Introduction, design and display
Update: Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is a lot like an iPad, except it has had a price drop, unlike Apples always-pricey tablet. The review has been revised to reflect this change.
When I first wrote about the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, my dad remarked of the news story, "So, I heard Samsung is making a new iPad?"
This perfectly sums up how average consumers view tablets as a product category. Apple now makes the Kleenex or, in the UK, Sellotape of tablets, and theyre called iPads.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 doesnt do much to differentiate itself, aside from running Android, with two new screen sizes that match the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4 in a 4:3 aspect ratio.
Prices were also identical, launching at $499 (£399, AU$599) for the 9.7-inch tablet, and $399 (£319, AU$499) for its 8-inch mini equivalent. However, you can find them on discount in the US starting at $399 and $299, respectively, and Samsungs devices start at 32GB of space, while Apples entry-level models are still a paltry 16GB.
Regardless of the price changes, theyre still a lot a like. Its really no wonder as to why theres mainstream confusion. Samsung and Apple are making phones that mirror each other more, if you look at the iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy S6.
The good news is that, once I got to hold the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 in my hands, I discovered some differences that favor Samsungs new tablets, and a few that do not.
Weight, design, and software features make the new Galaxy Tab one of the best tablets to date, even though the slate looks like its doing its best impression of an iPad, and isnt too different from previous Samsung tablets.
Design
The Galaxy Tab S2 feels nicer to hold in two hands than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and its sibling, the Galaxy Tab 8.4. In fact, its now light enough to comfortably clutch in one hand.
Weighing just 389g for the 9.7-inch tablet and 265g for the 8-inch version, it sheds the extra weight of its Samsung tablet predecessors, and its also noticeably lighter than Apples entire iPad line.
Thats a big deal, believe it or not, because holding the larger Tab S2 in its ideal position – in bed reading Flipboard while holding the tablet in the air – isnt a strain over long periods of time.
Similarly, if you throw this tablet in a backpack it feels like no extra weight has been added. Its easy to store and effortless to hold, even with its near-iPad dimensions.
The 9.7-inch version measures 237 x 169 x 5.6mm, and the 8-inch model 199 x 135 x 5.6mm, beating Apples sub-pencil-thin thickness of 6.1mm.
The Samsung Tab S2 is lighter in part because its backed by a soft-touch plastic cover instead of an aluminium shell. Metal edges outline the tablet instead of a plastic frame this time.
The entire device may not be metal, but it does feel smooth. Its better than the dimpled plastic of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, yet remains just as grippy.
Two small, springy buttons are embedded into the back of the Tab S2, but theyre meant for clipping a cover onto the tablet and arent releases to pop off the back. Its all sealed shut.
There is, however, a microSD card slot on the frame to optionally boost the 32GB and 64GB configurations with an additional 128GB of expandable storage.
Alongside this same rail are a solid-feeling power button and volume rocker. Stereo speakers, a headphone jack and an off-center micro USB port line the bottom of the tablet.
The Tab S2 has a physical, fingerprint-sensing home button in front with the usual oval shape, and two capacitive buttons on either side. These keys light up by default every time the display is touched.
The beams of light are a bit distracting when scrolling and reading text near the bottom of the screen, and turning them off in settings doesnt help orient your fingers in the dark. This wider tablet isnt like a narrower phone, where you know the exact location of these keys.
The latest Galaxy Tab comes in three colors: Black, White and Gold. Gone are the fancy names like Dazzling White and Titanium Bronze, reflecting Samsungs minimalist design with this years ultra-thin tablet.
Display
Samsung has the best displays among smartphones with its Galaxy S6 and Note 5 handsets, and the same is mostly true of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2.
It boasts a bright Super AMOLED screen with vivid colors and a 2,048 x 1,536 resolution that matches the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4. Thats good, but not the best from Samsung.
The Galaxy Tab S slates had a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 with more pixels per inch. The Tab S2 is technically a step down, even if you cant notice at first glance.
