#tabpro

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Samsung Galaxy TabPRO 8.4 vs LG G Pro 8.3 During the CES 2014, Samsung unveiled a series of TabPRO tablets, one of which is the Galaxy TabPro 8.4, an Android device whose high resolution puts it in the same league as the Apple iPad Mini Retina. A slightly … LG's Optimus UI is just as bright … Read more on AndroidPIT.com

Samsung “LeBron” (photo. Samsung) Samsung “LeBron” (photo. Samsung). Today,…

1st impression of the Samsung Galaxy NotePRO and TabPRO (Dutch)

Seriously though, we’ll try. Because we want to be as impartial as possible. As usual.

The Tab Pro 8.4 is like a breath of fresh air. And that’s saying something considering this is a Samsung product. Surely, them churning out similar looking devices with minor variances gets a little tiring for consumers? Their Touchwiz has remained largely unchanged throughout the years and their overall design choices have never been to everyone’s liking. This though, is also Sammy’s winning strategy so far. Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that these facts generally stays true for Samsung’s 2014 efforts. Touchwiz is still very much alive, build materials are still plastic all the way, And yet, there’s something different about the Tab Pro 8.4. We’re here to show you what the total package means to the consumer.

Specs that matter Display: 8.4 inch Super LCD, resolution 1600×2500 at 359 ppi OS: Android 4.4 kitkat Processor: Snapdragon 800, Quadcore 2.3Ghz Memory: 2 GBs of RAM Battery capacity: 4800 mAh Sensors: GPS, Infrared

Price: USD $369~

Display

+++++ gorgeous colours, wide gamut, and most importantly, colours that look natural.

+++++ 359 ppi is a very high pixel density and this means you’re never going to find any jaggies anywhere.

No black bars for 16:10 video clips

+++++ due to the display’s 16:10 aspect ratio, watching HD content is most suitable

Design

+++ slim form factor

- Samsung has swapped out their touch Menu button in favour of a multitask button. This speaks volumes about their confidence in the tablet’s multitasking capabilities (in multitasking memory management terms), and rightly so. The menu button is now an on-screen overflow button usually near the top right hand corner where ever it is required. The reason why this design choice receives a negative from us, is because you’re far more likely to use the menu than you are to switch apps using multitask.

— because the tablet has to house a display in a 16:10 aspect ratio, the general shape is elongated. The problem here is, if you’re holding the tablet in both your hands, in landscape mode, typing becomes very much a chore as you’ll most likely be required to stretch your palm and fingers beyond their comfort zone to reach some of the middle keys. While Samsung has made a somewhat resizable keyboard, the options are rather limiting and there’s no split keyboard mode.

—– Samsung could have made a more efficient use of all 8.4 inches of the tablet. It’s not particularly light to start with, and the weight isn’t in the build material, obviously. Together with an advantage in the overall size of the tablet, Samsung should have been able to put a higher capacity battery in there and thereby significantly raising the battery life rating.

Build quality

—– I have no problems with Samsung using plastics as stated above. But at least it’s got to adhere well to the chassis itself. The unit I had clearly has a faux metal rim that has a slight gap off the body, perhaps due to a combination of flex and quality of adhesives used.

—– the faux leather back is also another offending item. Again, not necessarily because it’s plastic. But the circular bonding areas on the internal side of the non-removable back cover are visible from an angle.

—– the faux metallic rim is not going age well. Our review unit gained a scuff mark within a few days, and it was never dropped.

Sound

+ the only thing that can be said of the tablet’s speakers is that it’s loud and clear- which for most, is actually good enough. It’s not particularly well-balanced as there is little bass to complement the rest of the audio range but it’s distortion-free at all volume levels.

– the stereo speakers are only slightly stereo since they aren’t particularly far apart, and they’re stereo only when you use the tablet in portrait mode. So now, do you think Samsung actually wants you to use the tablet in portrait mode? Even when one of its main strengths is displaying 16:10 HD media in landscape mode? One heck of a head-scratcher.

Camera

+ the camera UI remains largely unchanged from its previous generation. Once again, it’s functional, but not amazing.

