Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 Display

Samsung's latest flagship tablet packs a superb screen and fingerprint scanner but tin can it conquer the iPad Air? Read our Samsung Galaxy Tab Southward review

Have you lot thought of ownership a tablet? Well, then, chances are that yous'll have been tempted past an iPad. The truth is that nonetheless good the rival Android or Windows tablets have been, it's Apple that has been calling the shots with the best-designed tablet effectually. Until now.

Samsung's new tablet is slim, stylish and powerful. The Galaxy Tab Due south marks a new start for the visitor. After all, before now even Amazon'south keenly priced Kindle Fire series and the well-specced Google Nexus 7 haven't been able to unseat the iPad Air and iPad mini 2 from their thrones.

The iPad outgunned rivals when it added a Retina display. Samsung and others upped their screen resolutions to compete, only to be outdone once more past the super-slim, preposterously light iPad Air. Apple tree stayed out in front end.

Samsung Milky way Tab Due south: Size and build

The Tab S at last gives the iDevices a serious challenge. The Galaxy Tab S comes in two sizes and both are easily the snazziest tablets Samsung has e'er created - a dark-and-twenty-four hours improvement over earlier models which had grey plastic equally their most dominant fashion motif.

That's gone, replaced by metal-mode edging and perforated soft-touch back. The result is a high-end premium-feel design, even if they're withal plastic rather than aluminium. These are arguably the best-looking tablets anyone's made exterior of Cupertino.

The Tab S comes in two screen sizes, eight.iv inches and 10.5 inches. Both, like their Apple rivals, take the same number of pixels on the large screen as the small. And both are lightweight, catwalk-thin gadgets.

Of the ii tablets, the 10.5-inch screen is comparable in size to the iPad Air, though the display is almost an inch bigger. Even so, it's lighter (by a whisker) as well as thinner by almost 1mm. So that featherlight, slender quality Apple went for is matched or beaten - not least because plastic is lighter than aluminium.

And unlike the Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet which is even thinner and lighter, the Tab S doesn't have a huge bezel round the display, at least not on all four sides. Pattern-wise, this is a existent triumph and anyone wanting a stylish alternative to Apple has found it.

The smaller of the pair, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.four-inch edition, feels slap-up in the hand. The polish sides and curved corners, combined with the soft, grippy back create a tablet that nestles in the palm and never feels similar its going to slip out. While it doesn't have that premium finish and experience you go with an iPad mini, it always feels a bit safer and managed to come abroad unscathed from a couple of drops.

While the 10-inch version is bully for big screen apps and productivity, the smaller Tab Southward is better put to use watching Netflix, clearer out your Instapaper queue and the like. It's has a more pixel dense display, which is superb and video watching is top notch. If yous're more than of a media consumer, who's looking for a portable slate the 8.4-inch version is a swell choice.

Samsung has designed a range of cover accessories with 'Elementary Clickers' attachments. These popper-mode plastic fittings take the form of spring-loaded holes on the rear of the Tab S. They're secure and constructive though take careful placement to click in.

Like the Samsung Galaxy five, the Samsung's new tablet also features a fingerprint scanner - it'due south not as slickly done as on the iPhone 5s but it'due south a cool manner to unlock the screen without a password.

Samsung Galaxy Tab South: Screen

The display - like on the Samsung Galaxy S5 phone - is brilliant and gorgeous. It's higher-resolution than the iPad Air's Retina display and the Super AMOLED technology makes information technology stunningly vivid and colourful - sometimes almost too dazzling. Only at its all-time, this is a screen that you can't take your eyes off.

Look no further than the 'Wonder of Nature' video that comes supplied. Information technology looks jaw-droppingly expert with punchy, abrupt colours. Thankfully the tablet is powerful enough to ensure butter-smoothen playback, too.

Its glorious visuals are not quite matched by audio. In that location are stereo speakers, 1 on each of the shorter edges, only you could encompass them up with your hands if you don't hold the tablet just right. This is abrasive, though it's easy to acquire how to agree it all-time.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S: Features

This being a Samsung tablet, in that location are plenty of innovations built in, too. Similar the fingerprint sensor found on the Samsung Galaxy S5, which offers a simple fashion to unlock the screen as well equally a neat PayPal authorisation method.

