Samsung Galaxy TabPro S review
Samsung’s latest attempt at a a laptop and tablet in one device is the Galaxy TabPro S. See what we make of it in our full review after it was premiered at CES 2016.
Our Verdict
The TabPro S is undeniably a beautiful and capable piece of hardware and it can be a joy to use. The problem is, it’s not a joy to use all the time. The 2-in-1 form factor can work, and we still think that the Surface Pro 4 is the best example of this, thanks to its build quality and integrated kickstand. The TabPro S is an excellent computer, but it remains frustrating that it doesn’t always excel in being one. Hopefully Samsung will consider improving simple things like the stand on the inevitable sequel if it is to continue to charge this much money for it.
We live with an abundance of technology. From the computers on our desks and on our coffee tables to the phones we are glued to throughout the waking day, there are just so many devices clamouring for our attention. The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S is one of them and a bad name for what is actually a great Windows tablet – it’s the Korean firm’s Surface Pro 4 rival. Here’s our full and in-depth Samsung Galaxy TabPro S review. See also: Best convertible laptops and tablets 2016.
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S: Price and competitors
The first and most obvious barrier to well-specced machines like the TabPro S actually selling is the price. It costs £849, which is an awful lot for something that doesn’t act fully as a laptop or fully as a tablet.
The upside, in comparison to rivals like the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and the iPad Pro, is that that price includes the keyboard cover attachment. The least you can spend on a Surface Pro 4 with the keyboard cover is £858.99, while the cheapest iPad Pro with the keyboard costs £628.
Remember though that the iPad runs iOS, a mobile operating system whereas the Microsoft and Samsung both ship with the full desktop version of Windows 10. Also see: Best Samsung phones 2016: What is the difference between Galaxy Note, Galaxy S, Galaxy A and Galaxy J?
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S: Design and build quality
There’s no denying that £849 gets you a stunning piece of hardware. The TabPro S is acceptably thin and light for a 12-inch tablet measuring 11.43″ x 7.83″ x 0.25″ without the keyboard attached. and it gives away its laptop aspirations by the logos and camera favouring landscape use. This is somewhat hard to get used to if you’ve done all your tablet use on an iPad, say, which are all first and foremost portrait orientated devices.
Using the TabPro in portrait feels slightly odd, the screen is slightly too stretched and it feels a bit too monolithic. The bottom edge of the device has magnetic connections and contacts to attach it to the keyboard. When attached, the TabPro becomes much more usable. We’ve barely used it like a traditional tablet.
The sturdy tablet clicks satisfyingly into the keyboard but it’s a bit disappointing that the magnetic flap that holds the device in two typing positions is less than reliable. We found on several occasions that gently tapping the screen to select or scroll sent the whole thing crashing down in a heap of metal and lost connections. This is a flaw for a device that wants to be a laptop – you won’t want to use it on your lap unless you fancy going insane with frustration.
That’s a real shame, because when you plonk it on a desk and get typing, the TabPro S keyboard is truly excellent. The keys have no spaces between them in order to fit a full Windows keyboard and surprisingly good little trackpad. We found it easy to adjust from Apple and Windows PC keyboards despite the differences.
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S: Hardware and specs
At 12in the screen is larger than most tablets but this make sense for the Galaxy TabPro S since it’s taking on devices like the Surface, which are designed with productivity in mind. The screen uses Samsung’s favoured Super AMOLED technology and has a crispy 2160 x 1440 resolution. There are two 5Mp cameras, one being the forward facing camera for video calling and gratuitous selfies, and the back to never be used by anybody except tourists at Traflagar Square.
Inside is an Intel Core M3 processor (6th generation Skylake) which is 2.2GHz and dual-core, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. If you’re buying this as a consumer then you get Windows 10 Home, but the sample we have been using is actually Windows 10 Pro – most likely the option that ships to businesses if and when they buy a fleet of them. Here’s our write up of the differences between the two.
Other internal specs include NFC, 11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS and there’s also LTE Cat 6 listed although you can choose a Wi-Fi only model if you don’t need a cellular data connection – the base model is Wi-Fi only.
