GADGETS

Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S4 tries to beat the iPad at productivity

Samsung announced the new Galaxy Tab S4 tablet. The Tab S4 is being pitched as delivering “tablet mobility and PC power.” Unable to match the iPad’s selection of tablet-optimised apps, Samsung is going in the opposite direction: it’s positioning the Tab S4 as being able to offer legitimate productivity on the go. “Nobody’s quite cracked the nut when it comes to tablet 2-in-1 productivity,” is the line the company used to start off its presentation.

The Tab S4 features a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display (2560x1600) with a 16:10 aspect ratio. Its bezels are much slimmer than Samsung’s prior Android tablets, which means there’s no longer a home button. (Both iris and face scanning are available as authentication options in addition to the usual passcode.)

Galaxy Tab S4 is available with either 64GB ($650) or 256GB ($750) of built-in storage. An S Pen comes included in the box. Like Apple’s iPad Pro, it includes four speakers; Samsung says they’ve been tuned by AKG. The company is promising up to 16 hours of battery life. The Tab S4 will ship beginning on August 10th. Models with LTE connectivity will also be available. Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular will be offering the device. It comes in (very glossy) black and white options.

Attach the $150 Book Cover keyboard (it's not included) and the interface changes, letting you run multiple apps side by side and resize their windows, and even drag-and-drop content between them. Samsung will offer an HDMI-to-USB-C multiport adapter for a secondary display (also not included).

Samsung’s DeX, which transforms the user experience into a desktop PC-like environment, is built directly into the tablet’s software. “We can support up to 20 windows open simultaneously,” said one of Samsung’s executives during the product briefing. DeX can be used either with Samsung’s sold-separately $150 keyboard case or any Bluetooth keyboard and mouse you’ve already got.

DeX conveniently puts your recent apps right in the toolbar for quick access and lets you resize and move apps around as you'd like. DeX is actually a separate “mode” from regular Android and can be toggled on from the quick settings pulldown. It also automatically comes up when you dock the Tab S4 in Samsung's keyboard.

The Galaxy Tab S4 is a 2-in-1 tablet that's evenly split between tablet mode and PC mode, whereas Android and iOS tablets have always leaned heavy on tablet a interface, masquerading as a PC when a keyboard is attached.

While there is plenty here for mixed use of home and office, Samsung is also pitching this as a tablet for enterprise use such as retail or healthcare. This is also where Samsung's Knox security platform comes in handy for keeping data safe for these applications.

The Tab S4 runs Android 8.1 Oreo, includes 4GB of RAM, and is powered by a last-gen Snapdragon 835 processor. Its battery capacity is 7,300mAh. It’s also got 13-megapixel cameras on both the front and back. There's a USB-C port, headphone jack, microSD slot, and a pin-connector for the keyboard, which draws its power from the tablet.

Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, the Tab S4 is essentially an Android competitor to Windows 10 two-in-ones like the Asus NovaGo, HP Envy x2 and the Lenovo Miix 630. The big selling points for those are long battery life and optional LTE connectivity, so you can work anywhere.

Key Specs
- Snapdragon 835 processor
- 4GB of memory
- 64 or 256GB built-in storage; support for up to 400GB microSD cards
- 13-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front cameras
- 802.11ac MIMO Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0
- LTE version available
- Android 8.1 (update to Android 9.0 at a later date)