With the increase in the size of smartphones, the need for tablets began to gradually decrease. In fact, only two polar categories remain popular: ultra-budget (they are used as a bedside viewer, and Chinese manufacturers and Russian B- and C-brands reign in this camp) and premium. The latter includes the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, which can be called an “improved and expanded” version of the previous flagship of the tablet line - the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2.

Display	9.7″, 2048×1536, 264 ppi, Super AMOLED, glossy, 4:3 aspect ratio
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 (2 cores at 2.15 GHz and 2 cores at 1.6 GHz)
GPU	Adreno 515
RAM	4 GB LPDDR4
Built-in storage	32 GB
microSD support	yes, microSDXC
Wireless network	Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, A2DP
SIM	1 Nano-SIM in LTE version
Camera	main 13 megapixel with flash and autofocus, front 5 megapixel
GPS	with support for A-GPS and Glonass
Sensors	accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, proximity sensor, light sensor
Ports and connectors	USB Type-C for charging and syncing with MHL support, 3.5 mm (audio), dock connector
Battery	6000 mAh (up to 12 hours of battery life in video playback mode)
Dimensions and weight	237×16×9.6 mm, 429 g (434 g for LTE version)
Color solutions	GREY-black
OS	Android 7.0
Built-in speakers	yes, four speakers
Fingerprint sensor	There is
Additional features	S Pen that recognizes 4096 levels of pressure
Product card on Yandex.Market	,

Prices for LTE version:

Prices for Wi-Fi version:

Unfortunately, the device arrived to us without retail packaging, so we cannot say anything about the package. But the characteristics are quite interesting. The dimensions remain the same as the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, but the weight and thickness have increased, albeit slightly.

The flagship Qualcomm processor of 2016 is used - Snapdragon 820. In 2017 there are more powerful solutions, but, nevertheless, this SoC remains very, very fast. However, we will talk about this in more detail in the testing section.

RAM - 4 gigabytes. On the one hand, flagship “Chinese” versions have even more (6 GB), but on the other hand, the cost of LPDDR4 is quite high, and this volume is enough for most tasks.

Another nice feature is support for the S Pen, which now comes bundled with the tablet.

If the previous version of the tablet was made of plastic, then in this version the Korean company has switched to current trends - the widespread use of glass and metal. It certainly looks great (especially on display), but from the point of view of ease of use, this approach, in my opinion, is not the best. The black version turned out to be very, very branded, this is noticeable even by the rim around the screen.

At the bottom there is a single protruding button, a combined sensory-mechanical one. It can be configured to be triggered by either touch or pressure. It also houses a fingerprint scanner, which can also be used to wake the tablet from sleep mode. The touch buttons “Home” and “Context Menu” are located off the screen and do not “eat up” precious space. True, their position cannot be changed, this is bad.

The charging and synchronization connectors, as well as the headset jack, are located on the bottom edge of the device. Here you can also see the grilles of two of the four stereo speakers.

The USB Type-C connector is used for charging and synchronization. In my opinion, this is an absolute plus: once you use it, you won’t want to go back to the flimsy Micro-USB.

On the left side of the device (if you hold it in portrait position, with the buttons facing you), there is a connector for an external keyboard. Unfortunately, we did not have it at our disposal.

In the promotional photo, the keyboard looks very similar to the one on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. It was quite comfortable when working on a desk, but completely inconvenient if you tried to place the tablet on your lap.

The controls are concentrated on the right. There is an on/off button and a volume rocker here. Also on the right side there is a tray for a SIM card and a microSD card.

The tray is double, but “dual-SIM capability”, of course, was not introduced.

The build quality and case materials are at the highest level.

On top are two more stereo speakers.

The edges are not “monolithic” - they have plastic inserts. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for tablet developers to make an LTE version.

The back of the tablet is glossy and collects fingerprints just fine. Apparently, the developers figured that he would spend most of his time in the case.

The camera bezel protrudes slightly beyond the surface, so the tablet is convenient to use even if it is lying on the table.

Despite the fact that the device comes with a stylus, there is no special hole for storing it (as in Note series smartphones), so you will have to take care not to lose it.

The stylus itself is very comfortable, with an additional button, it fits perfectly in the hand.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "" and "" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are worse than those of the screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected when the screens are turned off (on the left is Nexus 7, on the right is Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is a little lighter (brightness according to photographs is 140 versus 114 for the Nexus 7) and has a slight bluish tint. The ghosting of reflected objects on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, screens without an air gap look better in conditions of intense external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, better than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.

When displaying a white field in full screen and manually controlling the brightness, its maximum value was 285 cd/m² in normal conditions and rises to 375 cd/m² in very bright light. You also need to take into account the fact that in this case, the smaller the white area on the screen, the lighter it is, that is, the actual maximum brightness of the white areas will almost always be higher than the specified value, for example, when displaying a white field on half the screen and black on the other half, we for the above conditions we obtained values ​​of 325 cd/m² and 435 cd/m². As a result, readability during the day in the sun should be at a fairly good level. The minimum value is 1.3 cd/m². The reduced brightness level allows you to use the device even in complete darkness without any problems. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the right of the logo on the front panel). The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment, with which the user can try to set the desired brightness level in the current conditions. If in an office environment the brightness slider is set to maximum, then in complete darkness the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 17 cd/m² (normal), in an office illuminated by artificial light (approximately 550 lux) it sets it to 285 cd/m² (a little high), in in a very bright environment (corresponds to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 285 cd/m² (something will be visible), and conditionally in the sun, the brightness increases to 380 cd/m². If in an office environment, if you use the slider to set the brightness a little lower, then the screen brightness for the four conditions indicated above is as follows: 15, 220, 285 and 380 cd/m² (ideal combination). It turns out that the auto-brightness function works adequately and to some extent allows the user to customize their work to individual requirements. At any brightness level there is significant modulation with a frequency of approximately 239 Hz. The figure below shows brightness (vertical axis) versus time (horizontal axis) for several brightness settings:

It can be seen that at maximum and close to it brightness, the modulation amplitude is not very large, and as a result, there is no visible flicker. However, as the brightness decreases, modulation appears with a large relative amplitude; the presence of such modulation can already be seen in a test for the presence of a stroboscopic effect or simply with rapid eye movement. Depending on individual sensitivity, this flickering may cause increased fatigue.

This screen uses a Super AMOLED matrix - an active matrix on organic light-emitting diodes. A full-color image is created using subpixels of three colors - red (R), green (G) and blue (B) in equal numbers. This is confirmed by a fragment of a microphotograph:

For comparison, you can familiarize yourself with the screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has excellent viewing angles. True, the white color, when deviated even at small angles, alternately acquires a light blue-green and pinkish tint, but the black color remains simply black at any angle. It is so black that the contrast setting is not applicable in this case. For comparison, here are photos in which the screens of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 (profile Basic) and the second comparison participant, identical images were displayed, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to approximately 200 cd/m², and the color balance on the camera was forced to switch to 6500 K.

White field:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field.

Color rendition is good, the colors are moderately saturated, the color balance of the screens varies slightly. Recall that photography can not serve as a reliable source of information about color rendering quality and are provided for illustrative purposes only. In particular, the pronounced reddish tint of the white and gray fields present in photographs of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 screen is visually absent when viewed from a perpendicular view, as confirmed by hardware tests using a spectrophotometer. The reason is that the spectral sensitivity of the camera sensor does not exactly match this characteristic of human vision. The photo above was taken after selecting a profile Basic in the screen settings, there are four of them:

Profile Adaptive display differs in some kind of automatic adjustment of color rendering to the type of output image and environmental conditions:

Saturation and color contrast are greatly increased, it looks terrible. What happens when you select the two remaining profiles is shown below.

Movie AMOLED :

Saturation and color contrast are also increased, but not as much.

Photo AMOLED :

Saturation is slightly lower, but color contrast is slightly higher than in the case Movie AMOLED.

Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen (profile Basic). White field:

The brightness at an angle for both screens has noticeably decreased (to avoid strong darkening, the shutter speed has been increased compared to previous photographs), but in the case of the Samsung tablet the drop in brightness is much less pronounced. As a result, with formally the same brightness, the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 visually looks much brighter (compared to LCD screens), since you often have to look at the screen of a mobile device from at least a slight angle. And a test picture:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens and the brightness of the Samsung tablet at an angle is noticeably higher. Switching the state of the matrix elements is performed almost instantly, but at the switching edge there may be a step with a width of approximately 17 ms (which corresponds to a screen refresh rate of 60 Hz). For example, this is what the dependence of brightness on time looks like when moving from black to white and back:

In some conditions, the presence of such a step can lead to plumes trailing behind moving objects. However, dynamic scenes in films on OLED screens are distinguished by high clarity and even some “jerky” movements.

A gamma curve constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray showed that there is no significant blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.11, which is slightly less than the standard value of 2.2, while the actual gamma curve deviates slightly from the power law:

Let us recall that in the case of OLED screens, the brightness of image fragments dynamically changes in accordance with the nature of the displayed image - it decreases for generally light images. As a result, the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) most likely slightly does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential display of shades of gray on almost the entire screen.

Color gamut in the case of a profile Adaptive display very wide:

In profile Movie AMOLED coverage is a little narrower:

When selecting a profile Photo AMOLED coverage is adjusted to Adobe RGB boundaries:

When selecting a profile Basic coverage is compressed to sRGB boundaries:

Without correction, the spectra of the components are very well separated:

In case of profile Basic with maximum correction, the color components are already noticeably mixed with each other:

Note that on screens with a wide color gamut, without appropriate correction, the colors of regular images optimized for sRGB devices appear unnaturally saturated. Hence the recommendation: in most cases, watching movies, photographs and everything natural is better when choosing a profile Basic, and only if the photo was taken on an Adobe RGB setting, does it make sense to switch the profile to Photo AMOLED. Profile Movie AMOLED, despite the name, is the least suitable for watching movies or anything else.

The grayscale balance is good. The color temperature is close to 6500 K, while in a significant portion of the gray scale this parameter does not change very much, which improves the visual perception of color balance. The deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) across most of the gray scale remains below 10 units, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device, and this parameter also does not change much:

(The darkest areas of the gray scale can in most cases be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

Let's summarize. The screen has a fairly high maximum brightness and has good anti-glare properties, so the device can most likely be used outdoors even on a sunny summer day without any problems. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. It is acceptable to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, as well as a color gamut close to sRGB and good color balance. At the same time, let us remind you about the general advantages of OLED screens: true black color (if nothing is reflected in the screen), a noticeably smaller drop in image brightness than LCDs when viewed at an angle. Disadvantages include modulation of screen brightness. For users who are particularly sensitive to flicker, this may cause increased fatigue. However, overall the screen quality is high.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 runs Android 7.0 Nougat with its own software shell.