Samsung has chosen a USB Type-C port, much like the MacBook, HTC 10 and a few other gadgets released in 2016. It’s a shame that there’s no full-size USB port so can’t easily use a memory stick or a wired mouse etc but Samsung has an answer – sort of. An optional accessory, along with a stylus (which we unfortunately couldn’t test), is a multi-port adapter that provides HDMI, USB Type-A and USB Type-C ports. It’s £64. Which sucks.
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S: Software, performance and battery life
The real deal breaker with hybrid devices like this is the level of harmony between the sometimes-flaky hardware setup with the software. The TabPro S, we reckon, has an advantage over the iPad Pro because it runs the full version of Windows 10. This is a godsend on the one hand because you really can just turn it on and use it like a computer – it is a computer. On the other hand, you don’t always feel as though you’re using one, such is the annoyance of the thing flapping about and not having a mouse.
Out the box we were up and running in no time, installing various programmes such as Google Drive, WhatsApp, Spotify and Office (though it’s a shame that for nearly £1,000, subscription to Office isn’t included). We still prefer this approach rather than installing Windows 10 apps, because Windows 10 apps are largely unrefined. It’s simply easier with the TabPro to use desktop programmes and browser tabs like you would on a desktop machine.
Performance is pleasingly zippy and akin to how we find other Core M devices like the Surface Pro 4 or the MacBook. The only time it really slows up is when you have too many Chrome tabs running, which is then more of a memory problem, but with 4GB you won’t really come into much trouble with day-to-day use. It’s certainly excellent for word processing, web surfing and emailing. When things were up and running, we found the TabPro a genuinely pleasing device to work on.
Samsung promises 10.5 hours of power from the bundled fast charger after a 2-hour or so full charge. This was disappointingly far from what we got out of the TabPro. When using it as our main work laptop over Wi-Fi with push notifications for several programmes, writing and several browser tabs open with brightness on just 25%, we watched the battery bar deplete with alarm.
We were not confident to go anywhere without the charger, which is not the case on most tablets we’d ever used. Then again, you have to consider that this is a smaller tablet battery straining to run a full computer operating system. Something has to give, and disappointingly for the sleek, capable, portable TabPro S it’s battery life. This is a familiar failing in modern technology.
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S: Can it really be used as a laptop?
In terms of using the TabPro S to replace your laptop, the straight answer is yes, it can. You gain the advantage of a touchscreen and portability, though some ultrabooks are slimmer and lighter (though cost extraordinary amounts). As long as you’re using it on a flat surface, there shouldn’t be any reason why you couldn’t use this as your main machine for work or play – except there’s one really annoying caveat.
The TabPro uses USB-C to fast charge with the bundled charger, but the cable is maddeningly short at only 1m long. Most laptop charging cables are several metres long and for a device supposedly for all day work use, we found we couldn’t actually plug the TabPro in at desk level, so short is the flex. For a device that also in real world use got nowhere near the promised 10.5 hours of battery life, this was a big issue that actually stopped us using the device whenever we wanted.
Specs
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S: Specs
- Windows 10
- 12in Super AMOLED (2160×1440)
- 6th Gen. Intel Core M processor (Dual Core 2.2GHz)
- 4GB(RAM)
- 128GB SSD
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac MIMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- NFC
- Bluetooth 4.1
- 5Mp rear camera
- 5Mp front camera
- LTE Cat 6 (optional)
- 6.3mm
- 693g
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S review
The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S is a knockout 12-inch Windows 10 tablet with a vibrant screen, but it’s in dire need of a stronger keyboard base.
Cons
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Samsung has played in the tablet space for a long time and even longer in the world of Windows laptops. Now, with the Galaxy TabPro S, the South Korean electronics giant has introduced a Surface Pro 4 rival that also aims to take down the iPad Pro with the full-fat power of Windows 10.
The 12-inch slate is insanely thin and features an extremely vibrant, Super AMOLED display that beats the pants off of almost every Windows device before it. That said, with only an Intel Core m series processor and limited memory, it lags behind some of the best Windows tablets on the market, like the HP Spectre x360.
Design
There’s no overstating how incredibly thin this tablet it is. Measuring just 0.25 inches (0.63cm) thick, the TabPro S is thinner than Surface Pro 4 by a substantial margin, and by a smaller measure, the iPad Pro.
