First, let's talk a little about the situation as a whole. It's no secret that the tablet market is going through hard times. After the emergence of this class of devices itself with the release of the first iPad (yes, we have to admit that it was he who defined the appearance of the modern tablet), the market grew rapidly, filling with new devices, new technologies, and new players. But in 2013-2014 a peak was reached, after which a global decline began.

Today, only a few companies pay any consistent attention to tablets and regularly release new products in different price segments: Apple, Huawei, Lenovo and Samsung, the hero of today’s article. The vast majority of other manufacturers retain some models in their assortment and occasionally add to their lineup in the mid- and low-budget segments, but they do not strive to compete with the leaders in terms of flagships.

This is understandable: the concept of a flagship tablet is strongly associated with the iPad (more recently with the iPad Pro), the development and promotion of a competing model requires a lot of costs, and the market capacity itself is small. As a result, noticeable and technologically interesting new products are released extremely rarely. And all of them will inevitably be compared with devices from the Apple company. But it is possible that this comparison may not be so unfavorable for them! Let's take a look at the specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4.

Specifications Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 (SM-T835)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (MSM 8998), including 4 CPU cores @ 2.35 GHz and 4 CPU cores @ 1.9 GHz, as well as Adreno 540 GPU
• RAM 4 GB
• Flash memory 64 GB
• Supports microSD memory cards up to 400 GB
• Operating system Google Android 8.0 Oreo
• Touch display SuperAMOLED, 10.5″, 2560×1600 (16:10, 288 ppi), capacitive, multi-touch
• Cameras: front (8 MP, 1080p video) and rear (13 MP, 4K video)
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4 and 5 GHz; MIMO support)
• Mobile Internet: UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900 MHz), LTE (bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 38 , 39, 40, 41)
• Bluetooth A2DP LE
• GPS/A-GPS, Glonass
• 3.5 mm stereo headset jack
• USB-C connector
• Li-polymer battery 7300 mAh, fast charging function
• Dimensions 249×164×7.1 mm
• Weight 462 g

For clarity, let’s compare the characteristics of the new product with the iPad Pro 10.5″.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 has a smaller battery, but the rest of the specs are generally more attractive. Thus, the screen resolution and, as a result, the pixel density of Samsung is slightly higher. The camera resolution is also slightly higher. The flash memory capacity of the new product is limited to 64 GB, but there is support for microSD up to 400 GB... However, we have repeatedly seen that it is impossible to judge by characteristics alone, so let's move on to testing.

Packaging and accessories

Since we had a pre-sale sample for testing, we cannot evaluate its packaging, and the packaging is only partially available to us. Thus, the sample was supplied with a 5 V 2 A charger (9 V in fast charging mode), a USB-C cable, an electronic pen and a key for removing the card tray.

Design

The appearance of the model is inspired more by flagship smartphones than by tablets. At least there's a glass back (whereas all iPads still have an aluminum body) and minimal bezels around the screen.

It is significant that the width of the frame on all four sides of the screen is almost the same, while the iPad Pro has a much larger frame width on the short sides than on the long sides. Of course, this was achieved by eliminating the physical Home button. There is also no fingerprint scanner here (protection is implemented through facial and iris recognition - we will talk about this in more detail in a separate section).

Another feature of the device is its minimal thickness. Although the tablet is 1 mm thicker than the iPad Pro 10.5, it is not noticeable. It seems that the device is really very thin and elegant, and there is no desire for it to be even thinner.

The rounded edges are made of metal (with the exception of four subtle plastic recesses). Both connectors - USB-C and a 3.5 mm mini-jack - are located on the bottom edge, if the tablet is held, according to the inscriptions, vertically, in a “portrait” orientation.

On the top and right sides you can see holes for the built-in microphones. In addition, on the right side there is a power button and a volume rocker (both of them are made of metal), as well as a slot for Micro-SIM and microSD cards.

The left side is entirely dedicated to connecting the keyboard: it has a four-pin connector in the center, as well as two holes necessary for fixing the keyboard.

One of the most important design elements is the built-in AKG speakers, whose grilles we see in four places: on the short edges at the top and bottom. Thus, like the iPad Pro, the new product provides uniform stereo sound. Moreover, in terms of quality it is very good for this form factor - especially at mid frequencies. However, the iPad Pro still has a more bassy sound, while the Galaxy Tab S4's lower frequencies are still “flat”.