The general logic of the shell is classic, with desktops and a separate application menu.

The notification shade is comfortable, in light colors; it is possible to customize notifications or disable them for certain applications.

The settings are also redrawn and conveniently grouped, there are hints and search.

One of the main features of the new tablet compared to the old one is pen compatibility. There is special software for it, which is generally much more convenient than the S-Pen that came before. Using the notepad is easy, you can draw and select different “brushes”. Unfortunately, I'm not an artist, so I can't test the quality of the pen - I can only say that it really draws differently depending on the tilt and pressure.

There are such nice additions as password-protected folders, as well as the ability to run “two identical applications” (not all applications are compatible with this).

Another nice feature is the ability to launch applications in a small window in overlay mode (again, only those applications that support this). You can also configure, for example, blocking notifications from different applications. As expected, there is work with the Samsung cloud.

A lot of time has passed since the first Korean shells, the developers have worked fruitfully, and today using the Samsung shell is convenient and pleasant.

As for the communication part, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is in no way inferior to modern smartphones. The device works as standard in 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also has support for fourth generation LTE networks, and supports the maximum number of frequency bands, including those used by domestic operators FDD LTE Band 3, 7 and 20. In practice, in the Moscow region, the device confidently registered and worked in 4G networks, quickly reconnected after a break, and did not lose connection in areas of poor reception.

The tablet can operate in two Wi-Fi bands, supporting the Wi-Fi 802.11ac standard, so it has no problems with the quality and speed of wireless data transfer. There is Bluetooth 4.2, but the hero of the review was deprived of NFC support. Wi-Fi Direct is supported, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels. The USB Type-C connector supports connecting external devices in USB OTG mode, but the adapter from USB Type-C to HDMI did not work in our case.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts.

Benchmark testing showed that the tablet is doing well: fast RAM, excellent write speed to the internal flash, and the overall performance of the platform is excellent.

Testing the graphics subsystem in gaming tests 3DMark, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

	Samsung Galaxy Tab S3	Huawei MediaPad M3	Asus ZenPad 8.0 (Z380KL)	Huawei MediaPad M2 8.0	Alcatel OneTouch Hero 8
Bonsai Benchmark (more is better)	4189 (60 fps)	3369 (48 fps)	1475 (21 fps)	3662 (52 fps)	1357 (19 fps)
Epic Citadel (High Quality)	60 fps	58 fps	55 fps	59 fps	51 fps
3DMark Ice Storm (Unlimited)	29765	20114	4305	11443	7102
3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot (more is better)	2592	575
GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (Onscreen)	19 fps	3 fps
GFXBenchmark Manhattan ES 3.1 (1080p Offscreen)	32 fps	6 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex (Onscreen)	59 fps	16 fps	9 fps	15 fps	11 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex (1080p Offscreen)	91 fps	23 fps	5 fps	16 fps	11 fps

It would be strange to expect a different result from such a powerful combination of processor and graphics card.

Testing in the latest version of GeekBench:

Testing in Antutu:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 platform is practically the top one today. It's safe to say that the performance of this tablet will be enough for several years.

We were unable to check the theoretically possible support for adapters for outputting images to an external device due to the lack of an adapter option that connects to the USB Type-C port, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files to the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “”). Screenshots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output of frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied (1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels) and frame rate (24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps). In the tests we used the MX Player video player in the “Hardware” mode. The test results are summarized in the table:

File	Uniformity	Passes
	Fine	few
	Fine	No
	Fine	No
	Fine	No
	Fine	No
	Fine	No
	Fine	No
	Fine	No
	Fine	few
According to the criterion of frame output, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the device itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and, in most cases, without skipping frames. Also note that the screen refresh rate is slightly lower than the typical 60 Hz, so in the case of 60 fps files, one frame is skipped. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 (1080p) on the tablet screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the wide border of the screen. The picture clarity is high, but not ideal, since there is no escape from interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experimentation, you can switch to the “one to one pixel by pixel” mode; there will be no interpolation. There are no artifacts on test worlds. The brightness range displayed on the screen actually corresponds to the standard range of 16-235: in the shadows only a couple of shades merge with black, and in the highlights all gradations of shades are displayed. Note that in the region of the darkest shades on the gray scale, the variation in color tone is insignificant. Below is a thermal image rear surface obtained after 10 minutes of battery testing in the GFXBenchmark program: It can be seen that the heating is highly localized above the center and close to the right edge, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 41 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is the average heating in this test. The sound system of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 tablet is positioned as “high-end” - during the presentation of the device at the MWC exhibition, Samsung representatives especially emphasized that the audio part was developed jointly with AKG. Despite the fact that the tablet has as many as four speakers, the matter, of course, did not go as far as quadraphony, here is the most ordinary stereo. Additional speakers are used to more evenly distribute sound in space in both portrait and landscape modes. The sound itself is clear, with good positioning in space. Thanks to the well-placed speakers, it is difficult to block them when playing games or watching movies. The bass is not bad, but, in my subjective opinion, it is not enough. The camera is rarely the main reason to buy a tablet, but many people use it for everyday filming. In addition, photography with tablets is popular among older people, who find it easier to frame a photo on a large screen. An image with good color rendition, although, in my opinion, a little paler than I would like. Please note that the JPEG compression level is not very high - fine details are not blurred. Another picture for testing small parts. There's a lot of foliage and big variations in light, but the camera still does a good job. Geometric distortions are weak, this is not typical for cameras with such a viewing angle - perhaps some automatic correction methods are used. When shooting indoors, the quality of the images drops, but still remains quite good. The camera can provide even slight background blur. If necessary, you can even try macro photography. Things aren't so good with the front camera. Apparently it doesn't have autofocus and all images come out slightly out of focus. However, this camera is more than enough for Skype and video calls. We can confidently say that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 has one of the best main cameras among all tablets. The quality is approximately the same as that installed in the Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 smartphone. The capacity of the non-removable battery installed in the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is 6000 mAh - for a tablet this is not so much, especially considering the large high-resolution screen. It is clear that in this way the developers were able to achieve a small weight of the device, but the autonomy was slightly affected. The tablet is clearly not long-lived, although the level of autonomy cannot be called a failure, everything here is at an average level. Testing was carried out without using any energy-saving functions. Continuous reading in the Moon+ Reader program (with a standard, light theme, with auto-scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasts about 15 hours. When continuously watching videos from YouTube in high quality (720p) with the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network, the device operates for at least 12 hours. In 3D gaming mode, the device only works for 4 hours - this is due to the high screen resolution and the high load on the powerful SoC. The tablet has a fast charging function, but, unfortunately, we did not have a supplied charger at our disposal. Using the Adaptive Smart Charging charger that comes with the Samsung Galaxy S8+ smartphone, the tablet took about 2.5 hours to charge. The tablet does not support wireless charging. Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 has already gone on sale in Russia, its official price is 50 thousand rubles for the version with Wi-Fi and 60 thousand for the version with LTE. Both modifications can be found a little cheaper; you can always look at current prices on Yandex.Market using the links: and. Of course, the price is high, but it is worth noting that this is a top-end solution, with the highest performance, good battery life, and an excellent screen. Taken together, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is now one of the best offerings on the market among Android tablets.

Lately, everything has been very difficult with good tablets. Especially with compact ones. Analysts say that the issue here is potential (and lost in advance) competition with smartphones. They say that no one needs small tablets, since there are large smartphones that are more functional and generally better in all respects. Tablet PC manufacturers are focusing on large-format models. Indeed, Apple last updated its iPad mini in 2015. Samsung also releases small tablets extremely rarely. Rarely - but still releases. And today we will talk about just such a model. it in October, and by the end of November the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 went on sale.

The tablet is offered in two versions - T380 and T385. The first has only a Wi-Fi module, while the second supports both Wi-Fi and LTE. It has an earpiece, as well as applications for making calls and exchanging SMS (a small tablet can act as a very large smartphone). Russian retailers are probably interested in the older modification - with an LTE modem. It is estimated at 16,990 rubles. We were unable to find the younger version of the T380, which lacks the capabilities of a smartphone, on the websites of domestic retail chains. Unfortunately, it was he who was tested, so we won’t be able to describe the “smartphone” functionality. But all our other impressions are quite applicable to the T385 - if we discard LTE and calls, it is no different from the T380.

Design and construction of Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017

The tablet has a metal body. This, of course, is not glass like the flagship, but it’s still not bad. Better than the easily scratched plastic that is found in a number of inexpensive tablets from the Korean manufacturer. That being said, the metal on the Galaxy Tab A 2017 isn't very, um, metallic. It is smooth and slightly slippery. It is less pleasant to the touch than what we see in the same iPads from small to large.

The ergonomics of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 are quite strange. For example, there are three buttons below the screen. In the center there is a physical one, on the sides there are a couple of sensory ones. So the latter do not have backlighting.

It is clear that the mere fact of having touch buttons does not mean that they must light up (remember, for example, some Xiaomi smartphones, which also do not have backlighting). But the 2013 tablet had backlighting in exactly the same buttons. But for some reason the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 doesn’t have it. I didn’t even believe at first that she was missing. I went into the settings (I didn’t find anything), and then into the instructions. Typically, I didn’t find any proper instructions in Russian. The kit includes only a thin book, and for the full version they advise you to go to the Internet. Well, off I go. I saw this message:

Either the model is so new that instructions have not yet been created, or Samsung really no longer pays attention to (relatively) inexpensive small tablets.

In short, the lack of backlight makes the Galaxy Tab A 2017 not very usable. Poking at a dark space in the dark, not being sure that you will hit the key, is somehow not very inspiring.

The placement of the power and volume keys is also a bit strange. The fact is that the power button is located higher than the volume rocker. And when I try to turn on the screen, I constantly press the last one - it’s easier to reach it with my finger while holding the tablet vertically. The screen, of course, does not turn on. Out of curiosity, I studied a couple of inexpensive Chinese tablets lying around the house, and not without bitterness I discovered that everything was done correctly. At the top is the volume control button, below is the screen power key. Which we press much more often while using the tablet. Why Samsung didn't think about this - God knows. (To be fair: in the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 already mentioned above, the buttons are located just as poorly as in the Galaxy Tab A 2017.)