It would be easy to mistake the TabPro S for an Android tablet, as it’s almost as thin as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. It bares more than a striking resemblance, too, with a similar shape and minimalistic design down to the small camera hump on the back.
Of course, the major difference is the TabPro S is running with a headier CPU and Windows 10 where you might have expected Android to be.
This Windows tablet also, sadly, is not built with the same magnesium unibody design as the Tab S2. Instead, the TabPro S features a magnesium frame and plastic back. Materials aside, the 12-inch slate feels sturdy and light enough to hold upright for hours on end.
The bezels are a little large by today’s standards, especially with those on the side being nearly an inch thick. However, it’s forgivable, since these little areas help to actually hold the tablet without triggering the touchscreen.
Weak bonds
While the TabPro S is an impressively thin and beautifully constructed Windows tablet, the included keyboard base is too flimsy to keep this 12-inch tablet standing.
Like most tablet covers, this folding keyboard folio sticks onto the Samsung’s tablet using magnets built into both the case’s sides as well as a magnetic anchor above the keyboard.
On one end, a pliable, segmented panel covers the back portion of the tablet and kicks out to extend the base. The bottom of the tablet, meanwhile, clips into a tilting, magnetic strip above the keyboard to hold it either a 115- or 155-degree standing position.
Tilting the screen between these two angles is annoying, as you need to gingerly separate the tablet from parts of the magnetic case while preventing the whole thing from coming apart. No matter how careful you are, you’ll quickly realize the thin back cover isn’t strong enough to hold the tablet in place.
The rear cover often slips out of alignment easily, causing the tablet to tumble onto its back, and on more than one occasion I had to catch it before crashing onto the floor. You can also forget about using the keyboard while lying back, as the tablet easily peels forward and falls flat on its face.
While these magnets are strong enough to support 10-inch Android tablets, with a larger 12-inch device that’s not necessarily the case. Specifically with the TabPro S, it’s more like cradling a baby who can’t keep its head up.
The ultimate downfall of this case is you simply can’t just flip the keyboard behind the screen to use it as a Windows tablet. Doing so will cause the device to fall asleep, thanks to a magnet built into the lowest panel segment covering the back of the tablet.
While you can flick the device back on, the NFC tag built into the left side of the keyboard rubs against the back of the slate. This ends up introducing another problem of triggering a constant stream of connection requests.
It seems like a mistake in design, and it means you’ll have to completely detach and toss the keyboard base aside whenever you want to use the TabPro S as a tablet.
A tablet-class keyboard in a 2-in-1 world
The keyboard itself feels surprisingly spacious both in the size of the individual keys and how they span towards the edges of the device. That said, it’s missing a few more media shortcuts than I would like, the keyboard follows a traditional layout, making it easy for anyone to pick up.
Ultimately though, the keyboard feels behind the times, as it lays completely flat on whatever surface you put it on. Many 2-in-1 devices have since adopted attachable keyboards that sit at a slight incline for a more comfortable typing position. It doesn’t help that the keyboard looks like the spitting image of the OG Surface Pro Type Cover.
The plastic trackpad is surprisingly decent, offering precise mouse movements and scrolling, though, I wish it were just a tiny bit bigger. You’ll also have to be wary of oily prints rubbing onto the keys and permanent imprints of your wrists appearing on the rubber palm rests.
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S Review
If you love the Samsung Galaxy line of tablets but prefer the Windows OS, the TabPro S is an enticing option. This 2-in-1 tablet delivers a Surface-like experience with a Samsung spin that should make mobile professionals more than happy.
Thanks to solid hardware and superb Windows integration, it could be a runaway hit with the right audience.
Design Aesthetics
Sheathed in grippy faux-leather plastic accented with polished metal bezels, this 1.53-pound tablet makes a good impression at first glance. Its unique cover boasts a full-sized detachable keyboard with an integrated touchpad that can be adjusted to the angle of your choosing.
The 12″ Full HD Super AMOLED display is just 6.3mm thick and sports 2160×1440-pixel resolution.
