At a time when plenty of affordable tablets are dished out in the Indian market almost every month, it is a rare sight to see a premium tablet being launched in the market. No wonder, we were pleasantly happy to note when Samsung quietly got its Tab S2 in India. Surprisingly, only the 9.7-inch model has been made available in India while at the recently held unpacked event, the company had showcased the 8.0-inch variant as well.
Design and Build
One look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and it is hard not to fall in love with it. It has a clean design. In the past, Samsung has been criticised for using or plastic in its smartphones and tablets. With the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, the Korean cheabol demonstrates how it can make it work best for you. The build quality is excellent.
There is a soft touch back that feels nice to hold. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is just 5.6mm thick and the Wi-Fi only model weighs 389 gram while the LTE+Wi-Fi model weighs 392 grams and it feels light and comfortable enough to hold in one hand.
Most of the front is taken up by the display. Just below the screen is a single physical button, which is the home key and also doubles as the fingerprint scanner. On its either side are two touch sensitive buttons, the right one to enter the multi app mode and on the left is the back key. At the top right hand edge is the power button and volume rocker alongside the SIM tray and microSD slots. Overall, it is very balanced device in terms of looks.Display
While we could not help fall in love with design of the tablet, it is the display that stole our hearts. The Galaxy Tab S2 comes with a Super AMOLED display with resolutions of 1536 x 2048 pixels. It offers up to 320ppi on the 8-inch model while the 9.7-inch that we got for review offers 264ppi, which is not too bad either.
The pictures were rich and fonts smooth. However, there were two issues with the screen: the display was reflective and a fingerprint magnet.
Performance
At the heart of the device is an Octa-Core processor in which four cores are clocked at 1.9GHz and the rest are clocked at 1.3GHz. Giving it company is Mali-T760 GPU and 3GB of RAM. There is 32GB of internal memory, which can be expanded way up to 128GB via microSD card. The device runs on Android 5.0.2 (Lollipop) along with a layer of TouchWiz UI.
In terms of the processor, the device supports the exact horse power as the Galaxy Note 4, but that does not seem to impact the performance of the device in any way.
The multi-tasking experience was butter smooth and it seems to manage to do all tasks that we throw at it with almost negligible lag. The transitions are slick. We were also pleasantly surprised to find no real bloatware on this tablet.
However, we would like to point out that it does come with an entire suite of Microsoft apps that are nestled right on the home screen. Guess with the help of this Samsung wants to make it abundantly clear that is a great productivity device. However, I am not a big fan of typing long documents on a touchscreen keyboard and hence, I prefer adding a Bluetooth keyboard and even a mouse to make full use of the office experience.
Also, there is an option to expand the memory all the way up to 128GB, which means you can save tons of movies and photographs on this device without having to worry about space.
The original, Galaxy Tab S (9.7-inch), Samsung shipped a 7,900mAh battery while the current generations' 9.7-inch model comes with 5,870mAh battery. With the help of the same we were about to get about seven hours of video playback time. It is really shocking to see that while most companies are looking to add more battery power in their successor, Samsung is indeed stripping it down!
The fingerprint scanner on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is pretty easy to setup. In fact, while you are setting up the tablet, it gives you an option to add fingerprint recognition for extra security. In terms of accuracy, it seems to do a decent job.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera while the front is adorned by a 2.1-megapixels one. The camera app on this tablet seems to be much like the one that we have seen on the Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Coming back to the rear camera, it offers autofocus and can record 1440p video at 30fps. In well-lit conditions, the camera manages to capture good pictures with almost no lag. While in indoor setting you have to play a little head to the lighting and exposure to manage to get decent shots.
The front camera on the Galaxy Tab S2 also manages to an average job.
Likes
The best part about the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is the display. It was a sheer delight to watch movies and play some rich games on this tablet. Also when coupled with a Bluetooth keyboard it transforms into a great companion for globe trotters who want to carry something slick.
And yes, not to forget that it is blessed with great look and a solid build.
Dislikes
While there is plenty going for this tablet, but we sure have to admit that this baby is not easy on the pockets. Also we would have hoped to have a better backup from a tablet of this magnitude.
Verdict
Given that Samsung Tab S2 is a premium tablet, it is definitely going to be compared with the Apple iPad. Add to it the fact that Samsung has opted for a 4:3 aspect ratio for the Galaxy Tab S2, we have little doubts that it will be seen as a direct competition to iPad Air 2. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 costs Rs 39,400 and we think that it is slightly overpriced.
What the Galaxy Tab S2 has going in its favour is its good looking Android device with some decent specs. However, we still feel that it is slightly underwhelming on the battery front.
About Author
Hello Reader, i am Angel, CCNA Security And CEH v9 Certified.
Working as a freelancer Ethical Hacker And Information Security
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