Data of Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
https://walkprod.blogspot.com/2014/05/data-of-samsung-galaxy-tab-pro-10-1.html
Android tablet Daúvh performs well, has a high-resolution screen and speakers, and glows with a smart interface skinning. Our only concern is the price: I've overshadowed by one of the androids Samsung's own
Introduction
To be sure, Samsung is today's most prolific—and creative—maker of Android tablets. Each year, the South Korean electronics giant loans us for review its latest Galaxy Notes and Galaxy Tabs in multiple screen sizes and price ranges, with each new version delivering a wealth of updated features and—sometimes—improved performance. And over the years, each new model has usually impressed us. The major exception was last year’s Galaxy Tab 3 series tablets, which were undistinguished performers, among them the full-size Galaxy Tab 3 10.1Best Price at Amazon. (We consider slates with screens from 9 to 11 inches “full-size.”)
Here in 2014, though, Samsung has hit the reboot button, with its early-year release of the Galaxy Tab Pro and Galaxy Note Pro series, which includes the giant Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 (a stylus-free version of the company's Galaxy Note Pro 12.2Best Price at Amazon, which we reviewed recently), the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 (a review's forthcoming from us soon on that one), and the subject of this review, the $499-MSRP Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1$429.99 at Amazon. (Samsung announced a new-for-2014 Galaxy Tab 4 series just before we posted this review, as well.)
Unlike most of the company’s other recent Android slates, notably the Galaxy Tab 3 and the 2012 Galaxy Tab 2 series, which were positioned more as midrange products, the tablets in the Galaxy Tab Pro lineup are sleeker and premium-priced. They come with the Multi Window and multitasking features we’ve liked so well on Samsung’s latest stylus-enabled Galaxy Note slates. (To clarify: Samsung's Galaxy Note slates make use of the company's S Pen stylus; with the Galaxy Tabs and Tab Pros, it's all finger input.) And the new "Pro" branding is reflected not just in the new tablets' coolly minimalist chassis designs, but in the productivity-centric selection of apps and features.
In addition, our Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 review unit was slightly thinner than its closest existing Galaxy Tab kinsman in Samsung's line, the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1. Thinner and lighter is always a plus, so long as the tablet doesn’t become too pliable as a result. We’re happy to report that this new Galaxy Tab Pro felt hard-bodied and durable enough.
In fact, aside from lacking Samsung’s slick S Pen stylus, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 shares a lot of traits with the company’s Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition)$479.00 at Amazon. It has the same leather-esque coating on the back, with the same faux stitching around the edges, and its buttons, ports, and speaker locations are similar. And, like the Galaxy Note 10.1, the Tab Pro 10.1 comes in either white or black…
You're also looking at similar screens between these two prime-time tabs. The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 comes with a gorgeous 2,560x1,600-pixel (WQXGA) display panel, the same higher-than-1080p native resolution as on the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition). Also, its relatively new Samsung Exynos 5 Octa processor performs well, right up there with the snappy Nvidia Tegra 4 and Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs we’ve tested in some other recent slates. (We've got more on that Exynos chip in the Performance section later on.)
Then there's the battery life. High performance often comes hand-in-hand with a battery-life penalty, but not so much here: We were especially impressed with the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1’s 12-hour-plus battery runtime in our video-rundown test. That was about an hour longer than the Galaxy Note 10.1’s unplugged runtime, and well over four hours more than what we got from the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1.
Pricing is the only key concern we had about this slate. The Tab Pro 10.1, which comes in just one storage-capacity flavor (16GB), lists for $100 more than last year’s 16GB version of the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1, and about $50 less than the 32GB Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition). Without question, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is an elegant, well-performing tablet with very little to dislike. But we think that the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), with twice the onboard storage capacity and the impressive S Pen stylus for sketching and taking notes, is a better buy at just $50 more.