What happened? While the S1 sported a narrow, movie-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio, the new Tab S2 is wider, with a letter paper-sized 4:3 aspect ratio. Its more suited for web browsing.
Samsung dialed back the resolution in its rejiggering of the screen, but that the pixel count shouldnt concern you as much as the aspect ratio, especially for widescreen movie watchers.
The Galaxy Tab S2 display is still really sharp and vibrant, but has a different objective thats bent on three things: web surfing, Flipboard reading and iPad rivaling.
Specs and performance
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 takes some cues from the Galaxy S6 and Note 5 with a slimmer and lighter profile, but it doesnt quite inherit the same internal hardware.
At the heart of the new tablet duo is Samsungs Exynos 7 5433 octa-core System-on-a-Chip that combines another 1.9GHz quad-core processor with a 1.3GHz quad-core processor.
Clock speeds are the same as the last-generation Galaxy Tab S and dont reach the Galaxy S6 and Note 5 performance levels, but its ARM-based cores have been upgraded in a years time.
The same applies to the graphics chip and RAM found inside the Galaxy Tab S2. It has a Mali T760MP6 GPU thats new to the Samsung tablet line, but thats still a step behind its phones. The RAM remains 3GB of LPDDR3, instead of the 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM in the Note 5.
Performance
Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 shows performance gains over last years tablets, but its benchmarks trail the iPad Air 2. Running Android 5.0.2, its Geekbench 3 scores averaged a healthy 4,077.
That means its slotted itself right in between Googles Nexus 9 tablet with a score of 3,492, and Apples iPad Air 2 with a tablet-defining score of 4,506.
Whats interesting is that, while Samsung is a bit clock-speed-shy with its tablet chipsets, Apple in contrast goes all out with its iPads. The iPad Pro has its highest-end A9X chip.
The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 topped the charts on our benchmark rankings, while Apples iPhone line has always fall short. The iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus stick have a new, but more conservative A9 processor.
The good news is that the Galaxy Tab S2 is still a snappy performer when TouchWiz doesnt bog down the interface, and the operating system consistently stays out of the way here.
Internal storage
Better yet, Samsung makes a fair trade-off with the internal storage specs. All of Apples devices begin with 16GB of storage for the same (and at some stores, cheaper) price as Samsungs 32GB phones and tablets.
Thats more important to many file-hoarding consumers who have gigabytes worth of music, photos and apps stored locally, than a tablet that ekes out a win when it comes to processor performance under pressure.
Android 5.1.1 and apps
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 comes with Android 5.0.2 out of the box, but the operating system can be upgraded to Android 5.1.1. It was ready to go for me immediately.
This version of Android Lollipop is almost latest release, as the Android Marshmallow update is making its debut on Googles Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X, along with older Nexus devices.
That wont matter too much, because Samsung has already made a bunch of tweaks to Googles lockscreen notification-infused software through its always-meddling TouchWiz interface.
Samsung is ahead of Googles software update by incorporating a component fingerprint sensor into the home button. It also allows its devices to be silenced from the volume rocker.
Google stripped this function from stock Lollipop and is bringing it back in Marshmallow. Its current phones and tablets devices stop short, toggling between volume and vibrate via the rocker.
Splitscreen mode continues to be a big part of Samsung tablets, and multitasking works best on the larger Galaxy Tab S2. A long press on the "recent" touch key quickly divvies up the screen.
Apples new iOS 9 operating system adds true multitasking for the first time, but its half-and-half "Split View" is reserved for the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro and works with only a few apps at launch.
Theres potential there for Apple, but Samsung does it the best for every app Ive tested – except Flipboard. The magazine news reader isnt compatible with splitscreen mode.
However, Ive become a big fan of swiping to the leftmost homescreen on Samsung devices and becoming caught in the latest news presented in a beautiful Flipboard layout.
Its really how Apple should arrange its leftmost iOS 9 menu, bringing the new Apple News app out from the shadows. Of course, now that Ive said it in a Samsung review, itll never happen out of spite.