Photo samples

Features and Software

+++++ Touchwiz Nature UX (Samsung’s launcher / skin on top of Android) has been overhauled quite extensively. We wish they could have rewritten the whole thing to rid it of lag but alas. The new Touchwiz leans a little more toward simplicity. Out of the box, there’s no in-your-face wallpapers, no multiple pages of apps in the app drawer and the Homescreen feels thankfully bland to start off with. New to Touchwiz is their Magazine UX. Now while we said we won’t compare the Tab Pro 8.4 to the iPad Mini, we do want to make a passing mention of HTC’s Blinkfeed. Because clearly, Samsung’s magazine UX has drawn heavy inspiration from them. Of course, you could argue Blinkfeed is basically just Flipboard. But Flipboard was never part of an actual homescreen, until Samsung put them there. Yes, Samsung’s Magazine UX IS Flipboard. baked into the launcher. So it’s not original. So what indeed. because it works well and provides users with convenience.

++++ Out of the box, Samsung already provides you with a fully capable Office suite. As well as various excellent tools for remote desktop, remote meetings and so forth. It’s enterprise-ready.

Hancom Office

E-meeting collection

Remote PC

++++ Multi-window mode has been improved to support more apps- both in terms of compatibility and the number of apps being simultaneously displayed (up to 3). What’s more, you can now pick up the divider and move it around to give more room to one side. AND, it now has a floating window mode! This is particularly useful for tablets with much screen real estate.

  +++ minor graphical touches, Samsung has added their own under shadows to icons in the app drawer. As a result, icons are that much more aesthetically pleasing and has a strong three dimensional effect. In fact, the combination of graphical treatment makes the icons look almost as though they’ve been pasted onto the display glass itself.

+ new S Finder app is handy for searching for content on the device. While Google Search allows you to search for certain things such as App name, song name, contacts; Samsung’s will search through the file contents, Settings, Images, Notes… pretty much everything.

—— various apps that should be there, are not. This, to the best of our understanding, is due to regional licensing restrictions. Though quite how these apps were once available in my region last year on the S4, and now isn’t- is anyone’s guess. Two examples: Samsung Link and Samsung Watch On. Link was actually a rather good bit of software that allows device to device and device to PC synching and streaming. WatchOn is basically a TV remote app that enables the on-device IR blaster to actually work with a TV. The biggest problem encountered here, was with the absence of WatchOn on our review unit. This meant that the infrared was completely useless on the Tab Pro 8.4- a bit of hardware without any sort of software to utilise it. This is ridiculous, Samsung. Fortunately, past usage experience says Peel (the company behind Samsung’s WatchOn) is what was needed to get the IR blaster working.  Unfortunately for Samsung, not everyone has used a Samsung device before. If this isn’t bad regional software management, I’m not sure what is.

—- the lack of a split keyboard mode renders typing difficult, uncomfortable in landscape mode

— magazine UX cannot be removed. At least one page of these tiles must remain on your homescreen. Tough luck if you’re not a fan of bitesized news tiles.

— whatever happened to Swiftkey’s excellent “Samsung Keyboard” from last year??

- while Hancom Office is very functional, getting it up and running can be a little fiddly as it requires a number of downloads and updates.

Performance

++++ 2 GBs of ram is plenty for 2014. The Tab Pro is able to multitask well in the sense that there is rarely a reload in sight. Even the usual suspects such as the default internet browser with multiple open tabs has no problems here.

+++ generally speaking, everything runs fast on the tablet. In fact, its Antutu benchmark score is quite impressive, even.

 —– LAG. not sure about Samsung adding more graphically when they haven’t yet solved the age-old lag in Touchwiz. Running regular apps is enough to cause launcher lag.  And then if you ring up the app drawer and you’ll see very clearly how those icon shadows suddenly pop into view a split second later. No longer is this aesthetically pleasing and all these graphical enhancements appears as though it was an after-thought. Something tacked on in the final hours of release.

Battery life

+++ refrain from gaming on the tablet, and you’ll make it past two days with moderate usage. This is quite fair for a tablet.

+++ in fact, as long as the display stays off, you’ll have great battery life. Sounds like a stupid thing to say but examples of such use cases may be you’re using the tablet to play some music. Such high power draw from the display could be the direct result of Samsung choosing LCD technology over AMOLED, and with such high PPI as well.

Also consider

that OTHER Mini tablet. from USD $380~