Info on Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5

Originally Posted by BainthaBrakk

You chose a completely black background with a font color of your choice. (Mine is dark green) And lo and behold, the text is hovering in the air. No background light, light bleeding, no borders, no nothing.

If anyone have any questions about the tab s feel free to ask.

I agree with you

[bobstro]

Do you find battery life any better reading on AMOLED?

[BainthaBrakk]

Originally Posted by bobstro

Do you find battery life any better reading on AMOLED?

It actually depends upon which content you are viewing the most.

If you are browsing mostly white Web pages it has marginally worse battery life than on the Tab Pro. However if you are watching movies/YouTube etc. with darker content the battery life is much better than on the Pro. And if you are reading books on a black background it is almost the same as if it's idle and you are not using it at all. (The battery lasts forever)

This is due to the fact that black pixels use no energy on Amoledscreens. So for my own use case the battery lasts for days and days. That is if my kids don't get a hand on it.

This sounds almost as if I am a representative for Samsung. I am most certainly not, I enjoy "best of breed" in all technologies. That said, I am a big fan of Amoledtechnology.

[rgeorg]

Good to hear this about reading. Do you use 8.4 or 10.5 size?

[BainthaBrakk]

I use the 10.5.

[rgeorg]

That's what I am leaning towards at this point, the 10.5". Anyone have some sort of "armored" or really protective cover for the 10.5"?

[bobstro]

I'm a fan of the Roocase flip cases. They do a good job protecting the screen while the unit is in my bag, and I can slip out the inner "bikini" case for around the house. If you want to really protect the device, they also make a zip portfolio version that uses the same "bikini" inside. Mind you, that thing is big!

I used the zip portfolio on my first tablets, but found them overly bulky in day-to-day use. I use the flip cases now.

Of course, I managed to drop my Galaxy Note when in the bikini whilst in the hospital, and it landed on a table leg in such a way that it took damage. If you want something really armored, you might want one of the full-time bumper-type cases. I personally find they take away a lot of the enjoyment of having such a lightweight, svelte device. Otterbox doesn't seem to have cases for the S series yet, but they're the tops in armor.

[rgeorg]

Well, I do want good protection, especially when travelling (air and road). But have gone from the Tab Pro 8.4 at apx $280 (sale) to $500 for the S 10.5", so I can't be too extravagant with cases. I was thinking to go with a simple case, like the Moko Slim ($8), plus an attache-type travel bag (Az Basics $13 or CASE Logic $15 - any experience with these?) that can hold the power cable, travel converters, and other accessories. I have styrofoam plus bubble wrap for extra padding as the 11.6" bags are too big (and the 10" bags are too small!). I just wish there was a travel bag that fit the dimensions better!

Thank you for the case suggestions Bobstro. The roo cases do look very nice, esp the leather version. I just want something simple (and hopefully inexpensive), don't need the card slots or styus/pen, etc.

I'll have to decide soon as I plan to send in the order on Thurs or Friday. What color case would look good with the titanium tablet? Black I suppose? Brown?
Oh my, more decisions!!!!

[Jabby]

@bobstro was asking about battery life of the AMOLED screen. I don't have any thing to compare it to, but the battery life seems pretty good. I'm getting about 9 (hours of net usage (utube, movies and surfing) and anout 14-15 hours of reading with some email and texting thrown in (Wifi on). The reading was done with a black background and yellow text. This is on an "S" 8.4.

A couple of comments about this tablet:

The camera is better than most tablet camers and the software allows you to store the photos on the external SD card (in DCIM > Camera folder).

KitKat is a real pain. You can't get email attachments or Dropbox photos to the external SD card without a bunch of bother.

As someone else has mentioned; the capacitive back button is easy to touch inadvertently with some times dire results. Also, the "Home Button" is also used to awaken a sleeping tablet (not good if you keep your tablet in a sleeve) and I can't find any way to disable this.

One nice feature of TouchWiz is the "Direct Access" function. In the "Settings> Device> Accessability you will find this feature which allows you to tap the home key three times to enable certain functions. I use it to turn Negative Colors" on or off.

If anyone has any questions about this tablet, I'll do my best to answer them.

Regards-John

[rgeorg]

Thank you for the information. I decided to get the S 10.5", even though it may be a bit large for book reading (fiction). I figure I have the Kindle(s) for that. I wanted to have it optimized for viewing movies/magazines/WWW. Except for weekend carrying it by car, I don't need portability. I stayed with the 16GB, just to save some money, although I did get a 64GB mSD card. I read that Samsung (store app?) has come up with a kind of work-around for the KitKat issue with apps writing to the mSD card. I do not know any details. You might want to check it out.

I do have one question, can I use an USB-OTG cable to hang a thumb drive off of the tablet? I use Nexus Media Explorer to do that with the (new)N7 and it works quite well. I thought that I read somewhere it is possible on the Tab S. Not a big deal but would be convenient as I have a great deal of media on disks.

Now I've ordered everything (and Amazon should be so happy with me!), and it will arrive on Tuesday! Side note: This trip to the USA is to be with my sister who is having twins sometime very soon! So much excitement! Doing all my shopping online as will be too busy to shop when am there - really is helpful.
Thanks again to everyone who helped me make decisions!

[Jabby]

Originally Posted by rgeorg

I do have one question, can I use an USB-OTG cable to hang a thumb drive off of the tablet? I use Nexus Media Explorer to do that with the (new)N7 and it works quite well. I thought that I read somewhere it is possible on the Tab S. Not a big deal but would be convenient as I have a great deal of media on disks.

I pluged in my OTG cable with a FAT32 formated drive and I could use it the same as the internal memory.

All is not lost with the KitKat external SD card problem. The Samsung supplied "My Files" lets you write to the external SD card. You can't copy, but you can move, files and folders to the external SD card. So to do a copy you first do a move and then copy back using the file manager of your choice or the other way around.

Regards-John

[rgeorg]

Thanks, that is good news! I'm sure I'll get used to the workarounds. Seems like every new device requires something. That's why I try not to buy something new until I absolutely need it. Of course, my definition of "absolutely need" varies...

[rgeorg]

Well, here I am with my new tab s 10.5, and it looks wonderful. I plugged it in to charge and it only went up to 99%. Is this a big deal? I'll keep on testing it and see how long battery lasts. I wouldn'nt think that it would matter much.

[Catire]

Originally Posted by rgeorg

Well, here I am with my new tab s 10.5, and it looks wonderful. I plugged it in to charge and it only went up to 99%. Is this a big deal? I'll keep on testing it and see how long battery lasts. I wouldn'nt think that it would matter much.

Not a big deal in my experience with samsung devices of old. Enjoy it

[rgeorg]

Now is charging to 100%. Amazing screen, so pleased I purchased larger size, my eyes are grateful! Very fast and just a pleasure to use.