Samsung Galaxy Tab S4: The last of the Android tablets

Note: This article was first published on 30th October 2018.

Overview

Five years ago, most of the major smartphone brands also produced tablets, but these days the growing number of smartphones with large displays and slim phone bodies have made tablets mostly redundant. Currently, among the major brands in the phone industry (relevant to the Singapore market), only Samsung and Apple are releasing new tablet models each year.

Samsung’s flagship tablet series, the Tab S, is now in its fourth iteration with an improved design, a larger display, and a new productivity feature: DeX on tablet. Just how good is DeX mode on the Tab S4, is it any different from the Tab S3 from 2017 and are these expensive tablets still relevant? Let's find out, but first, here's the complete Tab S4 range:-

Design, Display and Audio

The first big difference you’ll notice with the Tab S4 is that Samsung has removed the physical home button and navigation keys. Without them, the tablet looks more symmetrical, the bezels are slightly thinner, and the tablet can be used in any orientation without feeling awkward.

Alongside the removal of the front buttons is a change in screen size and aspect ratio. The Tab S3 was positioned as a lightweight reading and note-taking device with a 9.7-inch, 4:3 “book-ish” aspect ratio screen. For the Tab S4, Samsung is using a larger 10.5-inch, 16:10 screen aspect ratio display with a 2,560 x 1,600 pixels resolution (~287ppi). The screen itself is still the same Super AMOLED panel used in the Tab S3, providing the same brilliant screen experience.

The Tab S4 is also 53g heavier than its predecessor, weighing in at 482g. The tablet is also 1.1mm thicker than the Tab S3. The larger size, heavier weight, and longer aspect ratio also makes the Tab S4 less comfortable to hold when reading e-books.

The Tab S4 uses the same quad-speaker setup as the Tab S3. The speaker setup is tuned by AKG, with one speaker at each corner of the tablet, providing a good aural experience when listening to music or watching movies. If you've not heard it in action, we would highly recommend testing it out at your favorite electronics store; it can really fill your immediate area with clear, enveloping audio - good enough for watching a movie or your favorite soap opera in a small group.

With the increase in screen size, as well as its aspect ratio change, it is obvious that Samsung is positioning the Tab S4 as more of a productivity and entertainment device than for easy reading and holding.

Iris and Face Unlock only? 

With the home button removed, fingerprint unlock is no longer an option for the Tab S4. Instead, it utilizes iris and facial recognition, which is the same technology you’ll find in Samsung’s Galaxy S and Note series of smartphones. Unlocking the tablet using iris and face unlock is fast and works even with glasses on. It is generally seamless, except for when you accidentally block the iris scanner when reaching to turn the tablet on.

Is the S4’s S-Pen better?

The Tab S4 comes with an improved S-Pen, both in terms of aesthetics and ergonomics. The Tab S3 came with a rather simple S-Pen that looked less like a pen, and more like a cheap felt-tip marker. The Tab S4’s S-Pen actually looks like a real pen and is quite classy when clipped onto the pocket of a shirt. With the ergonomics of an actual pen, taking notes or drawing on the Tab S4 feels more natural than on the Tab S3. In case you are wondering and have the older Tab S3 (like myself), the new S-Pen is also compatible with the Tab S3.

Functionality wise, there’s no difference between the Tab S4 and Tab S3’s S-Pen capability. Both can sense 4,096 levels of pressure and both have a 0.7 mm rubberized stylus nib. The rubber nib provides some friction while writing, which makes it feel like you're writing with a pen on actual paper.

Unlike the Galaxy Note series smartphone, their tablets are still missing a slot to hold the S-Pen and with a larger S-Pen on the Tab S4, that option is totally not feasible. To address this, the Book Cover Keyboard (which will be cover in more detail on the next page) comes with an S-Pen holder. However, I’ve found that the holder is incapable of holding the S-Pen for long. Over the course of reviewing the Tab S4, the S-Pen fell out of its holder four times. One way to mitigate this is to put the pen in the holder with the tip exposed, but this increases the risk of damage to the S-Pen’s tip.

DeX on the Tab S4

The major new feature introduced with the Tab S4 is DeX, which gives users a desktop-like experience. DeX first debuted on the Galaxy S8, but required a DeX dock connected to a display via HDMI. For a more detailed background on DeX, readers can read our coverage on DeX here.

Like the Galaxy Note9, the Tab S4 no longer necessarily requires a DeX dock, and instead, the tablet itself can be used as the display. Simply toggle ‘Samsung DeX’ in quick settings, and the tablet will transition to full DeX mode.

While it is possible to use DeX mode without additional accessories, it makes more sense if paired with at least a keyboard, since DeX is meant to provide a desktop experience. While DeX works with any keyboard and mouse, Samsung recommends pairing Tab S4 with the optional Tab S4 Book Cover Keyboard, which integrates a keyboard into the cover (and this is what I’ve used for this review).