Of course, price adjustments happen, which could change the relative lay of the land. For instance, we saw the 16GB Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 selling from some resellers for $429.99 at this writing, although how long that lower pricing will hold is uncertain. We really like this slate, but, given the pricing of the 2014 version of the Galaxy Note 10.1, the Tab Pro 10.1 is a wee bit overpriced at its list price. Other than that concern, though, we’re confident that buyers of this classy tablet won’t be disappointed.
Design
The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is one of those slates that, as we took it out of the box, immediately impressed us with how well-built and balanced it felt. Like the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), it’s sleek-looking and highly attractive.
Our white review unit, for example, had spiffy-looking chrome trim around its entire perimeter, and the leather-like coating on the back was good-looking and grip-enhancin-->
We found the white backing resisted fingerprints admirably, though the color easily shows up grime. So, if a white tablet isn’t your style, as mentioned, it also comes in black-->
As for ports and controls, like most Samsung slates, this one lacks an on-body HDMI port for connecting to HDTVs and other monitors. Most other features, as well as a few Galaxy-specific options such as an infrared (IR) emitter and accompanying remote-control software (which we’ll discuss on the next page) are there. For example, when you hold the tablet in wide, or landscape orientation, you’ll find the IR-emitter window, a volume rocker, and the power/sleep/lock button on the top edge-->
Swivel the tablet around 90 degrees, and you'll see a MicroSD card slot and a stereo speaker on the right edge-->
The MicroSD slot, located under a small tethered cover, supports cards up to 64GB, which, when combined with the 16GB of onboard storage, allows you to increase storage capacity to 80GB maximum.
Meanwhile, you’ll find the audio jack and the other stereo speaker on the right edge…
The combination mini-USB/charging port is located on the bottom edge. Directly above that, on the bottom bezel, are the device’s physical controls: Previous Apps, Home, and Back...
While these physical controls are common on Samsung slates (and, of course, there’s the physical Home button on the bezel of all flavors of the Apple iPad), most other Android devices rely on the Android OS’s onscreen virtual controls, not bezel-mounted ones. While we’ve heard the grousing from some other reviewers about these buttons, we happen to like them. They free up some additional space onscreen for apps and content.
As mentioned, the speakers are located along the right and left edges when you're holding the slate in wide (landscape) orientation. As a result, sound emanates from the sides of the device. That increases stereo separation a bit, but to us, that's not an optimal arrangement because of the likelihood of your gripping hands blocking the speakers. On some previous Samsung slates, such as the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), Samsung positioned the speakers on the front. We like that better. However, sound on the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 was loud, clear, and less tinny than on most other slates. Our favorite movies and trailers, including the newest Hunger Games and Star Trek flicks, as well as our rock ‘n’ roll and classical-music samples, sounded better than we’re used to hearing from most other tablets.
Unlike the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 comes with two cameras that are pretty decent—for a tablet, anyway. With or without the 8-megapixel rear camera’s auto-flash, our still pics and short video clips with that lens came out detailed and colorful. And, as with nearly every other aspect of the Android OS on this slate, Samsung has made extensive changes to its Camera app's interface, as shown in the image below-->
Special-effects exposures, image corrections and enhancements, panorama shooting, and even Samsung’s Drama effect (which you may have seen advertised in the company’s latest Galaxy S smartphone commercials) are implemented with wizard-like instructions to walk you through each procedure. We could have spent several hours, easily, experimenting with the Camera app’s features, and, because of the slick implementation, had a lot of fun in the process. But the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is peppered with so many other features to look at that…well, we had to move on. But know that this is no basic, humdrum camera implementation here.
That brings us to the front-facing 2-megapixel Webcam. In addition to performing better than average in the course of our Skype videoconferences, the front camera took surprisingly usable selfies, even if holding such a large device steady while self-shooting proved a challenge. The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is hardly the ideal device for getting pictures of yourself online, but it worked for us after some experimentation.
Features & Apps
Where to start? In a bunch of ways, the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is unlike most other Android slates, because Samsung’s modifications to the Android OS are extensive, and its barrage of included apps is almost overwhelming—far wider-ranging than we can cover here in depth.