The MicroSD card slot is implemented as a removable tray. To remove it, you must use the clip included in the package. I suspect that this design is more reliable than a regular plug on a silicone leg (and again remember the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0). Still, I personally like it when I don’t need to use any paper clips. The photo below shows the same removable tray. The empty gray area to the left of the MicroSD slot is there for a reason. The tray is probably unified with the T385 version, which has an LTE modem. And instead of gray space, there is a slot for a SIM card.

What I liked was the presence of a modern and convenient USB Type-C port. Previously, it could only be found in the flagship Galaxy Tab S3. There is a speaker next to the port. The volume of sound and its quality made a pleasant impression. You can watch a movie together, or even three.

I was also impressed by the battery capacity - 5000 mAh. To understand: usually 8-inch tablets are equipped with 4000 batteries, and the greediest manufacturers put 3000-3500. Samsung says a single battery charge will provide up to 14 hours of video playback. It took me about 12 hours. The screen brightness was set to 50%, the video was in HD720p format, and I turned off Wi-Fi.

The package includes a 2A charging unit and a USB-USB Type-C cable. The tablet does not support fast charging; you have to keep it at the outlet for three hours.

But headphones are not included in the package, which, together with the lack of backlighting of the buttons and the absence of normal instructions in nature, speaks of the economy and haste in which the Galaxy Tab A 2017 was created. This does not make the tablet definitely bad, not at all. But it demonstrates that the “tablet boom” is probably over. And manufacturers do not consider it necessary to invest a lot of resources in this class of devices. Here I will say that the notorious Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 (I often mention it because I consider it a kind of ideological predecessor of the Galaxy Tab A 2017) was equipped with headphones. The ear connector along with the microphone is located in the hero of this review on the top edge of the case.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 screen

The 8-inch TFT matrix provides a very pleasing picture to the eye, although due to the low resolution by today's standards (1280 x 800 pixels) it cannot be called very smooth. Overall, a good screen, especially considering that by Samsung standards this is an entry-level tablet.

There is no automatic brightness adjustment in the model, since there is no light sensor. Above the screen there is only a 5-megapixel front camera. (In the modification with an LTE modem, there is also a speaker above the display, which is missing in our copy.)

Minimum screen settings. There is only a blue filter (makes the picture warmer, recommended for use at night) and outdoor mode. When activated, the brightness becomes ten percent higher than when it is set to maximum manually. Indeed, the information on the screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 can be viewed outdoors on a sunny day; the picture does not fade completely.

The display probably has an oleophobic coating. The manufacturer is silent about it (as well as the origin of the glass covering the screen), but prints on the surface remain reluctantly and are easily erased.

Hardware platform Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017

The developers used a simple 28-nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset with four ARM Cortex-A53 cores (up to 1.4 GHz) and Adreno 308 graphics. The picture is complemented by 2 GB of RAM. The result was a surprisingly fast device. No slowdowns in Chrome, no hesitation when launching applications. It’s clear that you won’t be able to play the latest generation of games with sophisticated 3D graphics on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017, but Asphalt 8 runs without problems at medium settings. Video in HD720p also plays perfectly, and with such a screen you don’t need anything more.

On the other hand, it is not a fact that over time some brakes will not appear - as is often the case with Android devices. There is no performance reserve, the chipset used is as budget as possible, and the amount of RAM is not amazing.

Below is a screenshot from AnTuTu, since without it any review is not a review. In short, judging by the numbers, the situation is slightly depressing, but in practice, I repeat, this is not noticeable.

There is only 16 GB of memory, of which about 10 are available. You can also install a MicroSD card with a capacity of up to 256 GB. There was no such thing on the farm, but the 64 GB drive was consumed by the tablet without any problems.

There are no problems with communication via Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n 2.4+5.0 GHz, HT40) and Bluetooth (4.2), everything works smoothly. The same can be said about navigation - in less than a minute the tablet finds a lot of GLONASS and GPS satellites.

Cameras Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017

The main camera of the model has autofocus, an 8-megapixel matrix, flash and f/1.9 aperture.

I strongly suspect that the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 has a camera from some middle-class Samsung smartphone of previous generations. And that's actually not a bad thing. A number of options have migrated to the tablet, which are rarely found in devices of this type. For example, the ability to shoot in HDR and a set of manual settings, combined under the word Pro. I'm not sure that anyone would bother with them when taking photos on a tablet computer, but they really help make the shots a little more beautiful.

Anyway, here are some pictures taken on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 in different modes.

What I also liked was the ability to place the shutter key wherever you want. A tablet is a rather big thing, and reaching for where the manufacturer placed the button is not always convenient.

The front 5-megapixel camera without autofocus allows you to take crossbows that are quite typical for these days. For social networks the quality is enough, for something more - not so much.

Software features of Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017

The tablet runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat, and somewhere on the Internet they write that later they will release firmware for it with Android 8.0 Oreo.

In terms of software, this is a typical Samsung device of recent years. There is a children's mode with the ability to prohibit visiting various sites and a set of content optimized for young users.

There is a game mode in which you can increase productivity and collect all the toys in one interface.

