Hi all (and Samsung, if you're listening),
So, I've been keeping an eye on Samsung's Galaxy Tab line-up for a while now ever since DeX became available on them. Been really loving the functionality of DeX on my 2017 Galaxy Note 8, and with the current latest Galaxy Tab S7+, I just have to say that I am really loving the direction Samsung is heading:
- Finally comes with top of the line Snapdragon chipset.
- 120Hz super high quality display with great aspect ratio for movies and games (minimal black bars)
- Quad speakers
- Superb S-Pen with Bluetooth air gestures and shortcuts that make that single-button S-Pen much more versatile and useful than ANY digitzer pen on ANY OTHER platform (I can imagine loads of time-saving uses of this, on top of what I'm already loving with my Note 8's S-Pen)
- Outright amazing note-taking app! Samsung Notes v4+ finally rivals the featureset of the current digital note-taking king (OneNote 2016 on Windows Tablets), especially with the addition of page templates, importation of PDFs, audio recording that syncs with our S-Pen digital ink, etc. All that, without ANY compromises on privacy; use of the cloud is 100% optional.
- Built-in MicroSD storage expansion to meet my ever growing data needs.
- Awesome quality rear cameras for scanning documents/whiteboards during meetings, and love that the front one is centered in landscape mode. Would be even better for AR applications if Samsung adds a Lidar sensor like on the iPad Pro.
- The overall extremely touch-friendly, super-multitasking tablet experience alone is already much better than ANYTHING Windows has EVER had to offer. The shortcomings compared to an iPad Pro are just 3rd-party dev apps, but with the growing sales, and foldable Smartphones, I believe this will give them the incentive to finally make their apps big-screen friendly.
- The Book Cover Case adds the much-needed kickstand versatility, and a great keyboard.
- DeX mode just keeps on improving with it.
That said, there's still a few things I really need in this Tablet before I can consider it as a replacement to my Surface Pro:
- Bring Back Linux on DeX! Or better yet, enable the native installation and running of Linux Desktop apps (including Chromium complete with extension support) in DeX mode. It makes much more sense for this kind of form factor and would be a great gateway for full-fledged Desktop apps on the Galaxy Tab line. Plus, as Apple demonstrated the full-fledged macOS Big Sur running on their 2 years old A12Z Bionic chipset from their iPad Pro line, Linux on DeX will certainly be required to compete with that level of versatility soon to appear on the iPad Pro line-up.
- Consider adding native NTFS file storage support. Android apps like Total Commander with the NTFS extension enable this, but it'll be much better to have it natively supported; something Samsung could benefit from with their Microsoft partnership.
- Make the Book Cover Keyboard Backlit! This, along with possibly angular keyboard support like the Surface Pro line-up, would make the typing experience great in any lighting condition.
- Add a second USB C port or full-sized superspeed USB A port for utilizing USB accessories while charging. Dongles suck.
- Add a 3.5mm headphone jack for use while in flights or while our wireless headphones are charging. Again, dongles suck.
If Samsung can please create a Galaxy Tab S8 Pro variant with ALL of the above hardware improvements implemented (make the software improvements available to the entire Galaxy Tabs S lineup please), it will be the first Android Tablet I'll ever purchase, and will certainly be a massive upgrade to my Surface Pro (which frankly, has been frustrating with the mediocre quality of windows 10). Could very well spell the ending of my Windows days. Please make it happen Samsung 👍🏼
