Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 Tablet Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 Tablet Review

By Mark R Benson 

What is a tablet? A tablet is a slim, lightweight computer, smaller than a laptop but bigger than a smart phone. The key features for a tablet is its portability, user-friendly interface and obviously, its performance.

What can you do with a tablet? Tablets support a large variety of operating systems, from Android, iOS to the latest Windows OS. You can access the app store, install games, music production suites, share photos, watch movies and a lot more. What makes the tablets stand out from their laptop siblings is the touch-screen feature and, if you are accustomed to keyboards, a lot of tablet users make use of the optional docking stations to attach keyboards. Basically, a tablet takes the best from laptops and smartphones and recombines them in a unique, easy to carry device.

Do I need a tablet? That depends on what you need. Do you want a device from which you are going to send emails, make video calls, take pictures, watch TV or simply browse the internet but you don't want to carry a laptop around then the tablet is the best option. If you are convinced you want a tablet, then let's take a look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 Tablet.

Design. Galaxy Tab S 10.5 comes with an ultra-thin design, has a dotted pattern and a soft back that gives a pleasant feel when handled. The case comes into two colours, Dazzling White and Titanium Bronze and both versions have a gold contour around the edge. The tablet feels light, weighting only one pound but, despite the lack of metal it still is robust and resistant. On the right side of the tablet we can find a microSD card slot (for up to 128GB) and a microUSB port. The speakers are one on both sides of the tablet, on the left side we can also find the headphone jack. At the top edge we find the power and volume buttons along with the IR blaster.

Display. The Galaxy Tab S 10.5 comes with a 10.5in wide display and a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels with 287 ppi. The backbone for this tablet is the WQXGA Super AMOLED screen that makes the colours more vibrant, the images sharper and over all it sums up to a gorgeous view to watch comparable and even tops the plasma TV image quality. This is the best tablet display that money can buy.

Apart from the exquisite display quality, the viewing angles are very good, outdoor visibility is excellent and, if you turn on the Samsung's Adaptive Display, the tablet will adapt its colours to the ambient lighting. Overall, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 will deliver a great cinematic experience watching HD movies and no matter the lighting, you will not be disappointed by the image quality. From the display point of view, it may be considered the best tablet on the market.

Performance and Battery Life. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 features an octa-core Exynos 5420 CPU backed by a 3GB RAM that will be more than enough for multitasking. The processor is comprised of two quad-cores, one goes up to 1.9GHz and the second operates up to 1.3 GHz each depending on the resources needed to run a specific application. A bit on the downside we have the ARM Mali-T628MP6 GPU that is a bit slower than what the competitors offer in the same price range.

Still, when all the cores are used, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is the fastest tablet, the problem is not many applications support eight cores. When it comes to browsing, the tablet doesn't let us down. Sites loaded pretty quick, the navigation was very good and even when using MultiWindows mode, we did not experience any performance losses. The gaming performance was also smooth and no delays or lags were experienced when trying to run resource-heavy games. Also the touchscreen response is fast and accurate.

Now, for the battery, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S is equipped with a 7,900 mAh battery that, the manufacturer guarantees up to 9 hours on a single charge. We tested this and the battery lasted for almost two days on medium usage on a single charge. The WiFi connectivity is good, it supports the 802.1 a/b/g/n/ac standards and can transmit in 2.4 or 5GHz networks. This tablet is also available with 4G LTE support, with a LTE radio signal strong enough in terms of maintaining a good connection.

Software. The core OS is Android 4.4 KitKat that, besides the basic features from Android, you can find a lot of Samsung applications, like Samsung's Milk Music service or Multi Window Mode, that help you view two application side-by-side. The TouchWiz interface is bright, easy to use and packed with a lot of customizable apps. Because of the powerful hardware, taps or swipes were registered instantaneously even if another application was running besides the one we were using. Although not as good as iOS 8, the Android 4.4 KitKat OS from Galaxy Tab S 10.5 performed relatively well, we had a decent user-friendly experience and we enjoyed using the tablet's applications.

Camera. Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 has a 8 megapixel rear camera equipped with a LED flash and F2.4 lens that is paired with a 2.1 megapixel camera in the front. Colours are reproduced accurately, the contrast is reasonable but, unless the lighting is very good, you will not be able to take great pictures. The video recording (1080p) were pretty smooth, the audio quality was fair and with no distortions.

Considering all these, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is a great tablet, capable of satisfying even the most demanding users. Equipped with powerful software and the best display for a tablet, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is a best buy. For more high quality reviews check out http://www.mbreviews.com

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