Rather than abandon Android tablets as others have executed, Samsung this 12 months bolstered its efforts by including a 3rd member to its Galaxy Tab S8 collection. With an enormous 14.6-inch show, the brand new “Ultra” mannequin has stolen the highlight from the Galaxy Tab S8+, the successor to what was beforehand Samsung’s premiere slate. With a much bigger, badder possibility in the marketplace, this sub-flagship mannequin not solely competes towards Surfaces and iPads, however now should justify its place amid cheaper and extra succesful Galaxy gadgets.

But don’t rely out the center youngster. We dubbed the earlier mannequin the “best Android tablet around” and the Galaxy Tab S8+ is far the identical machine. Amounting to a modest refresh, the Tab S8+ retains every thing we favored about final 12 months’s model and debuts a couple of welcome upgrades, together with an ultra-wide digital camera, an enhanced S Pen, and quicker internals. With that stated, in the event you’re available in the market for a pill for leisure and a few fundamental productiveness work, and don’t have $1,100 to spend, the Galaxy Tab S8+ is a compelling alternative.

The Galaxy Tab S8+ falls in the midst of Samsung’s pill trio when it comes to pricing, although don’t be fooled: it is a premium product. At $899 for a wifi mannequin with 128GB of storage, the S8+ is $50 dearer than the earlier model. Doubling storage to 256GB provides $80 whereas including 5G (Verizon solely, thus far) is a $200 improve. The S Pen is included within the field, however an optionally available Book Cover Keyboard Slim is one other $160.

First-rate {hardware}

Commanding such a excessive worth is a pill that feels each bit as refined as its smartphone counterparts. The rectangular slab is encased in clean “Armor” aluminum and flaunts Gorilla Glass 5 over a 12.4-inch panel that’s flanked by skinny bezels. Samsung claims the metallic will increase scratch resistance by 30% whereas making the again panel 40% much less susceptible to bending. I’m not going to check this out (and I like to recommend you don’t, both) however we are able to take some reassurance from these claims.

The Tab S8+ has an understated look; its surfaces are interrupted solely by discrete Samsung and AKG logos on the rear and a few distinguished antenna bands. There is a quantity rocker and energy button on the highest edge (in horizontal mode) and speaker grills flanking every finish with a USB-C charging port on the fitting aspect. Facial recognition for biometric login was speedy and an in-display fingerprint scanner is a superb backup, particularly when carrying a masks. The Pink Gold mannequin Samsung despatched me appears good, although this 12 months’s shade choices (Graphite and Silver are the opposite two) are a bit too conservative for my tastes.

All that stated, there are two predominant standout {hardware} options to this pill. One on the again is a black teardrop-shaped magnetic charging cradle for the S Pen. It droops down from the rear digital camera array and fees the pen when docked. The magnetic storage held the pen in place as I transported the Tab S8+ round my condo, however the accent acquired knocked free after I slid it into my backpack. Though it isn’t essentially the most safe holster, the magnet is a godsend for people like me who instantly lose every thing they contact.

It’s all concerning the show

The different spotlight—you guessed it—is the 12.4-inch, 2800 x 1752-pixel WQXGA+ AMOLED show. It is, in a phrase, magnificent. Bright (378 nits), detailed, and exuding wealthy colours, this panel is so beautiful, it’ll make you need to rewatch all your favourite motion pictures and exhibits on the Galaxy Tab S8+. And with a 120Hz refresh price, every thing strikes buttery clean.

Apart from the Ultra mannequin (and maybe the iPad Pro), there’s no different pill I’d quite end watching The Expanse on than this one, and it’s all all the way down to that AMOLED display. And so I did simply that, and it felt as if I’d shrunken my OLED TV and positioned it on my lap. Space was a deep, darkish abyss and the flashing crimson and blue lights contained in the Canterbury’s shuttle (the Knight) radiated off the notch-less display.

As a lot magic as Samsung put into this panel, there isn’t any overcoming physics. The larger the display, the larger the pill, and at 11.2 x 7.3 x 0.2 inches and 1.25 kilos, this slate is unwieldy. By that, I imply it’s unattainable to make use of your thumbs whereas holding it with each fingers, and carrying it with one hand requires a climber’s grip and a bodybuilder’s forearm. Also, Samsung continues to go for a 16:10 facet ratio, which is nice for content material viewing with out ugly letterboxing however makes multi-window setups really feel cramped.