This is noticeable on music tracks with deep bass (we used Massive Attack's Take It There), and will also likely be felt in action scenes in films (explosions, collapsing buildings, etc.). But for background listening to music, watching YouTube videos and similar applications, the sound is excellent.

In general, the design is worth appreciating: the tablet is beautiful, compact, made of noble materials, with decent stereo sound and a successful slot for Micro-SIM and microSD.

Screen

The tablet's screen resolution is 2560×1600, which gives a pixel density of 288 ppi and is slightly higher than the corresponding figure for the iPad Pro 10.5″. At the same time, it would be worth recalling that the aspect ratio of the iPad Pro is 4:3, while Samsung’s is 16:10. The first is more convenient for reading books, the second - for watching movies.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photograph in which a white surface is reflected when the screens are turned off (on the left is Nexus 7, on the right is Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 is noticeably lighter (brightness according to photographs is 144 versus 117 for the Nexus 7) and has a pronounced blue-green tint. There is no ghosting of reflected objects on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.

When the white field was displayed in full screen and with manual brightness control, its maximum value was 290 cd/m². It is necessary to take into account the fact that in this case, the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value. In addition, in automatic mode, the screen brightness in bright light is significantly higher. As a result, readability during the day in the sun should be at a good level. The minimum screen brightness value is 1.6 cd/m², that is, a lower brightness level allows you to use the device even in complete darkness without any problems. Automatic brightness adjustment works based on the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front camera lens). The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider; the user can use it to try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. If you leave everything at default, then in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 8 cd/m² (dark), in an artificially lit office (approximately 550 lux) it sets it to 130 cd/m² (normal), in a very bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 470 cd/m². We were not entirely satisfied with the result, so in complete darkness we slightly increased the brightness, resulting in the following values ​​for the three conditions indicated above: 13, 140, 470 cd/m² (ideal combination). It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. At any brightness level there is significant modulation with a frequency of 240 Hz. The figure below shows brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) for several brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum and close to it brightness the modulation amplitude is not very large; as a result, there is no visible flicker. However, as the brightness decreases, modulation appears with a large relative amplitude; its presence can already be seen in a test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, this flickering may cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B) in equal numbers. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

An equal number of subpixels ensures the absence of artifacts typical of PenTile RGBG matrices with a halved number of blue and red subpixels.

The screen has excellent viewing angles. True, the white color, when deviated even at small angles, acquires a slight blue-green tint, but the black color remains simply black at any angle. It is so black that the contrast setting is not applicable in this case. For comparison, here are photographs in which the screens of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 (profile Basic) and the second comparison participant, identical images were displayed, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera was forced to switch to 6500 K.

White field:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.

And a test picture (profile Basic):

Color rendition is good, the colors are moderately saturated, the color balance of the screens varies slightly. Recall that photography can not serve as a reliable source of information about color rendering quality and are provided for illustrative purposes only. In particular, the pronounced reddish tint of the white and gray fields present in photographs of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 screen is visually absent when viewed from a perpendicular view, as confirmed by hardware tests using a spectrophotometer. The reason is that the spectral sensitivity of the camera sensor does not exactly match this characteristic of human vision.

The photo above was taken after selecting a profile Basic in the screen settings, there are four of them:

Profile Adaptive display differs in some kind of automatic adjustment of color rendering to the type of output image and environmental conditions:

The saturation is greatly increased, it looks terrible. What happens when you select the two remaining profiles is shown below.

Movie AMOLED

Saturation is slightly less.

Photo AMOLED

The red saturation is slightly lower than in the case Movie AMOLED.

Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (profile Basic).

White field:

The brightness at an angle for both screens has noticeably decreased (to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed has been increased compared to previous photographs), but in the case of Samsung the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since you often have to look at the screen of a mobile device from at least a slight angle.

And a test picture:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Samsung at an angle is noticeably higher. Switching the state of the matrix elements is performed almost instantly, but at the switching edge there may be a step with a width of approximately 17 ms (which corresponds to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz). For example, this is what the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects. However, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “jerky” movements. The graph above shows how after a few tens of milliseconds the brightness begins to decrease when white is displayed in full screen.

