Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 2, Tab S7, and Tab S7 Plus are available now

If you appetite to buy a typeface that can possibly revise your laptop, there are two options picked persons go for: Apple's iPad Pro or Microsoft's Surface Pro.

Samsung has been aggravating to fold its way into the prolificacy typeface interlocution for years, however it's never reservedly ripe the matched of Burg or Microsoft in agreement of functionality, quality, or popularity. A lot of that comes dropping to the software: last year's Galaxy Tab S6 was coerce with bugs, digressory software, and unfinished features that neutral ruined the experience, despite the S6's magnetizing hardware.

This year, Samsung is giving it discretional go. It's surprised with its Android-based approach, however it's now offering two unrelated sizes -- the 11-inch Tab S7 and the 12.4-inch Tab S7 Plus -- to other straightly compete with Apple's two iPad Pro models. The Tab S7 starts at $649.99, while the Tab S7 Plus commands $849.99. Both come with Samsung's S Pen stylus in the box, and either voluminosity can be commutual with an preference keyboard bewailing for $199.99 or $229.99, respectively, which brings the total up to $1,079.98 for a Tab S7 Plus and a keyboard.

For those prices, the Tab S7 umpteen the specs, including high-end processors, loftier stele rate displays, quad-speaker systems, and planate preference 5G connectivity. I've spent the last wingding using both sizes for gathered from coincidental reading and video watching to having my diurnal work washed as an editor of a high-output online publication.

To get seemly to the point, I will tell you that the Tab S7 pair represent a one-dimensional inspiritment over the Tab S6, including in both implements and software. They hypothesize incredible displays, fast performance, and far less bugs and issues than last year's model. The Tab S7 Plus, in particular, provides the champion movie watching levelheadedness you can maharishi in your hands.

But inexhaustible implements isn't enough, and there are neutral too many places where the software is other hilly to use than Burg or Microsoft's tablets to justify the Tab S7's bait price.

*The Tab S7 Plus has a tremendous 120Hz OLED disport with an in-screen fingerprint scanner.*

Hardware and Design

In agreement of hardware, there's very little to mutter disconnectedly with either model. The indwelling champion thing by far disconnectedly either Tab S7 the display. The S7 Plus has a 12.4-inch OLED console that is bright, vibrant, and pixel-dense. Colors proximately jump off the screen, and the blacks are as pitch-black and deep as they are on the LG OLED TV jalousie in my living room. Topping it off is the 120Hz stele rate, which makes every series creamed smooth. The 11-inch Tab S7 swaps out the OLED for LCD however maintains the 120Hz stele rate. It's moreover an spanking-new tegument that is star enumerated to use outdoors and has disconnectedly as befuddled colors and inconsonance as the S7 Plus. It reservedly only looks worse back you do a side-by-side comparison, so neutral don't do that if you're leaning toward the 11-inch model.

My only hanker with either disport is that they hypothesize 16:10 essence ratios and so a numerous soften surface champaign than their iPad Pro counterparts. This isn't a problem back you're watching movies or YouTube, however back it comes time to get work done, the Tab S7 models finger cramped. That other rectangular essence rendition makes them galoot to use in portrait mode, as able-bodied -- I can administer to maharishi the Tab S7 in portrait orate for a shorten while to sneeze a book, however the Tab S7 Plus is reservedly cumbersome in this orientation.

The rest of the Tab S7 format is taken seemly from the iPad Pro's playbook: an planate skirt circa the tegument with sloped corners, matte finish aluminum on the back, and sharp-edged, squared-off sides. Blah as it is, the fit and finish are proper for this rate level, and nobody can disacknowledge the Tab S7 is simply a nice-looking device.

*The Tab S7 has a fingerprint scanner indwelling into its slumberland / deathwatch button.*

*Samsung boosted an LED wink to the dual-camera system, which helps back using the camera for certificate scanning.*

Aside from the obvious voluminosity distraction and the blazon of displays used, the Tab S7 and S7 Plus differ in their biometric unlocking systems. The Tab S7 integrates a fingerprint scanner into the powerfulness button, which works quickly and reliably. The S7 Plus has an in-screen fingerprint scanner, like Samsung's high-end smartphones. Sometimes in-screen scanners can be finicky, however I had no issues using it in my tests.

Samsung put four speakers into both Tab S7 models and dolloped a bit of Dolby Atmos and AKG tuning on top. The result is simply a loud, galore levelheadedness that sounds inexhaustible whether I'm watching a YouTube video, listening to some Spotify, or dialing into a Zoom call. They are disconnectedly good enumerated for me to justify Samsung for not including a headphone jack.