Apps
This is where Samsung is known for its Android meddling: giving you apps you never wanted and never asked for. The company has learned its lesson in the last two years – to an extent.
Tab S2 contains useless Internet, Email, Memo apps, even though it also has Android-required Chrome, Gmail, Drive apps. Gallery is a bit faster than Google Photos, so thats a keeper.
Well, theyre all really keepers because you cant delete many Samsung-made apps: Contacts, Gallery, Camera, Music, Video, Clock, My Files, Smart Manager, Calendar, SideSync and Galaxy Apps (in case you want more of these) are all stuck on your Tab S2.
Its a pain, because who wants their app drawer stuffed with generic Internet or Email apps? I did find uses for transporting files via SideSync and playing movie files more quickly through Video, but it should really be up to me to decide which apps stay and which ones go.
Samsung also throws in a bit of bloatware, for better or worse. Theres a Microsoft apps folder full of Office, Skype and OneDrive apps, its own Samsung Milk Music, Samsung+, Screen Saver, a CNN for Samsung and Next Issue apps.
Thankfully, while Samsung would love to steer you into downloading new apps through its Galaxy Apps store, it includes the Play Store in the app drawer.
Battery life and camera
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 battery life is also underpowered when compared to Apples iPad Air 2 and last years Samsung Galaxy Tab S.
Its battery capacity is the smallest of the three tablets at 5,870mAh and 4,000mAh for the 9.7-inch and 8-inch models, respectively. The iPad Air 2 has 7,340mAh, while Samsungs own Galaxy Tab S1 packed in a 7,900mAh battery.
Samsungs 9.7-inch tablet did better than I anticipated in our routine battery life test, thanks to its power-saving "big.LITTLE" CPU configuration. But it couldve lasted even longer.
Running a 90-minute HD video loop at full brightness, it slashed the battery life by to 84%, which actually beats the Nexus 9, iPad Air 2 and ties the Dell Venue 8 7000.
Beating the Galaxy Tab S2 was last years Samsung tablet, the Galaxy Tab S1, which saw a decline to 87% from a full charge during the same 90 minutes of HD video.
I still felt like the newer tablet couldve lasted longer in day-to-day use outside of our battery life test, and that might happen with the Android Marshmallow update.
Googles Android update has a special Doze mode that retains more battery life when devices are in a sleep state. This is something Apples iPad line does well, and is almost certainly why I feel like the iPad Air 2s real-life longevity is closer to the Tab S2 battery life than lab tests show.
I expected more from the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 when it came to charging, too. It takes about four hours to fully juice up, and theres no fast-charging capability here. Wireless charging is also absent.
All of a sudden, that Samsung wireless charging pad with 1.4x the charging speed is less of a value outside of your Samsung Galaxy S6 or Note 5 phone.
Camera
Youre not going to (or shouldnt) use them, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 has two cameras: one on the back thats 8 megapixels (MP) and one on the front thats 2.1MP that youre hopefully using for video conferencing and now selfies.
The 8MP camera is OK with enough light, but cant compare to any camera inside Samsungs phones. It doesnt inherit that 16MP sensor weve grown to love in the S6 and Note 5. The 2.1MP camera photos look even noisier and should be avoided at all costs.
The rear camera can now shoot 1440p video at 30 frames per second, up from the 1080p video from the Tab S1, but dont look for a 4K video option. Such high-resolution video isnt ready for Android tablets yet.
Samsung does bring the now-familiar interface of its camera software to the Tab S2. But, while the layout is the same, features like wide selfies, RAW files and YouTube Live are missing.
Competition
How does the Galaxy Tab S2 look compared to the rest of the market? Here are some other choices you may prefer to Samsungs latest attempt.
iPad Air 2
We love the iPad Air 2 – theres no denying that, its one of favorite tablets out there and its hard to go wrong with this slate. But it is a little more expensive than the Galaxy Tab S2, and has a very different set up to Samsungs slate.
It may over a year old and the iPad Air 3 is near, but the iPad Air 2 has one of the best screens around and the processing power that would impress any tablet owner. But the Galaxy Tab S2 does hold its own against the iPad Air 2 with another powerful processor set up.