We’ll get to the software features in a moment, but let’s start with this slate’s gorgeous 2,560x1,600-pixel display panel. As with most Samsung screens, this one is detail-rich, bright, and colorful. Our images, games, and videos looked simply great, and Web pages, images, and text alike were all crisp and pleasant to look at, limited only by the actual quality of the media itself.
We had no problems with far-off-angle viewing, and the "immediacy" of the screen was above average, with no evidence of air gap below the clear front face. Glare in bright light was about average.
Combine this screen with this slate’s exceptional speakers, and the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is one of the better slates we’ve seen for watching videos, and, again, the quality of in-game images were limited only by the quality of the artwork itself. As we’ve said time and again, tablets—which, at the core, are just a screen—live and die by the quality of their displays. Over the years we’ve seen a lot of good tablet screens, and Samsung’s are usually right up there with the best of them. This one sure is.
Also impressive, though again not new with this tablet, was Samsung’s mature remote-control feature, which lets you control your home entertainment equipment from your tablet. The elements are the aforementioned IR emitter and the company’s proprietary WatchOn app, shown in the image below
We’ve covered this remote-control feature a few times in other Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Note reviews, so we won't go into detail—for example, check out our review from October 2013 of the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition). But Samsung's IR remote is one of those key features in the company's tablets that really set it apart from the Android hordes. Getting, in essence, a big-screen universal remote for free when you buy a tablet is a big selling point.
Also a big set-apart in the Tab Pro 10.1 is how Android itself actually looks. Few, if any, tablet makers modify (or “skin”) Android as heavily as Samsung does, especially on the company’s higher-end tablets (the Galaxy Note family, and now the Galaxy Tab Pro line). Not every tablet manufacturer’s skinning of Android is to our tastes, but Samsung's efforts here make this somewhat stark OS friendlier and nicer to look at.
Take the My Files app, for example-->
As you can see here, it’s clean, attractive, and well-designed, and you can add your own types of files to identify and organize. Samsung makes changes like these throughout the interface and to many of the core apps on the slate. This is the company’s continuously updated, proprietary TouchWiz skin we’ve been talking about for a few years now. Overall, TouchWiz has matured nicely and increases the tablet’s value versus what you see in a vanilla-Android slate. Indeed, Samsung's interface tweaks are a big part of why its premium tablets can, at times, justify their prices.
Also included on the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is Samsung’s Multi Window feature, which allows you to open multiple windows side-by-side on the same screen-->
You can even drag and drop data between them, but know that there are limits: Not all apps, by a long shot, support the multitasking desktop. In fact, only about 15 or so proprietary apps (notably, Email, Music, Video, and Chrome) do, but it’s a wide enough assortment that you'll find most major tablet activities are covered by the feature. Multi Window apps really do make working simultaneously in multiple apps easier, and it’s the kind of feature that's lacking not only from most Android slates, but from all the flavors of Apple's iPad.
Another interface enhancement we liked is the improved onscreen keyboard. On it, Samsung now includes numbers on the first layer of virtual keys. (No digging to a submenu to type numbers, thank heavens.) The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 also introduces tactile, haptic feedback as you hit the onscreen keys, for a premium typing "feel." Personal preference will dictate whether you appreciate that.
A feature called Magazine UX is also new here. If you know the popular app Flipboard, you know exactly what this is like: It lets you pull in content feeds from a variety of prepopulated (or custom) categories, then have the latest content shown to you in a tiled, magazine-like interface. Unlike Flipboard, which works as a stand-alone app, Magazine UX is an integral part of the interface here; swiping among the various Android home screens lands you on a Magazine UX page by default. You may not like that, but we're generally partial to Flipboard, so we didn't mind. For keeping up with the latest news in a given niche, especially for work, Flipboard/Magazine UX can be pretty handy.