The gamma curve, constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray, showed that there is a slight roll in the shadows (shades up to the 8th inclusive do not differ in brightness from black), but all gradations are displayed in the highlights. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.07, which is less than the standard value of 2.2, while the actual gamma curve deviates slightly from the power law:

Let us recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for generally light images. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) most likely slightly does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on almost the entire screen.

Color gamut in the case of a profile Adaptive display very wide - in green it is wider than DCI-P3:

In profile Movie AMOLED The coverage is a little narrower, it is close to DCI-P3:

When selecting a profile Photo AMOLED coverage is adjusted to Adobe RGB boundaries:

When selecting a profile Basic coverage is compressed to sRGB boundaries:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In case of profile Basic with maximum correction, the color components are already noticeably mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut (without appropriate correction), the colors of regular images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation: in most cases, watching movies, photographs and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Basic, and only if the photo was taken on an Adobe RGB setting, does it make sense to switch the profile to Photo AMOLED. Likewise, profile Movie AMOLED appropriate when viewing video material with DCI-P3 coverage adopted in digital cinema.

The balance of shades on the gray scale is acceptable in the case of the profile Adaptive display and good in profile Basic. The color temperature is close to 6500 K, while in a significant portion of the gray scale this parameter does not change very much, which improves the visual perception of color balance. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) remains below 10 units across most of the gray scale, which is considered good for a consumer device:

(The darkest areas of the gray scale can in most cases be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

For some reason only when selecting a profile Adaptive display It becomes possible to adjust the color balance using the color temperature slider and three adjustments to the intensity of the primary colors, but due to the too wide color gamut in this profile there is no point in correcting the balance. There is a fashionable function nowadays Blue light filter, for which a more or less correct description is even given in the settings (in the menu at the level above there is nonsense written about “reducing eye strain,” but oh well):

Why such a correction can be useful is described in the article about iPad Pro 9.7. In any case, when having fun with a tablet or smartphone at night, it is better to reduce the screen brightness to a minimum, but still comfortable level, and only then, to calm your own paranoia, turn the screen yellow with this setting.

Let's summarize. The screen has a high maximum brightness and has good anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors even on a sunny summer day without any problems. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is acceptable to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, as well as a color gamut close to sRGB (if you choose the right profile) and good color balance. At the same time, let us remind you about the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected in the screen), a noticeably smaller drop in image brightness than LCDs when viewed at an angle. Disadvantages include modulation of screen brightness. For users who are particularly sensitive to flicker, this may cause increased fatigue. However, overall the screen quality is very high.

Performance

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 (MSM 8998) SoC, created using a 10 nm process technology. It includes 4 CPU cores with a frequency of 2.35 GHz and 4 CPU cores with a frequency of 1.9 GHz. The GPU is Adreno 540. The RAM of the new tablet is 4 GB, just like its main competitor.

So, how different is the performance of the new product and the iPad Pro 10.5″?

Let's start with browser tests: SunSpider 1.0, Octane Benchmark, Kraken Benchmark and . The Chrome browser was used on Samsung, and Safari on Apple.

The results for the new product are disappointing: in browser tests, iPad Pro 10.5 is a confident leader. However, this may be due to the browser itself. At the very least, Android devices often lose to Apple devices in browser tests. But the fact remains a fact.

Now let's see how the iPad Pro performs in Geekbench - a multi-platform benchmark that measures CPU and RAM performance, and from the fourth version, which we used for testing, also GPU computing capabilities (if you want to mine bitcoins on an iPad, you should be interested in this item :)). Plus, we haven’t forgotten about the comprehensive AnTuTu Benchmark.

And here the Samsung tablet again could not compete with the iPad Pro 10.5. Unfortunately, we have to admit that the Galaxy Tab S4 does not match its competitor in terms of processor performance.

The last group of benchmarks is dedicated to testing GPU performance. We used 3DMark, GFXBench Metal 3.1.5 and Basemark Metal.

Let's start with GFXBench. Let us remind you that Offscreen tests involve displaying images in 1080p, regardless of the actual screen resolution. And tests without Offscreen mean that the image is displayed in exactly the resolution that matches the device screen resolution. That is, Offscreen tests are indicative from the point of view of the abstract performance of the SoC, and real tests are indicative from the point of view of the comfort of the game on a specific device.

With the exception of a single subtest (T-Rex Onscreen), which is too easy for both models, the difference between the new product and the iPad Pro 10.5 is obvious.

