The heck with us, average users LOVE this tablet!

[Eddie Hicks]

The wifi performance on this 10.5 seems exceptionally strong.

It's the best I have seen in a tablet. I can sit in my yard over 100 feet behind my house and watch movies. But I also have a Netgear R 7000 router that is a monster.

Sent from my SM-T800 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

 

[theotherkindofcouger]

We here at xda are tinkerers and perfectionists. We care about esoteric things like benchmarks and measure load times by the millisecond. The slightest hitch and we can't sleep at night for the nightmares of lag monsters and stutter beasts. We flash the newest rom just to flash something new and risk burning our expensive toys up overclocking them until they BSOD.

But you know that the reality is we enthusiasts make up a tiny part of the market for this tablet. Read the reviews of everyday users at retail sites and they are THRILLED with the gorgeous screen, speed and functionality of this new marvel. They regularly comment that the Tab S is THE BEST tablet they have ever used...period. Most of them even like Touchwiz, god forbid.

And you know what? Samsung doesn't make tablets for us here at xda, it makes them for Joe The Jackhammer Operator and Suzy Homemaker. It makes them for average folks who would sooner watch paint dry as spend 5 minutes arguing technological nuance at xda.

So yeah, the Tab S isn't perfect (what is?) but for the folks it is designed for it's pretty damned close.

Ok let me preface this by saying, I am a moderate hacker and maker from the days when you could call Hong Kong for free by singing specific notes into a payphone. The new stuff I am still learning.

Here is what I know so far....

- Not quite half of the 16 gig of storage is taken up with preloaded apps you can not delete or move to an sd card (it will accept a 128 gig sd card.) Some of these are productivity apps like Evernote. I installed Pro Office suite (74+ Mg) and was disappointed that it would not move.

+ Snappy. The 3 Gig of ram makes a hugh difference in loading large programs and docs quickly.

+ Pretty. The amazing display is the biggest battery drain, but the lowest resolution setting is still great for everything productive and not quite doubles battery life. Keeping it on the lowest setting has me at 76% remaining battery power after 7.5 hours of running the internet connection thru blue tooth while installing apps, reading docs/web pages, watching TV shows like Bones. Having it on the highest setting had me at 45% after 6ish hours of running the internet connection thru blue tooth while watching TV.

+ Bluetooth tethering is supported by the device so all the apps (so far) that ask to use wifi will not know your using bluetooth. I returned a couple of other devices because with out that native support the app tries to force you to turn on wifi thus alerting your carrier that you are tethering without paying extra. With the built in support, you agree to the app using wifi but the GTS 8.4 routes it through the bluetooth tether so the app does not know wifi is off and works fine. Again this is an out of the box, apps from play store discussion. For me this was HUGH because I have an old unlimited data plan from Verizon running thru a rooted Droid X.

- Annoying for me... Samsung has replaced the menu key with a task manager screen allowing you to switch between apps quickly. The functions normally available from the menu button are scattered if available at all. I am sure I will eventually hunt the functions down but right now GRRRRRR.

Choppy humm... I am not an expert by any means but did anyone correlate problems by provider and type?? I did notice far more buffer lag using my AT&T wifi hotspot (4g) VS AT&T wifi from B&N (land connect.) Equal signal strength. I definitely think ya'll are on to something with the focus on wifi. Bluetooth tether to my rooted Droid X (3g) worked the best. Throttling meant I had to put the phones browser to amazons' tablet page and click on a different link in line up of fire products to bring the speed back up about once an hour.

 

[mitchellvii]

- Annoying for me... Samsung has replaced the menu key with a task manager screen allowing you to switch between apps quickly. The functions normally available from the menu button are scattered if available at all. I am sure I will eventually hunt the functions down but right now GRRRRRRR

I believe that just holding down the task manager button on your screen activates the menu for the home screen or the app you are in. Try it.

