Is Samsung’s Galaxy Tab finally ready to take on the iPad?

If we can only describe Samsung’s approach to the mobile device industry in one word, we’d pick relentless. According to their official website for the Philippines, there are currently 17 different models for sale. That doesn’t even include its new premium tablet, the Galaxy Tab S, which CNET.com said beats the iPad Air on paper “in just about every way.” It’s a big statement that has to be justified but we have to say that it has that “it” factor to at least put up a good fight.

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Keeping it slim and sleek

Samsung said this is its thinnest and lightest tablet to date at 6.6mm thin and 298g for the 8.4-inch LTE version and 467g for the 10.5-inch LTE version. It beats the iPad Air in terms of thinness by about 1mm (at 7.5mm). They were able to shrink it down and keep the weight down because of the OLED display and the plastic construction.

It also carries the same design as the Galaxy S5 down to the perforated plastic back panel, which we are admittedly still not a fan of. We will pick the iPad Air’s aluminum unibody construction over the Galaxy Tab S’ design any day.

That glorious, glorious display

But its thinness and lightness are just tip of the iceberg when it comes to what sets the Galaxy Tab S apart. Its most standout feature is its high-resolution Super AMOLED display. This is supposedly the most advanced WQXGA display on a tablet (2560×1600 resolution on 16:10 screen). The iPad Air has a 2048×1536 resolution Retina display.

According to Michael Abary, senior vice president for Samsung Electronics America, the Galaxy Tab S is a response to how people use tablets now. Tablets are reportedly used more to consume longer videos, such as TV shows and movies.

Abary said a Super AMOLED display produces color differently than a typical LCD screen. The display of both the 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch versions of the Galaxy Tab S are said to give user direct color instead of filtered color. Plus, it covers over 90 percent of the Adobe RGB color range, meaning it gets as close to real colors as possible. Contrast ratio is 100x better and these screens are able to achieve True Black because the screen can turn pixels off.

The Galaxy Tab S also has Samsung’s “adaptive display” technology, meaning the tablet detects and analyzes the ambient light and adjusts accordingly. It also supposedly excels for outdoor use.

Reimagining content consumption

Samsung wanted to introduce a new way to consume content on the Galaxy Tab S. They put particular focus on the magazine format with the introduction of the Papergarden magazine service. The app shows a variety of magazines customized for the Galaxy Tab S. Some examples they showed had the usual magazine page but with embedded videos and possibly links. Samsung has partnered with Conde Nast—publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, etc.—to bring Papergarden to life.

National Geographic is bringing its “50 Greatest Photos…” app to Android for the first time. And Marvel will be bringing its content to the Galaxy Tab S as well.

The Marvel partnership is also part of the premium content and services Samsung is offering under Galaxy Gifts. Some of the deals include six-month subscription to Conde Nast and a three-month free membership to the Marvel Unlimited app.

On top of that, Samsung has also partnered with Google Play to gain access to Google’s online entertainment store. They will be offering Warner Bros.’ Gravity for free as well as a 90-day trial of Google Play’s music subscription service, All Access.

Locally, the content partners and promotions offered for the Galaxy Tab S include a one-year trial subscription to Bloomberg Businessweek, one-year premium service to Evernote, three-month LinkedIn Premium Business account, 12-week digital subscription to New York Times’ Breaking News, six-month trial subscription to The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, three-month trial subscription to Marvel Unlimited digital comics, one free book per month from Kindle for Samsung, and many more.

Samsung takes on Apple’s Continuity concept

Samsung is also bringing remote PC capabilities to its premium tablets (including e-Meeting and WebEx video conferencing) as well as the new version of SideSync.

SideSync 3.0 connects or mirrors the Galaxy S5 and Note 3 with the Galaxy Tab S. It lets you forward your calls to the Galaxy Tab S over Wi-Fi and take calls on the tablet while your phone is in another room. This feature is quite similar to the Continuity concept Apple recently introduced for its ecosystem.

File transfer is also made easier. You just need to drag and drop the file to the Galaxy S5 mirror displayed on the Galaxy Tab S’ screen.

According to Patricia Rodriguez, one of the product marketing managers for tablets at Samsung Electronics Philippines, SideSync 3.0 will work with different Galaxy devices but call forwarding is currently exclusive for the Galaxy S5 and Note 3.

It isn’t as extensive as what Apple offers with the ability to continue work on any of your Apple devices but it is a step in the right direction for Samsung.

Going the extra mile

There are a lot of extras thrown into the Galaxy Tab S line that we’ve seen on other Galaxy devices before. These include Kids Mode, Private Mode, Download Booster, and Fingerprint Scanner. The Galaxy Tab S can handle multiple accounts and have up to eight different users with their own home screens, apps, and Private Mode as well. As the name suggests, Private Mode hides the apps and files you want to keep to yourself.

Multiple users aren’t supported on Apple devices yet but Apple has just introduced a Family Sharing feature that lets up to six people in your family buy apps and other stuff from the App Store through one account. This doesn’t give users personal accounts on a single iPad though.

The Galaxy Tab S is also the first Samsung tablet to have a fingerprint scanner, which can help activate multiple user mode and add another layer of protection for the device. It won’t be too far off that Apple might offer this feature since there is a fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s already.

What are we getting?

Ivan Charlton Pua, category leader for tablets at SEPCO, said Samsung is only carrying the 16GB LTE versions of both screen sizes. If you think the storage is scant, expandable memory on the Galaxy Tab S is up to 128GB via microSD, which is also a first for Samsung tablets. The devices have been available since mid-July. The 8.4-inch model will retail for P24,990 and the 10.5-inch version will be available for P29,990.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S is far from perfect. Some might not be a fan of the design or the Super AMOLED display or the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach Samsung takes with its flagship devices. But it represents a strong attempt from the company to take on its competitors. And it looks like they are more than ready this time.