If you enjoy iOS on a tablet though, this is probably your number one choice as its running iOS 9.1 and offers the best overall experience.
- Read our review of the iPad Air 2
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
Sonys Xperia Z4 Tablet is probably the most suited piece of competition compared to the Galaxy Tab S2. Sony has done really well in its latest tablet by including a 10.1-inch 2K display in a beautiful design thats slimmer than weve seen before from the company.
It runs Android and is set up with the ugly Sony UI, but it does come with PS4 Remote Play to make up for it. It means you can play your PlayStation 4 on your 2K screen anywhere in the house, and one day you could maybe even play it on a different internet connection.
The keyboard is also nicely set out so its easy to work from the Xperia Z4 Tablet – if youre looking for something a little more premium than the Tab S2, then maybe go for Sonys best slate yet.
- Read our review of the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
Nexus 9
Sitting just between the two different screen sizes of the Galaxy Tab S2, the Nexus 9 comes with an 8.9-inch Full HD display. It impressed a lot of people when it first launched and it employs the same 4:3 display ratio as the Galaxy Tab S2.
The speakers on the Nexus 9 are particularly impressive, but youll need to go for a larger storage version as the Nexus 9 doesnt come with a microSD slot.
Plus the design isnt anything special, especially if youre not a fan of the traditional Nexus look. But the price is a big factor, its dropped a lot in the last year. This could be the tablet you want if price is an issue.
- Read our review of the Nexus 9
iPad Mini 4
Apples third Mini tablet was a bit of a let down without adding much new apart from Touch ID, but the iPad Mini 4 has made up for that stumble. If youre looking for a tablet closer to the smaller slate in the Galaxy Tab S2 range, this will be your choice.
Much like the iPad Air 2 it comes packing iOS 9.1 – with possibly the best tablet app line up out there - and a beautiful screen. But this time its in a smaller package with a 7.9-inch display.
Theres no 3D Touch here though like we were hoping for from Apple, plus its still running on an older processor set up so its not exactly perfect. But that said, this is the best smaller tablet you can buy right now… if youre willing to pay Apple prices.
- Read our review of the iPad Mini 4
Verdict
Is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 enough of an upgrade over the companys 2014 tablet? Its certainly has a new shape and its thinner. In this way, it mimics the iPad Air 2, but not in enough areas.
We liked
As Samsungs thinnest and lightest tablet, the Galaxy Tab S2 is easy to tote around. Its 9.7-inch models weight fits in between the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4. Its 8-inch tablet is even lighter. Yet it upgrades to a metal frame, keeps the microSD card slot and uses a more comfortable, soft touch plastic back.
To Samsungs credit, the TouchWiz software doesnt get in the way of Android 5.1.1 too much, and it includes extra features, like a fingerprint sensor in the home button and multitasking. The Tab S2 is not as powerful as it could be or as long lasting, but its enough for a consumer tablet.
We disliked
Besides the svelte design and slight specs upgrade, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 isnt always better as much as its different from the Galaxy Tab S1. The tablet is less powerful than an iPad Air 2 and has a smaller battery compared to Apples tablets and Samsungs own tablet from last year.
Its not best for movies, either, with its more boxy 4:3 screen, instead of a wide-screen-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio. That makes it a matter of taste, but no one will like the fact that Samsung backed off the pixel count in the transition to the new screen shape.
Final verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is a lightweight tablet thats a lightweight upgrade over the 2014 Galaxy Tab S. Andbeyond the thinner and lighter design, it cant keep up with the iPad Air 2.
Theres still plenty of reason to invest in this reading and web surfing-friendly tablet. Its size and shape is better suited for everything but video, and for some, thats a big plus.
It has stronger multitasking functionality to rival iOS 9 and features that Google isnt premiering until the Android Marshmallow launch. Samsung is slightly ahead of other Android tablets, even if this years update is as small as the form factor is thin.
from www.techradar.com
