First Impressions: Samsung Galaxy TabPro S Is A Definite Surface Pro 4 And iPad Pro Alternative


Samsung’s Galaxy TabPro S has just hit the United States and is available at certain Best Buy retail locations throughout the United States.

After seeing the device at CES in January, the Verge described Samsung’s latest tablet device as “like an Android tablet running Windows 10” and, overall, was thrilled about the tablet, especially its display.

“But the star of the show is unsurprisingly Samsung’s Super AMOLED display, which measures 12 inches diagonally and has a 2160 x 1440 pixel resolution. Its bright, colorful, and has great viewing angles, which will come as no surprise [to] anyone that’s used a recent Samsung smartphone.”

Samsung Galaxy TabPro S
The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S is a great buy for $899. [Photo via Daryl Deino]
At $899, the TabPro S really isn’t a desktop replacement, but it will do the job for most. It contains an Intel 6th generation Core M3 processor clocked at 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, and a 128GB solid state drive. This might turn off some buyers, but it’s hard to notice much of a difference running basic apps such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Evernote, Microsoft Excel, and many others.

More advanced programs such as Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS, and even InDesign CS don’t run as fast as they do on the Intel i7 version of the Surface Pro 4, but they certainly run adequately. If you are a blogger who occasionally needs to use office apps, edit pictures in Photoshop and stream movies while getting several hours of battery life, the TabPro S is all you really need.

One main reason to choose the Galaxy TabPro S over the Surface Pro 4 is battery life. Unless you use the Surface Pro 4 on the “Battery Saver” mode, the battery life is dismal. One hour of heavy use with the Galaxy TabPro S with the brightness set at 75 percent (which is pretty high for the Super AMOLED screen) only depletes 12 percent battery life.

If you aren’t looking for a desktop replacement and are even considering the Intel Core M3 version of the Surface Pro 4, you would be wise to purchase the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S instead.

What if you are looking at the iPad Pro instead to serve your blogging, office and multimedia needs? Unless you think Apple’s iOS mobile operating system is better than the full Windows 10 operating system, you’ll be making a huge mistake.

The iPad Pro has a bigger 12.9-inch screen, but the TabPro S’ 12-inch screen feels perfect. They both have roughly around the same pixels-per-inch (iPad Pro=264 and TabPro S=267), but the screen on the TabPro S is much better. Apple still uses LED displays for their tablets, unlike the Super AMOLED screen Samsung produced for the Galaxy TabPro S.

Apple iPad Pro
The iPad Pro has incredible speakers. [Photo via Daryl Deino]
Perhaps the only really better thing about the iPad Pro is the fact it has four mini-speakers that have heavy bass. The sound on the iPad Pro is so good that you can actually feel the device shake during a scene in a movie. The two mini-speakers on the Galaxy TabPro S are decent, but also sound tinny when compared to those on the iPad Pro.

The iPad Pro also has the Apple Pencil available for the device right now and it works decently. There is going to be a pen available soon for the TabPro X, which will be very useful on such applications such as Microsoft OneNote.

More time needs to be spent with the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S to determine if it really is the best tablet device of 2016 so far. But just five hours of use reveals that Samsung certainly has a winner on its hands.

[Photo via Daryl Deino]

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