Gadgetory

only a giant like samsung could create a flagship line of tablets on top of all of the other ones they already have in their arsenal but if this is supposed to be the best tablet that they offer well what does it offer for you well let's find out because it's Josh magar from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is the Samsung Galaxy Tab s 8.4 if you think that the design of the Galaxy Tab s looks pretty similar it's because you're pretty much right but thankfully Samsung has had a lot of tries at the tablet game and they seem to have gotten it right as ever this time pretty much like a blown-up Samsung Galaxy s5 what you have here is a tablet that pretty much is supposed to be used in portrait mode denoted by the button layout that is on the bottom with the tactile home button flanked by recent apps and back in this white version of the tablet aligning with a subtle gold hue goes all the way around though you'll notice most how thin this tablet is six point six millimeters thick makes this one of the thinnest tablets around beaten only by the Sony Xperia z2 tablet in portrait mode the speaker grills are found on the top and bottom of the device though this could be considered the sides one in landscape mode and on the right side you have the power button and the volume rockers above the microSD card slots down on the bottom are the microUSB port and the headphone jack the back takes on the material choice of the Galaxy s5 smartphone the dimpled vacuum that is not removable added on to this rather controversial design choice are a couple of circles that take the plastic nibs that attach the various cases to the tablet it's really the thinness of this tablet that dictates the handling experience which is actually pretty great gripping the tablet in one hand is not hard at all and reaching elements on the screen is pretty easy even in typing holding the Tab s without activating the screen is also not that difficult in landscape mode as the bezel up top gives a safe spot for resting your thumb ultimately Samsung might not have changed the formula much at all but at least in this iteration of their tablets they've really gotten it down making it a very sleek device that is actually not too hard to handle of course the marquee feature of this tablet is the addition of a Super AMOLED screen this is a high resolution display at 2560 by 1600 yielding 359 pixels per inch while we have seen high-resolution displays on tablets before this may arguably be one of the highest quality ones out there the colors are incredibly punchy as is the case with AMOLED leading to a high contrast that definitely helps one you're consuming media binge watching all whole season and a half of Breaking Bad was incredibly enjoyable here as such a high spec display on a pretty accessible body for this size made from one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had on a tablet and in other uses like one using the paper garden great brightness and wonderful colors make the magazine viewing experience about as good as it can get without looking at the actual magazine itself you can cater the color temperature to your liking and it is possible to put it on in Auto mode in my experience however this is one of those features that you will not really notice especially if you keep using your indoor lighting with the tab s underneath all of this is a performance package that you would want powering your Netflix your games and anything else you might throw at this version of TouchWiz the XE knows 5 octa is Samsung's tried-and-true in-house processing package and brings the Molly T 628 along for graphics processing aside from any loading hiccups and areas like the magazine UX or one apps like the paper garden are trying to load all of the things at once I ran into very few instances of Sutter and lag that kept me from getting around blasting through applications using the recent apps screen brought no issues at all although of course you can have the multi window available if you really need to multitask and it works about as well as you would expect from a Samsung flagship the media consumption is something that you will likely do most on here the Galaxy Tab s is capable of taking on everything from web browsing to remote PC access with ease now Samsung has always made it a point to put in as much as they can in their devices and the tab S Line is no different especially if media is your main usage for this device the inclusion of microsd expandable 'ti is always welcome LTE versions of both the tab s tablets will be made available so if you need mobile internet access well those are the choices for you and as far as connectivity goes NFC is their only real hole here but you do still get things like Wi-Fi Bluetooth of course and also an IR blaster making this one of the better second-screen experiences that you can have on watching TV the finger scanner actually makes it onto the tablet line embed it into the home button and set up the exact same way as it was in the Galaxy s5 the dual speaker setup is very welcome is great to use on the fly though it still isn't the loudest or the richer sound available the sound in the headphone sounds expectedly good though and then there's the battery which I decided to test by really taking on what this tablet was marketed to do so I got on Netflix on Wi-Fi and played Breaking Bad straight for as long as I could I got down to 25% battery life in just under 8 hours but the better way of measuring that is by counting the number of episodes I got through 15 episodes of a spectacular one-hour show so there's no doubt that you'll be able to binge watch up to two seasons of a typical show no problem here and if you lower that screen on time you'll have one hell of a long-lasting tablet the camera setup on a tablet is often a requirement rather than a defining feature