The new Samsung Tab S7 and 7+, I think they show me how adding exactly the right keyboard and touchpad support can really help a tablet feel much more like a traditional computer.
Now it’s important right now and I think Samsung is leaning into it Because with everybody working from home full time going to school from home full time, we need a lot more options of devices that we can use not just for one thing, but for everything.
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We’ve seen the iPad Pro do it, they have a big fancy keyboard and now that has an actual touchpad.
They also added Touchpad, and mouse support.
You see it all the time now, and things like the Microsoft Surface that’s essentially a Windows powered slate, and then again, you add the clip on keyboard, and it feels very laptop like you might not always think of it.
Android tablet is being in the same category.
But with the New Tab S7 and S7+ from Samsung.
They’re really moving much more heavily into that laptop replacing, Replacement story that they’re telling.
You might even say they’re moving into the iPad pro replacement because iPad pro is really the closest we’ve come to a tablet as laptop crossover in the past year or so.
So there’s a new book cover for the new version of the tab S7 versus the tab S6 and all the older tabs And in this one, you get a much nicer keyboard with a larger trackpad.
And that big trackpad really is part of what gives this a Hey, I could use this to work from home or maybe do school from home kind of vibe.
Of course if you’re just running stock Android, that doesn’t always feel like a great productivity tool.
So Samsung has had a platform they’ve been developing for years, and it’s Called DeX, DeX, and it’s a way of accessing a bunch of the productivity apps on your device whether it’s a Samsung Note or Galaxy phone or it’s a Samsung tablet.
In this case on the tablet Decks really mean you switch the view from a standard Android view to a view that looks a little bit like a Windows or even a Mac OS desktop.
And of course they use the keyboard and touchpad to move your cursor around and to open multiple windows and to stack them up and resize them and cut and paste text from one to the other.
It’s a pretty good parallel for what you would get using a standard Windows or Mac computer in the same situation.
Now, I’m not saying this is gonna replace an actual laptop or just for me anytime soon, but at least compared to.
To previous versions of trying to do kind of real productivity work on a tablet debts plus this tablet plus the new keyboard and touchpad it works pretty well.
One of the cool tricks is you can now wirelessly Take your deck screen and throw it to a another compatible display.
A lot of smart TVs work my LG TV worked.
But if you wanna share your screen to a big presentation or just get something on a screen larger than the 12.4 inch screen on the 10 S 7 plus, that was a pretty easy way to do.
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Of course, you’ve got to buy this keyboard cover separately as the same thing that Apple makes you do the same thing that Microsoft makes you do on the surface.
I always find that kind of ridiculous because these devices are pretty [UNKNOWN] Can say useless but they’re much less useful without the keyboards that said, I gotta give some props to Samsung for including the S Pen in with it.
That’s the same type of S Pen you get with the Galaxy Note phone.
And of course it works perfectly fine as a pen.
They say it has lower latency this time around I like that you can do in the air gestures with it, and you can use a little button on it for things like Setup the setup the cameras stand back and press the button on the pen then it’ll take a picture.
But the key thing is you get it in the box and it actually has a little magnetic spot that attaches to on the back of the tablet.
Or if you get the book cover, it’s got a little holder there built into the book cover as well.
Meanwhile Apple and Microsoft they make you buy the keyboard separately and they make you buy the stylus separately.
I’m going to give point to Samsung for that one.
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Even with all.
It’s tough to say I should get an Android tablet instead of a surface or a Chromebook, or an iOS tablet.
I will say I like the screen on this device a lot.
The smaller less fancy Tab S seven version doesn’t have it but the cab s seven plus has an AMA OLED screen is 12.4 inches really pops.
I’ve gotten kind of spoiled by OLED with OLED TVs, the occasional older laptop If you’re gonna have a high end device I feel that’s a must have these days.
And well iPad have Apple arcade and of course windows laptops have access to tons of PC games if they can play them.
There’s an interesting gaming play going on here in the Tab S seven.
In fact, in all of the new Samsung devices, the phones and the tablets.
And that is support from Microsoft x cloud.
That’s Microsoft’s way of doing cloud streaming gaming, kind of like NVIDIA GeForce Now or Google stadia, or even Netflix.
Everything happens at a remote server farm somewhere and the images been to you.
So you have your game controller, you have some input that goes up to the cloud.
Some computer out there plays the game and sends the resulting video back to you.
There’s always a little bit of latency built in with these.
I don’t think they’re quite there yet, but I tried x cloud on the Galaxy Tab S seven plus and it was very playable I hooked up a regular Xbox controller via Bluetooth, Microsoft and Samsung have some level of cooperation there.
I know in the new note devices If you preorder one you get three months of Xbox game pass ultimate that will include, x cloud in September starting in September and you get a gamepad thrown in.
I don’t think that’s true the tablets and that’s a shame because this is actually a much better portable gaming device.
Now of course, you’re going to have to wait a while to find all this out for yourself because the Tab S seven and seven plus are not going to be available until later in the fall.
What I have right here is a pre release model.
So it’s not really ready for you know, benchmarking and testing and For reviewing, I’ve found it to be as good or better as any Android tablet I’ve used before I admit that sets the bar rather low.
But with people looking for new and interesting ways to work from home, get more devices in the home that people can use for office work and for schoolwork.
At least with the new decks features, the really cool screen and the better keyboard and touchpad.
Samsung is making a case here to at least be included in that conversation.
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