Inded, the "Pro" aspect of this tablet shines through in the selection of a few other, productivity-oriented apps. The included Hancom Office is something of an OpenOffice for Android, an alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous suite, with word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation modules; it lets you open and edit MS Office files. You also get a PC remote-access app in the form of Remote PC, and a virtual-meeting/whiteboarding app ("e-Meeting") for sharing a screen with those on the same network as your Tab Pro 10.1.
Performance
[Note: We recently updated our Android-tablet testing suite, so we haven't had the opportunity to test many tablets with our recently added trio of performance benchmarks: GeekBench 3, AnTuTu Benchmark, and GFX Bench 3.0. Thus the omission of certain tablets here from those charts. —Ed.]
The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is powered by Samsung’s own 1.9GHz Exynos 5 Octa quad-core processor, supported by 2GB of RAM. Graphics are processed by circuitry built into the CPU, and the slate runs the latest version of Android, build 4.4.2, also known as “KitKat.”
So far, we’ve seen only two other slates built around this particular Exynos processor: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and Galaxy Note Pro 12. To date, this CPU has kept pace with some of the other current-generation high-performance tablet chips out there, including Nvidia’s Tegra 4 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors. It stands out for a different reason, though: its big.LITTLE architecture, and the smart use of its eight ARM Cortex cores.
Four of the cores are meant for tasks that require full-bore performance, while the other four are meant for power-saving. The tablet sensibly switches between those Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 cores depending what's required by the task at hand. According to Samsung, this dropping in and out of high gear conserves the battery by using less power when less power is required.
Your usage patterns, then, will have a great deal of effect on the battery life. Our battery longevity test is a harsh video-rundown test, and on that, the Tab Pro 10.1 was about average for a quad-core slate running Android. Considering how many pixels the screen is pushing, it's not bad. (More on that on the last page of this review.) You can get a much more detailed description of the Exynos 5 Octa at the link, which will direct you to a subpage on Samsung’s Web site.
Overall Performance (Synthetic Benchmarks)
To gauge a tablet’s overall system performance against competing tablets, we've just started using two synthetic app-based testing suites commonly used in the Android world: AnTuTu Benchmark and Geekbench 3. The former assesses most tablet functions, including CPU, 2D/3D graphics, and memory performance, while the latter performs a series of single-core and multi-core routines to assess suitability for a wide range of applications.
We've tested only a small subset of full-size tablets so far with AnTuTu Benchmark, so the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1’s score is on point, considering the rest of the Samsung pack here is based on the same Exynos architecture…
Likewise, its GeekBench 3 scores…
Web Browser JavaScript Processing
To assess a slate’s ability to process JavaScript—one of the key components in Web-page processing—in its native browser, we use two browser-based tests, SunSpider and Futuremark's Peacekeeper.
Starting with SunSpider, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1's score of 1,103 was fine for this group and very good in light of the larger Android-tablet world (lower scores are better on this test)…
Its score of 880 on Peacekeeper was also above average, well within the threshold indicating competitive JavaScript processing…
Graphics Rendering Tests
To assess a slate’s graphics-processing prowess, we run two tests: the recently updated GFX Bench 3.0, which tests, among other things, OpenGL performance, and 3DMark for Android, which assesses the graphics-processing silicon’s overall muscle with game-like 3D graphics.
Starting with GFX Bench 3.0, the Tab Pro 10.1 turned in on-point scores for the three 10-inch-plus Samsung tablets we've tested with it-->
Its scores on 3DMark for Android were similarly no surprise, considering the pack; note that it did outpace Toshiba's Tegra 4-based tab here-->
Bear in mind that all of the slates in this test group have beefy processors; these are not cut-rate or budget tablets. Our Tab Pro 10.1 test unit held up well against its like-priced competitors.
Battery Rundown & Conclusion
Prior to running our battery rundown test, we turn off the tablet to clear all apps and other processes from memory, then restart it and time the boot sequence-->
After we pressed the power button, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 took 31 seconds to become usable, very much average for a recent Android tab.