 

[kurosawa79]

I had a choice between the tab s or tab pro 8.4 and initially I was edging towards the s. The I found out that the s uses exynos and worse still, coupled with the Mali gpu, which while an ok setup the development for it is next to non existent. I know that your avg Joe does not care about root recoveries xposed aosp etc, but for you guys that frequent xda I'm curious as to why you opted for the s? The processor is marginally faster at certain tasks vs the snapdragon, it has a gig more ram....and that's about it. But you will likely never get aosp based Rom on the tab s and dev will be super slow. I opted for the pro in the end because of the above. Curious for you xda nuts....why s over pro????

 

[mitchellvii]

I had a choice between the tab s or tab pro 8.4 and initially I was edging towards the s. The I found out that the s uses exynos and worse still, coupled with the Mali gpu, which while an ok setup the development for it is next to non existent. I know that your avg Joe does not care about root recoveries xposed aosp etc, but for you guys that frequent xda I'm curious as to why you opted for the s? The processor is marginally faster at certain tasks vs the snapdragon, it has a gig more ram....and that's about it. But you will likely never get aosp based Rom on the tab s and dev will be super slow. I opted for the pro in the end because of the above. Curious for you xda nuts....why s over pro????

Dev is accelerating as we speak. We now have root, recovery, a kernel, 3 roms in progress and work on porting CM.

But other than that the obvious reason to go S is the super amoled screen. LCD simply cannot compete.

 

[kurosawa79]

Dev is accelerating as we speak. We now have root, recovery, a kernel, 3 roms in progress and work on porting CM.

But other than that the obvious reason to go S is the super amoled screen. LCD simply cannot compete.

Both screens looked the same to me in the shop, I really think it's a preference thing. Amoled seemed a little more vibrant and led a bit more subdued. I'm not a fan of Samsung's oversaturation in general but each to their own. I don't think it's really about not being able to compete...

AMOLED displays are dimmer than LCD displays, which affects outdoor visibility, also even tho AMOLED has awesome blacks, it has very bad whites, because using a combination of RGB is really dificult to produce white light, while LCD display, although blacks are kinda greyish, can produce much whiter whites. You've then also got the problem with AMOLED burn in and unnatural colors, especially with Samsung's traditionally bad calibration efforts (I.e. the more vibrant the better, despite things not looking natural)

Then again, screen tech I would never take into consideration when choosing a phone or a tab. Most high end equipment nowadays, led or amoled have decent screens. Dev environment is way more important for me.

 

[mitchellvii]

Both screens looked the same to me in the shop, I really think it's a preference thing. Amoled seemed a little more vibrant and led a bit more subdued. I'm not a fan of Samsung's oversaturation in general but each to their own. I don't think it's really about not being able to compete...

AMOLED displays are dimmer than LCD displays, which affects outdoor visibility, also even tho AMOLED has awesome blacks, it has very bad whites, because using a combination of RGB is really dificult to produce white light, while LCD display, although blacks are kinda greyish, can produce much whiter whites. You've then also got the problem with AMOLED burn in and unnatural colors, especially with Samsung's traditionally bad calibration efforts (I.e. the more vibrant the better, despite things not looking natural)

Then again, screen tech I would never take into consideration when choosing a phone or a tab. Most high end equipment nowadays, led or amoled have decent screens. Dev environment is way more important for me.

Well the screen technology in the Tab S is the same as the S5 and is a major leap forward over previous attempts at amoled. For me there simply is no substitute for the black levels (especially with text) achieved with the Tab S over the Pro line. As far as whites, my whites are perfectly acceptable to me. I measured a photo of my screen using my PC and it measured 255.255.255, i.e., perfect white. The screen is also very bright. When i looked at the Pro and S side by side in the store there was no comparison. The S was clearly superior.

But if you like the Pro better that's all good. It's cheaper and has more development.

 

[username243]

I would consider myself an average user and I love this tablet. I do not experience any lag but the first thing I did was install a new launcher. I don't go over the technical specifications of screens, but I go by the eyeball test and the S won. Long story short, but I ended up with $350 in Aamazon credit due to some of their screw ups. I decided to go for this tablet since it was only $50 out of pocket. Soon I will try my hand at rooting.