Complementing the viewing expertise are spectacular AKG-tuned quad audio system. Ships shot via house with a grumble and I may simply perceive the numerous dialects in The Expanse, together with Belter Creole, a mish-mash of Earth’s languages. When I listened to Foxing’s “Go Down Together” and Kanye West’s “Street Lights” on YouTube Music, the sonics acquired caught within the midrange with the treble missing sparkle and the bass not giving a lot of a “thud.” The audio system had been clear and loud, although. What I can’t get behind is the shortage of a headphone jack particularly when a charging port is the one place for a dongle.

S Pen and Keyboard accent

If you’re utilizing the Galaxy Tab S8+ for work, the optionally available Book Cover keyboard is value contemplating. My first impressions weren’t nice—the keys are on the smaller aspect and there’s no backlighting. However, my appreciation for the accent grew the extra I used it to kind this evaluate. The keys have that low cost, high-pitched sound some would possibly discover acquainted, and they’re predictably shallow. And but, I loved typing on them because of their responsiveness, springy switches, and low actuation pressure (the energy wanted to register a keystroke).

My fingers effortlessly bounced from one letter to the following as I accomplished a standardized typing check in 111 phrases per minute, a barely higher consequence than my common. I did make extra errors than regular, which is probably going a results of these keys being considerably cramped.

Apple’s Magic Keyboard has its issues, however one benefit it enjoys over Samsung’s equal accent is that you could regulate the angle of the show. In distinction, the Smart Cover connects to the pill through magnetic pins and props the again panel up on a non-adjustable folding hinge. That fastened angle wasn’t a lot of an issue throughout my testing, but it surely did pressure me to alter my posture from time to time to get the very best viewing angles. One very last thing to notice concerning the keyboard accent: On the hinge is a useful magnetic stylus holder the place the S Pen firmly snaps into. It’s virtually unattainable to seize the pen as soon as the pill is docked so that you want to take action earlier than you progress the slate right into a ahead place. You can even hold the pen on the pill because the accent has a cutout for the magnetic holder.

About that included pen: it’s nice! It’s all the time been one of many higher stylii however it’s even higher now that Samsung lowered the latency from 5.6 to simply 2.8 milliseconds utilizing “prediction algorithms.” I by no means had any issues with the earlier S Pen, however that fancy approach permits digital ink to move out of the nib simply as it could from a bodily pen. As marketed, shade appeared instantly on the display as I dragged the stylus throughout the display as I drew an elementary-level image of a spaceship from The Expanse (OK so, I actually like this present). The pen saved tempo with my erratic scribbling and the flat edge makes its slender form comfy to carry.

On the again of the Tab S8+ is a dual-camera array with a 13-megapixel customary, a 6MP ultrawide lens, and a flash (which I exploit as a flashlight greater than a digital camera assistant). These lenses take first rate images with that signature Samsung look—sharp, a bit saturated, a bit clean, and really social media-friendly. The front-facing digital camera—the one that basically issues—has been upgraded to a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens so you possibly can match extra background or a second individual in your shot with out a selfie stick. It’s a pleasant replace as a result of holding this huge pill together with your arm outstretched is a shoulder train no person requested for. Another helpful video chat characteristic is Auto Framing, which zooms in on the speaker and zooms out when another person enters the body. It labored simply in addition to Apple’s Center Stage in my testing.

Fast efficiency and evolving software program

Powering the Tab S8+ is a Qualcomm Snapdragon Gen 1 SoC, a 4nm chip that Samsung claims improved CPU efficiency by 24% and GPU efficiency by 52% over the predecessor. In our personal benchmarks, the Tab S8+ with 8GB of RAM scored a 3,230 on the Geekbench 5 in contrast with the Tab S7+’s 2,850. In day-to-day use, I hardly ever encountered any sluggishness. I chatted with colleagues in Slack, opened dozens of articles, wrote a couple of tales, and listened to music, with none main points. Some issues took longer to load, and I ultimately hit a wall that instructed me I wanted to handle my dozens of tabs and home windows, however I believe solely energy customers will run into such points.