There is also an information panel mode, when activated, the tablet shows the weather, calendar and date on a nice background. This mode is logical to use with a stand, which, apparently, is not yet supplied to us (as are branded cases, by the way). It costs about $30 on Amazon.

In general, the interface looks something like this:

In terms of software, I liked the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017. The proprietary shell, which in different places is called either TouchWIZ or Samsung Experience 8.5 (in a hurry again?), provides a traditionally pleasant user experience that Chinese tablets are not able to provide. They usually have bare Android, spoiled by poor translation and a set of strange software that often works crookedly.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 - buy or not?

The model turned out to be quite expensive - a fact. As we said at the very beginning, the version with an LTE modem costs 16,990 rubles. The option without cellular support (which is what we tested) will most likely be priced at 2-3 thousand rubles cheaper. And this is still far from a gift - half-nameless Chinese analogues cost noticeably less than 10 thousand rubles, and the same Huawei has an 8-inch one that is very similar in most respects for 10,990. Moreover, for this money they already offer an option with LTE.

So... It’s clear that there are solvent citizens in any regime and in any crisis. This is exactly who the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 is designed for - that is, for those who are willing to overpay a substantial amount for the brand and some confidence in the quality that this brand provides. Yes, the device turned out to be moderately functional, it has a good camera by tablet standards, a solid body, a powerful battery and a pleasant software shell. However, it clearly does not qualify as an ideal tablet - due to strange ergonomics and lack of performance reserve.

Advantages:

High-quality metal case;
. powerful battery (5000 mAh);
. nice screen;
. USB Type-C connector;
. Not a bad camera by tablet standards.

Flaws:

Lack of backlighting of the buttons on the front panel;
. location of the volume and power keys;
. weak hardware platform;
. no headphones included.

Specifications Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2017 (T380)

Screen: TFT matrix, 8’’, 1280 × 800 pixels;
. body: metal;
. chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, 4 cores, 1.4 GHz frequency, Adreno 308 graphics;
. 2 GB of RAM;
. 16 GB of internal memory;
. 5000 mAh battery;
. USB Type-C port (USB 2.0);
. front camera: 5 MP;
. main camera 8 MP; aperture f/1.9;
. video recording: 1080 pixels, 30 fps;
. sensors: accelerometer, Hall sensor;
. interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4/5 GHz HT40, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/GLONASS/Beidou;
. operating system: Android 7.1.1 Nougat;
. dimensions: 212 x 124 x 8.9 mm
. weight: 360 g

Tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 9.7" 32Gb LTE Black (SM-T825)

RUB 39,990

The Tab S3's outstanding audio system helps you enjoy watching movies or listening to music even more. Four speakers located at the corners of the tablet are capable of producing surround sound. Moreover, this system, developed by Samsung in close collaboration with sound masters from AKG, has fully earned the right to be called smart: it changes the volume of high and low frequencies depending on the position of the device. And this allows you to enjoy movies or music, sitting comfortably and positioning the tablet however you like.

Fun time

When creating the Tab S3, we didn't forget about gamers! Especially for them, Samsung added the beloved Game Launcher function to the tablet, through which all games are placed in a special folder: this greatly simplifies access to them. Based on the user's preferences, Game Launcher makes personalized recommendations and offers to download new games. Among other things, you can set the Do Not Disturb mode to turn on automatically, and then nothing will distract you from the game.

The Tab S3 has a top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with four cores. To this are added four gigabytes of RAM and 32 gigabytes of internal memory, expandable with microSD cards.

To make games look even better, the Tab S3 supports the Vulkan API, designed to improve performance and create high-quality graphics. At the same time, the Tab S3 can work for as long as 12 hours on a single battery charge.

CPU	Octa-core Snapdragon 835 (4 × 2.35 GHz Kryo and 4 × 1.9 GHz Kryo)
Video processor	Adreno 540
RAM	4 GB
Built-in memory	64 GB + slot for microSD cards up to 512 GB
Display	10.54 inches, WQXGA (2,560 × 1,600 pixels), Super AMOLED, 286 ppi
Cameras	Main - 13 MP, front - 8 MP
Shooting video	Main camera - 2160p with 30 FPS, front - 1080p with 30 FPS
SIM card	nanoSIM
Wireless interfaces	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo
Unlock	PIN code, iris, facial features, smart identification (iris + face)
operating system	Android 8.1, Samsung Experience 9.5
Peculiarities	Keyboard case support (DeX mode) and stylus included
Connectors	USB Type-C, 3.5 mm audio jack
Battery	7,300 mAh (non-removable), fast charging
Frame	Glass and aluminum
Dimensions	249.3 × 164.3 × 7.1 mm
Weight	482 g

Design and ports

Nothing special: a black tablet with fairly thin edges. There are no buttons below the display, like the Tab S3. The case is thin, but not so thin as to create the impression of an unreliable device. The aluminum frame has rounded edges, so the tablet feels good in your palms.

The back of the device is made of glass. Apparently, Samsung decided to maintain a single style in a number of mobile devices, since this solution does not provide any functional features: there is no support for wireless charging. On the back panel there is a camera, a flash, the company logo and a mention of AKG, which designed the Tab S4 audio system. The panel easily collects fingerprints and, even worse, minor scratches. It is better to carry the tablet in a case.