 

[pibach]

Both screens looked the same to me in the shop, I really think it's a preference thing. Amoled seemed a little more vibrant and led a bit more subdued. I'm not a fan of Samsung's oversaturation in general but each to their own. I don't think it's really about not being able to compete...

AMOLED displays are dimmer than LCD displays, which affects outdoor visibility, also even tho AMOLED has awesome blacks, it has very bad whites, because using a combination of RGB is really dificult to produce white light, while LCD display, although blacks are kinda greyish, can produce much whiter whites. You've then also got the problem with AMOLED burn in and unnatural colors, especially with Samsung's traditionally bad calibration efforts (I.e. the more vibrant the better, despite things not looking natural)

Then again, screen tech I would never take into consideration when choosing a phone or a tab. Most high end equipment nowadays, led or amoled have decent screens. Dev environment is way more important for me.

Main advantage I see is less parallax, display layer is closer to the surface. That just feels more natural. Also less reflections and outdoor readability should be improved (would welcome a side by side comparison)

 

[ScoopyDoopy]

I believe that just holding down the task manager button on your screen activates the menu for the home screen or the app you are in. Try it.

Thanks for this!

For me, one of the things that makes android so consistent is the fact that you can always find the options to something by pressing the same button. I thought Samsung or Google had removed this.

I do find it odd that so many features are hidden away somewhere and people don´t find them. e.g. Long press on the icons in the notification bar take you straight to the relevant settings page. Who would have guessed that

My 2c on the 8.4 while I´m here.

No lag at all, anywhere, incredibly fast, beautiful screen, great device.

Battery a little annoying so far. I find that power loss while idling is awful whereas turning wifi off makes it perfect. I set wifi to turn off while sleeping but it still gets turned on all through the night but I´ll fix that eventually I guess. In use though, battery life is pretty good.

My third generation iPad can be off for days and days without losing much power, my Samsung galaxy s3 phone used to be as bad as the tab S but is now fine so I fully expect to have the battery concerns gone in the near future.

Great tablet.

 

[mitchellvii]

Thanks for this!

For me, one of the things that makes android so consistent is the fact that you can always find the options to something by pressing the same button. I thought Samsung or Google had removed this.

I do find it odd that so many features are hidden away somewhere and people don´t find them. e.g. Long press on the icons in the notification bar take you straight to the relevant settings page. Who would have guessed that

My 2c on the 8.4 while I´m here.

No lag at all, anywhere, incredibly fast, beautiful screen, great device.

Battery a little annoying so far. I find that power loss while idling is awful whereas turning wifi off makes it perfect. I set wifi to turn off while sleeping but it still gets turned on all through the night but I´ll fix that eventually I guess. In use though, battery life is pretty good.

My third generation iPad can be off for days and days without losing much power, my Samsung galaxy s3 phone used to be as bad as the tab S but is now fine so I fully expect to have the battery concerns gone in the near future.

Great tablet.

Depending upon your needs there are now two 8.4 roms in development which should improve your experience even further. A Touchwiz based rom by a developer known for his theming and a CM based rom which will trim out all Touchwiz exclusive features such as multiwindow and sidesync but which will be very very fast. You can find those in development. Always make sure you are flashing the correct rom for your device and country. If in doubt ask and be patient. $400 paperweights suck.

 

[ScoopyDoopy]

Depending upon your needs there are now two 8.4 roms in development which should improve your experience even further. A Touchwiz based rom by a developer known for his theming and a CM based rom which will trim out all Touchwiz exclusive features such as multiwindow and sidesync but which will be very very fast. You can find those in development. Always make sure you are flashing the correct rom for your device and country. If in doubt ask and be patient. $400 paperweights suck.