As for battery life, the Galaxy Tab S8+ lasted for 9 hours and 21 minutes on our video playback check with the display set to 200 nits and 120Hz. That’s an enchancment over the Tab S7+ and barely edges out the iPad Pro, which lasted for 9:02. You ought to get even higher runtimes dropping the panel all the way down to 60Hz, however Verizon prospects ought to watch out for 5G and its battery draining tendency. To save a penny, Samsung didn’t embody a charger with the Galaxy Tab S8+, an omission not even Apple is keen to threat.

So Samsung acquired the {hardware} proper—that a lot was by no means in a lot doubt. The actual query is whether or not Android, paired with DeX, presents sufficient performance to justify this pill’s excessive worth. To determine that out, I risked my job and used the Galaxy Tab S8+ via most of a workday. First, I wanted to put in a couple of issues. I began with Airtable, a collaboration software we use (much like Trello). To my nice shock, the software program wasn’t solely obtainable within the Play Store, but it surely was optimized for pill screens. Everything scaled properly and all the options I exploit had been there. The identical goes for Slack and all of Google’s apps, which make up the brunt of my workflow.

Where Android begins exhibiting some holes within the armor is with much less widespread apps and people meant for sure client segments. The images you see on this evaluate had been edited in Affinity Photo, an app obtainable on iPadOS however not on Android. In basic, although, I encountered extra issues with unoptimized apps than them being unavailable altogether. Social media apps like Instagram and Reddit don’t work in panorama mode (DeX mode flips them however they seem as phone-sized home windows); Amazon’s Prime Shopping app has bloated, low-res pictures; and a number of other apps—particularly video games—don’t scale correctly.

I don’t need to overstate the app scenario on Android tablets. It’s worse than the iPad, however actually not unhealthy. Most of the apps I downloaded labored simply fantastic: I streamed exhibits on Netflix and Prime Video, seemed for a brand new place to reside on Zillow and Realtor.com; and saved tabs on work utilizing e mail and chat apps. And let’s not neglect all the helpful Samsung apps and Galaxy ecosystem options, like fast pair for Galaxy Buds or straightforward copy/paste between gadgets.

Those software program holes I discussed are partially patched by DeX, Samsung’s customized desktop interface. If you haven’t used it earlier than, putting the Tab S8+ in DeX from the devoted keyboard button or notification pane transforms the cellular Android interface into one thing that appears extra like a Windows or Chrome OS system. This is the place you go to work as a result of DeX provides some helpful multitasking features, together with a multi-window split-screen with adjustable layouts and a standard taskbar.

DeX solely does a lot to cover Android’s flaws, however on the horizon is one other potential saving grace: Android 12L. Samsung instructed Gizmodo it was dedicated to bringing Android 12L—an upcoming OS spinoff for large-screen gadgets—to its Tab S8 tablets. The OS is at the moment in beta and is slated to reach early this 12 months, so we’ll quickly learn the way far Google’s efforts go towards eliminating the hole that exists between the pill experiences on Android and iPadOS.

Should you purchase the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+?

This pill falls squarely within the “I would love to own but can’t justify buying” class for me. I’d as a substitute spend $1,000 on a laptop computer understanding it may deal with my workload and helps all the packages I exploit. Then once more, the Galaxy Tab S8+ is ultra-thin, flaunts top-notch {hardware}, and has a nicer display than absolutely anything else on this worth vary. For these causes, the Galaxy Tab S8+ makes for a wonderful alternative for anybody needing a pill to look at motion pictures or play video games. And with DeX, you possibly can even get some work executed, and in some methods, extra successfully than you possibly can on an iPad.

That stated, the Galaxy Tab S8+ suffers a bit from center youngster syndrome the place the Plus mannequin is neither essentially the most premium nor most inexpensive possibility. Those wanting the perfect media consumption pill can be drawn to the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra whereas Android customers in search of a extra inexpensive various ought to take into account the bottom mannequin. At the chance of stating the apparent, you need to solely take into account the Tab S8+ if the Ultra is both too massive or too costly.