The truth is it's merely not as enjoyable as Apple's version: to utilise you have to swipe your finger exactly down the home button rather than only resting your finger or thumb on it as you do on the iPhone 5s. Information technology's good, just not as well-executed as it should be - just this is a welcome addition to a tablet, accomplished on the bigger screen before Apple could.

The tablet besides has those Samsung staple features imported from Galaxy S phones: the front-facing camera watches your eyes to know if you're reading the screen and turn it off if you're non. An infra-ruby blaster in the top edge of the tablet means you tin can use it every bit a sophisticated TV remote that you lot really tin can't lose down the dorsum of the sofa.

Y'all'll also get an 8-megapixel rear camera and so that y'all can take photos, should you really want to.

Samsung Milky way Tab S: Interface

At that place's Samsung'south defended TouchWiz menu which swipes in from the side of the screen to offer quick shortcuts to Contacts, Email, internet and more than - though frankly it's nigh as quick to tap the apps icon that sits on the lesser of the display.

And there'southward the Flipboard personal magazine home screen popularised on before Galaxy devices (and still bettered on HTC's phones). Like other Samsung tablets, you tin brandish two apps side past side, which adds to the tablet's versatility.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S: Functioning

There'south no shortage of grunt under the bonnet here, either, making it a fluent, speedy tablet to use. That's down to a Quad-core 1.9 GHz processor matched with 3GB of RAM: more than enough to ensure a whizzy experience that doesn't stutter or irksome downwards even so much is going on. The power also means the touchscreen is fast and effective, feeling intimate and responsive.

You lot needn't run out of storage space, either. Although the tablet but comes in 16GB and 32GB capacity models, there's a memory card slot hither so you can add together an extra 128GB of infinite on pinnacle. This ways that even the highest-chapters iPad tin't match what'due south on offer hither if you lot invest in a reasonably priced card.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S: Apps

Samsung is generous with its included software. Equally with the Sasmung Galaxy S5, the tablet comes with a bunch of free software - not the bloatware the company was criticised for in the past just genuinely desirable stuff. And then there's three months' subscription to Marvel comics and six months of gratis Deezer amid other offers.

These and free games and other apps are constitute in a widget called Galaxy Gifts, sitting on the home screen just next to the Samsung own-brand offerings such as a video editor, scrapbook, exclusive football app and more. Even here, this feels different from earlier Samsung products considering the apps are downloadable rather than stuffed into the gadget already.

Of grade, it'south nevertheless difficult to avoid the fact that Android just isn't as advanced app-wise as Apple is on tablets.

Many apps are sophisticated enough to know how to stretch to bigger screens only few are optimised in the way iPad apps are which reformat in radically dissimilar ways. This superior way that apps work on the iPad are 1 of the things that go along Apple out in front and at that place'due south not much Samsung can do to address that.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Due south: Software

Samsung's Newspaper Garden is a neatly organised mag store which tempts you with a wide range of titles (at that place are some free issues on offer to tempt you more). Some are interactive, with animated covers and effects. All are carefully formatted to fit the 16:ix screen ratio. The pin-abrupt screen makes text look as sharp as on paper.

Side Sync is a clever feature. Want to meet whatís happening on your phone screen without having to dig into your pocketbook for it, or cross the room to where it's charging? Evens reply calls or texts from your phone on your tablet? Side Sync makes that happen. Only it'southward not as smooth equally it should be and can stutter to a stop. Yous can use it with a PC (though not Mac) equally well, but over again the concept is better than the execution. For now.

Kids' manner is Samsung's manner of limiting what your kids can use your tablet for is brilliant. It's painfully simple to fix and has enough variety and customisation options to suit the most enervating of parents - or kids. Heed y'all, yous might notwithstanding adopt to buy them a cheap tablet rather than let them get their smeary mitts on yours.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S: Verdict

There'southward no question most it: this is the all-time tablet Samsung has yet fabricated and it's arguably the slickest, well-nigh effective Android tablet available. There are plenty of innovations, from the fingerprint sensor to the click-in covers to protect your hardware. The slim, low-cal styling is a revelation, especially from a visitor whose design language was limited in its tablets before.

Will it be enough to take a chunk out of iPad sales? Apple's sublime ease of use and meliorate range of optimised apps are tough to beat, but this tablet has the best adventure of causing a sea change of any Android machine yet.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S release date: Out now

Samsung Milky way Tab South price: £399 (x.5-inch, Wi-Fi only), £319 (viii.4-inch, Wi-Fi only)