4K HDR screen with 845, and I'd have considered it for $650. I have a 10 inch Amazon tablet and I'd like to get a better one, yet when I look around the high end ones look like total rip offs.
If I want an OLED screen, I have to get a tablet that has the SoC the phone I replaced in March had. WTF!
This would have been a great candidate for the Exynos 9810 with adequate thermals and a non-gimped kernel; higher clocks and faster response in ramping them. But that might have added $20 to the BoM I guess, oh the horror.
First of all this is Galaxy Tab S4 and not Galaxy Tab 4 - I had a Tab 4 and this is much more powerful. I have a Galaxy Tab S3 and love it - pretty much use it every day
I would pick this over that Lenovo Windows for Snapdragron @#%
I'm baffled by their using last years SoC. It was quasi-understandable when they were doing that when their own chips in older models, especially when the old one was on a different process; and they were trying to get more out of something older before they started retiring/upgrading the production lines; but with them buying from Qualcomm this time there's no reason not to be using an 845.
They did got 835 cheaply... Good reason enough... But yeah... iPad is so far ahead in soc power that it is not even fun to see Android maker to handicap their devices by using old technology. Maybe Samsun desided that it is better sell S4 at 650$ than 999$ (Or more) if They would have used 845? Now this is about the same price as old ipadpro (and slower than that) and cheaper than the new version of iPadpro so maybe this is their way of making the tablet cheap enough to be ”competative” even if would mean slower tablet compared to competition.
I think the use of the Snapdragon 835 gives an indication for how long this tablet has been in development. It could also be an indication of how many resources the tablet team is getting for development (not many).
I'd assume that getting all that DeX stuff working took a lot of engineering work.
I'd be curious to see whether this uses a PenTile subpixel arrangement or not. None of the Tab S (10.5), S2 or S3 did. They all had full S-stripe RGB pixels and they looked amazing. If they went back to PenTile here it's sadly a great display downgrade.
I would agree about the Surface Pro - but I would disagree about iPad Pro. A while back I was thinking about iPad Pro - but to be honest the user interface is too dull for such a class tablet - I purchase a Samsung Tab S3 and use it every day, I like it so much I decided to switch my phone from iPhone 6 ( yes it older ) to Samsung Note 8.
By the way when I was looking at iPad Pro - I ended up purchasing a Sasung Galaxy TabPro S. Full Windows tablet - but to be honest unless I doing work that requires windows application on my desktop - the Tab S3 is just simpler.
I would be curious about DeX stuff but it would never replace Windows Desktop applications.
Looks like they switched from 4:3 to 16:10. Shame. Portrait orientation will be pretty awkward and skinny on this one and landscape will be comically wide and short.
True, all for cost cutting measure, I presume. 16:10 screens parts from old models, SD835 older cheaper chips etc. Just retrofit and viola, got a new model at what they think is a competitive price.
The only real experience I've had with a tablet was with the Nexus 7, and for that device, the 16:10 aspect ratio was pretty good. The few times I needed a landscape mode (mostly watching movies on it on a plane for hours), it was fine, but it wasn't so skinny that I didn't like looking at articles like this in portrait mode. Now, I don't know if that scales differently on a 10-11" device.
Interestingly, for note taking on paper, I prefer normal A4 or 8.5x11, but on a digital tablet, I prefer something skinnier (like the 16x10 or 16x9 Aspect ratios). I think it has to do with the ease of scrolling in the interface vs. just picking up another piece of paper. Weird.
I suspect that this has more to do with re-using the existing manufacturing of the S3 and S2 Tab devices.
I love Android, but the current state of Android tablets is just sad. Apple puts an upgraded version of their phone SoC into iPad and treats it as a productivity device as much as media consumption one, working with developers to provide tablet-optimized apps. Meanwhile most vendors (including Google themselves) basically gave up on Android tablets in any segment above the very bottom, and even their attempts at making something high-end are laughable. This S4 tablet should be priced at 300$ to compete against the entry level iPad, and even then it would be a questionable choice. There are still almost no tablet-optimized apps on Android. The audio latency is still a joke. Touch latency lags behind Apple by miles. I find it really hard justifying buying android tablet over iPad at this moment.