The DeX experience on Tab S4

Unfortunately, many of the issues we encountered with DeX previously still exist. To recap: while Android apps can run in DeX, most apps will still run as though they are running on a mobile phone unless the developer has added DeX compatibility. Some major apps have already done this, such as the Microsoft Office suite, but many other major apps are still not DeX-compatible. One prominent example is Netflix, which, by default, cannot be maximized in DeX mode.

Samsung has tried to address some of these compatibility issues by enabling an “Apps can Resize” option in DeX’s system setting. With this enabled, DeX will try to maximize any app, whether they are optimized for DeX or not. Knowing full well that not all apps can scale well, this feature is hidden under “Samsung Labs” section.

Despite this feature, not all apps scale well. In fact, activating this feature and then maximizing incompatible apps will disrupt the app’s lifecycle, causing it to behave very erratically. Going back to Netflix, for instance, maximizing the app while video is playing will cause the app to keep looping back to the film’s cover page, or simply crash.

Other issues persist too. Some apps, like YouTube, when maximized, are unable to switch back to windowed mode again, unless the app is closed and reopened. Others refuse to work with a keyboard and mouse, with Fortnite being the most jarring example of how the game is completely useless in DeX mode. Sure, unlike the previous version of DeX, the app will still launch, but with system warnings, and indeed, the app will not respond to any keyboard taps.

Sometimes the app will not even launch. This makes Fortnite exclusivity in Tab S4 a pointless endeavor in DeX mode, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are people out there who bought the Tab S4 thinking they can beat the competition by running Fortnite on DeX with a keyboard and mouse set, only to be sorely disappointed. Plus, it’s really not a great experience holding the tablet to play Fortnite using touch controls, especially when you also consider that the tablet is no longer as friendly from a handling perspective compared to its predecessor.

Perhaps Linux on DeX may solve some of these problems, by bringing in an actual desktop ecosystem to Tab S4 and other Samsung devices. However, since it was first announced in February this year, we have yet to hear any updates on its rollout.

How is the Book Cover Keyboard?

The Book Cover Keyboard is Samsung’s official keyboard accessory for Tab S4. It also acts as a portfolio case. However, instead of taking cues from iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard and Surface’s Type Cover, whereby these official keyboards attach to their respective tablets magnetically, Samsung has decided that a ‘Logitech-like’ snap-in keyboard case will be better for Tab S4. When unfurled, this is what the set-up looks like as seen in the above image.

This design comes with certain advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, the snap-in mechanism ensures that all sides of the tablet are protected in case of a fall. The folded kickstand, with the entire keyboard base supporting the stand, also stabilizes the setup, so it can be used on your lap.

On the other hand, the case makes changing configuration between tablet and ‘DeX’ mode cumbersome, as some effort is required to pry the tablet out of the four edges of the snap-in mechanism.

The Book Cover Keyboard itself is also bulky. Weighing in at whopping 366g with a thickness of 7.6mm, it is actually thicker than Tab S4 itself and is only about 130g shy of tablet's weight. Combined, it weighs a total of 846g with a total thickness of 11.7mm; that's close to or even thicker than most modern, full-fledged ultrabooks such as the HP Spectre and LG Gram, or to compare like-for-like, thicker than the iPad Pro or Surface Go with their own official type cover keyboards attached.

While Samsung positioned the Tab S4 as providing a full PC experience when paired with the Book Cover Keyboard and DeX mode enabled, there is, however, one critical component that the Book Cover Keyboard lacks: a touchpad. Anyone who has used a laptop knows just how important a touchpad is, as it gives the user fine-grained control over the position of the mouse pointer. Without a touchpad, a user has to use his/her fingers to touch the screen every time for an equivalent ‘mouse click’, and this can be terribly frustrating at times.

The top row of number keys is also situated too close to the screen. As a result, there are times where your knuckles might accidentally touch the screen when typing documents.

As an example, I initially tried to type this review using Microsoft Word on this tablet, in DeX mode. Even though the app is DeX compatible and well designed, I sometimes have to correct words previously typed, which is done by first positioning the cursor over the word to be corrected. While such action is completely trivial with a touchpad, it is frustrating to accurately position the cursor using a finger. I also encountered many times where the cursor jumps to a random part of the document because my knuckles knocked on the touchscreen while typing. Eventually, I just gave up and used my Surface Go to finish the review.

In short, the Samsung Book Cover Keyboard isn't as ideal of a companion as Samsung would have you believe. Of course, these issues I've gathered can be mitigated by not purchasing it and using my own keyboard and mouse set of choice, but at the same time, this is a knock from offering a complete and compelling ecosystem directly from Samsung.

