Samsung’s announced the local availability of the Galaxy Tab S, and I’ve spent a little time getting hands on with its premium iPad competitor.
You can check out the basic specifications here, or my more considered thoughts about premium tablets here
This isn’t a final review. That would be daft, because I’ve had about an hour to test the Galaxy Tab S in total. Consider this, as with any hands-on review, as early thoughts.
The model that I’ve had hands-on time with was, according to Samsung, a pre-production sample, and I certainly noticed that in terms of screen response, which should hopefully be a little better in the final units. Still, it is a nice, light, reasonably powerful machine.
I’ve shot some video which I’ll edit together and add to this a little later to give a visual perspective, but initial impressions of the Galaxy Tab S are generally rather good.
I had some hands-on time putting a 10.5″ 4G Galaxy Tab S through its paces against an iPad Air, and the general impression that I’ve got is that Samsung has a highly competitive tablet on its hands.
The build quality feels mostly on par. The screen is really quite crisp, although on the face of it the iPad Air’s colour temperature might be a little better balanced. Again, I’d need more testing time with a final unit to come to a proper conclusion.
Responsiveness with a few key applications was solid, but again this is a premium tablet. I’d be disappointed if it didn’t work smoothly across applications. I’m not a huge fan of Samsung’s launcher, but at least the Tab S is entirely free of the annoying dock bug that plagued Australian Samsung devices for so many years.
There’s no obvious sign of some of the premium Samsung software features premiered in New York, but I’m not entirely surprised there, and it’s always feasible they might appear on final units when they start shipping. At the very least, three months of Marvel Unlimited isn’t to be sneezed at from the geeky perspective.
In pricing terms, there will be six different models on sale in Australia from Monday 14th of July. If you want 4G, you’re stuck for whatever reason at 16GB of onboard storage, although it is microSD compatible to cover additional storage needs.
· Samsung Galaxy Tab S (8.4-inch Wi-Fi 16GB) – $479.00 RRP
· Samsung Galaxy Tab S (8.4-inch Wi-Fi + 4G 16GB) – $629.00 RRP
· Samsung Galaxy Tab S (8.4-inch Wi-Fi 32GB) – $579.00 RRP
· Samsung Galaxy Tab S (10.5-inch Wi-Fi 16GB) – $599.00 RRP
· Samsung Galaxy Tab S (10.5-inch Wi-Fi 32GB) – $699.00 RRP
· Samsung Galaxy Tab S (10.5-inch Wi-Fi + 4G 16GB) – $749.00 RRP