Samsung, ever tenacious and emboldened by its Android dominance, one again proved that they are not the one to give up without a fight. Yes, Samsung’s latest flagship mini-tablet, Galaxy Tab S2, targets the same segment of the market as the new iPad Mini 4 of Apple. The new slate with minor changes from the previous model, Galaxy Tab S, is available in two sizes, 9.7 inch and 8-inch.
Tablet’s Design
Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, with 8-inch length, 5.6 mm thickness and 265 g weight, is one of the thinnest and lightest tablets available in the world. You can easily hold it in one hand for long time, while watching videos and other purposes. At the same time it has enough weight not to end up blowing away in a slight gust. Even though Samsung doesn’t make much changes in this new model from the predecessor, its stellar design of metal and Gorilla Glass, gives it a new look. The back covered with plastic is kept in the hand with a nice grip. The nicely round corners gives Galaxy Tab 2 a premium look and feel, while the flat edges gives a provides space to rest the user’s fingers on the sides.
The power button, volume rocker and microSD card slot are positioned on the top right side of the Tab 2.You can insert the microSD card into the device by ejecting the tray with the help of small pointy object like a thick needle or paper clip. There are two speakers placed at the bottom of the Tab S2. A headphone jack and Micro-USB port are positioned between the speakers. On the bottom you can see slim bezels with a power button.
Its pleasing for security conscious users that a custom fingerprint scanner is built into the front-facing physical home button of Tab 2, which is a simple way to unlock the tablet securely. Instead of swiping your finger down the home button, you can unlock it by simply placing it on the top. The users can save upto four fingerprints. The device approves unlock or any specific actions only, if it recognizes the fingerprint of the user. So users, please try to keep your paws grime-free and dry.
Display
Samsung, just like in its all previous models, try to do its very well in display. The stunning Quad HD super AMOLED display of Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is quite impressive. It gives you a nice experience for every purpose like watching movies and photos as well as reading plain texts. The 8 inch 2048×1536, 320 ppi, touchscreen ensures high contrast ratio, sharp colors and inky blacks that make the video look almost 3D-like at times. The 2K video, Quad HD resolution and downscaled 4K clips make the device better than the competitive in the same category. The advantages of normal AMOLED screen offer deeper and richer black display by electrically charging the individual pixels to generate colors. As a result of this deeper black, the screen’s overall performance will be improved.
You can assure great brightness levels and uniformly deep and consistent black with the Galaxy Tab S2 display. The excellent viewing angles also make you happy. Adaptive display technology of Galaxy S2 enables the display to perform automatically in specific lighting.
Hardware
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 comes with an octa-core Exynos 5433 chipset clocked at 1.9 GHz and 1.3 GHz quad-core CPU. The device provides internal storage capacity of 32 GB, which can be expanded to 128 GB through a microSD card. Even though the company has declared the 64GB version will release soon, even though the date is not announced yet. The tests prove that the screens and apps can be opened and closed pretty fast without any issue. The connectivity options included in Tab S2 are Bluetooth 4.1 with low-energy function and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac MIMO.
Software
Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 that runs a Touch Wiz-skinned version of Android 5.1 Lollipop avoids tons of useless apps and half-baked features. Instead, the new model offers you plenty of Samsung apps like chat app AllTogether and S Translator etc. You can select your favorite apps from the galaxy Apps store, which is a better idea than stuffing your phone with junky software. The Tab S2 is also preinstalled with some pretty apps especially options like Microsoft options like OneDrive, Word and Skype. Even though the built-in web browser and email apps of the device is comparatively weak, we can easily replace it with Chrome and Gmail. Overall, we can’t see anything serious to complain about the software of Tab S2.
There is a new Connect app in Galaxy Tab S2, which is a hodgepodge of content and it contains three main sections such as support, discover and promotions. The Support Section consists of various FAQs on using the tablet and accessing video chat with a Samsung representative. There are tips and how-to information in Discover section like how to transfer data to Tab S2 from old phone. The Promotion section occupies music videos, movie trailers and discount details on other Samsung products etc.
Camera
Samsung, just like its other recent models, provides an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2.1 MP front-facing shooter in its new series, Galaxy Tab S2. The back camera comes with autofocus, which records 1440p video at 30fps. While compared to Samsung’s recent batch of phones, which have more powerful 16 MP cameras, it is not so impressive. However, Tab S2 succeeds in taking sharp, colorful pictures fairly quickly. Taking video is not the primary purpose of this tablet. However, you can capture some decent-looking footage with this camera.
Battery
The disappointing factor in Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, perhaps is its battery capacity. The device comes with a 4000mAh battery, which does not sound that much great. Based upon the tests, we can’t say that Tab S2 has a promising cell we’d hoped for.
Pros and cons
The bright and vividly colorful gorgeous quad-HD screen as well as the comfortable and ultra-compact rail-thin design is the main advantage of Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. Besides the built-in 32 GB of storage, it also provide slot for a microSD card to expand the storage capacity up to 128 GB. The other striking feature of this new device is fingerprint scanner that ensures a secure unlock to the tab. The front camera of 2.1 MP is not much appreciable. Even though the tab provides an 8 megapixel rear camera, it is not much recommendable for video shooting. The main drawback is the huge step down of battery life from last year. The company had to compromise of the battery life to make the device even thinner.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is not cheap, which start at $400 for the 32GB model. Galaxy Tab S2, addressing some the issues that consumers had with the previous model Tab S, provides a fast, powerful, svelte and good looking tablet. So, those who want an Android tablet for daily use, it is a worthwhile investment.