Internal Computing Hardware
The TabPro S comes with either a 128GB or a 256GB SSD, 4GB of RAM and a zippy 2.2GHz Intel Core M3 CPU. The on-board battery is a robust 5200mAh model that provides plenty of juice for office work and media playback alike.
In addition, there’s a 5MP front camera as well as a 5MP rear lens with 4X digital zoom.
UI Installed Software
Unlike most Samsung tablets, the TabPro S comes pre-loaded with Windows 10 Home Edition. As you’d expect, all the usual Microsoft productivity tools like Word, Excel, Outlook and Powerpoint come along for the ride.
The well-stocked Windows Store has many more apps as well as movies and music. In addition, the TabPro S supports Xbox media streaming.
Networking Capabilities
All the usual networking protocols such as Bluetooth v4.1 and Wi-Fi come standard on the TabPro S as you’d expect. Mobile broadband is also an option. As far as ports go, there’s USB C 3.1 and little else.
An optional Bluetooth stylus is available as an accessory. Galaxy phone owners can pair their handset to their tablet using NFC.
Performance in the Field
Thanks to the dual-core Intel Core M3 under the hood, the TabPro S never seems to lag under the weight of running a full Windows 10 installation. The battery delivers up to 630 minutes of operating time and can be fully recharged in less than 2.5 hours.
Capable of a 4148 score on GeekBench, the TabPro S holds its own against competing tablets.
Samsung TabPro S Pros Cons
On the upside, the TabPro S is sleek, polished, versatile and powerful. It delivers a full Windows 10 experience for the same price as the Surface Pro 4 and offers a new twist on the hybrid tablet with its novel sliding display design.
The only minor problem with the TabPro S is its less-than-stellar keyboard.
It has a thinner and lighter design, not to mention longer battery life.
Microsoft’s Surface tablets are so great, it seems, that everyone wants to copy them. So far, we’ve seen similar devices from Apple, Lenovo, Dell, HP and Google. Incredibly, though, one of the biggest companies we cover, Samsung, is only just jumping on the bandwagon. The Galaxy TabPro S recently started shipping here in the US, and in many ways it takes after its competitors. Similar to the Surface Pro 4 and other hybrids, it has a 12-inch screen that accepts pressure-sensitive pen input, and an Intel Core M processor powerful enough to potentially replace your laptop.
Unlike some of its rivals, however, the TabPro S is the first device in its class with a Super AMOLED screen. It’s also exceptionally thin and, for the starting price of 900, the click-in keyboard cover actually comes in the box (take note, Microsoft). Too bad the typing experience isn’t very good.
Hardware
Just as Samsung was getting ready to start selling the TabPro S, it invited reporters to a launch event at which execs from Intel and Microsoft were also in attendance. The message was clear: Samsung brought its hardware-design chops to the table, while working closely with the leading chipmaker and the company behind Windows 10. In theory, then, the TabPro S, was to represent the best that each tech titan had to offer.
And in many ways, the device does indeed meet those lofty expectations. For starters, this thing is unbelievably, shockingly light: 6.3mm thick and 1.53 pounds, versus 8.45mm and 1.69 pounds for the Surface Pro 4. I know, we always wax poetic in our reviews about how skinny devices are. But I seriously did not expect the device to feel this insubstantial in-hand. Combined with the keyboard cover, which only adds 4.9 millimeters of heft, the tablet feels like a book when I cradle it under one arm. Brings me back to my college days, except this time my backpack is way lighter.
Those thin edges, by the way, aren’t home to many ports or openings, but they don’t need to be. With the tablet docked in the keyboard, you’ve got the volume rocker and power button up top; a headphone and USB-C charging/data port on the right; a Start button on the left; and speakers on either side. I did find in my testing that the power button didn’t always respond on my first try; there’s a trick in how long you have to hold it down (longer than I initially expected, I guess). I eventually got the hang of it, but it was a little frustrating in that first week.
In the name of getting the thickness and weight down as much as possible, Samsung made some other slight compromises in build quality. Don’t get me wrong, I like the look of the TabPro S’s rounded corners and black matte-finish case (which ends up covered most of the time by the keyboard cover anyway). I’m just saying, if this were a beauty pageant, the aluminum-and-polycarbonate device we have here would rank as runner-up to the Surface Pro 4’s magnesium enclosure and clean, sculpted lines. In some ways, then, Microsoft.- pigeonholed at Samsung’s event as the software expert.- actually built the more premium device.
