Samsung Galaxy Tab S Review, Top Shelf Android

The Galaxy Tab S has an 8.0 megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash as well as a 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera. Camera controls are pretty typical for what we’ve seen from previous Galaxy Tab devices. There are various shooting modes including Auto, Beauty Face, Panorama, HDR, Dual Camera, and more. You can also adjust various settings including the picture size, burst shot mode, picture stabilization, face detection, metering modes, effects, and much more.

The screen on the Galaxy Tab S seems to do a better job than some at adjusting to bright sunlight, making the display slightly easier to read than other tablets we’ve recently reviewed. This is especially helpful when you’re taking pictures outside. The screen has an automatic brightness setting or you can adjust it yourself if you feel it’s not reading the ambient light correctly.

During our tests with the Galaxy Tab S, images taken with the rear-facing camera were sharp and crisp. The camera did a good job at focusing quickly, and you can touch the screen to adjust the focal point. Overall, we were very pleased with the images we were able to capture using the rear-facing camera on the Galaxy Tab S. Here are a few sample pictures:

Battery Life

There is a 49000mAh embedded Lithium-Ion battery inside the 8.4-inch Galaxy Tab S. Samsung claims you should get up to 10 hours of battery life while browsing the Internet. If you enable Ultra Power Saving Mode, Samsung claims you’ll get “even more” battery life though the company doesn’t come out and say exactly what “even more” means. Samsung is also quick to point out that the Super AMOLED technology found on the Galaxy Tab S doesn’t require a backlight, so the Galaxy Tab S is said to consume less energy than tablets with comparative LCD displays.

In an attempt to quantitatively measure the Galaxy Tab S 8.4's battery life in a controlled benchmark environment, we ran the AnTuTu Battery Test which is available from the Google Play Store. For this test, we set the Galaxy Tab S 8.4's display to 50% brightness, which is still plenty bright and easy on the eyes. The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 scored 502, which is respectable. Although this score isn’t as high as some other Samsung devices, it’s still a very good score.

During our real-world testing, the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 had no problem making it through a few days while checking emails, surfing the web, taking pictures, leaving the screen on for 30+ minutes while the tablet sits idle, and playing a few games. We would expect an average user should have no problem making it through an entire day or two with moderate to frequent use as well. Of course, battery life will vary depending on how the tablet is used.