And one more confirmation of the above. Perhaps in Sling Shot Extreme the new product came close to the iPad Pro, but in Ice Storm Unlimited the gap is still too significant.

Well, we have to admit that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 is still inferior in performance to the iPad Pro 10.5″. However, let's think about what this means in practice. Since even despite the lag, the Galaxy Tab S4 still demonstrates very high results, all current games for Android will run on it without problems (as well as games for iOS on the iPad Pro). And, of course, in normal use you will not feel any discomfort either. So the less powerful filling in this case can be considered more of a theoretical disadvantage than a practical one.

Play video and connect to an external display

Completed testing Alexey Kudryavtsev.

This device supports DisplayPort Alt Mode for USB Type-C - outputs image and sound to an external device when connected to a USB port. We tested working in this mode together with an adapter equipped with a pass-through USB Type-C connector with support for USB Power Delivery, an HDMI output, a card reader for SD and microSD cards, and two USB 3.0 ports. Video output is carried out in 1080p mode at 60 Hz frame rate.

The monitor displays an image of an alternative desktop, and the tablet screen can be used as a touch pad or work as usual.

The control panel at the bottom of the screen is removed when the image is displayed on the entire screen (for example, when playing a video). Output to the monitor is carried out in a true resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, dot to dot. Note that simultaneously with image and sound output, you can connect a mouse and keyboard to your smartphone via USB or Bluetooth, turning it into a basis for your workplace. In addition, connected USB drives and memory cards are read.

In desktop mode, you can open several windows at the same time, placing them on the desktop in the same way as in Windows and macOS, use the right mouse button, etc. In general, the tablet really turns into some kind of system unit. We will tell you more about this, as well as about accessories that you can buy to use the tablet in desktop mode, in a separate article.

To test the output of video files on an external screen (only 1080p files) and on the screen of the device itself, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Methodology for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)"). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In the tests we used the MX Player video player in the “Hardware” mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

In Russia there is a proverb “you are greeted by your clothes, but you are seen off by your mind,” which is perfectly suited to the tablet that I will tell you about in this review. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1” Wi-Fi tablet, won in an Intel competition, warmed my soul with expectations of getting a high-quality and truly enjoyable toy for home surfing the Internet. What came of it, I will tell you in order.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 - technical specifications.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – packaging and accessories.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – appearance.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – screen.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 - operating system.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – camera.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – performance.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – battery life.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – conclusion.

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Tablet computers with the company logo starting with the letter S differ mainly only in size and characteristics. Otherwise, the changes are minor - slightly more rounded corners, differences in case materials, different speaker placement, and some models lack a physical Home key. That is, in order to choose the right device, you need to have a good understanding of gigahertz, megapixels and gigabytes. Only some people don't need it. Therefore, this material will not consider the most complex technical parameters of devices, but only general and understandable information about them. Moreover, the main emphasis will be on real user reviews.

Galaxy Tab Series

To begin with, it should be clarified that all tablets in this line run on Android OS of different versions. To interact with the device, you use the TouchWiz user interface, designed specifically for Tab tablets.

These devices, in principle, like other similar devices, have slots for SIM cards and memory cards, two cameras (front and main), a connector for a charger and multi-inch displays. And of course they are different. New models have more advanced functionality.

Galaxy Tab

Now this model is unlikely to attract anyone's attention, but for reference it is worth noting that it is equipped with a Wi-fi module, accepts a 3G connection, has only one 3-megapixel camera on the rear panel and a 4000 mAh battery. To be clear, the charge will last for about 6-8 hours of video viewing.

The TFT display dimensions of the Samsung Galaxy Tab are 7 inches. At a resolution of 1024 × 600, it showed an excellent picture. By the way, it came out right after the first Apple iPad, but due to the unreasonably high price it never achieved great popularity.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Samsung's “second pancake” turned out to be more successful. At least in terms of price. Since new devices may have different displays, which is not their only difference, it would be better to talk about each separately.

The device with a 7-inch display runs on Android 4.0 and has 8GB of internal storage that is expandable up to 32GB. There is even an infrared port for connecting to a TV and a front camera for video calls. As for performance, the device is capable of running more than half of the applications that Google Play offers. But this is now, but before everything was possible.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 device has a higher display resolution, more internal memory and a larger battery - 8000 versus 4000 mAh. By the way, both the first and second options come with or without SIM card support. Because of this, their prices are different. And everyone has a Wi-fi sensor.

The second model in the Samsung series, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, reviews of which immediately flooded the network, left a more pleasant feeling. The disadvantages concerned mainly the rear panel, which gets scratched quickly, and the weak front camera. But what can you do, 0.3 megapixels can hardly be called a resolution. Especially now.

Galaxy Tab 3 tablet

Some time after the release of Tab 2, the South Korean manufacturer releases a new gadget - Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 with diagonals of 10, 8 and 7 inches. Only this time the devices have even more differences.

The smallest device is controlled by a 1.2 GHz processor, has a 4000 mAh battery and two cameras. Moreover, the quality has already reached 1.3 megapixels. They decided not to increase the RAM - they left it at 1 GB, but the memory card slot will now fit a 64 GB accessory.

A device with an 8-inch display will be more powerful due to its processor and 1.5 GB of RAM. In fact, it shoots much better, because the main camera here is 5 megapixels. There are also two stereo speakers, a 4500 mAh battery, and the information storage can be in two sizes: 16 and 32 GB. Interestingly, unlike the younger model, this device supports a 4G connection.

Although the large Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.0 has the most powerful processor, the RAM is stuck at the level of the 7-inch version. But the battery has a capacity of 6800 mAh. As for wireless networks and cameras, everything here is the same as in the previous model.

What do they say about the third model in the Samsung line - Samsung Galaxy Tab? There are reviews, and there are many of them. The best features are mostly given to the medium-sized device. Among the shortcomings, poor equipment and a dirty case are noted. Users of 7- and 10-inch tablets do not have enough RAM and megapixels in the camera. And a device with a large diagonal is inconvenient to carry.

The production of tablets with an 8-inch screen very quickly became a habit, so there was no doubt that such an option would appear in the fourth generation. And now three new models have entered the market.

All 3 tablets are identical to each other, at least in characteristics. Same amount of RAM, same cameras. Only the battery capacities and display diagonals are different. True, the 7-inch Tab 4 has now “matured”, its resolution has become 1280 × 800 pixels. Therefore, the picture is clearer than on wider models.

Regarding wireless networks, everything remains the same. Each device can be purchased in two versions: with and without SIM card support. The Wi-fi module is usually present everywhere. And, by the way, now all Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 are capable of catching LTE networks.

Now it’s time to find out why users of these tablets may be dissatisfied. As for the largest model, there is a weak battery. Although why be surprised, the screen is huge. Otherwise, the disadvantages are minor - inconvenient location of the charging connector, a bad camera and the fourth Samsung Galaxy Tab Black is too easily soiled. There are no complaints about performance. All tablets are powerful enough to run any application.

Galaxy Tab S

What can I say about this model in the Tab line? Well, first of all, there is no 7-inch option here. Secondly, the display is made using Super Amoled technology, and now its resolution is 2560 × 1600 pixels. The picture is clearly visible even in sunny weather. Thirdly, there is a fingerprint recognition sensor. So outsiders are prohibited from entering here.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S, which only accesses the network via Wi-Fi, is equipped with an eight-core processor, while the one that supports a 4G connection has a quad-core variant. Each device has 3 GB of RAM on board, and the internal data storage is also increasing. Cameras have gotten better. The resolution of the main one is 8 megapixels, and the front one is 2.1 megapixels. Useful features include GLONASS and GPS systems, a gyroscope, a digital compass and an accelerometer.

And now as for the impressions of users of this model in the Samsung line - Samsung Galaxy Tab. The reviews here are mostly all with a “+” sign. Respect to the developers for the bright display and clear picture, powerful hardware and a good camera. Nobody even complained about the user identification sensor. At the same time, a weak battery is noted. Well, when was there a lot of mAh? Some also complain about quiet speakers and a large number of useless applications. Although the opinion about the software is rather individual. It will be very useful for someone.

Galaxy Tab S 2 tablet

In principle, the difference between the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 2 and the previous model is small. There are also two diagonals (8 and 9.4 inches), 3 GB of RAM, a fingerprint sensor and an 8-megapixel camera. Only both modifications run on the same eight-core processor, the internal memory has increased to 64 GB, the body has become thinner, and plastic has replaced metal. The model comes in 2 colors - Samsung Galaxy Tab White and Black.

