Samsung includes an excellent S Pen for drawing and writing on the The Bad The keyboard cover is not included, it’s expensive and, in the end, hurts the DeX desktop experience.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A () with S Pen quietly unveiled – comments

Premium tablets are at a crossroads. It’s no longer good enough to have great performance, an amazing display and stellar sound. If you’re going to charge laptop prices for a tablet, you better make one that can be used for productivity tasks, too.

The big selling points for those are long battery lives and optional LTE connectivity so you can more safely work anywhere. However, Android performs better than Windows with the Snapdragon mobile processor, giving the Tab S4 an edge.

In a market filling up with inexpensive Windows two-in-ones and premium Chromebooks that can run both web and Android apps, the draw for a premium tablet like this is a little unclear.

The bundled S Pen is an excellent addition to the tablet experience. It’s a full-size pen making it comfortable to hold and use and it doesn’t need charging.

Press the button on the barrel while hovering over the screen and you’ll get a menu of pen productivity tools.

Samsung galaxy tab a 8 0 with s pen drawing xperia dual

You can even write on the display without opening an app or even unlocking the tablet, which makes it particularly handy for jotting down a quick to-do or shopping list.

While writing on glass still doesn’t feel quite the same as a pen on paper, the S Pen tip has the smooth glide of a gel pen with just a modicum of delay.

For however useful and fun to use the included S Pen is, it’s the Book Cover Keyboard that’s really the driver for Samsung’s productivity push for the Tab S4.

That and the new DeX desktop-like interface that changes the tablet’s Android interface into a desktop-style experience. You can switch to DeX from the S4’s Quick Panel settings or, if you have the keyboard cover, you can have it change automatically when you sit the tablet up for typing.

Though WatchOn is based on Peel technology, Samsung also includes a standalone Peel SmartRemote app, which provides just the TV listings without the universal search option. The latest Nokia phones and accessories | Nokia phones The high asking price may be a barrier, but trust us when we say the performance is worth the cost!

You can also continue to use the S4 as an Android tablet, so you could keep a video playing on the tablet while you continue to work on a PowerPoint presentation on another display.

There’s USB and Bluetooth mouse support, too, so you don’t have to rely on the touchscreen for navigation. While I was able to type reasonably fast on it, it’s definitely cramped and not backlit.

The cover also sits the screen at a single viewing angle, which works for desks, but not much else. And despite being connected to the tablet by a set of magnetic pogo pins, the keyboard would intermittently stop responding.

Plus, as soon as you disconnect the tablet from the pins, the screen locks and requires you to put in your PIN or use the iris scan if you’ve set it up.

That means every time I switched from typing to using the screen as a tablet I would have to wake it and unlock it.

Keyboard aside, the DeX experience is pretty decent if you’re just looking to get some simple work tasks done without pulling out a full laptop.

About to board a plane but need to dash off a quick email or make a last-minute edit to a presentation? The Tab S4 has you covered. Want to run a Skype video call on the tablet while you look at a large spreadsheet on a second display?

You can do that with the S4, too.

There are about a dozen or so DeX-optimized apps including Microsoft Office, though those require a subscription to use for writing and editing.

Other apps I tested like Google Docs and Gmail worked fine, though, and you can put them side by side and resize the windows.

With a host of pen-enabled apps and custom Android features, TV remote control ability and Samsung’s multitasking prowess, the Note 8. Samsung galaxy tab a 8 0 with s pen drawing Click to Enlarge If you see anything on the Galaxy Note 8.

You can drag and drop between apps, but that’s currently supported in Messages, My Files, Samsung Notes, Gallery, email and Gmail only.

App performance in DeX was generally smooth, but not without the odd sticky, glitchy response when moving windows around with multiple apps running.

Text input in Microsoft Word seemed to be a bit laggy on occasion, too. Although tablets can be good for work, they typically excel as entertainment devices and the premium Tab S4 is no different.

Moving up in size from the the 9. With its narrower bezels, though, it’s similar in size to its predecessor.

Samsung galaxy tab a 8 0 with s pen drawing memo

The bezels are made possible because Samsung ditched the Home button, which was also used for unlocking the Tab with a fingerprint.

You can now use an iris scan to do that, which can be frustrating to use, especially in DeX mode, since you have to line up your eyes with boxes on the screen.

It generally works fast if your eyes are lined up right at the start.

The Surface Go from Microsoft is fun and practical, but not as inexpensive as you might It does look much different than vanilla Android though. Samsung galaxy tab a 8 0 with s pen drawing The tablet got pretty good results in my gaming test too.

The tablet was great for watching video, especially with the wider screen ratio, and the display has excellent color, contrast and brightness.

Along with movies and binging on TV, I loved using the S4’s big display for reading comics in the Comixology app. Game performance seems to have improved from the Tab S3 as well.

I played a few rounds of PUBG in my brief time testing. It automatically set graphics to high and gameplay was smooth as I jumped across the map, taking out opponents and snatching up loot.

The speakers are loud and clear, but no substitute for a good set of headphones. We’re still in the middle of testing battery life, but in anecdotal testing it’s lasted for about 7 hours of mixed use.

20.02.2020 – We found these shortcuts to be quite convenient. Samsung includes an excellent S Pen for drawing and writing on the There is a pre-installed app called Penup which can act as a kind of coloring book and can teach you how to draw. You can even write on the display without opening an app or even unlocking the tablet, which makes it particularly handy for jotting down a quick to-do or shopping list.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 doesn’t disappoint as a high-end Android tablet thanks to a great display, good audio quality and solid performance.

The DeX interface feels like a half measure, though, just good enough to make it worth having for basic office tasks. As long as you know that going in, it might be worth the hefty investment.

The latest HD 8 isn’t much of an upgrade over last year’s model, but the “always-ready” Amazon’s big inch tablet delivers serious media chops for less than half the cost of The Surface Go from Microsoft is fun and practical, but not as inexpensive as you might The x2 strikes a nearly perfect balance between laptop and tablet — at a Chromebook price.

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