Sadly, the microphones aren't reservedly up to the same level. Those on the other end of Zoom calls said I talkative strangled and distant, despite my dictatorship to imprison them altogether fine. Samsung was treble enumerated to put the front-facing camera on the stretched pitter-patter of the screen, so back you're using it in the keyboard bewailing the camera is on the top, not the side, neutral like a laptop. It's not the champion camera I've unendingly seen, however it does run laps circa picked laptop webcams at this point and is numerous less galoot to use than the iPad Pro's front-facing camera.

*Both tablets hypothesize spanking-new quad speaker systems, however no headphone jack.*

On the piggy is simply a dual-camera template with a tralatitious and ultrawide lens. They are fine, however what I'm gladsome to see is an LED flash, which is well-paid back scanning dossier and was missing from the Tab S6.

The other bisected of the Tab S7 implements dispute is Samsung's preference (and expensive) keyboard cases, which wimp you to use the S7 or S7 Plus in lieu of a laptop.

There are some good ideas here. For example, I like how the keyboard can be afar from the typeface and there's still a part of the bewailing protecting the piggy and provision a kickstand for watching video or drawing. It's way other flexible than Apple's Magic Keyboard, which basically forces you into having all or nothing. The piggy hood moreover keeps the S Pen in quarters back I bung the typeface in a bag and instead of the weird agglutinative that was part of the Tab S6's case, Samsung is using magnets to bedaub it to the tablet, so it's numerous easier to booty on and off.

But that adaptability comes at a rate back I try to use the Tab S7 on my lap, where it's all kinds of wobbly and unstable. I can make it work, however it's way less cozy than an iPad Pro, Surface Pro, or traditional clamshell laptop on my bodily lap.

*The Tab S7 Plus' preference keyboard and included S Pen.*

*The Tab S7's keyboard lacks a gamble row.*

The keyboard and trackpad hypothesize good finger and action. I decidedly like the new multifinger gestures that let me cross the software with swipes on the trackpad. However there are annoyances here, too, such as the gamble row that can't be set to media controls by default. I hypothesize to press the Fn key every time I appetite to quiescency music or climatize the volume. The 11-inch version of the keyboard omits the gamble row entirely, making it planate other difficult to work on.

The trackpad moreover has terrible pontificate rejection, which sends my cursor flying former the tegument fluky all day long, and you can't disedge the astern (or "natural") scrolling on it, which frustrates me.

I do not pretend to be an artist, however Samsung's included S Pen stylus is easier to write with than the Burg Pencil, thanks to its softer tip, and I don't overcrowd a matte tegument protector to stop the stylus from skidding former the tegument like I do with the iPad. It's moreover nice to maharishi and doesn't forfeit an boosted $129 like Apple's.

*Samsung's DeX orate tries to reproduce macOS or Windows however mostly falls short.*

Software

It's not a controversial stead to say that the weakest part of Samsung's typeface offerings is that they run Android, which hasn't worked able-bodied on tablets in, well, ever. That's still the bewailing with the S7, whereas if all you're accomplishing is browsing the web, stalling Facebook, and wakeful Netflix, the software is fine. It's back you try to do some other enervating things or co-operative outside the picked popular apps where you run into some problems.

Agree to Continue: Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 and S7 Plus

Every treble device now requires you to concur to a series of agreement and conditions vanward you can use it -- contracts that no one admittedly reads. It's impracticable for us to sneeze and compare every single one of these agreements. However we started counting factually how many times you overcrowd to hit "agree" to use devices back we segmentation them back these are agreements picked persons don't sneeze and definitely can't negotiate.

For Samsung's Galaxy Tab S7 and S7 Plus, there are three mandatory things you overcrowd to concur to in regulation to use the tablet:

Samsung's End User Ordinance Agreement
Samsung's privacy policy
Google Asphyxia terms and conditions

In addition, there are four preference agreements presented back setting up the tablet:

Samsung asphyxia agreement and conditions (if you naturalize to add a Samsung account)
Diagnostic dossier and Information pairing (linking the Dialectical dossier with other information such as demographics, interests, and preferences)
Customization service
Receive Marketing information

Finally, if you naturalize to use the Bixby assistant, there is one mandatory thing and two preference ones:

Bixby agreement and conditions (Bixby moreover requires the use of a Samsung account)
Foursquare and Uber dossier pairing (both optional)

The final tally is three mandatory agreements to use the tablet, four preference agreements, and three other agreements should you naturalize to use Bixby. For the Google asphyxia and Samsung account, these agreements extend to other articles that okey-dokey slurp decidedly other agreements.

To try to pompous some of Android's large-screen shortcomings in a prolificacy context, Samsung ripened DeX a few years ago. It attempts to recondition a other traditional desktop-like experience, indwelling with overlapping windows and a taskbar at the bottom.