On our demanding battery-rundown test, we play the latest Star Trek movie, stored locally on the tablet, on a loop. The slate is set to Airplane mode (i.e., Wi-Fi off), and the volume and brightness are set to 50 percent-->
Our Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 test unit lasted 12 hours and 5 minutes (12:05), which, while certainly quite respectable, is middle-of-the-road among higher-end Android tablets we’ve reviewed. While 12 hours should be sufficient for getting most users through an average day’s work, your use of this slate will probably be closer to the everyday Web-browsing, e-mail, and social-network meddling that most tablet users do, as opposed to nonstop video playback. In that kind of more casual use, you should get at least another couple of hours out of the battery.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is thin, light, well-built, and attractive. It performs handily for a 2014 slate; it delivers decent battery life; and the premium speakers and gorgeous high-definition screen make it ideal for watching videos, playing games, listening to music, and viewing high-end photos. Then too, there’s this slate’s Multi Window multitasking feature and attractive TouchWiz skin designed to help make Android easier to use, more convenient, and better-looking—as well as make you more productive. The bottom line is, this is a premium slate, with as robust an app load as anything this side of Apple, and nearly everything about it supports the "Pro" moniker.
The question is, is it worth $500, or perhaps a little less if you shop around? We’d say yes, with a caveat. The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1’s overall value proposition is undermined somewhat by competition from within: the $550-list Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), and perhaps the Galaxy Note 8.0Best Price at Amazon we looked at early last year, if you don’t mind the latter's smaller screen.
Considering that the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) provides twice the storage capacity, comparable performance, and the proficient, convenient S Pen stylus for just $50 more, and the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 comes out looking slightly overpriced. (The S Pen really is handy for taking notes and drawing, and it makes device navigation dramatically more accurate.) While we doubt that buyers of the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 will be disappointed, we do believe that given the competition from Samsung’s own products, we’d like it better at $450, or perhaps even $400. (As we were finishing up this review in early May 2014, the Tab Pro 10.1 was suddenly on sale for $429.99 on Samsung’s Web site, which is much more reasonable than the $499.99 list price. Whether that price sticks is another matter, however.)
It was this slightly high price, in fact, that kept the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 from receiving our Editors’ Choice nod. Otherwise, it's one mighty fine tablet.
VIA computershopper
The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is one of those slates that, as we took it out of the box, immediately impressed us with how well-built and balanced it felt. Like the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), it’s sleek-looking and highly attractive.
Our white review unit, for example, had spiffy-looking chrome trim around its entire perimeter, and the leather-like coating on the back was good-looking and grip-enhancin-->
We found the white backing resisted fingerprints admirably, though the color easily shows up grime. So, if a white tablet isn’t your style, as mentioned, it also comes in black-->
As for ports and controls, like most Samsung slates, this one lacks an on-body HDMI port for connecting to HDTVs and other monitors. Most other features, as well as a few Galaxy-specific options such as an infrared (IR) emitter and accompanying remote-control software (which we’ll discuss on the next page) are there. For example, when you hold the tablet in wide, or landscape orientation, you’ll find the IR-emitter window, a volume rocker, and the power/sleep/lock button on the top edge-->
Swivel the tablet around 90 degrees, and you'll see a MicroSD card slot and a stereo speaker on the right edge-->
The MicroSD slot, located under a small tethered cover, supports cards up to 64GB, which, when combined with the 16GB of onboard storage, allows you to increase storage capacity to 80GB maximum.
Meanwhile, you’ll find the audio jack and the other stereo speaker on the right edge…
The combination mini-USB/charging port is located on the bottom edge. Directly above that, on the bottom bezel, are the device’s physical controls: Previous Apps, Home, and Back...
While these physical controls are common on Samsung slates (and, of course, there’s the physical Home button on the bezel of all flavors of the Apple iPad), most other Android devices rely on the Android OS’s onscreen virtual controls, not bezel-mounted ones. While we’ve heard the grousing from some other reviewers about these buttons, we happen to like them. They free up some additional space onscreen for apps and content.
