Samsung continues to compete with Apple's iPad with the revamped Galaxy Tab S3. Two years ago, the company released 8.0-inch and 9.7-inch models of the Tab S2, but Samsung is now simplifying with just one 9.7-inch model of the updated tablet. The $599/£599 tablet has an HDR-ready display, a sleek glass design, a faster processor, a fingerprint sensor, and an included and improved S Pen, just to name a few of its features.

The new S3 continues Samsung's efforts to persuade those who want a high-end, all-purpose tablet to choose its Android device over an iPad, and Samsung padded this attempt with a couple of features geared toward users of its Galaxy smartphones. But Android's tablet app gap, among other things, continues to make premium Android tablets a hard sell.

Look and feel

The Tab S3 looks deceptively similar to the Tab S2, but Samsung made the device look and feel subtly more high-end than its predecessor. Now the back isn't made of soft-touch plastic, but instead of shiny glass that's slightly reflective. The black model shows fingerprints more easily than our soft silver model, but the glass makes the tablet feel more luxurious in general. The Tab S3 has the same metal rim that the S2 had, and it has similarly sized bezels surrounding the 9.7-inch, 2048×1536 AMOLED display.

Specs at a glance: Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 (Wi-Fi only model) Screen 9.7-inch 2048×1536 AMOLED OS Android 7.0 CPU Quad-core Snapdragon 820 (2.15GHz + 1.6GHz) RAM 4GB Storage 32GB, expandable to 256GB Networking 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 Ports One USB Type-C port, microSD card reader Cameras Rear: 13MP AF f/1.9), Front: 5MP (f/2.2) Size 9.3" x 6.7" x 0.2" (237.3 x 169.0 x 6.0mm) Weight 0.96 pounds (429g) Battery 6,000 mAh Starting price $599 / £599 Other perks 4K video recording (3840×2160 @ 30fps), HDR video support, included S Pen

At 429g (just under a pound), the S3 is not as light as the Tab S2 (372g) or the Nexus 9 (425g), but it still manages to be lighter than the iPad Air 2 (437g) or the new $329 iPad (469g). On its edges are a microSD card slot, the volume rocker and power buttons, a headphone jack and one USB Type-C port for charging, and two small, oval-ish indentations. These ovals surround magnetic nodes that help the tablet attach to the keyboard deck.

While the keyboard is optional, the Tab S3 includes the improved S Pen in the box. This model of the stylus looks like a longer, slightly fatter version of the pen found in the Samsung Chromebook Pro, and it features an all-rubber, .7mm tip and a singular side button. The tablet can sense when the pen is hovering over it, and the side button brings up the pen menu by default. That button also acts as a quick eraser, letting you switch more freely between pen input and eraser negation.

Samsung still has the physical home button at the base of the display panel, which is hugged by a touch-sensitive app drawer and back buttons. The fingerprint sensor is similar to what's on the Tab S2 in the sense that it's not the easiest way to unlock the device, like a fingerprint sensor should be. The setup process asks you to rotate your finger as you would to unlock the device in portrait and landscape mode, but that doesn't seem to help the sensor identify your fingerprint when it's at an odd angle. At least half the time, I was asked twice for my fingerprint because the sensor didn't recognize it the first time.

While the display resolution didn't change, now it's an AMOLED panel that supports HDR. Once you see the visual differences between HDR and non-HDR video, the Tab S3 obviously produces more vibrant colors and richer blacks than its non-HDR counterparts. It's a nice perk, especially in a device meant for video and (in some ways) art content. But currently HDR is just that—a pleasant perk and not a necessity.

Inside the Tab S3 are quad speakers tuned by AKG, which sense the orientation of the tablet to provide the best sound. Four speaker grills are visible on the top and bottom edges of the tablet, and the speaker software will change the way sound comes out of those speakers depending on how you're holding the tablet. There's an audible difference as soon as you switch from portrait to landscape mode while listening to music-based content, such as a music video: everything is slightly amplified when in landscape mode, with stronger vocals and pronounced background instruments that are normally nothing more than faint echoes. But when watching something more dialogue-based, like a Netflix show, the difference is less apparent.

















Keyboard case and S Pen

The improved S Pen that comes with the Tab S3 has a super thin tip that can support up to 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. The soft-touch, rubbery feel of the pen makes it grippy and easy to hold, and it's about a third longer than the Chromebook Pro's stylus, so you don't feel like you're writing with a twig. But the stylus also lacks the reduced latency of the Chromebook Pro's stylus, so you'll notice a second-or-so lag between your strokes and the digital ink appearing on the tablet. Arguably the best thing about the S Pen is that it doesn't take any batteries, and you will never have to charge it.

Either pressing the S Pen's side button or hovering over the tablet's display will bring up the stylus' menu. By default, the menu has quick-access icons to create a note, access all your notes, smart select (for capturing a portion of the screen), screen write (for taking a screenshot and making notes on it), and translate. You can edit the shortcuts in this menu by changing the Air Command settings, and you can add a shortcut for nearly any app you want. This makes it easier if you're in the zone with the S Pen and you want to access frequently used apps more quickly.

My favorite Air Command is Translate. If you want to translate a word from one language to another, just hover the tip of the S Pen over that word and Translate will show you the equivalent in another language. This feature would have been incredibly helpful for me in college, when I would look up every other word while trying to complete assignments for my classic Italian literature classes.

The Tab S3's keyboard case is an additional accessory you can buy for $130. It's a typical tablet-companion keyboard that attaches magnetically to a strip along the top of the S3's keys, and the back flap attaches to the tablet's back magnetically as well. The Tab S3 has to be positioned perfectly in this strip to be fully connected to the keyboard, and sometimes making that connection was easier said than done. The strip itself is a long indent in the keyboard deck with six magnetic nodes in the middle and two oval-ish protrusions on either side of the nodes. These nodes fit into the indentations on the Tab S3, but I often found them getting in the way of my ability to fully secure the tablet into the strip. When this happened, the keys didn't function even though the tablet was stable and standing in the case, and the on-screen keyboard popped up as the only input option. This is fixed by removing the tablet and placing it down onto the magnetic nodes as straight as possible.

The keyboard deck doesn't have much space, which positions the Tab S3 as much more of a tablet than a two-in-one of any kind. The chiclet keys are satisfying to type with, and, even with them being so small, I was able to type at a fairly normal speed. Where the keyboard tripped me up was numbers: the numeral and symbol characters are the top-most row, and each key is about half the size of a regular key. I never typed a multi-digit number correctly the first time, and I became increasingly annoyed at the ever-so-slightly larger Backspace key that was also difficult to hit properly. As I feel with most tablets: just because I could type this review using the keyboard case doesn't mean I should.

To make up for the lack of S Pen holder on the Tab S3, Samsung added an optional holster to the keyboard deck. This small piece of rounded plastic has a flat adhesive strip attached to it that lets you stick the holster on to the pre-positioned indent on the back of the keyboard deck. I wish Samsung had simply built this into the keyboard deck, because anyone purchasing the optional keyboard deck is already doing a lot with the Tab S3, and they likely need the S Pen available at all times.



















Listing image by Valentina Palladino