The battery capacity of the large and small devices is 5870 and 4000 mAh, respectively. 10 hours should be enough. I would also like to say something about the software, because this tablet boasts a full-fledged Microsoft office and a gift space in the OneDrive cloud.

Despite the fact that the device was released not so long ago, many have already formed the impression of the second S-model in the Samsung series - the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Reviews mostly praise the device - productive, thin, with a bright, clear screen. The tablet's camera is also praised. Many people believe that the quality of the pictures is better than those produced by some 13-megapixel cameras. And on the list of minuses, the battery still occupies an honorable first place. Then there are the speakers located on one side and awkward touch buttons. But it’s hard to call all this a disadvantage.

What's the result?

It seems that all members of the “Tab family”, each at one time, were warmly received by the user audience. Just take into account the fact that new, more demanding software is constantly being written for mobile devices. Therefore, it is advisable to decide right away. If it is for work, then it is not necessary to look only at the latest models. And if for entertainment - watching movies, games and the Internet, then performance, of course, is important.

The tablet boom began with the widespread imitation of the Apple iPad. However, quite quickly, manufacturers realized that just imitating Apple would not attract buyers, because the buyer would prefer a cheaper original than a more expensive parody (and they simply couldn’t make it cheaper, but at the same quality level). Therefore, manufacturers have tried to equip their devices with capabilities that the iPad does not have. This primarily concerns the possibility of expanding memory and more connectors, which, together with the openness of the (relative) Google Android OS, gave much more freedom of action than the closed Apple ecosystem. The next step is hardware with higher performance than the Apple A4 on which the iPad was built. This was a dual-core single-chip solution designed specifically for tablets and offering processor performance of 1 GHz for each core. Apple, however, quickly gave an adequate response, equipping the iPad 2 with an Apple A5 processor, also dual-core. And at the moment I would not dare answer the question of who has a better hardware - the iPad or the tablets based on NVIDIA Terga 2. But this result is also worth a lot. In addition, of course, a very important trump card for Apple's competitors was the appearance of the Google Android 3.x operating system, aimed specifically at tablets.

Thus, a very clear standard of “a worthy competitor to the iPad” was formed: it is a screen with a diagonal similar to that of the iPad, with a high-quality matrix (*VA or IPS), the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform and Google Android 3.x.

Several devices based on this standard have already been released this year (Acer Iconia Tab, Asus Eee Pad Transformer), and several more will be released in the near future. Among the most notable new products of the “second generation” of Android tablets are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and . The first of them came to us for testing before hitting store shelves.

Note that two types of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 GT-P7510FKDSER tablets with only Wi-Fi and GT-P7500FKDSER with a 3G module will go on sale in Russia. In other markets, the model without a 3G module is labeled GT-P7510MAVXAB.

It must be said that with the release of the first Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet (with a 7-inch screen diagonal) last fall, Samsung achieved a very important goal: it cemented in people’s minds the opinion that an Android tablet is, first and foremost, a Samsung. As a matter of fact, in terms of sales, the Galaxy Tab was the undisputed leader among Android tablets (although it was many times behind the iPad). But then Samsung did not have such serious competitors as Acer, Asus and others. Let's see how the situation stands now, and how suitable the new Galaxy Tab revision is to consolidate Samsung's position in this market segment.

Let us immediately make a reservation that this article does not pretend to be an exhaustive study; In the future, we plan to develop the topic, in particular, with the help of detailed videos about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

* - prices are indicated at the time of publication of the article.

Design

Since we were testing a press sample, the tablet came to us completely “naked” - without a box or accessories.

As for the appearance, it should be noted that all tablets of the “iPad” era are very similar to each other. Take, for example, the absence of hardware buttons on the front surface. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet fully meets this trend. But it still has one significant difference from the iPad: a plastic case (the Apple tablet is enclosed in an aluminum case). Whether this difference is considered an advantage or a disadvantage is up to the buyer to decide. But thanks to plastic, the tablet was made lighter - only 565 grams (the main competitor has 601 grams)! In terms of thickness, Samsung is also slightly (though quite a bit) ahead of Apple - 8.6 versus 8.8 mm. It is curious that initially the tablet was supposed to have different dimensions - less attractive. But after the announcement of the iPad 2 in early March, Samsung recalled almost finished devices and decided to improve their parameters. Of course, this delayed the release of the second generation of Galaxy Tab family tablets to the market, but I believe that consumers and the industry as a whole only benefited from this. Because today the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the thinnest and lightest in the world (among tablets with a similar screen diagonal).

