Samsung Galaxy Tab S4

THE HOTTEST GEAR PRESSURE-TESTED

ISSUE WITH ALL TABLETS HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH STAGNANT SPECS AND HARDWARE PERFORMANCE. IT’S THAT THEY’RE ALWAYS CONFINED BY RESTRICTIVE MOBILEFIRST APPS AND INTERFACES.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 THE 2-IN-1 PROMISE WITHOUT THE PRODUCTIVITY CHOPS.

THE SAMSUNG GALAXY Tab S4 is the best, albeit the only, Android tablet you can buy today with true 2-in-1 features that deliver tablet and laptop-like mobility.

Unfortunately, while it’s here to compete with Apple’s best iPad at productivity, it doesn’t get the job done and costs just as much.

It’s Samsung’s take on the iPad Pro 10.5, one with a similar 10.5-inch display, S Pen stylus, 64GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM – all at $979. Only, Samsung includes the S Pen for a better value (Apple Pencil is separate and expensive) and it allows for expandable microSD storage. So far, so good, Samsung.

This user interface isn’t as touch-friendly, and there’s no trackpad on the optional Tab S4 keyboard cover that we found most problematic. You need to bring a Bluetooth mouse and your own keyboard to get any work done.

Good news. The specs lie a little bit: it actually doesn’t matter that the tablet is underpowered on paper with an early 2017 chipset that’s easily outpaced by Apple’s laptop-rivaling chip speeds. We’re more concerned with the fact that the price of the tablet increased to match the iPad Pro.

The truth is our biggest issue with all tablets has little to do with stagnant specs and hardware performance. It’s that they’re always confined by restrictive mobile-first apps and interfaces. Samsung Dex tries to make good on that 2-in-1 promise with a real system dock so you can quickly switch between apps like on a laptop.

And the Tab S4 does introduce a lot of good ideas that move tablets in the right direction, toward a more productivity-friendly interface. But that doesn’t make it a good buy next to the Microsoft Surface Go or one of the best Chromebooks at such a high price.

SAMSUNG DEX, ANDROID AND APPS

Samsung’s best and worst new feature is built-in Dex mode, which transforms the normal Android look into a desktop-like interface.

This means apps are left-aligned (like on a Windows PC), clicking on an app opens re-sizable windows, and there’s an app dock and system tray at the bottom to flip between open apps and configure all sorts of quick settings.

All of this should function okay on the 10.5-inch display, but resizing app windows doesn’t work every time like it should, and we even had trouble closing apps. Touch detection is a bit off, which makes something as simple as tapping the X button a chore.

There’s almost a need for the S Pen or a Bluetooth mouse to properly operate Dex mode, or a reason to learn the unintuitive keyboard shortcuts to resize windows. But then you realize that too many apps shut down randomly, including Google Docs.

Samsung’s core software works fine, but apps as popular (and as standard) as ones from Google should work without crashing. Google Docs crashed 27 times while we wrote this review on the Tab S4.

S PEN AND BOOK KEYBOARD COVER

The Tab S4 in tablet mode is actually a fine experience for a standalone Android tablet. It’s the moment it docks with an optional Samsung Book Keyboard Cover that things get messy when the the setup looked so promising.

It’s like a Transformer that goes from a

robot form to a neat-looking sports car that sputters along.

The keyboard layout is cramped, it isn’t backlit, and it contains unnecessary keys. Flanking the space bar is a dedicated key for changing the keyboard language and another for triggering the on-screen keyboard.

The amount of times we’ve hit the on-screen keyboard while typing the last sentence is two. And there’s are a lot of sentences here. The key gets in the way a lot when you’re drafting an in-depth review.

Samsung includes a tablet-appropriate S Pen (larger than the Note smartphone S Pen), and this one is more rounded and feels more natural to hold than last year’s Tab S3 pen.

There’s a tiny metal protrusion in the middle of the stylus to prevent it from rolling away. There’s also a stylus holster that clips onto Samsung’s keyboard and it requires no charging whatsoever to use.

DESIGN AND DISPLAY

Samsung upgraded this year’s Android tablet with a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display, erasing a noticeable amount of needless bezel to mimic the iPad Pro 10.5 screen.

This is actually a bigger change for Tab users because the jump from a 9.7-inch to a 10.5-inch screen means Samsung eliminated the physical home and capacitive buttons on front, as one does these days in an increasingly edge-to-edge screen world.

The on-screen buttons work great, just like they do on the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, and the HDR display is punchy and bright.

The iris scanner that replaces the fingerprint sensor works fine if you’re in front of the tablet at a good angle.

We had trouble unlocking it to read on the couch and in bed, but you’re not opening up the tablet multiple times a day at all sorts of angles like you would on a phone. There’s a lot more forgiveness for Face Unlock here. You’ll experience problems using the Tab S4 software and keyboard, but you’ll have plenty of time to work through them because the battery life is stellar.

Its 7,300mAh battery capacity is a step up over the 6,000mAh battery we got in the Tab S3, and in this way it’s better than an iPad.

Simply look at our on-screen battery test. We were able to run a 90-minute looped HD video and only experience a 12% drop in battery life (from 100% to 88%).

VERDICT

There several fixes Samsung needs to make before we can recommend this tablet to everyone. The window resizing and closing needs to be easier and Google software needs to stop crashing in Dex mode.

Samsung can’t do much about the keyboard with unnecessary buttons. You should look into the Microsoft Surface Go or one of the best Chromebook for 2-in-1 productivity, or one of the best iPads for a strictly mobilebased solution.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 falls in between and falls through the cracks.

[ MATT SWIDER]

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB S4 Wi-Fi version, $979; LTE, $1179 www.samsung.com CRITICAL SPECS Snapdragon 835 Octa Core (2.35GHz + 1.9GHz); 4GB + 64GB / 256GB, microSD up to 400GB; 7,300mAh, Fast Charging battery; 10.5in WQXGA (2560x1600) sAMOLED display; 13MP AF + 8.0MP, Flash, camera; 4 speakers tuned by AKG, Dolby Atmos; S Pen; Android 8.1.