We will see the speaker holes on the top and bottom edges of the device (when the tablet is positioned in portrait mode). There are also two inputs at the bottom: USB Type-C and a mini-jack. Above the display is the front camera and sensors. On the right is a “cradle” for nanoSIM and microSD, paired volume buttons and a power and unlock button. The latter has barely noticeable play. The buttons are very thin and quite high. It's not that important, but the tactile experience could be more pleasant. On the left side there is nothing but grooves and contacts for the keyboard case. There is no call button for Bixby that is not particularly necessary - this is good.

The device makes a good first impression: it is weighty, serious, stylish, there is nothing superfluous in it. But there is no need to talk about any unique user experience. Just the right modern tablet.

The Tab S4 has Samsung Super AMOLED with a resolution of 2,560 × 1,600 pixels. The density is not bad for a tablet - 286 ppi. This is slightly more than, for example, the number of pixels per inch in . In general, we have no complaints about the screen: it has correct color reproduction, good viewing from any angle, and brightness with which you can use the tablet moderately even in strong lighting.

The display aspect ratio is 16:10. It’s cool to watch videos on and easy to manage with the split-screen function. Thanks to it, you can simultaneously read Lifehacker and send links to your favorite articles to friends in the messenger.

Initially, the screen is quite well calibrated, but for those who like to customize every little detail for themselves, there is room to roam here: you can adjust the saturation and color ratio using the RGB palette or assign brightness to a certain level of lighting.

Sound

Good. Stereo panorama is provided by pairs of AKG speakers on each side, and they also provide good power. It’s comfortable to watch movies and TV series on the tablet, and even when listening to music in a small room, you can do without connecting Bluetooth speakers. The sound is clear and detailed, low frequencies sag as expected, but for mobile devices this is not even the norm, but inevitable.

It has a Snapdragon 835 with eight Kryo cores: four at 2.35 GHz and four at 1.9 GHz. This is no longer a top-end configuration, but quite a flagship one: there is no lag, PUBG runs successfully with maximum graphics settings. It’s possible that with smart unlocking, the Tab S4 does not behave as quickly as or, but this may be due to the fact that, in principle, it is more difficult to turn the tablet towards you parallel to your face and some milliseconds are spent on aiming.

For fans of numbers - the result of the Geekbench 4 test:

And the result in AnTuTu:

Camera

The camera performs well in natural and bright lighting. The photos are definitely no worse than on top smartphones. But the darker it is, the sadder it is. Noise creeps out, defocus appears due to the increased shutter speed, and in general the photographs come out quite average. There is no portrait mode, but there is a function to blur the edges of the frame when taking selfies.

The interface of the standard camera application has seven modes: HDR, panoramic, professional, “Beauty” for adjusting skin tone and eye expressiveness, auto, mode with stickers and recording hyperlapse video. In professional mode, you can adjust brightness, light sensitivity, white balance and exposure metering type.

Verdict: the camera is not bad, but it is demanding on lighting. The standard application supports both the necessary functions and those that most people will never need. Most likely, you will continue to use your smartphone camera.

And here is the killer feature of the device - the mode for using the tablet together with the keyboard hidden in the case. Unfortunately, we didn't get the accessory to test, so we can't say for sure how convenient and useful it is. It looks something like this:

techradar.com

In DeX mode, the Tab S4 changes its interface: it looks like a desktop operating system with a windowed view. Like Windows. Add to this standard Word and Excel, and the purpose of the function becomes clearer. It turns the tablet into a transformer - like a laptop with a touch screen, but only very compact.

theverge.com

Multitasking in DeX mode is implemented at the desktop level; it is clearly more convenient and serious than what a tablet provides, even with a split-screen function. The cover has a rigid fold. With it, the Tab S4, which has suddenly become a netbook, can be placed comfortably on your lap and continue working with tables, for example, in a taxi.

You don't need to connect a keyboard to enter DeX mode. In addition, the connected device may not be original: the Tab S4 works with any Bluetooth keyboard.

This feature will be useful for those who work a lot with office documents and do not like to be tied to a computer. Looking ahead, let's say that the Tab S4 with a keyboard case for 8,990 rubles costs more than the Wi-Fi version of the iPad Pro 10.5 with Apple Pencil. And all this is because of the DeX mode.

If DeX is designed for office workers, then the S Pen stylus will appeal to those who often take notes or draw. To make some quick sketch, just bring the S Pen to the tablet and hold down the button on the handle. A lightweight version of the note-taker will appear on the locked screen. Here you can quickly write down something, such as an email address or phone number.

Using the stylus, you can not only jot down notes or draw in graphic editors, but also quickly take and crop screenshots, translate texts, and create animations for messages. You can type text - Tab S4 almost always correctly identifies what is written, even with clumsy handwriting. The S Pen is also pressure sensitive: the stronger it is, the thicker the brush line when drawing. You can spend several minutes jotting down stupid scribbles in notes and not even notice - I already talked about this in the Note 9 review. And here there is also a large screen.

The main disadvantage of this whole S Pen idea is that there is simply nowhere to put the stylus. There is no slot for it in the tablet body. It is inconvenient to carry the stylus in your pocket; if you put it in your bag, it will get lost. The only option is to buy a case, it has a pocket for the S Pen.

Unlock

There are four ways to unlock the Tab S4: PIN code, face recognition, iris recognition, and a smart unlock method that combines face and iris recognition. The most effective is the latter, which automatically selects one of the types of identification depending on the lighting.

