Info on Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5

[rgeorg]

I am thinking of buying the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and I have some questions about the AMOLED screen. Is it worth the extra money? Actually, any comments would be helpful as this is a big-ticket item for me and will have to last at least a few years.

I have heard about the great colors and brightness of the screen. Can the brightness go down enough to be comfortable to read at night? I am considering the S 10.5" for comics, magazines and TV/movie watching. I have eink kindles/Glo for reading novels.

Thanks for any comments - no need to compare to Apple iPads, as that is not a consideration. Other options would be the Google Nexus 10", or even the Kindle HDX 8.9", which are both considerably less expensive.

Thanks for any assistance!
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[ebusinesstutor]

I don't have the Galaxy Tab, but I have the original Samsung Galaxy Note (Super AMOLED screen) and an inexpensive Acer Iconia tablet.

I will mention that the screen on the Galaxy Note (AMOLED) is much clearer and brighter than the Acer Iconia.

I will be going for the AMOLED screens on my next upgrade unless something better comes along.

[HarryT]

AMOLED screens and IPS LCD screens such as the iPad and the Nexus use) are very much on a par, to my mind. Both have bright and vibrant colours.

[bobstro]

Comfortable reading at night is going to be very subjective. I find overly vibrant or bright screens annoying at night, but Samsung does provide a reading mode setting on the Note series that lets you flag specific apps for reduced intensity settings. I use it on my Note 10.1 2014. Best would be if you could get your hands on a device to try it out and see if it meets your needs for night reading.

While I don't have one of the new S AMOLED devices, I can say that the increased resolution on the newer Samsung devices has made a huge difference in screen clarity.

[rgeorg]

Thanks, I did read something about different screen modes. I'll have to look into it in more detail. That's an important consideration.

Unfortunately, I won't have time to look and compare so have to purchase sight unseen. Probably deciding between the NEXUS 10 (2012 @ about $350) and the Samsung S 10.5 (2014 @ $500). Same screen resolution, one is LCD and the other is the super AMOLED. Night reading is a secondary concern at any rate as I have also purchased a Kobo Glo.

I was just looking at the User's Manual and there is a screen "Reading Mode" that can be set for additional applications (guess this is in addition to the basic ebook reader app that works with Google Books). Sounds good. The screen tech is very tempting as my primary use is video viewing.

[bobstro]

Give a careful look at the overall specs. The latest Samsungs are amazingly thin and light. I had the previous Note 10.1 and found it tough to stuff in my (small) bag. The new 2014 Note 10.1 slips in easily. It's also easier to hold one-handed for prolonged periods (as while watching videos during a recent unplanned hospital stay). The Tab S is apparently even lighter while providing a slightly larger display area. If I weren't hooked on the pen input of the Note, I'd seriously be looking at the Tab S series.

Reading Mode is nice in that you can flag certain apps and know that they'll use subdued settings. If your preferred reading app doesn't provide much display control (e.g. Google Newsstand), this can be a big help if you're doing reading of something other than ebooks. There are some YouTube videos demonstrating Samsung's Reading Mode if you'd like to check it out.

That said, $150 is a lot of money and the Nexus is a nice device. You do lose out on the expandable storage with the Nexus, though that's not worth as much with KitKat. Do be sure that you have enough internal storage to suit your needs. I was surprised how quickly 32 GB goes once you load up some video and other content.

[bobstro]

[double post]

[keeska]

[QUOTE=rgeorg;2873184]
Unfortunately, I won't have time to look and compare so have to purchase sight unseen. Probably deciding between the NEXUS 10 (2012 @ about $350) and the Samsung S 10.5 (2014 @ $500). Same screen resolution, one is LCD and the other is the super AMOLED. /QUOTE]
I have a Nexus 10. It showing its age. Slower then current devices. Only 2Gbytye RAM. It has a number of problems with Android 4.4. While it is still an OK tablet it will become more frustrating over the next couple of years as apps continue to demand more resources.

I played with the 10.5 S at a recent Samsung preview. The screen is wonderful. But I did not check if it could be turned down for night reading. The major benefit of the s AMOLED is its uniformity. With a few apps in some lighting conditions an LCD screens will show slight non-uniformity due to the backlight not being 100% perfect. s AMOLED screens do not suffer from this.

For the next year the Nexus 10 will be an acceptable device. Beyond that it may not make it.

[filmo]

I have 8.5 galaxy note tablet with 8.5 inch AMOLED screen with great resolution. About biggest that will fit in front pants pocket. Jacket pocket or bag is better. With many good choices of free to low cost reading apps should easily find something that works for you. Turn brightness down or use night mode when screen is brighter than you want. Many smaller, lighter, thinner and lower cost tablets. Son has 7 inch Hisense Sero Pro Tablet from Walmart now priced $115. that is very good. I do most of my reading on 5" Kobo Mini or 6" Kobo Touch only reading on my tablet when I want color screen. I use very small flash light for few times I need light to read from eink screen. Kobo Mini fits in shirt pocket.