That said, Samsung just might have the better screen. The 12-inch, 3,840 x 2,160 panel here is, according to Sammy, the first Super AMOLED display in a device with this form factor. That might seem like a gimmicky claim.- a desperate attempt to be first at something.- but it’s actually very nice. You’ll notice it as soon as you boot up the device and see the “Samsung Galaxy TabPro S” splash screen: That alone does a good job showcasing the screen’s deep blacks and pure whites. Samsung also helpfully pre-loaded a deep blue desktop background that showcases out of the box the kinds of colors the screen is capable of.
From there, of course, you can watch movies and view photos at full screen, but you’ll even appreciate the vibrant colors on the everyday stuff, like desktop shortcuts. It reminds me of how I felt when I switched to the new 4K, color-accurate iMac as my daily driver; if you weren’t using one of these machines, you wouldn’t know what you were missing, but once you experience it, it’s hard to go back.
Keyboard cover
I’m typing on the TabPro S’s included keyboard as I write this. I don’t hate it.- anymore. Similar to Microsoft’s own Type Cover, the keys here are flat and arranged close together, with just the skinniest sliver of space separating the individual buttons. So although the keys provide a good amount of travel, I made many, many typos at first, and still do; it’s just too easy to accidentally land on the wrong key when they’re all bunched together. Also, even if I did hit the correct key, my press didn’t always register, leaving me to tap, tap, tap at the Backspace button until I had gone back and retyped what I meant to say in the first place.
Now that I’ve spent a week with the device, and have used it to peck out many emails and Slack messages, I can appreciate that it’s a more productive mobile device than, say, my smartphone. But if I had my druthers, I’d still travel with a laptop or, at the very least, a 2-in-1 with a more comfortable keyboard. Something like the HP Spectre x2, or even that Surface Pro 4 I keep talking about.
Rejected review headlines: “The Samsung Galaxy TabPro S’s keyboard made me type ‘Enbadger'”
— Dana Wollman (@DanaWollman) March 23, 2016
There are other problems with the keyboard. One is that the screen angle isn’t adjustable, as it is on competing devices from Microsoft and HP. To its credit, at least, the keyboard cover is easy to attach: Just snap it into the magnetic connector on the bottom side, then fold the flap in the back to attach to the top of the tablet via magnets. The problem is, things get awkward when you want to switch from propped-up laptop mode to using the keyboard cover as an actual, you know, cover.
You’d think you could just unfold the propped-up piece in the back and then fold the case over the tablet, like a book cover. But to make the cover line up with the tablet, similar to a book spine, you have to also remove the tablet from its magnetic connector and scoot it down so that the case can fold over the back edge. It’s a bit clumsy, and the magnets are actually quite strong. That’s a good thing if ever you want to dangle the tablet upside down by its keyboard (don’t), but it makes the disassembly that much more cumbersome.
On the plus side, the tablet and keyboard cover are comfortable to use in the lap, with the weight distribution such that the device never feels like it’s going to topple backward. Also.- surprise, surprise.- the small touchpad built into the keyboard cover actually isn’t half bad. Though it’s susceptible to some of the same pitfalls as other Windows trackpads (causing me to accidentally reorder my pinned browser tabs, for instance), it’s generally adept at both single-finger tracking as well as multitouch gestures like two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom.
Performance and battery life
Like other superthin devices in this class (and at this price), the Galaxy TabPro S makes use of an Intel Core M-series processor.- a dual-core, 1.51GHz Core M3-6Y30 chip, to be exact. In addition, it’s paired with 4GB of RAM, integrated Intel HD 515 graphics and a 128GB solid-state drive. As with some other Core M devices I’ve tested, the performance is mostly fine for mundane tasks, which in my case include juggling Slack, Spotify and nearly a dozen pinned Chrome tabs.