Either because of the not-so-top performance indicators, or because of the need to hold the tablet strictly parallel to your face, smart unlocking takes a little longer to work than on the same Note 9. But it works even with the display in landscape orientation, that is, when you hold tablet horizontally.

Autonomy

The Tab S4 has a 7,300 mAh battery, which is larger than most flagship mobile devices. But due to the size of the display, the battery life of the Tab S4 and top-end Samsung smartphones is approximately the same: with active use, the tablet will last at least 10 hours.

We turned on a YouTube video at medium volume and left the Tab S4 for an hour - the charge dropped by 9-10%. This is a good result, especially considering that we, as a rule, do not use tablets all the time, but from time to time. The Tab S4's battery can last for one, two, or even three days with moderate use for several hours a day.

The Tab S4 runs Android 8.1 Oreo with Samsung Experience 9.5 on top. At first, all sorts of invitations to the ocean of pre-installed services are confusing, but you can refuse almost all of them. There are applications from Google and Microsoft. The interface is classic and familiar to all owners of the latest Samsung devices. This is a good shell, quite nimble and logically designed.

Results

The Tab S4 is a great device. It will cope with all the tasks that a tablet should cope with: movies, the Internet, games. But all the advantages come with a very serious price: 52,990 rubles for the only available version of the device with LTE and 8,990 rubles for the keyboard case, without which the Tab S4 does not particularly stand out among less expensive competitors - tablets from Huawei or Apple.

The Tab S4 is suitable for those who do not want to buy a convertible laptop and are looking for an alternative - mobile and equally multitasking. If your work with a tablet is not related to documents, you get by just fine without LTE, and the DeX mode and the presence of a stylus are not decisive moments for you, then it is better to buy something else.

The never-released Samsung Galaxy Tab 5 tablet is an excellent example of how the Chinese imitate the line of a popular brand and deceive customers. It must be said that they do this with enviable regularity, not only copying existing models, but even inventing their own.

A year ago, many media outlets that write about mobile technologies reported that the Korean company was about to release a new inexpensive tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 5 (8.0). Against the backdrop of the triumph of the flagship smartphones Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, this news somehow went unnoticed by the general public.

Actually, it was based on one strange leak from China, where in the database of TENAA, a local certification center for telecommunications equipment, an entry about the Galaxy Tab 5 (8.0) tablet manufactured by Samsung was noticed.

Some characteristics of the future Galaxy Tab 5 were also named there:

• 8-inch diagonal screen with a resolution of 1024x768 pixels, made using AMOLED technology
• Unknown mobile processor with four cores and a frequency of 1.2 GHz
• 2 Gb RAM
• Built-in flash memory capacity 16, 32 or 64 Gb depending on modification
• Supports MicroSD memory cards up to 128 Gb
• Main camera 5 megapixels
• Front camera 2 megapixels
• OS Android 5.0.2 + TouchWiz shell
• Dimensions 208 x 138 x 7.4 mm
• S-Pen stylus

As a result, such a tablet did come out, but it was not called Galaxy Tab 5, but Samsung SM-T355C Galaxy Tab A 8.0 TD-LTE (full name). This device opened up a completely new line of inexpensive tablets from the company, similar to the line of Galaxy A smartphones.

However, here the Chinese “enter” the arena. And they are releasing a device called exactly... Samsung Galaxy Tab 5. The domestic market of the People's Republic of China is currently structured in such a way that it is often impossible for local brands to protect themselves from counterfeits, let alone foreign ones.

Pseudo-Samsung Galaxy Tab 5 3G (2SIM)

This is the name of a common Chinese counterfeit of Samsung, which is still found in abundance not only on online ad sites like Avito, but even in some seemingly less-than-reputable online stores. Sellers on AliExpress and AliBaba do not disdain them either.

Characteristics of a fake:

• Dual Core MTK 6572 1.3 GHz processor (Samsung does not use MediaTek processors in its tablets)
• Screen 7 inches (not 8)
• Screen resolution 800×432 (the Korean giant hasn’t done this for a long time)
• Built-in storage 4 Gb (day before yesterday)
• RAM 512 Gb (that is, hello brakes)
• Cameras: 2 MP main and 2 MP front (this is often found on cheap Chinese tablets, but not on normal brands)
• MicroSD up to 32 Gb
• "Naked" Android 4.2.2. (no proprietary TouchWiz shell)

However, due to the fact that many are not particularly versed in technical details, this “Samsung” Galaxy Tab 5 is often sold to unlucky buyers even in Russia.

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Usually it happens like this: on the same Avito, someone sells a tablet that they allegedly bought from Euroset/Eldorado/Svyaznoy (underline or add as necessary). And it can even show a receipt with a price like a real Samsung (15,000 - 20,000 rubles). However, he sells the device for 5,000 - 8,000 rubles, although the red price is 1,500 - 2,000. Some people have built their business on this, unfortunately.

An example of a receipt for a fake Galaxy Tab 5, taken from here: http://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/topic928632.html

Not everyone, as we have already indicated above, is able to distinguish a Chinese counterfeit from the original; in the end they buy such a “Samsung”, and then they also complain about what bad devices the Koreans produce.

A gallery of fake photos for those who are interested in looking at this “miracle”: