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So you like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S but you figure it's last year's model and you have a hankering for a 4:3 aspect ratio that's easier to read on? Then you're in luck: the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 models are the refresh with a faster CPU and lighter TouchWiz skin, and 4:3 aspect ratio displays. Yep, just like the iPad. That aspect ratio makes the tablet easier to hold and it is indeed better for reading documents, web pages and books. In fact, I find games more enjoyable too. However, if you're buying a tablet primarily for watching movies, TV shows and YouTube, then you might want to opt for last year's Tab S or consider the Dell Venue 10 7000. Those two will also net you the incredibly vibrant AMOLED display but with the standard Android tablet 16:10 aspect ratio that means almost no black bars on the top and bottom of widescreen content.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is available in two sizes: 9.7" and 8". We look at the 9.7" model in this review. They're available in your choice of black, white or gold and each has a matte back so we're not talking blingy gold or slippery stuff. The tablets are some of the thinnest and lightest on the market (currently they're the thinnest at 5.9mm). The 9.7" model weighs just 13.7 ounces (almost 2 ounces less than the iPad Air 2) and the 8" model weighs 9.34 ounces. They feel trivially thin and light--as if they were props rather than actual devices. That's a good thing-- despite the light weight, they don't feel or look cheap. Samsung hasn't moved to exotic materials here as they did with the Samsung Galaxy S6 family and the Note 5, but the plastic back with metal frame look and feel quite nice.
The tablet runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop with Samsung's ever improving TouchWiz. TouchWiz is lighter and less overwrought and it still brings great features like multi-window multitasking. Flipboard is still here as the leftmost home screen, for better or worse, and there are a few Samsung staples like their own app store and Milk Music.
Horsepower and Performance
Inside, Samsung has moved up to the (Exynos Octa 7 CPU family) Exynos 5433 CPU that has four high power 1.9 GHz cores and four 1.33 GHz low power cores. It uses the fairly powerful MALI-T760 graphics that provides very good performance not only in benchmarks but in today's popular 3D games. This is the same CPU used in the International version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and while I'm sure everyone would be even more excited if Samsung used their latest high end Exynos CPU from the Galaxy S6 and Note 5, the performance is still good enough to make it one of the fastest Android tablets on the market (and almost as fast as the iPad Air 2 in benchmarks). The tablet has 3 gigs of RAM, as did the first generation Tab S and 32 or 64 gigs of storage. Our 32 gig model had 25.4 gigs available on first boot. There's a microSD card slot to expand storage with cards up to 128 gigs. The Tab S2 also supports USB host, which means if you get a USB OTG dongle adapter, you can use USB flash drives, card readers and small self-powered portable hard drives with the tablet.
Above: the optional keyboard case.
Benchmarks
| |
Quadrant |
AnTuTu |
3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited |
Geekbench 3 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 |
28,128 |
53,165 |
17,620 |
1254/4308 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 |
21,513 |
32,927 |
13,475 |
935/ 2739 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (LTE) |
22.278 |
37,786 |
16,434 |
937/2739 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 |
23,355 |
34,890 |
13,785 |
908/2807 |
| Dell Venue 8 7480 |
21,314 |
43,926 |
18,343 |
787/2456 |
| Nexus 9 |
13,728 |
56,937 |
26,307 |
1950/3318 |
| iPad Air 2 |
N/A |
63,152 |
21,681 |
1819/4452 |
| NVIDIA Shield Tablet |
21,414 |
51,838 |
30,364 |
51119/3407 |
| Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 |
7054 |
16,214 |
3299 |
N/A |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 |
14,515 |
33,947 |
13,458 |
946/2773 |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 |
9181 |
17,239 |
4615 |
N/A |
Super AMOLED Display is Super
The 2048 x 1536 display is simply amazing. Few tablets have AMOLED displays, with the first gen Tab S and the Dell Venue 8 and 10 7000 models rounding up current offerings. The display far exceeds the sRGB color gamut and even covers more than 100% of the wider Adobe RGB gamut. That means you'll get incredibly saturated and vibrant colors with near infinite contrast as you do with the Samsung Galaxy S5, S6 and recent Galaxy Note phones. As with those phones, you can choose from several different color profiles including AMOLED Photo for a more realistic 100% sRGB gamut (handy if you're using it to proof photos or video). The display is also extremely bright and remains visible outdoors. Auto-brightness works well and unlike some older Samsung mobile products, indoor brightness doesn't default to a too dim setting. This is a touch screen and it doesn't have the active Wacom digitizer that Samsung Galaxy Note phones and tablets have. You can use a capacitive stylus but nothing that's precise and there's no palm rejection since capacitive styli are essentially finger replacements (they're capacitive as are your fingers).
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