The back surface of the tested tablet is white, but the edges are silver (look like aluminum).

There is also a modification of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, made in, and the design of the case in it is significantly different. So you can choose what you like best.

The situation with connectors and expansion options is sad: in addition to the standard headphone jack, there is only one proprietary connector used for charging, connecting to a computer and connecting to accessories.

The first Galaxy Tab had at least a microSD card slot. This is not the case here either. However, we tested the version without 3G. And the version with 3G has a microSD slot (you will see the version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet with a 3G module in our videos). A strange decision (possibly affecting only pre-production samples)! Otherwise, everything is similar to the seven-inch Galaxy Tab tablet: there are speakers on the left and right, on top there is an on/off button and a volume rocker.

Operating system and programs

The tablet runs the latest version of the Google Android operating system - 3.1. Initially, it was planned to release a new generation of “tabs” with Android 3.0, but when the decision was made to postpone the release, it became clear that it was necessary to release it with a new version of the OS, especially since a number of serious flaws were discovered in 3.0. We tested the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet with Android 3.1, but this is an engineering sample, so the firmware of “store” copies may differ slightly (perhaps tablets with Android 3.2 OS will already go on sale).

So, the main thing you should pay attention to is the TouchWiz shell. Samsung puts its own skin on all of its Android devices, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is no exception. True, if in the case of Android 2.2 (in the first Galaxy Tab) this was really a necessity (the Android 2.x interface was very far from the standards that iOS set), then in Android 3.x the interface itself is quite successful . And it cannot be said that the Samsung shell made it more attractive in appearance - just a little different, in the Samsung style. On the other hand, originality, in this case, does not come at the expense of convenience, and this is commendable.

As for the functional part, here the TouchWiz shell really adds several nice features, such as: “hubs” (aggregators of content of a certain type, for example, Social Hub for email and messages from social networks), a button for taking screenshots (on the test instance did not work in all applications and was unstable), as well as a set of widgets (weather, main contacts, mail, news, etc.) and quick access to a number of programs, opened by tapping (or, if you prefer, clicking) on arrow in the center of the bottom line of service icons (in Samsung terminology they are called Mini Apps).

These "mini-programs" include: Task Manager, Calendar, World Clock, Pen memo, Calculator and Music. Particularly worth noting is the first of them - Task Manager.

As you know, the Android 3.x OS itself “decides” when an application should be closed and unloaded from memory. That is, when you close it yourself, the application continues to hang in RAM for some time. So, the Task Manager allows you to close unnecessary applications immediately, freeing up space in RAM.

And, by the way, it demonstrates interesting information: according to the Task Manager, 724 MB of RAM is available for software in the tablet (in general, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has 1 GB of RAM installed), while if you clear the memory of all applications in the background, 379 will remain occupied MB (accordingly, they are used by the operating system and utility services). If you do not clear the memory and work as usual (without abusing multitasking), then 500-600 MB will be occupied. That is, the stock remains, in general, very small.

The “home” desktop space is very conveniently organized in the TouchWiz shell: from five screens we can get quick access to letters, news (although on the test copy these were English-language resources), several Internet bookmarks, stock prices, several contacts, as well as updates from social networks (Social Hub widget). All this is provided by widgets, the location of which we can change at our discretion.

Pre-installed programs not included with Android 3.x include: Polaris Office (office suite), Pulse News (feed reader app), Pen memo (handwritten notes), uTalk (messenger), and Samsung Apps (proprietary). Samsung app store). And, as already noted, there are three “hubs” - Social Hub, Readers Hub (book and press aggregator) and Music Hub (music aggregator).

Screen

The main feature of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet is the screen on a new type of matrix - PLS (Plane to Line Switching). The Super PLS matrix was announced by Samsung relatively recently, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet is one of the first devices with such a screen. PLS is supposed to be an alternative to IPS, and in some respects these displays are superior to IPS type displays. In particular, Samsung specialists managed to increase brightness by 10% (compared to IPS) and increase viewing angles (compared to TN matrices). It is noteworthy that the production cost of new displays is 15% lower than the cost of IPS panels of the same size. The screen resolution of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is 1280x800 pixels.

