Gadgetory

well since the beginning of this year Samsung has released no fewer than nine distinct tablets and that's not including different storage and LTE options that's just an insane number and there's not that much to distinguish them so of course Samsung did what Samsung does it went ahead and introduced tablets number 10 and 11 this is the Samsung Galaxy Tab s the Galaxy Tab s comes in two sizes one has an 8.4 inch screen and the other is 10.5 inches and it's actually the screen that's most important part of any tablet if it's terrible the whole thing is basically worthless if it's great everything you do in the tablet feels better so with the Galaxy Tab s Samsung focused on the screen and it did something pretty amazing both sizes have the same resolution a super-high 2560 by 1600 pixels which puts them imperceptibly ahead of their respective competitors the iPad air and the iPad Mini with Retina display the pixels are basically invisible and everything is super sharp and super bright the whole tablet is built around this screen it's using the same technology that Samsung uses on its phone's Super AMOLED that technology doesn't need a backlight so these tablets can be thinner and lighter both are just 0.2 6 inches thick and weigh just a little less than the comparable iPads the colors are vibrant often it's just a little too vibrant but Samsung has added software called adaptive display which keeps an eye on the content on the screen and the lighting environment of your room to automatically adjust the images color saturation and contrast most people won't notice these subtle changes just that the screen is nice and sharp I'm just impressed that the screen looks good in so many lighting conditions I can see it fine in daylight and in total darkness you can ratchet the brightness way down so it doesn't burn out your eye sockets that's a story of the screen the story for the rest of the hardware is well not as good as usual Samsung is sticking with plastic everywhere all that plastic does make the tablet light but it also makes it feel cheaper than the iPad the back has the same stipple texture as a galaxy s5 and in fact both tablets basically look and feel like blown up versions of that phone they both come in two colors white and bronze and they're both garish and kind of ugly Samsung sells a variety of covers that click into the back using plastic grommets they attach securely and then there's various origami folds you can make to attach the magnets and prop up tablets at different angles I'm not a fan of the color options here but if you want a case that looks more like a handbag than a boring black laptop sleeve Samsung has you covered depending on which model you choose LTE or Wi-Fi only you'll get from processors the models we tested for Wi-Fi only with a crazy fast Exynos 5 octa processor I gave it speeds fast enough to handle even tough tasks like intense gaming there's three gigs of RAM and 16 gigs of storage but you can also add a microSD card for more storage the camera on the back is 8 megapixels and it's fine there is also dual speakers on the side that get loud enough for me but are pretty easy to cover with your hands battery life on both was solid Alaska me two days of moderate use of that much hassle Samsung even added a fingerprint sensor to the home button which works about as well as it does on the Galaxy s5 phone which is to say that it works only if you're very careful with your finger swipes the best thing about the software is samsung split-screen mode which lets you run two apps simultaneously unlike the Galaxy Note pro 10.5 you're only limited to apps but the feature is really nice and for the most part things don't slow down too much there's also the usual array of Samsung features and add-ons paper garden is loaded on for magazines hand office for documents and the home screen is a pretty crazy pile of Flipboard style tiles Android style widgets and that's not to mention the direct access to your files and a completely nutso pile of settings and options the notification panel and in settings there's also the latest version of side sync which mirrors your Galaxy s5 phone onto the screen of your tablet so you can operate it directly from there it lets you do everything your phone can do right on the tablet including making and receiving calls and you can transfer files too it's too slow to actually be useful in most cases so it basically amounts to yet another software feature that's more impressive in the showroom than it is for real humans at this point getting angry at Samsung for all these software add-ons it's like getting angry at the allergies you get every spring it's better than it used to be it's still not fun to deal with but you're never going to get it to stop of the two I much prefer the 8.4 inch version Android tablets work best at this portrait size and though the incredibly high screen resolution can make something's difficult to tap with your finger the fact that it just barely fits my back pocket makes it totally worth the trade-off the 10.5 inch version starts at 4 $99.99 and the smaller one is 3 99.99 that's the exact same price as the equivalent iPads and Samsung has tried its hardest to match the iPads in every category there's a bunch of hardware accessories like keyboards and cases there's a ton of hand waving software to distract you from the fact that iPads tend to have better apps but at the end of the day even though the tab S has a better screen and is slightly lighter I still prefer the iPad these are probably the best tablet Samsung has ever made but the vast majority people would still be better off going with I pad better luck with tablets number 12 and 13 Samsung