Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 - Review 2022

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 (32GB), the world's most powerful Android slate, is a perfect example of the "pro tablet" dilemma. Much like Apple'southward 9.7-inch iPad Pro, this is a tablet that's priced like a laptop, but its mobile operating system holds it dorsum when it comes to productivity. Its saving grace is the S Pen, making the Tab S3 bright for sketching and annotation-taking—but that may not be worth $599.99.

We've been downwards this road before. Android- and iOS-powered tablets make terrific media consumption gadgets, and their respective styli allow them dip into productivity. Apps that look and feel similar Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and other high-terminate creator titles appear on the Apple tree and Google Play app stores. Just they lack the full functionality you get from Windows. That's fine when you lot're paying less than you would for a like Windows tablet, only once you get into the $600-$800 range, you lot don't want to have to make compromises.

Physical Design

The Galaxy Tab S3 is a big, argent slab with a glass back. At 9.35 by 6.65 by 0.23 inches (HWD) and 15.ane ounces, it's slightly thinner and lighter than the nine.seven-inch iPad Pro (9.40 by 6.60 by 0.24 inches, 15.four ounces).

That drinking glass dorsum makes me nervous. It'south pretty enough, just I don't see the point, other than making the tablet more breakable. After all, the Galaxy Tab S2 has a nice matte dorsum, and the iPad line does just fine with metal. The glass here is Gorilla Drinking glass 4, and information technology's not slippery, which is well and good, only information technology really feels like a potential indicate of failure.

The front and rear cameras are both positioned to exist used in portrait mode. On the bottom, there'south a USB-C charging and syncing port that supports Qualcomm Quickcharge 3.0 and a three.5mm headphone jack.

The 2,048-by-1,536, 9.7-inch screen appears identical to the ane on the Galaxy Tab S2. Information technology has the perfect blacks and brilliant colors that but AMOLED can produce, and makes iPads feel a little washed out. Samsung says it supports HDR, but right now the just examples of HDR you tin observe are a few streaming videos on Amazon; in that location just isn't plenty content for this to be a meaningful feature notwithstanding.

Performance

The Tab S3 runs Android seven.0 Nougat on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM. That's far more powerful, processor-wise, than the bit in the Galaxy Tab S2 (a Samsung Exynos), and you tin meet the difference primarily in gaming frame rates: On the GFXBench Manhattan test, the new tablet gets 33 fps where the old 1 got 7. Better graphics and processor performance also contribute to the butter-polish feeling of using the South Pen in drawing and note-taking applications. Faster processor performance isn't actually perceivable in other uses, such as the browser or part apps.

This is, obviously, non stock Android—is it ever?—merely Samsung has really dialed dorsum the bloatware. The redundant web browser and music histrion are gone, in favor of Google'southward options. Samsung's proprietary dual-window multitasking still has a few useful features added in: Quick Connect lets you fling content to TVs and set-top boxes that support it, and y'all tin download a free Kids Style for parental controls.

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Samsung Flow lets you share content and show notifications from a Samsung phone on the tablet or the Samsung Galaxy TabPro Due south PC. But as very few people have a TabPro S, it ends upwards being much less useful than Apple tree's Continuity, as it'due south unlikely to work on your desktop.

The Tab S3 we tested is a Wi-Fi-only model, although carriers volition sell an LTE version in the hereafter. Wi-Fi operation was absolutely spectacular in testing, especially on the 5GHz ring, where I got faster uplink than on the Galaxy Tab S2. The tablet supports dual-band 802.11ac.

The tablet only comes in one memory size, 32GB, of which xviii.5GB is gratuitous. You tin can add a microSD carte du jour to a slot on the side to provide up to 256GB more storage, only you can't apply Google's Adoptable Storage to merge that with internal storage.

Battery life is excellent on the 6,000mAh cell: We got nine hours, nine minutes on our video streaming test, which outpaced the v and a one-half hours we saw with the iPad Pro. And that was at full screen brightness, which is very, very bright; y'all're more likely to use the tablet at half effulgence, where it would surely outlive its promised 12 hours.

Southward Pen and Keyboard

You're here for the Due south Pen. While you can go a great media consumption tablet for $200 less than the Tab S3, Samsung'southward Wacom-powered plastic pen sets this slate autonomously from both competitors and its predecessor.

The included S Pen is a flattened oval with a 0.7mm tip and an activeness push on the side. Considering it's flattened, it doesn't roll abroad. Serious pen users, though, should spring for the Staedtler S Pencil, which looks and feels just like a archetype European pencil. Unfortunately, we don't have a date or toll for that accompaniment yet.

I found this to exist the most authentic iteration of the S Pen ever: In OneNote, Evernote, and Autodesk Sketchbook, information technology didn't drop any lines or dots tapped on the screen. It'southward definitely force per unit area-sensitive, with pressure showing up in a wide range of art apps, just it isn't tilt-sensitive. For taking notes, it'due south superior to the Apple Pencil because it'due south lighter and less fatiguing. It'due south besides cheaper to supersede, at $79 vs. $99, and has no battery, so it doesn't demand to exist charged.

Irritatingly, in that location's nowhere to stash the S Pen unless yous get the $129 keyboard case (pictured hither), which has a loop on the side that the pen tucks into. The loop does non fit the S Pencil, which slides out of information technology. For the record, Apple also doesn't offer a identify to put your Apple Pencil, but Samsung didn't need to repeat that mistake.

The keyboard case connects via magnet and has clicky keys. It'due south a iv-row keyboard with defended number and arrow keys, which is great, but the keys are only a bit likewise modest (at but nearly a one-half-inch broad each, as compared with around five-eighths of an inch on a total laptop or desktop keyboard) for long typing sessions.

Sound and Video

Samsung, like Apple, went for quad speakers here. The speakers can tell which rotation you're in; the pinnacle ones play "near field" sound and the bottom ones "far field," to give yous a sense of infinite. They're 6db louder than the Galaxy Tab S2's speakers, merely I even so found them to be noticeably tinny rather than rich. Besides, if you're property the tablet in landscape mode, you're probably blocking two of the speakers with your easily, a problem that most tablets (including Apple tree's) have.

The Tab S3 has a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel front camera. The primary photographic camera records 1080p and 4K video in any lighting conditions. The front end camera likewise does well with 1080p and 4K video, so video chatting is not a trouble.

Nevertheless pictures are some other story: We weren't impressed with either camera. Photos taken with the main camera often looked like they had a haze or veil over them, prompting u.s.a. to wipe the lens, which didn't help. The front-facing photographic camera showed heavy artifacting when we looked at photos pixel for pixel.

Comparisons and Conclusions

No other Android tablet has the Galaxy Tab S3's specs. But no other Android tablet (except for the occasional Sony slate) has the Galaxy Tab S3's price. At $599.99 (or $729.99 with the keyboard), the Tab S3 competes with not only the iPad Pro, but with Windows detachables like the Lenovo Miix 510 and the Acer Switch Alpha 12, and that's where information technology runs into trouble.

The Tab S3 makes a nifty media consumption, sketching, and note-taking device. For pure media consumption, though, you might too go for the Asus Zenpad 3S 10 or the new iPad and relieve yourself $200 or more. For true productivity, meanwhile, Android still feels weak and crippled compared with the full Windows versions of apps similar Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Part, and even web browsers that include Flash and Coffee. The iPad Pro faces the same dilemma.

Then, I'll repeat: You're here for the Due south Pen (or even better, the Southward Pencil). The Milky way Tab S3 is ready to capture your ideas, bubbling over in script or image. For media consumption, get with a less expensive option. For true productivity, get Windows.