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There are very few Android tablet in the market right now. Finding a premium one is rare. A good tablet today doesn’t only have to compete with large screen smartphones but also with 2-in-1 laptops. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 seems to be the tablet for that job. It comes with a 9.7-inch screen and high-spec hardware. The highlight though are the accessories that Samsung provides. The Tab S3 comes with an S-Pen and a keyboard that it can be docked to. So it’s designed to let you make the best of both worlds. However, it’s also priced pretty high at Rs. 48,000*. For that price we’d want nothing short of a complete all-rounder. Let’s see if the Tab S3 delivers that.
Design and build
Samsung has clearly topped what it did with the last model. The tablet features the same 9.7-inch screens as its predecessor, the Galaxy Tab S2, but manages to have a much smaller footprint. That’s mostly because of the thinner bezels on either side of the screen. The tablet borrows a few design elements from the S2 though. The front looks pretty much the same, with three capacitive buttons placed at the bottom and the Samsung branding positioned at the top, next to the front camera. The home button also has a fingerprint sensor embedded in it.
The glass finish at the back is what makes the tablet look classy. It looks neat and clean, with only the camera lens positioned at the top and the branding at the bottom. It’s Gorilla Glass 4, so it’s sturdy and to our surprise offers a good grip. Our only complaint is the amount of fingerprint smudges it attracts. This is the same problem at the front. We had the black variant, so the smudges were more visible here. The tablet is also available in silver which might hide the smudges better and look much better.
The metal frame that runs around the border is cut out to look sleek. Its smooth finish accompanied with rounded edges makes it comfortable to hold the tablet, both vertically and horizontally. The S3 barely weighs 430 grams so it’s easy to carry the tablet in one hand and while working with the other. On the frame you also see the quad-speaker setup with two speakers placed at the top and the two at the bottom. The USB type-C port is placed at the bottom next to the headphone jack. The docking pin for the external keyboard is placed on the left side while the standby and volume rocker keys are on the right.
Hardware and other features
The hardware is an upgrade over the last one, but it’s not the latest. The Tab S3 comes with a much older Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. Alongside that you also get 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It also comes with an older Adreno 530 GPU.
However, you get the latest connectivity options including the Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2 and an USB Type-C port. The tablet also supports VoLTE support with the help of SIM card, so it can even make calls.
The tablet come with Android 7 Nougat. It’s good to see Samsung cut down on their interface enhancements. It looks much lighter now. A bunch of Samsung apps are still included though. The Microsoft office suit apps are also present. Battery on the Tab S3 amounts to a good 6,000 mAh. It should be more than enough to last for at least two days with moderate use.
Screen and audio
The 9.7-inch AMOLED screen comes with a QXGA resolution (2048 x 1536). This means an aspect ratio of 4:3. ItThis works well for reading articles or books. With videos though, you won’t be able to use the entire screen. With most HD and Full HD videos, you’re likely to see black bars at the bottom and the top. The Tab S3’s screen is one of the first on a tablet to support HDR video playback. HDR support allows you to experience true colours and brighter images. However, HDR content is pretty rare at the moment. Online services like Netflix haven’t released any support for HDR on mobile devices. You can only enjoy HDR from Amazon Prime Video at the moment. Needless to say, this makes it a feature for the near future.
The Tab S3 features one of the brightest screens we’ve ever seen on a tablet. Using it outdoors on a sunny day will be no problem. Viewing angles are also pretty great. There are some small issues though. The screen carries a slight greenish tinge. It’s not noticeable all the time, but when the background is white it’s hard to miss. On the flipside, black levels are pretty deep. This makes the screen look a little odd.
Compared to other premium tablets, the Tab S3 stands out all thanks to its vibrant colour reproduction. Pretty much every video or game we played looked lively. It’s responsible for the immersive experience. Some colours like red and green look oversaturated. It can make the whole picture look gaudy and adjusting the colour in the Display settings makes no difference.
The four on-board speakers aren’t as loud as we expected them to be. We didn’t notice a lot of difference when we compared the Tab S3 to other premium tablets that only sport two speakers. The output sounds pretty crisp though. There isn’t a lot of bass but then again we didn’t expect much. Although audible, in moderately loud rooms, it became difficult to hear dialogues and other details while watching YouTube videos. They are sufficient for playing music or games though.
S-Pen
An S-Pen is provided in the box with the Galaxy Tab S3. It’s a capacitive stylus which means that you do not need to charge it. The S-Pen is comfortable to hold. It has a tip that measures a good 0.7mm which is pretty good for both sketching and also writing. There are 4096 levels of pressure sensitivities which is better than most capacitive stylus. It shows, when you tilt the S-Pen sideways while drawing.