Samsung has learned from the complaints about the first Galaxy Tab, which at an exorbitant price (in the first weeks of sales) had a regular TN matrix, while the cheaper iPad used an IPS matrix. Note that Samsung still did not equip the second generation of its tablets with proprietary AMOLED or Super AMOLED matrices (not to mention Super AMOLED Plus, which are used in Galaxy S II smartphones). Apparently, this would not allow setting a competitive price for the device. So the PLS matrix is ​​a good way out. The picture turns out to be bright, clear, and practically not “blinding” in the sun, although the viewing angles are still not outstanding. And of course, it cannot be said that the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet is fundamentally better than that of the iPad, Acer Iconia Tab or Asus Eee Pad Transformer. But you can’t put an equal sign between them: since the types of matrices are different, and the number of dots per inch is slightly different, then in different types of operations (web surfing, watching movies, games, etc.) tablet screens can manifest themselves differently. differently. So we will definitely return to this issue and conduct a full comparative test of the screens of modern tablets - using specialized tools. For now, we note that the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet supports multitouch gestures, including the original gesture: if you press two fingers on the screen and rotate it horizontally away from you, the image scale will increase, and if it is towards you, it will decrease.

Performance

So, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet is built on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 platform, which includes two processor cores with a frequency of 1 GHz. The declared amount of RAM is 1 GB. Flash memory capacity varies from 16 to 64 GB, while in models with a 3G module, flash memory can be expanded by using microSD cards. In general, we have a typical hardware configuration for a 2011 tablet; there’s nothing special to comment on here. Here are the results of two tests that were run on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and its closest competitors.

We also tried to run the Linpack test on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but the tablet showed an incorrect result - apparently, this firmware is not yet supported by the test.

As for subjective impressions, no “brakes” were noticed in the applications, but the OS interface itself does not always work smoothly - which we are again inclined to attribute to the raw firmware (because the power of NVIDIA Tegra 2 for the needs of Android 3.x quite enough).

Autonomous operation

In “normal” use mode (Wi-Fi on, surfing the Internet using a browser, working with email, sometimes watching videos on YouTube, sometimes reading electronic texts), the tablet worked for almost 10 hours.

In maximum load mode (watching videos, with Wi-Fi turned off), the battery lasted almost 9 hours. In both battery test modes, the screen brightness level was set to 50%.

So, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 demonstrates very good battery life results! Like the iPad, you can easily take it on a transatlantic flight and enjoy reading and watching movies most of the way.

Cameras

Not wanting to lag behind competitors, Samsung equipped the second generation of “tabs” with two cameras - rear and front.

But the resolution of the rear camera lets us down: only 3 megapixels (the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer have 5 megapixels). True, the iPad 2 has an even lower resolution - only 0.7 megapixels... However, it is worth admitting that the camera of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet takes photos much better than the camera of the iPad 2, and is quite on par with the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and Asus Eee Pad tablets Transformer.

In addition, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet has a flash, autofocus and many shooting modes, including, for example, panorama shooting.

Video shooting is carried out with a resolution of 720p, the quality is also decent, but the size of a 30-second video is slightly larger (47 MB) than that of a video of the same length and resolution from the Asus Eee Pad Transformer (39.5 MB).

The front camera of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet has a resolution of 2 megapixels.

conclusions

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is one of the contenders for leadership among Android tablets in the second half of the year. Its trump cards include a screen made using the new PLS technology, good battery life, Android 3.1 OS with the proprietary TouchWiz shell and, of course, record small thickness and weight. However, these trump cards will “play” only if the price turns out to be competitive. As a “bar” that cannot be raised above, we estimate the cost of the iPad 2 in a similar configuration. At the time of writing, Galaxy Tab 10.1 (in the minimum configuration - without 3G, flash memory capacity 16 GB) was available for pre-order on Euroset and cost 18,990 rubles. A similar iPad 2 is sold at the largest official reseller for the same price. Well, it’s not a bad start, but even if it’s small, the price advantage would play into the hands of both the manufacturer and potential owners of the tablet. Buyers will compare the cost of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet not only with the iPad 2, but also with two other Android 3.x tablets - the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. It's no secret that the cost of a product is a very important factor taken into account when making a purchasing decision. However, we can say that decent tablets based on Android 3.x have arrived.

For the currently record thickness and weight parameters, we award the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet the Original Design award.

Our video reviews of Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.