92 JULY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE389
WITHAPPLEDOMINATINGthetablet
market, products such as Samsung’sGalaxy
TabS6are abreath of fresh air,even if it will
quiteasfreelyblow through your savings.
Still, at least this remarkablyhigh price
nets you truly top-end design. TheGalaxy
TabS6isamazinglyslim at 5.7mm–even
thinner thanthe iPad Mini –and whileithas a
105in display, it’s more compactthanthe
10.2in iPad, thanks to itsnarrower bezels.
THETASKSAHEAD
AmicroSD card slot allows forexpandingon
the already-generous128GB of internal
storage, anddualrear cameras –a5-megapixel
ultrawide sensor joins the main 12-megapixel
lens –adds some unique photography
capabilities. It’s ashame that there’sno
integrated slot forstoring thebundled SPen
stylus,especiallyasthe magnet on therear
isn’t strong enough to keep hold of it reliably,
but that’s theonlymisstep worth mentioning.
Like the iPad, the Galaxy TabS6has
designson2-in-1 useaswell as beinga
standalone tablet.Android is famously poor
forsuch productivity,but Samsung has added
the sameDeX interface as itsflagship Galaxy
smartphones, enablingamore desktop-like
environment when attachingakeyboard.
DeX is adefiniteupgrade in thisregard;
it takes thedesktop paradigm much further
than iPadOS, with ataskbar that runsalong
the bottom of the display and appwindows
that can be dragged around, resizedand
snapped to theedges of the screen at will.
Thereare,however, some hitches. It’s not
possible,for instance,toedittext withinthe
Chrome addressbar,and selecting text in
Google Docsisfiddly,too,because you
have to double-click then drag ahandle to
resize yourselection, as if youwereusing
your finger on the screen.
Scrolling works inconsistently,too.Some
apps can be scrolled by using an external
mouse like afinger –hold down the left
button and flick up or downtoscroll –while
others requireyou to usethe scroll wheel, or
atwo-fingered drag on the touchpad.
Ultimately thebiggest issue with using
Android in alaptop-like setup is thatthe app
selection is simply lessextensive than that of
iPadOS. You’re thereforebetter off with an
iPad forserious tools, especiallycreative
tasks such as photo andvideo editing.
Granted, that’shardly Samsung’sfault, and
formore traditionaltablet usage,there’s lots
to love about the Galaxy TabS6. Forexample,
SAMSUNG Galaxy
TabS6
★★★★★
£629•From http://www.johnlewis.com
VERDICT
Asuper-lightweight Android tablet that does
it all and comes with astylus in the box
watching videos on this screen is ajoy:whereas
Apple usesIPS panels, Samsung uses a10.2in
AMOLED screen, which provides perfect
contrastand vivid colours that areeasily a
match forthe best iPads. It’s beautifully sharp,
too, with acrisp resolution of 2,560x1,600.
FINDYOUR OWNSPACE
Image quality is alsoexceptional.Like most
currentAndroid devices, the TabS6gives
youaselection of colourprofiles to choose
from, which tune thedisplayfor different
colour spaces. TheNaturaloption delivers a
colour range that’s slightlywider than sRGB
(offering 102.1% gamutcoverage), whileVivid
gets closer to the DCI-P3 gamutwithan
impressive 106.9% sRGBcoverage.
Brightness is somewhat limited; a
completely whitescreencomes outwith a
maximum brightness of 307cd/m^2 ,but if
there’s just awhitepatch covering 10% of
the screen, this rises to apeak of 486cd/m^2.
The display recognisesHDR content, too,
butitwon’t hitanywhere near the HDR10
standard’s requirements of 1,000cd/m^2.
The same is trueofthe iPad and iPad Mini,
butthese are both brighter and cheaper.
TheSamsungGalaxy TabS6ispoweredby
a2.84GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon
855 processor,partnered with 6GBofRAM.
It’sacombination that drives the TabS6to
excellent levels of performance:according to
Geekbench5,itscored 732 in thesingle-core
test and 2,542 in the multicore test. The
former is slightly below thatofthe 10.2in iPad,
but the latterscore crushes Apple’s tablet.
Given the price, theGalaxy TabS6delivers
roughlythe performanceyou’d hope for. In
day-to-dayuse it feelsultra-responsive,and
we never managedtomake it stutter or lag, no
matter how many tabs andapps were open.
Battery life is simply excellent, too: on a
full charge,wewere able to playavideofrom
local storage,withthe screenbrightness set
to 170cd/m^2 and flight mode engaged, for
15h 6m. That’sseveral hours longer than
both iPads featured in this round-up.
DEXANDBALANCES
TheGalaxy TabS6isafantastic tablet.It’s
powerful yet terrifically lightand portable,
it offers great battery life,and while it is
much pricier than theiPadoriPadMini, it’s
also not unreasonablefor ahigh-end tablet.
An equivalent 11in iPad Pro,for instance,
would cost even more.
The bigquestioniswhether the software
supportissufficientfor your needs. Samsung’s
DeX works betterthanregular Android for
productivity,and youcan do alot with apps
like AdobeLightroom Mobileand Photoshop
Express.Even so,there’s nothing like the
power available to iPad usersfrom apps such
as AffinityPhoto;and if it’s video editing you
need, theselection is even slimmer.
Still, theSamsung Galaxy TabS6is
arguably thebestAndroid tablet out there.
If you’reanAndroid fanlooking fora
super-lightweightlaptop replacement for
medium-dutydocument editing and creation,
there’s no doubt this highly capable and
desirable devicewilldothe jobinstyle.
TABLETS
