good alternative to the iPad Pro?

Many Apple enthusiasts have an iPad at home, of course, but the competition also offers tablets. In this review we look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus. Is this device a good alternative to the iPad Pro?

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus review

You would almost forget that there are other tablets than the iPad. Of course, you sometimes see them lying around, but then they are often cheap devices that are mainly intended to keep the children happy. They are usually slow and don’t have a very good screen.

The only manufacturer that dares to compete directly with the iPad Pro is Samsung. In early February, the company unveiled the Galaxy Tab S8 series, which consists of three powerful tablets. It concerns an 11-inch Tab S8, the gigantic 14.6-inch Tab S8 Ultra and the intermediate size that we look at in this review: the 12.4-inch Galaxy Tab S8 Plus, which you get for 949 euros. Can it compete with Apple’s best tablets? Read on quick.

A stretched iPad

The design of the iPad is quite square. That is very suitable for browsing or working on. Samsung opts for a different strategy. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus is a lot wider than the iPad Pro. You can therefore use it perfectly to watch Netflix, for example. The black edges at the top and bottom are then much smaller. You simply have more screen left, which is of course nice if you want to completely immerse yourself in your favorite series.

As mentioned, the Tab S8 Plus has a 12.4 inch display. Due to the aspect ratio, it is more like a stretched 11-inch iPad Pro than a more compact version of the 12.9-inch variant. Still, we don’t think it’s a nice device to sit on the couch with. If you’re holding it in portrait mode, it’s just a little too big for that.

You can’t argue with the build quality. At 5.7 millimeters, the tablet is even thinner than the iPad Pro, but it feels very sturdy. The screen edges are about as thick as Apple’s and the materials used also show many similarities.

Excellent screen

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus has a beautiful OLED screen with a resolution of 2800 by 1752 pixels. Although the brightness is a bit lower with a maximum of 500 nits, it is clearly more beautiful than the LCD screen of the small iPad Pro. Due to the perfect black values, and the aforementioned aspect ratio, this tablet is ideally suited as a (pricey) entertainment machine. Also because the stereo speakers sound just as good as those of the iPad Pro.

For HDR content, the 12.9-inch iPad remains a better option. The brightness is much higher due to the mini LED display. In the event of a violent explosion, the iPad can briefly explode as much as 1600 nits from the screen.

As you might expect, the Tab S8 Plus has a 120Hz display. Apple calls it ProMotion. As a result, the pixels refresh 120 times per second, which looks very smooth. Unfortunately, it is not an adaptive screen that automatically selects the correct refresh rate. The iPad Pro does. This allows the display to switch back to a minimum of 24Hz when viewing static content. This way you save some battery juice.

Powerful, but not as fast as an iPad Pro

The iPad Pro and the new iPad Air 2022 (which is considerably cheaper than this Samsung) run on the very fast M1 chip. Apple has set the bar pretty high. Fortunately, Samsung has also put a very capable processor in the Galaxy Tab S8 models: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. That is one of the fastest chips currently available for Android devices.

The Tab S8 Plus is therefore a pleasure to use. Very occasionally we saw a small stutter, but most of the time the device flies through the software. Unfortunately, that does not mean that the device is as fast as the iPads with the M1 chip. During testing, we edited some photos in Adobe Lightroom, which is a bit easier on Apple’s tablets. For example, when rendering snapshots on the Samsung, you have to wait longer before they are on the screen in full resolution.

S Pen and keyboard

If you want to draw on your iPad, you have to buy the Apple Pencil separately. A big advantage of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus is that an almost equivalent stylus is included for free. The S Pen has a very fast response time, making it very suitable for artists. In addition, the pen has several other functions. For example, you can take pictures by pressing the button and adjust the volume without touching the tablet.

The S Pen does have a drawback: you have to charge it on the back of the tablet. That is an inconvenient place and in addition, despite the magnet, it does not stay in place very well. Click the Apple Pencil firmly on the side if you want to charge it. That is a much nicer solution.

Apple is often criticized because iPadOS does not get everything from the fast hardware. Samsung has an advantage here, because you benefit from Samsung Dex, a modified version of the operating system that is very similar to Windows. You can access DeX when you use the Tab S8 Plus in combination with a keyboard or when you connect it to an external monitor with a USB-C cable. Then this tablet is suddenly a (simple) desktop.

Cameras

Whoever takes pictures with his tablet should actually be a bit ashamed, but it is of course possible. On the back of the Tab S8 Plus, you’ll find a 13-megapixel main camera and a 6-megapixel wide-angle lens. The first yields pretty nice shots, the second is of dubious quality. On the front you will also find a 12 megapixel camera for selfies and video calls.

Battery

Since time immemorial, Apple has promised that the iPad will last all day on a full battery. In most cases this is true, although there are of course some differences between the various models. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus also succeeds, but only if you perform light tasks such as browsing or simple games.

When you play heavy games or edit a lot of photos, the Tab S8 Plus drains a bit faster than an average iPad. Another disadvantage is that Samsung, unlike Apple, no longer supplies a charger for tablets. You will therefore have to purchase it separately if you do not have a suitable copy. The maximum charging speed is 45 Watts. With this you can fully refuel the tablet in about 80 minutes.

Long support, broken apps

Apple is known for its long software support. The iPad Air 2 is from 2014 and just runs iOS 15, the latest version of the operating system. Samsung can’t match that yet, but the software policy is still pretty good.

The Galaxy Tab S8 Plus currently runs on Android 12 with the One UI 4.1 shell on top. In the future you will receive four version upgrades and in addition you can count on five years of security updates that (must) keep hackers out. That’s fine. Samsung also promises to update the Tab S8 models to Android 12L. That is a modified software version that is specially made for the larger screen of tablets and folding phones.

Even now you can run various apps side by side on the Tab S8 Plus. Thanks to the wide screen, you still have enough space to operate them. It remains a pity that many apps are not or poorly optimized for Android tablets. As a result, you sometimes see that the image seems a bit stretched or other crazy mistakes.

Whether you prefer Android or iOS is of course very personal. Nevertheless, Apple’s ecosystem for tablets remains superior for the time being.

Conclusion Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus review

Does the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus make you happy as an Apple fan? Well, if you watch a lot of series and movies, because the screen is ideal for that. Thanks to Samsung DeX, this tablet is also better suited as a laptop replacement, or even a simple desktop, than the iPad. In addition, you get a great stylus for free, while you have to purchase it separately from Apple.

However, the Tab S8 Plus also has drawbacks. Apple has a better ecosystem for tablets, and the M1 chip in the iPad Pro and Air is faster than the processor Samsung uses.

The biggest drawback, of course, is that an Android tablet works less smoothly with your iPhone and other Apple products. Can you live with that? Then the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus is a great alternative to the iPad Pro. If you have a little less to spend, we would opt for the iPad Air 2022.

To buy

Do you want to buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Plus after reading this review? The model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage has a suggested retail price of 949 euros. For 50 euros more, you can double the storage to 256GB. You can choose from the colors grey, rose gold and silver.