that continues to be the case even on this a so called flagship tablet but that doesn't mean Samsung doesn't try to make it as good as it can you can see it in the settings as features like software stabilization for photo and video as well as modes like HDR and burst modes bolstered the 8 megapixel optics that actually default to 6 were 16 by 9 aspect ratio photos picture quality isn't too bad though it pales in comparison obviously to its flagship smartphone counterparts unsurprisingly colors do pop a bit and detail is decent in good lighting but it's really nothing to write home about I don't see anyone consistently using the camera of a tablet still unless in this case you're perhaps wanting to share what you're eating while you're binge watching orange is the new black and finally in software we might see a familiar operating system that continues from Samsung's pro line of tablets but there are a couple of additions here that sweeten the pot first off despite the new circle motifs that you can find mainly in the quick settings area and a flatter look overall in the colours this is still TouchWiz but has been given a second home screen experience with the magazine UX the magazine UX is largely the same as the one found on the pro line and is a grid made up of specialized widgets it's still a very lean ecosystem providing only so much functionality that has to piggyback either on Samsung's own applications on Flipboard as the backend to any news or social media sources that are available we didn't really find it a game changer by any means as it didn't really penetrate the day-to-day routine well enough but then there are applications put in to not only help showcase the Super AMOLED capabilities but also to help consolidate your experience across devices sidesync isn't necessarily new but it's still an interesting way of accessing your phone when you don't want to go reaching for it and it doesn't just give you your notifications it gives you full access it is not the smoothest implementation but for a number of smaller general tasks it does get the job done built-in remote PC capabilities tie into your Samsung Account to get you remote access to your computer at home and it works quite well when used on the same Wi-Fi network it was actually really smooth and I imagine that with a fast enough Wi-Fi connection you can get similar performance outside of your home network and finally there is the paper garden the magazine front end that brings a print replacing way of getting your magazine subscriptions downloading a couple magazines was easy enough and you get the entire publication complete with every single ad and cater to a touch interface I found the Super AMOLED screen did justice to the magazine's zeal making text easy to read and pictures enjoyable to view though I will admit at times I didn't always know I had to scroll down to read the rest of the page its Samsung's gateway to further partnerships with companies but if you're a magazine reader you may greatly benefit from this digital way of reading the rags ultimately TouchWiz is well still TouchWiz it does come with more features on here especially ones that are more cater to the tablet experience but all of those features can tend to be either useful or not so useful but that's something we expect from Samsung already and so the Galaxy Tab s 8.4 will come in at the price of three hundred and ninety nine dollars while its bigger brother the 10.5 inch a Galaxy Tab s which I will be reviewing very soon will come in at $4.99 instead while its main competition includes every other 8 inch tablet in Samsung's camp the Tab s as the flagship and deserves the title because of how much it offers over them the LG G pad does come to mind and with it somewhat lower price point it also comes with lower resolution but the true budget tablet is still the Nexus 7 which for a much lower price does provide lower specs overall but can still provide a comparable media experience across the board despite losing a lot of features in the transition from TouchWiz none of these competitors have the Super AMOLED screen however which along with the magazine and media partnerships that it does bring could be enough of a trump card for some and so we have it's the Samsung Galaxy Tab s 8.4 I'll admit I've been a little disillusioned with tablets as of late especially as our smartphones continue to grow while I do love a large screen experience that's what my 60-inch TV is for and I still get enjoyment from let's say five-inch screen phones but Super AMOLED isn't hard to get caught up in and with the sharper higher resolutions quality screen it makes all media quite fun ecosystem consolidation might not necessarily be perfect yet but it's taken a step forward with built-in remote PC access and side sync and I'm not much of a magazine reader but if I was the paper garden would be a great alternative to the paper editions I love the battery life that can go for at least a couple seasons of a TV show and the overall package proved an enhancement to the typical watch in bed experience is my fire for tablets rekindled perhaps not completely but the Galaxy Tab s 8.4 is definitely Samsung's best foot forward in the tablet game thus far and I will admit that overall it was a very enjoyable experience as always thank you guys very much for watching and hope you enjoyed this review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab s 8.4 I will be reviewing the 10.5 inch version of the Galaxy Tab s line very soon so make sure you stay tuned for that until then keep it tuned to Android thority for all of the best coverage droppers likes on our videos because we'd love to see those thumbs up subscribe to our channel if you haven't already and after this is all done make sure you head on over to android authority comm because we are your source for all things Android