As mentioned, the speakers are located along the right and left edges when you're holding the slate in wide (landscape) orientation. As a result, sound emanates from the sides of the device. That increases stereo separation a bit, but to us, that's not an optimal arrangement because of the likelihood of your gripping hands blocking the speakers. On some previous Samsung slates, such as the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), Samsung positioned the speakers on the front. We like that better. However, sound on the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 was loud, clear, and less tinny than on most other slates. Our favorite movies and trailers, including the newest Hunger Games and Star Trek flicks, as well as our rock ‘n’ roll and classical-music samples, sounded better than we’re used to hearing from most other tablets.
Unlike the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 comes with two cameras that are pretty decent—for a tablet, anyway. With or without the 8-megapixel rear camera’s auto-flash, our still pics and short video clips with that lens came out detailed and colorful. And, as with nearly every other aspect of the Android OS on this slate, Samsung has made extensive changes to its Camera app's interface, as shown in the image below-->
Special-effects exposures, image corrections and enhancements, panorama shooting, and even Samsung’s Drama effect (which you may have seen advertised in the company’s latest Galaxy S smartphone commercials) are implemented with wizard-like instructions to walk you through each procedure. We could have spent several hours, easily, experimenting with the Camera app’s features, and, because of the slick implementation, had a lot of fun in the process. But the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is peppered with so many other features to look at that…well, we had to move on. But know that this is no basic, humdrum camera implementation here.
That brings us to the front-facing 2-megapixel Webcam. In addition to performing better than average in the course of our Skype videoconferences, the front camera took surprisingly usable selfies, even if holding such a large device steady while self-shooting proved a challenge. The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is hardly the ideal device for getting pictures of yourself online, but it worked for us after some experimentation.
Features & Apps
Where to start? In a bunch of ways, the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is unlike most other Android slates, because Samsung’s modifications to the Android OS are extensive, and its barrage of included apps is almost overwhelming—far wider-ranging than we can cover here in depth.
We’ll get to the software features in a moment, but let’s start with this slate’s gorgeous 2,560x1,600-pixel display panel. As with most Samsung screens, this one is detail-rich, bright, and colorful. Our images, games, and videos looked simply great, and Web pages, images, and text alike were all crisp and pleasant to look at, limited only by the actual quality of the media itself.
We had no problems with far-off-angle viewing, and the "immediacy" of the screen was above average, with no evidence of air gap below the clear front face. Glare in bright light was about average.
Combine this screen with this slate’s exceptional speakers, and the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is one of the better slates we’ve seen for watching videos, and, again, the quality of in-game images were limited only by the quality of the artwork itself. As we’ve said time and again, tablets—which, at the core, are just a screen—live and die by the quality of their displays. Over the years we’ve seen a lot of good tablet screens, and Samsung’s are usually right up there with the best of them. This one sure is.
Also impressive, though again not new with this tablet, was Samsung’s mature remote-control feature, which lets you control your home entertainment equipment from your tablet. The elements are the aforementioned IR emitter and the company’s proprietary WatchOn app, shown in the image below
We’ve covered this remote-control feature a few times in other Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Note reviews, so we won't go into detail—for example, check out our review from October 2013 of the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition). But Samsung's IR remote is one of those key features in the company's tablets that really set it apart from the Android hordes. Getting, in essence, a big-screen universal remote for free when you buy a tablet is a big selling point.
Also a big set-apart in the Tab Pro 10.1 is how Android itself actually looks. Few, if any, tablet makers modify (or “skin”) Android as heavily as Samsung does, especially on the company’s higher-end tablets (the Galaxy Note family, and now the Galaxy Tab Pro line). Not every tablet manufacturer’s skinning of Android is to our tastes, but Samsung's efforts here make this somewhat stark OS friendlier and nicer to look at.
Take the My Files app, for example-->
As you can see here, it’s clean, attractive, and well-designed, and you can add your own types of files to identify and organize. Samsung makes changes like these throughout the interface and to many of the core apps on the slate. This is the company’s continuously updated, proprietary TouchWiz skin we’ve been talking about for a few years now. Overall, TouchWiz has matured nicely and increases the tablet’s value versus what you see in a vanilla-Android slate. Indeed, Samsung's interface tweaks are a big part of why its premium tablets can, at times, justify their prices.