Thanks again. I have been following the relevant threads and am impressed with the development. I have been rooting devices for some years so am familiar with and agree with your cautionary tone. I'll probably root the tab s some time if only to clear out the bloatware but have to admit that at the moment it is pretty damn food as it is !

 

[le0.br4zuc4]

I have a couple of tablet myself. iPad mini, Nexus 7, Tab S. I've had many tablet from Asus to Sony and I never liked a tablet as much as I like my Tab S. Battery life could use some improvements but the tab is amazing.

 

[UpInTheAir]

I have a couple of tablet myself. iPad mini, Nexus 7, Tab S. I've had many tablet from Asus to Sony and I never liked a tablet as much as I like my Tab S. Battery life could use some improvements but the tab is amazing.

Yeah. It's an amazing tab. With a few firmware updates I'm sure it'll be even better

I don't think anyone should be disappointed with battery life. Not the best, not the worst. .... But what does anyone expect from such a thin device and screen resolution ? Samsung could added an extra mm in thickness giving that extra capacity, but the current design is one of its many advertised features

 

[theotherkindofcouger]

Where would I find information about the ROMs? As a novice, I am hesitant because of the paper weight possibility. Is there a forum for locating someone I could pay to root and rom this tab s?

Sent from my SM-T700 using XDA Free mobile app

 

[kenkiller]

Where would I find information about the ROMs? As a novice, I am hesitant because of the paper weight possibility. Is there a forum for locating someone I could pay to root and rom this tab s?

Sent from my SM-T700 using XDA Free mobile app

Seriously, if you need to pay someone to root/rom it, you better not.

For sure there will be more "problems" or updates down the road that you will have to deal with.

 

[UpInTheAir]

Where would I find information about the ROMs? As a novice, I am hesitant because of the paper weight possibility. Is there a forum for locating someone I could pay to root and rom this tab s?

Sent from my SM-T700 using XDA Free mobile app

$1000 bucks lol



Read and research until your eyes bleed, then you might be ready. Expanding your knowledge would be of obvious benefit in the long run, and save your device (and nerves) a world of hurt. It's not difficult, we've all been there about to flash our new toy.

Seriously, if you need to pay someone to root/rom it, you better not.

For sure there will be more "problems" or updates down the road that you will have to deal with.

Exactly this.

 

[theotherkindofcouger]

Seriously, if you need to pay someone to root/rom it, you better not.

For sure there will be more "problems" or updates down the road that you will have to deal with.

Sent from my SM-T700 using XDA Free mobile app

That's just silly. I've had a rooted Droid X for years. The full point of having clockwork is to back it up so you can (software) break it and restore to fix it. Throw in an OtterBox and it is almost bullet proof. I have lost count of the amount of garbage the Play Store has pushed to my my phone that I have been able to eliminate through trial and error. god bless clockwork

Decades of Microsoft updates breaking what I want to use have convinced me that as long as you can bomb a device of any kind back to its original incarnation everything is gravy. I have rarely found an update I had to have. Most of the time they kill really useful features and give you BS candy in that place. There is always another way to achieve the supposedly needed security flaw protection.

 

[davedfx]

I had an Ipad Mini 1. Sold it after a month. Can't play HD videos smooth. Can't play many formats. Too much Apple restrictions. Expensive and no telephony features.

Owned Note 1, Note 2, Galaxy Mega 6.3 . Wanted bigger screens

Bought 7 inch China Ulefone 7" octacore dual sim. Very nice for the price but still wanted a bigger screen No capacitive backlight is a bummer

Tried 10 inch China phablets, way too big!!!

Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4. LTE. It's a very nice tablet when it's rooted. Was my main phablet for the last few months.

Galaxy Tab s 8.4 LTE. Was satisfied with my 8.4 pro until i saw it in person The screen, the slimmness and better build. Smaller size while retaining the same screen size. Just bought it and hope this baby will rock once i root this.

Main wish for this tablet is to have dual sim

 

[moSess]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YHXahMDDXJ8
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eqlAqk6om2s