The S-Pen worked splendidly with most of the apps we used. You can actually use it as the primary input method on the tablet which is a good option to have. Writing with the S-Pen works a lot faster than typing on the keyboard. Thanks to predictive writing, you don’t have to worry about being too cautious with your writing either. The palm rejection works well too but every once in a while, it gets in the way.
Samsung has included plenty of functionality for the S-Pen within the interface, so it’s not just for writing or drawing. There is an S-Pen panel integrated which gives you quick shortcuts to certain functions. You can take a screen shot and crop out certain sections of the screen easily. It also gives you quick access to Samsung’s Note app. Other functions are also included. You can pop-up the panel by simply hovering the S-Pen over the screen and pressing the button on it.
When it comes to writing notes or e-mails with the S-Pen, we believe it’s just a matter of getting used to. It’s far from writing on actual paper but in time you get used to it. We wouldn’t call the S-Pen the best stylus to sketch with, but it’s certainly not bad. There is good balance and the thin tip allows you to detail smaller spaces with ease. Once in a while, it feels a little rigid when you tilt though, which can throw you off. Some of the slower strokes had glitches while faster ones had delay. However, a good part of the performance also depends on the app that you’re using. We used Autodesk Sketchbook which worked well.
Performance
The Android experience with the Tab S3 was good for the most part, but it isn’t seamless. Despite having a lighter UI layer, certain tasks perform slowly. It doesn’t feel snappy while opening apps, especially heavier games. Switching from a split-screen to a single screen takes time during which the screen is left blank for a few seconds.
With basic tasks like browsing the internet, watching YouTube videos, running Office apps, sketching apps or even simpler games, the tablet performs really well. Except for the one glitch while running split-screen, the tablet handles multi-tasking with ease. Running multiple apps in the background had no impact on the performance up front.
It’s the heavier games that don’t run very smoothly. With games likes Asphalt 8: Airborne, Fifa 17 and NOVA: Legacy, the performance is a little glitchy. Loading time in games also took long. The experience though is still pretty good, mostly because of the amazing screen. Full HD videos also played without trouble.
Even when it’s pushed to its limits, the Tab S3 manages to control its temperature quite impressively. We had games running non-stop for more than 30 minutes and barely noticed any heat. The back panel gets a little warm.
The Tab S3 isn’t designed to be your primary device for photography. Photos we clicked from the 13 Megapixel rear camera lacked detail. They didn’t look crisp and the camera didn’t focus quick enough even with decent light around. The stutter on the 5MP front camera is visible. It doesn’t get much in the way though. Selfies look decent. They’re good enough to be shared on social media sites. The camera app doesn’t carry as many features as you’d see on a flagship Samsung smartphone. There are fewer modes and HDR is missing.
Design and Build
The Tab S3 looks stunning with its classy glass finish and metal frame. Thanks to slim bezels, the tablet manages to have a small footprint for a 9.7-inch tablet. It's also light enough to carry around in one hand. The S-Pen is easy to hold and work with.
Features
The Tab S3 is packed with a dated Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. Along that, it also comes with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage which is expandable to 256GB. Besides that it packs the latest connectivity options, including Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 and even a Type-C port.
The highlight are also its accessories that include the S-Pen and keyboard. The S-Pen is provided in the box while the keyboard needs to be bought seperately. The new stylus offers good pressure sensitivity for both writing and drawing. The OS also comes with plenty of support for the stylus to help you make the most of it.
The screen is an AMOLED one and features a QXGA resolution with an apsect ratio of 4:3. It offers a bright and sharp output. You also get a quad speaker setup but it isn’t as loud as you'd expect them to be.
Performance
The Tab S3 is a good tablet, but it's not the best out there. The interface feels slow while opening and closing apps, side-by-side. The tablet works well with apps like Word, Excel, Chrome, sketching apps and even some basic games. However, with some heavy games like Asphalt 8 or NOVA: Legacy, the performance drops a little. It just doesn’t feel as good as it should on such a premium tablet.
The display is vibrant and looks lively with pretty much anything you play on it. That said, sometimes colours can look oversaturated and gaudy. Four speakers aren't as loud as we’d expect them to be. For a better experience, earphones are recommended.
Verdict
We wouldn’t say that the Tab S3 is the best tablet around, but it certainly gets the job done. Be it pure entertainment or productivity, the S3 let you switch from one to the other with ease. Of course there are some minor issues, which we don’t expect from such a premium tablet. All put together everything it has to offer, its merits outnumber its flaws by a lot. We just believe it’s priced too high for an Android tablet. At a slightly lower price, the Tab S3 would’ve been much more attractive.