Also included on the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is Samsung’s Multi Window feature, which allows you to open multiple windows side-by-side on the same screen-->
You can even drag and drop data between them, but know that there are limits: Not all apps, by a long shot, support the multitasking desktop. In fact, only about 15 or so proprietary apps (notably, Email, Music, Video, and Chrome) do, but it’s a wide enough assortment that you'll find most major tablet activities are covered by the feature. Multi Window apps really do make working simultaneously in multiple apps easier, and it’s the kind of feature that's lacking not only from most Android slates, but from all the flavors of Apple's iPad.
Another interface enhancement we liked is the improved onscreen keyboard. On it, Samsung now includes numbers on the first layer of virtual keys. (No digging to a submenu to type numbers, thank heavens.) The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 also introduces tactile, haptic feedback as you hit the onscreen keys, for a premium typing "feel." Personal preference will dictate whether you appreciate that.
A feature called Magazine UX is also new here. If you know the popular app Flipboard, you know exactly what this is like: It lets you pull in content feeds from a variety of prepopulated (or custom) categories, then have the latest content shown to you in a tiled, magazine-like interface. Unlike Flipboard, which works as a stand-alone app, Magazine UX is an integral part of the interface here; swiping among the various Android home screens lands you on a Magazine UX page by default. You may not like that, but we're generally partial to Flipboard, so we didn't mind. For keeping up with the latest news in a given niche, especially for work, Flipboard/Magazine UX can be pretty handy.
Inded, the "Pro" aspect of this tablet shines through in the selection of a few other, productivity-oriented apps. The included Hancom Office is something of an OpenOffice for Android, an alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous suite, with word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation modules; it lets you open and edit MS Office files. You also get a PC remote-access app in the form of Remote PC, and a virtual-meeting/whiteboarding app ("e-Meeting") for sharing a screen with those on the same network as your Tab Pro 10.1.
Performance
[Note: We recently updated our Android-tablet testing suite, so we haven't had the opportunity to test many tablets with our recently added trio of performance benchmarks: GeekBench 3, AnTuTu Benchmark, and GFX Bench 3.0. Thus the omission of certain tablets here from those charts. —Ed.]
The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is powered by Samsung’s own 1.9GHz Exynos 5 Octa quad-core processor, supported by 2GB of RAM. Graphics are processed by circuitry built into the CPU, and the slate runs the latest version of Android, build 4.4.2, also known as “KitKat.”
So far, we’ve seen only two other slates built around this particular Exynos processor: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and Galaxy Note Pro 12. To date, this CPU has kept pace with some of the other current-generation high-performance tablet chips out there, including Nvidia’s Tegra 4 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors. It stands out for a different reason, though: its big.LITTLE architecture, and the smart use of its eight ARM Cortex cores.
Four of the cores are meant for tasks that require full-bore performance, while the other four are meant for power-saving. The tablet sensibly switches between those Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 cores depending what's required by the task at hand. According to Samsung, this dropping in and out of high gear conserves the battery by using less power when less power is required.
Your usage patterns, then, will have a great deal of effect on the battery life. Our battery longevity test is a harsh video-rundown test, and on that, the Tab Pro 10.1 was about average for a quad-core slate running Android. Considering how many pixels the screen is pushing, it's not bad. (More on that on the last page of this review.) You can get a much more detailed description of the Exynos 5 Octa at the link, which will direct you to a subpage on Samsung’s Web site.
Overall Performance (Synthetic Benchmarks)
To gauge a tablet’s overall system performance against competing tablets, we've just started using two synthetic app-based testing suites commonly used in the Android world: AnTuTu Benchmark and Geekbench 3. The former assesses most tablet functions, including CPU, 2D/3D graphics, and memory performance, while the latter performs a series of single-core and multi-core routines to assess suitability for a wide range of applications.