To maximize the fairly skimpy screen real estate, I took to working with two apps snapped side by side.- usually Chrome on the left and Slack on the right. That all worked just fine, although I consistently noticed that when I snapped Slack into place to occupy half the screen, it didn’t automatically scale so that the app filled all the available vertical space; I had to manually drag the window down the rest of the way.
I also noticed that while the device ran smoothly once I got going, it could take a while after the 15-second boot-up sequence for me to fully regain control of the desktop. One time, for instance, I tried to load display settings soon after startup, but it took a few seconds to load even that simple screen. I also noticed that the back of the tablet could get warm at times, though the leathery keyboard cover helped mask that somewhat. In any case, the device never got so hot that it was uncomfortable to touch or use in my lap.
So far, then, the TabPro S performs like other Core M devices, which is to say it’s adequate for basic use, but, as you’d expect, not nearly as powerful as Intel’s higher-end “Core i” line. What’s really soured me on other Core M machines, though, is that despite having lower-powered CPUs, they didn’t offer any advantage in battery life over Core i. Basically, then, the main advantage was that they were cheaper (but not even that much cheaper).
In a major exception to the rule, however, the Galaxy TabPro S not only holds its own against Core i-series systems, but outlasts them by several hours. All told, I got 10 hours and 43 minutes of continuous Full HD video playback with Wi-Fi on and the screen brightness fixed at 65 percent. That’s slightly longer than the 10.5 hours that Samsung promised, and it’s hours better than the Core M-based HP Spectre x2 (6:43) and the Core i5-powered Surface Pro 4 (7:15). The TabPro S might not be the most powerful productivity machine, but it more than makes up for it with enduring runtime and a thinner- and lighter-than-average design.
The competition
The Surface Pro 4. I mean, obviously. Though it starts at a similar price of 899, and starts with similar specs (Core M3, 4GB of RAM), the keyboard isn’t included; it costs 130 extra. For the money, you do get a pen in the box and, of course, that slightly more premium (and slightly heavier) design. The keyboard itself is more comfortable to type on, and the Surface Pro 4’s built-in kickstand allows for adjustable screen angles. Neither device is perfect; they each have some clear pros and cons. If you do want pressure-sensitive pen input, though, that makes your decision an easy one: While the SP4 comes with a writing implement in the box, Samsung’s pen isn’t available yet (it arrives later this quarter), and the company hasn’t revealed a price or tech specs like how many levels of pressure it recognizes.
For shoppers already tied into Apple‘s ecosystem, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (799-plus) could make sense: It’s powerful enough for everyday computing, supports pressure-sensitive pen input with the optional Apple Pencil (99) and works with various keyboard covers. Battery life is on par with the TabPro S, but then again, it’s bigger and heavier. Also, iOS doesn’t support mouse input, which means none of the available keyboards have a built-in touchpad. For that reason, I’m hesitant to recommend it to people who expect to do a lot of typing or spreadsheet editing. That said, it’s a better fit for creative types who plan to use some of the specially optimized apps, especially those meant to take advantage of the optional Pencil.
Wrapup
I don’t know that the Samsung Galaxy TabPro S is necessarily better than the Surface Pro 4: It isn’t offered in any comparably powerful configurations, the keyboard isn’t as easy to type on, the screen angle isn’t adjustable when propped up, and the pressure-sensitive pen isn’t available yet. That said, the TabPro S bests the SP4 in some ways, and even succeeds in some areas the Surface doesn’t. Its battery life is hours longer, despite the fact that it has a skinnier design that in theory doesn’t leave room for as big a battery. It’s the only 2-in-1 right now with a Super AMOLED screen, and it might just be prettier than the already-nice one on the Surface Pro 4. And, the keyboard comes in the box, which is welcome news, even if the keyboard is occasionally maddening.
The Galaxy TabPro S is a fine product in its own right.- no small feat, considering Samsung had never made a device like this before. It will be even better, too, once the company releases the optional pen. Heck, Samsung even has an opportunity to retool the keyboard; space out the buttons a bit, make the screen angle adjustable and then sell it as an optional, backward-compatible accessory. Because if Samsung can fix the typing experience.- clearly the weakest link here.- early adopters would easily be able to upgrade to a much-improved product, without having to spend 900 all over again.