Benchmark Performance

The Galaxy Tab S4 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. I’m not sure why Samsung decided that its flagship tablet gets last year’s flagship processor, but it’s something Samsung has done before with the Galaxy Tab S3, which had a Snapdragon 820. Overall, not much of an improvement over its predecessor. It is however significantly less powerful than its closest competitor, the iPad Pro 10.5-inch.

I also ran benchmark tests in both tablet mode and DeX mode, to see if overall performance will be impacted when switching to DeX. The result? Yes, but only by a tiny margin.

Battery Life

In absolute terms, amazing, thanks to the Tab S4’s massive 7,300mAh battery. For our battery test, we played a 720p video on repeat with screen brightness and volume turned up 100%, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on, and some emails being refreshed in the background. Once again, we did the battery test both in tablet and DeX mode, to see if battery consumption increases in DeX mode. The result? Not by much. Without DeX, Tab S4 lasted 9 hours 49 min, while on DeX, it lasted 9 hours 29 min. This is far longer than its competitor, the iPad Pro 10.5-inch.

However, it’s not that much different from the Tab S3, which has a much smaller 6,000mAh battery but still lasted 8 hours 59 min. Moreover, the Tab S3 tested was my personal device that is over a year old, with the battery having sustained quite a modest amount of charge cycles.

Conclusion

Samsung got it almost right by positioning the Galaxy Tab S3 as a flagship portable entertainment and reading tablet. For the Tab S4, it was eager to position the tablet as a laptop replacement – a tad too eager – and in the process of doing so, it compromised on the portability of the device by adding weight and thickness to it (especially when factoring in the optional Book Cover Keyboard).

While it might be worth the sacrifice had it been able to provide an ample productivity ecosystem, sadly, with the dismal amount of compatible apps and numerous quirks that still exist, DeX is still not ready for the prime time, and therefore not able to provide ample productivity support outside of a few core apps that it works well (such as Microsoft Office).

The design of the Tab S4’s keyboard accessory is also confounding, given that Samsung could get the design of its Windows accessories right, such as the Galaxy Book, yet it was not able to transfer that design knowledge to the Tab S4 Book Cover Keyboard, opting for a much heavier, bulkier, and less classy design – and still getting the ergonomics wrong.

All may be forgiven, had Samsung priced its products fairly. However, at a recommended retail price of S$998 for the 64GB/Wi-Fi variant and S$1,198 for 256GB/Wi-Fi variant, and a hefty price of S$228 for the Book Cover Keyboard accessory, this means a total of $1,226 for a basic mobile productivity setup. Such pricing is justified only if the Tab S4 had been released early last year. Anyone who buys such a setup at this price would be spending nearly as much as an iPad Pro/Smart Keyboard/Apple Pencil setup, or more than a Surface Go/Type Cover Keyboard/Surface Pen setup with a relatively poor productivity apps ecosystem and a bulky keyboard. In light of these two strong competing products, this pricing is difficult to stomach.

Even if the competition is ignored, it is only a matter of time before the very notion of Android on tablets is rendered completely obsolete. When Google released their one and only Google-branded tablet, the Pixel C, in 2015, only to quietly stop selling them late last year, it is very telling that even Google has given up its ambition of having Android on tablets. In developer guides, it has since slowly shifted away from encouraging developers to target tablet compatibility in favor of just focusing on mobile form – another sign of the times. The death knell came when Google announced Pixel Slate, a Chrome OS-based tablet, and leading to that was the successful emulation of Android apps on Chrome OS.

Samsung did try to make Tab S4 a mobile productivity machine. In fact, it is the best Android tablet out there now. Sadly, this statement rings hollow, as there are no other premium Android tablets other than the Huawei Mediapad. Outside the Android ecosystem, the competition is strong, and with Chrome OS/Pixel Slate looming, it is only a matter of time before the Tab S4 becomes obsolete.

The one area that the Galaxy Tab S4 really stands out consistently is its long battery life, a great screen, and excellent speakers. This makes it an ideal road trip companion for movie marathons on a portable device, anywhere you need it. However, that makes it a really expensive portable entertainment device when it's actually built as a  mobile productivity machine, which unfortunately isn't its strong suit as we've summed above.

As such, we find it hard to recommend this tablet purely from the high cost and ecosystem readiness for true productivity. No doubt the launch promotions were interesting, but unless you can still get similar offers or better, it's probably time to reconsider your tablet buying plans. Planning to upgrade from Tab S3? Just buy the new S-Pen as there isn't a whole lot that has improved other than Dex and a new form factor. Need a recommendation for buying a new tablet? Get an iPad Pro. Want a to-go mobile productivity suite? How about a Surface Go? Die-hard Android fan? Maybe, but it’s time for even an Android fan to question whether he or she should loyally stick to Android even for tablets, or evolve to Chrome OS. Perhaps you're a digital artist? Get a Tab S3 + Tab S4’s S-Pen, it’s lighter on hand and has a more suitable aspect ratio for drawing.

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