Samsung Galaxy TabPro 8.4: iPad Mini Retina Killer Hands-on

[Guest]

While the bigger 12.2” Galaxy NotePro has been grabbing all the headlines, we think the smaller TabPro 8.4 is the real star in Samsung’s new Pro series tablet line up.

Samsung Galaxy TabPro 8.4: iPad Mini Retina Killer Hands-on : Read more

 

[house70]

Nowadays there are so many mini-tablets out there that are better than the mini iPad, it's not even funny.Don't worry, though, by the end of the year Apple will try to catch up with these.

 

[gadgety]

"The only thing perhaps missing from it is the S Pen and LTE connectivity"I've got a Note 8.0 LTE both as tablet and phone. I would never want to be without the S-pen. Performance wise the the Tab Pro looks promising for any future Note version.

 

[shaun_shaun]

spec-wise looks really solid . but I'm not the biggest fan of their home,back,multitask hardware buttons. yes. it can save some additional pixels, but to me hardware keys are really inefficient, I really like my tab 2 7 customizable software buttons with Cyanogenmod.

 

[iamadev]

Smaller tabs are "infinitely more useful" in what world?This advert is full of promotional words and phrasings.

 

[krahosk]

"Unfortunately, we didn’t have an iPad Mini Retina on hand to test to do a direct performance comparison"... Mmm ... Alex could compare it to 3 other tablets, but not the iPad? Tom's Hardware couldn't even provide one? Come on, this kind of showdown is the only thing readers want.

 

[JD88]

The missing S pen is the only thing keeping me from picking one of these up as I've been thinking about replacing my aging 2012 N7. Hopefully they release a "Note" version with identical hardware. Might also wait around to see what the Nexus 8 will be like.

 

[RavinRivie]

I wouldn't give too much credit to this thing. I just returned a Note 2014 because it was too buggy and unresponsive. I prefer Android products, but in the short time I tried out an iPad Mini retina it was far faster and snappy than the Note 2014. TouchWiz is horrible and slows down otherwise powerful hardware. Until Samsung ditches it, rooting is necessary to unlock the real potential of these tablets.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

spec-wise looks really solid . but I'm not the biggest fan of their home,back,multitask hardware buttons. yes. it can save some additional pixels, but to me hardware keys are really inefficient, I really like my tab 2 7 customizable software buttons with Cyanogenmod.

As a CM user, you should know that you can tweak config files and enable virtual keys and disable hardware ones. I personally prefer hardware keys: no app can decide to remove them from the screen, thus taking away their functionality while that app runs, and I think they look awesome and server as a good notification light.

The missing S pen is the only thing keeping me from picking one of these up as I've been thinking about replacing my aging 2012 N7. Hopefully they release a "Note" version with identical hardware. Might also wait around to see what the Nexus 8 will be like.

I am curious, how is your N7 "aging"? Even the 2012 model is very powerful. What do you use it for?

I wouldn't give too much credit to this thing. I just returned a Note 2014 because it was too buggy and unresponsive. I prefer Android products, but in the short time I tried out an iPad Mini retina it was far faster and snappy than the Note 2014. TouchWiz is horrible and slows down otherwise powerful hardware. Until Samsung ditches it, rooting is necessary to unlock the real potential of these tablets.

Stock Android is a pile of manure even on Nexus devices. I pretty much don't recommend any device that can't run Cyanogenmod. Because once you try it, all stock ROMs seem inadequate. TouchWiz is bloat, I agree, and I only like Samsung devices due to their powerful hardware and high compatibility with CM. Rooting is needed to unlock the real potential of ALL Android devices - install ad blockers, custom ROMs, use OpenVPN, ProxyDroid... if you don't want to root, might as well get an iPad instead.

 

[JD88]

Actually there is nothing at all wrong with my 2012 N7 and it's more than powerful enough to handle everything I do. My biggest reasons for upgrading would be the larger, higher resolution screen and better speakers as I do consume a lot of media on my tablet.