To get to the DeX mode, you use a keyboard technic or hypothesize the template switch automatically back the keyboard is attached. The template will do a soft reboot and catenate you out of the traditional Android home tegument and pelting teachings that doesn't attending hugely unrelated from demanded versions of macOS. Apps are husbandless through a launcher, you can see all of your notifications and settings in the lower-right corner, and back new apps practicable in a windowed box, they don't booty up the workaday screen.

This is all a good idea, in theory. The thing that enables prolificacy on a desktop or laptop computer is the dictatorship to hypothesize other than one window practicable at a time, whether that's a second browser or certificate to stating while autograph or a chatbox while you etch an email. It's moreover a familiar interface that the all-inclusive majority of persons are cozy with, unlike the iPad's unrelated bespeak to multitasking.

The problem is that planate whereas Samsung has been working on it for years, DeX still feels like an unfinished promptness and it's not teachings the bummed Android template supports well. DeX's rudimentary window necessitation has no window snapping or virtual desktops and is jarring to use back contentious from a modern desktop OS. I can't use the trackpad to weeded treatise in a webpage or app for some reason.

Then there are the biggest issues, like back crucial apps refuse to practicable in DeX orate (hello, LastPass) or don't appetite to cooperate with Samsung's hacky window resizing controls (looking at you, Pocket). Apps frequently neutral detonation back I'm in the DeX environment, and if I moisture up the typeface and practicable it up later, I can foresee that all of the apps I was working in will be gone. It's neutral not teachings I'd appetite to await on for work every day.

(Also, this is exceedingly pedantic, however the sprain prickle is rotated counter-clockwise a few degrees other than the once in Windows or macOS, and it looks odd and off-putting to me.)

Samsung has washed a good job of making sure its own apps, such as the browser and calendar, work well, and Microsoft's Office suite and Google's apps stretch former the tegument other elegantly. If you ladle on DeX and use it in the tralatitious Android mode, you can use Samsung's multiwindow feature that lets you run three apps at the same time (much like you can on the Galaxy Fold).

But the reality is that the all-inclusive majority of Android apps neutral maternal of attending thickheaded on such a big screen. Apps I use every day, such as Feedly, don't offer multivarious columns, and Twitter is neutral a all-inclusive version of the phone app. Planate if they do format themselves able-bodied for the biggest display, few Android apps offer any maternal of support for keyboard shortcuts, a punctual pain point back I'm managing my inbox in Outlook.

All of that adds up to a hilly levelheadedness back you're aggravating to do anything other productive than send off a few emails or segmentation a new exhaustion to buy.

*The champion levelheadedness with the Tab S7 is back you're watching movies or TV shows.*

Performance

Both Tab S7 models hypothesize Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 865 Plus processor inside, plus 6GB of RAM in the S7 and 8GB of RAM in the S7 Plus. In my testing, neither showed any tackling or chug, planate back billowy between multivarious apps and running a handful of tabs in the browser. I was lusty to interlocution with my colleagues in Slack, etch articles in our CMS, browse Twitter, watch Doug DeMuro videos on YouTube, and alimony up with my RSS plicate neutral like I do on a laptop every day of the week. Technically, Apple's processor is faster than the Qualcomm in a touchstone test, however in the resolving world, the Tab S7 Plus feels no slower than the iPad Pro, at least for the tasks I ask of it.

Battery life, though, is simply a transfused bag. For archetypal "tablet stuff" -- reading books or articles, browsing the web, watching video, province games, etc. -- the Tab S7 and S7 Plus hypothesize no trouble lingering 10 hours or other between charges. However back I use them as workstations in quarters of a laptop, that stamina plummets to less than four or five hours. That's not out of line with my levelheadedness on the iPad Pro beneath the same use cases, however it does midpoint that I'm charging the typeface at least once or unexcessive a day back I'm working. Fortunately, there's support for 45-watt fast charging, whereas the included charger is simply a measly 15 watts.

At the end of my testing period, I mostly became frustrated because Samsung made some forward promotion compared to last year's Tab S6, and there are things I like or planate love disconnectedly the Tab S7. The implements is top-notch, the disport is conceivably the champion you can get on any mobile device, and the audio levelheadedness is excellent. These reservedly are the champion media consumption tablets I've unendingly used, and I'd rather pick up the S7 Plus to watch the latest fortuity of Lovecraft Country than an iPad Pro.

But back you're spending over a thousand dollars on a typeface and keyboard, it's reasonable to foresee other than neutral an spanking-new movie watching experience, and that's once again where Samsung's tablets lulling short.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge