen • 1.9GHz + 1.3GHz Samsung Exynos Octa 5420 processor. 3GB memory • 16GB storage • microSD slot • Mali T628 graphics chip • Android 4.4 KitKat • 294g 213x126x7mm (HxWxD) • One-year warranty
Windows Desktop and drag and drop files between the two, although this is less useful especially as you can already easily transfer files without SideSync.
This latest version of SideSync, 3.0 lets you control your Android smartphone from your Tab S. You can even make and receive calls on your tablet, although we could only make this work with a Galaxy S5. It’s a clever feature, although it’s unlikely to see much use unless you frequently use your tablet in another part of your home away from your phone.
As on previous Galaxy Tabs, you can use two apps side by side on the Tab S. Although this can feel cramped on the relatively small 8.4in screen, apps run far more smoothly in this mode than they did on older Tabs, with none of the slow performance and laggy responsiveness that previously blighted this feature. As a result, it’s much more usable and useful than before.
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