[rgeorg]

Originally Posted by bobstro

Reading Mode is nice in that you can flag certain apps and know that they'll use subdued settings. If your preferred reading app doesn't provide much display control (e.g. Google Newsstand), this can be a big help if you're doing reading of something other than ebooks. There are some YouTube videos demonstrating Samsung's Reading Mode if you'd like to check it out.

That said, $150 is a lot of money and the Nexus is a nice device. You do lose out on the expandable storage with the Nexus, though that's not worth as much with KitKat. Do be sure that you have enough internal storage to suit your needs. I was surprised how quickly 32 GB goes once you load up some video and other content.

Thank you to everyone for the information and comments. I will definitely check out YouTube. The Reading Mode, as described, sounds perfect for my use. The price difference is negligible over the 4-5 years that I hope to use the device. I just didn't want to make a mistake with a "new" technology purchase. I read somewhere that it is VERY bright. But it should be easier on the eyes than backlit LCD screens, I would imagine.
The posts about the screen are very helpful.

I was thinking of getting the lower cost 16GB and a 64 GB mSD chip to use for media content with the S 10.5. I know that apps cannot go on the disk, but I don't really use so very many apps (mobo player, Moon+ reader, a few Bridge apps, Words with Friends, maybe 2-3 simple games, some WWW content access + antivirus and some system efficiency apps - about 25 total).

I have a Samsung Galaxy Player 5 (android 2.3 with 8GB with a 32 GB mSD for media storage) that is great for use and portability and I am content with the RAM. Even the camera is OK. It has a nice large battery for travel as well. The larger 10.5" tablet would be for media (movies, magazines, comics, You Tube, etc), and mostly in the evenings. Some PDF books. I don't have a Samsung phone so SideSync is not relevant, don't care about fingerprint security, TV controlling, etc. I'll try to remove or close the bloatware apps.

It seems that I have made a decision to go with the S 10.5.
I appreciate the comments!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rgeorg

I was thinking of getting the lower cost 16GB and a 64 GB mSD chip to use for media content with the S 10.5.

Make sure that you familiarise yourself with the restrictions that Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) has imposed on the use of external SD cards before you make that decision. There's a good article that summarises the changes here. It may not be an issue for you, but you should certainly be aware of it if you're not currently using a device running Android 4.4.

[rgeorg]

I read the article and I can't say that I understand the impact. I have heard that apps cannot be moved to the card. But if I have an app that stores data, like my Bridge program that stores user settings, will it run? I'll email the company and ask.

It would be much more expensive (about $85) to get the extra 16GB memory...and I am already going over budget :-(

[bobstro]

The problem under KitKat is that, without workarounds, most apps can't write or delete files on removable storage that belong to other apps. Each app is allocated a private area it can use. This means things like 3rd party file managers can't be used to delete ebook files on uSD, nor can I use sync apps that write and delete files on uSD. The biggest frustration to me was not being able to use Calibre Companion to manage my ebook collection on uSD.

Authorized system apps such as Samsung's file manager CAN access all files, so hopefully, Google will provide some means of allowing the user to authorize certain apps to do things the old way. In the meantime, I have to more-or-less copy stuff over manually and use the Samsung file manager for pruning. For the time being, I've gone back to plugging my tablet into my Calibre computer and managing the collection over USB. A definite step backwards.

The other problem is that, although apps can read/write to their own private storage space on uSD, most apps don't. They dump files into your internal storage. I found this a problem even on a 16 GB device and had to modify how I used it. Again, apps may be modified/improved over time to address this, but Google isn't pushing them to do so. Some apps do support moving app data to removable storage, but this varies by app. Unfortunately, this means the answer is "it depends" based on your particular selection of apps.

For now, just consider removable storage to be a place where you can dump files to be read by apps. It's fine for things like movies and ebooks that can be read, but not managed, by apps you install. I still much prefer to have removable storage than not, but it's not as useful as it was before KitKat. I certainly didn't need to pop for a 64 GB card right before installing the KitKat update!

I'd advise buying as much internal storage as you can possibly afford, with an eye towards adding a smaller uSD card later if needed.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bobstro

The biggest frustration to me was not being able to use Calibre Companion to manage my ebook collection on uSD.

You can do so by having your book collection in CC's private folder on the SD card. The only down side of doing this is that if you were to delete CC, it would delete all your books, too.

Luckily books aren't large, and most devices have sufficient internal storage for them. I have about 4200 books on my Nexus 7, and they're using 3.5GB out of the 29GB of internal storage.

[bobstro]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You can do so by having your book collection in CC's private folder on the SD card. The only down side of doing this is that if you were to delete CC, it would delete all your books, too.

It sounds like CC has been updated, which is great! ... At least so long as my reader app is happy storing its collection in CC's directory on uSD. I won't be able to do ebook management from the reader apps, but that might be acceptable. I'll update CC and give it another look.

I'm still stuck using apps like Google's reader which don't allow selection of storage location. I choked my 32 GB internal storage by downloading a bunch of old book scans from Google Play and not paying attention!

I understand why Google has made these changes. The migration from UMS to MTP wasn't painless at the time, but is (mostly) usable now. I just wish the transitions weren't so disruptive. I discovered CC because it allowed me to get around removal of USB Mass Storage support from Android, only to be confounded by KitKat.