We've tested only a small subset of full-size tablets so far with AnTuTu Benchmark, so the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1’s score is on point, considering the rest of the Samsung pack here is based on the same Exynos architecture…
Likewise, its GeekBench 3 scores…
Web Browser JavaScript Processing
To assess a slate’s ability to process JavaScript—one of the key components in Web-page processing—in its native browser, we use two browser-based tests, SunSpider and Futuremark's Peacekeeper.
Starting with SunSpider, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1's score of 1,103 was fine for this group and very good in light of the larger Android-tablet world (lower scores are better on this test)…
Its score of 880 on Peacekeeper was also above average, well within the threshold indicating competitive JavaScript processing…
Graphics Rendering Tests
To assess a slate’s graphics-processing prowess, we run two tests: the recently updated GFX Bench 3.0, which tests, among other things, OpenGL performance, and 3DMark for Android, which assesses the graphics-processing silicon’s overall muscle with game-like 3D graphics.
Starting with GFX Bench 3.0, the Tab Pro 10.1 turned in on-point scores for the three 10-inch-plus Samsung tablets we've tested with it-->
Its scores on 3DMark for Android were similarly no surprise, considering the pack; note that it did outpace Toshiba's Tegra 4-based tab here-->
Bear in mind that all of the slates in this test group have beefy processors; these are not cut-rate or budget tablets. Our Tab Pro 10.1 test unit held up well against its like-priced competitors.
Battery Rundown & Conclusion
Prior to running our battery rundown test, we turn off the tablet to clear all apps and other processes from memory, then restart it and time the boot sequence-->
After we pressed the power button, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 took 31 seconds to become usable, very much average for a recent Android tab.
On our demanding battery-rundown test, we play the latest Star Trek movie, stored locally on the tablet, on a loop. The slate is set to Airplane mode (i.e., Wi-Fi off), and the volume and brightness are set to 50 percent-->
Our Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 test unit lasted 12 hours and 5 minutes (12:05), which, while certainly quite respectable, is middle-of-the-road among higher-end Android tablets we’ve reviewed. While 12 hours should be sufficient for getting most users through an average day’s work, your use of this slate will probably be closer to the everyday Web-browsing, e-mail, and social-network meddling that most tablet users do, as opposed to nonstop video playback. In that kind of more casual use, you should get at least another couple of hours out of the battery.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is thin, light, well-built, and attractive. It performs handily for a 2014 slate; it delivers decent battery life; and the premium speakers and gorgeous high-definition screen make it ideal for watching videos, playing games, listening to music, and viewing high-end photos. Then too, there’s this slate’s Multi Window multitasking feature and attractive TouchWiz skin designed to help make Android easier to use, more convenient, and better-looking—as well as make you more productive. The bottom line is, this is a premium slate, with as robust an app load as anything this side of Apple, and nearly everything about it supports the "Pro" moniker.The question is, is it worth $500, or perhaps a little less if you shop around? We’d say yes, with a caveat. The Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1’s overall value proposition is undermined somewhat by competition from within: the $550-list Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), and perhaps the Galaxy Note 8.0Best Price at Amazon we looked at early last year, if you don’t mind the latter's smaller screen.
Considering that the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) provides twice the storage capacity, comparable performance, and the proficient, convenient S Pen stylus for just $50 more, and the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 comes out looking slightly overpriced. (The S Pen really is handy for taking notes and drawing, and it makes device navigation dramatically more accurate.) While we doubt that buyers of the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 will be disappointed, we do believe that given the competition from Samsung’s own products, we’d like it better at $450, or perhaps even $400. (As we were finishing up this review in early May 2014, the Tab Pro 10.1 was suddenly on sale for $429.99 on Samsung’s Web site, which is much more reasonable than the $499.99 list price. Whether that price sticks is another matter, however.)
It was this slightly high price, in fact, that kept the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 from receiving our Editors’ Choice nod. Otherwise, it's one mighty fine tablet.
VIA computershopper
Post a Comment