I feel like I can get enough work accomplished on an Android phone that the advantages of the addition of an Android tablet don't really justify owning another device with overlapping capabilities. It's not about cost either, but more about a set of minor quibbles like having to move files between a phone and a tablet and fussing with keeping another battery charged up. Windows tablets seem more justifiable since they can fill a fundamentally different role due to the underlying x86 processor and associated software options so if I were going to dabble in a tablet, I'd want to go for a Windows one to hypothetically get rid of an existing Windows laptop.
Looks like I'll be sticking with the pixel c a while longer. I'm glad to see there is no hardware button on the front, and I love AMOLED screens, but I think it is ridiculous to make a tablet in any aspect ratio other than 4:3 or 3:2. I can deal with the pixel C's funky aspect ratio because it is close enough to the aforementioned ratios, but also has stock Android, which I vastly prefer over anything Samsung does.
Great job Sammy! Ridiculous pricing as usual! Especially for the accessories that would _potentially_ make a "high end" Android/Dex tablet useful.
This should have been equipped with 8GB RAM, UFS storage and an Exynos 9810 to be acceptable at this price and last long enough to make it a viable buy. You can even get away with selling the same model with the these specs for 2-3 years before the next refresh to make up development costs.
I mean, they really blew it. DeX would be THE solution to the Android tablet problem had they done it right. Shame.
I agree they should put the best processor(sorry fellow hippies, I will only talk about a "platform " when it starts raining pink frogs riding bikes), but compared to its predecessor it is a clearly superior proposition and it's battery capacity is not ridiculous anymore. In fact it is the best tablet Sammy has produced so far. They do make a mistake (like other companies) though, by trying to force consumers to phones and phablets. Now where does a comparison come from to the shitty apple devices it is beyond me. You must have either suffered severe brain damage or own apple stocks to even imagine such a comparison. Regarding, the "desktop capacity" of the tablet I think that it is normal, that it is lacking. No tablet will ever reach a laptop because they belong to a different power level. Hence all these atrocities( see ultra books) pretending to be laptop replacements, and in the same spirit all these laptop monstrosities pretending to be desktop replacements.
Apples iPads are the gold standard in the tablet space. Both their software and their hardware are heads and shoulders above the Android competition.
Comparing a newly released tablet with the tablet that technology- and UX-vise is the market leader is only natural.
As for the tablet as a desktop replacement, you’re making the common mistake of fanboys: Believing that your usecase is everyone’s usecase.
In reality, for the majority of users, a tablet (whether Windows, Apple or even Android) makes an excellent laptop (or desktop) replacement.
Surfing the web, writing emails, watching a movie, doing some office work or even playing some casual games are all things that a tablet is excellent at. In many cases it’s even faster than the computer it replaces due to the intuitive UI and OS cruft you always find on a “real” desktop machine.
Android has been a millstone around Samsung’s tablet efforts from day one.
They might have been better off, if they had tried to go the route of developing their own OS from day one.
Samsung is one of the few OEMs big enough to pull it off, and with the amount of software they develop on their own to put on top of the Android stack (Dex, Knox, etc.) it’s not like it would have been much more expensive.
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Sttm - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
4K HDR screen with 845, and I'd have considered it for $650. I have a 10 inch Amazon tablet and I'd like to get a better one, yet when I look around the high end ones look like total rip offs.If I want an OLED screen, I have to get a tablet that has the SoC the phone I replaced in March had. WTF!
lilmoe - Sunday, August 5, 2018 - link
This would have been a great candidate for the Exynos 9810 with adequate thermals and a non-gimped kernel; higher clocks and faster response in ramping them. But that might have added $20 to the BoM I guess, oh the horror.HStewart - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
First of all this is Galaxy Tab S4 and not Galaxy Tab 4 - I had a Tab 4 and this is much more powerful. I have a Galaxy Tab S3 and love it - pretty much use it every dayI would pick this over that Lenovo Windows for Snapdragron @#%
DanNeely - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
I'm baffled by their using last years SoC. It was quasi-understandable when they were doing that when their own chips in older models, especially when the old one was on a different process; and they were trying to get more out of something older before they started retiring/upgrading the production lines; but with them buying from Qualcomm this time there's no reason not to be using an 845.haukionkannel - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
They did got 835 cheaply... Good reason enough...But yeah... iPad is so far ahead in soc power that it is not even fun to see Android maker to handicap their devices by using old technology.
Maybe Samsun desided that it is better sell S4 at 650$ than 999$ (Or more) if They would have used 845? Now this is about the same price as old ipadpro (and slower than that) and cheaper than the new version of iPadpro so maybe this is their way of making the tablet cheap enough to be ”competative” even if would mean slower tablet compared to competition.
MrCommunistGen - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
I think the use of the Snapdragon 835 gives an indication for how long this tablet has been in development. It could also be an indication of how many resources the tablet team is getting for development (not many).I'd assume that getting all that DeX stuff working took a lot of engineering work.
puttersonsale - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
You know whats baffling, why couldn't they use their own exynos chip?It would have been much faster and not cost them as much, since its their own.
I was reading it had to do with their radio (wifi) connection....but could exynos wifi be that bad?
It sounds to me its more likely some business reason.
Vince789 - Friday, August 3, 2018 - link
Because the 835 is faster than both the Exynos 8895 and newer Exynos 9810https://www.anandtech.com/show/12520/the-galaxy-s9...
That being said for the price it definitely should have the 845 with 6GB LPDDR4X
GodHatesFAQs - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
I'd be curious to see whether this uses a PenTile subpixel arrangement or not. None of the Tab S (10.5), S2 or S3 did. They all had full S-stripe RGB pixels and they looked amazing. If they went back to PenTile here it's sadly a great display downgrade.Xex360 - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
It's a bit too expensive you can get a Surface pro, and given the state of Android on tablets (I have two of them) an iPad Pro is better.HStewart - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
I would agree about the Surface Pro - but I would disagree about iPad Pro. A while back I was thinking about iPad Pro - but to be honest the user interface is too dull for such a class tablet - I purchase a Samsung Tab S3 and use it every day, I like it so much I decided to switch my phone from iPhone 6 ( yes it older ) to Samsung Note 8.By the way when I was looking at iPad Pro - I ended up purchasing a Sasung Galaxy TabPro S. Full Windows tablet - but to be honest unless I doing work that requires windows application on my desktop - the Tab S3 is just simpler.
I would be curious about DeX stuff but it would never replace Windows Desktop applications.
Impulses - Friday, August 3, 2018 - link
Even Surface Go makes the value proposition kinda questionable here IMO...WorldWithoutMadness - Thursday, August 2, 2018 - link
Mmmm.... let's wait for surface go LTE price and people will know which is a more functional deviceEj24 - Friday, August 3, 2018 - link
Looks like they switched from 4:3 to 16:10. Shame. Portrait orientation will be pretty awkward and skinny on this one and landscape will be comically wide and short.fteoath64 - Friday, August 3, 2018 - link
True, all for cost cutting measure, I presume. 16:10 screens parts from old models, SD835 older cheaper chips etc. Just retrofit and viola, got a new model at what they think is a competitive price.erple2 - Sunday, August 12, 2018 - link
The only real experience I've had with a tablet was with the Nexus 7, and for that device, the 16:10 aspect ratio was pretty good. The few times I needed a landscape mode (mostly watching movies on it on a plane for hours), it was fine, but it wasn't so skinny that I didn't like looking at articles like this in portrait mode. Now, I don't know if that scales differently on a 10-11" device.Interestingly, for note taking on paper, I prefer normal A4 or 8.5x11, but on a digital tablet, I prefer something skinnier (like the 16x10 or 16x9 Aspect ratios). I think it has to do with the ease of scrolling in the interface vs. just picking up another piece of paper. Weird.
I suspect that this has more to do with re-using the existing manufacturing of the S3 and S2 Tab devices.
Barilla - Friday, August 3, 2018 - link
I love Android, but the current state of Android tablets is just sad. Apple puts an upgraded version of their phone SoC into iPad and treats it as a productivity device as much as media consumption one, working with developers to provide tablet-optimized apps. Meanwhile most vendors (including Google themselves) basically gave up on Android tablets in any segment above the very bottom, and even their attempts at making something high-end are laughable. This S4 tablet should be priced at 300$ to compete against the entry level iPad, and even then it would be a questionable choice. There are still almost no tablet-optimized apps on Android. The audio latency is still a joke. Touch latency lags behind Apple by miles.I find it really hard justifying buying android tablet over iPad at this moment.
PeachNCream - Friday, August 3, 2018 - link
I feel like I can get enough work accomplished on an Android phone that the advantages of the addition of an Android tablet don't really justify owning another device with overlapping capabilities. It's not about cost either, but more about a set of minor quibbles like having to move files between a phone and a tablet and fussing with keeping another battery charged up. Windows tablets seem more justifiable since they can fill a fundamentally different role due to the underlying x86 processor and associated software options so if I were going to dabble in a tablet, I'd want to go for a Windows one to hypothetically get rid of an existing Windows laptop.oRAirwolf - Friday, August 3, 2018 - link
Looks like I'll be sticking with the pixel c a while longer. I'm glad to see there is no hardware button on the front, and I love AMOLED screens, but I think it is ridiculous to make a tablet in any aspect ratio other than 4:3 or 3:2. I can deal with the pixel C's funky aspect ratio because it is close enough to the aforementioned ratios, but also has stock Android, which I vastly prefer over anything Samsung does.lilmoe - Sunday, August 5, 2018 - link
Great job Sammy! Ridiculous pricing as usual! Especially for the accessories that would _potentially_ make a "high end" Android/Dex tablet useful.This should have been equipped with 8GB RAM, UFS storage and an Exynos 9810 to be acceptable at this price and last long enough to make it a viable buy. You can even get away with selling the same model with the these specs for 2-3 years before the next refresh to make up development costs.
I mean, they really blew it. DeX would be THE solution to the Android tablet problem had they done it right. Shame.
IUU - Thursday, August 9, 2018 - link
I agree they should put the best processor(sorry fellow hippies, I will only talk about a "platform " when it starts raining pink frogs riding bikes), but compared to its predecessor it is a clearly superior proposition and it's battery capacity is not ridiculous anymore. In fact it is the best tablet Sammy has produced so far. They do make a mistake (like other companies) though, by trying to force consumers to phones and phablets.Now where does a comparison come from to the shitty apple devices it is beyond me. You must have either suffered severe brain damage or own apple stocks to even imagine such a comparison.
Regarding, the "desktop capacity" of the tablet I think that it is normal, that it is lacking. No tablet will ever reach a laptop because they belong to a different power level. Hence all these atrocities( see ultra books) pretending to be laptop replacements, and in the same spirit all these laptop monstrosities pretending to be desktop replacements.
V900 - Thursday, September 6, 2018 - link
Nonsense. Double nonsense in fact.Apples iPads are the gold standard in the tablet space. Both their software and their hardware are heads and shoulders above the Android competition.
Comparing a newly released tablet with the tablet that technology- and UX-vise is the market leader is only natural.
As for the tablet as a desktop replacement, you’re making the common mistake of fanboys: Believing that your usecase is everyone’s usecase.
In reality, for the majority of users, a tablet (whether Windows, Apple or even Android) makes an excellent laptop (or desktop) replacement.
Surfing the web, writing emails, watching a movie, doing some office work or even playing some casual games are all things that a tablet is excellent at. In many cases it’s even faster than the computer it replaces due to the intuitive UI and OS cruft you always find on a “real” desktop machine.
V900 - Thursday, September 6, 2018 - link
Android has been a millstone around Samsung’s tablet efforts from day one.They might have been better off, if they had tried to go the route of developing their own OS from day one.
Samsung is one of the few OEMs big enough to pull it off, and with the amount of software they develop on their own to put on top of the Android stack (Dex, Knox, etc.) it’s not like it would have been much more expensive.