Samsung tablet vs laptop

For a tablet that doesnt shy away from touching the INR 1 lakh mark (if you factor in the price of its keyboard case), I think its safe to assume that the Tab S7+ cant get away by just being a great tablet. It arguably has to offer more than a bigger display to truly justify the cash it wants you to shell out for it.

So I decided to test out just that aspect. I used the Tab S7+ as my primary computing device for two weeks to see if it could offer an experience thats comparable to what Id expect from a conventional laptop. Read on to know how this experience turned out to be.

A great tablet? Oh yes!

Before we talk about whether the S7+ goes beyond, I think its important to cover the basics. The Tab S7+ - in a market that doesnt have a lot to offer - is the best Android tablet you can buy and theres not an iota of doubt about that. It pulls out all stops in terms of hardware and theres almost nothing you could further ask for.

Handling the performance is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ and 8GB of RAM which is plenty fast for just about anything youd want to do on a tablet: playing games, editing photos and videos, and even multitasking. The build quality is rather solid too and no matter how you hold the tablet, youll be touching either metal or glass or both.

The bezels around the display arent too thin as the bezels weve seen on Samsung phones such as the Note 20 Ultra, but this is a deliberate decision which gives enough room for your fingers to be able to grip the tablet. And yes, sitting within the boundaries of these bezels is an excellent 12.5-inch AMOLED display.

The 12.5-inch AMOLED panel on the Tab S7+ leaves nothing to be desired.

Yes, this is the biggest display Samsung has ever shipped on a tablet and when you couple the fact that it also supports 120Hz refresh rate, its no surprise whom Samsung is putting in the crosshairs. As mentioned above, the display is outright excellent and I had no qualms with the display: from viewing angles to outdoor visibility, nothing gave me a chance of pointing a finger.

In fact, Im pretty sure the display on the Tab S7+ is one aspect that gives it an edge over probably any other conventional laptop in this price segment. Sure, you may be able to get bigger and more colour-accurate displays, but not many will offer a bright AMOLED display that also has support for 120Hz refresh rate.

What seals the deal of the Tab being an excellent media consumption device is the quad-speaker setup. While they arent Bluetooth speaker replacements, the speakers on the Tab S7+ are bombastic and can easily fill a room with quality sound. And no matter how you hold or rest the tablet, youll have to put considerable efforts to muffle the sound output completely - which is great!

One speaker of the quad-speaker setup on the Tab S7+.

Another interesting change with the Tab S7+ is that the front camera now sits, at the top, along the longer side of the laptop which makes it an ideal location for when youre using the tablet along with its keyboard cover. Given that video conferencing is more popular and common than it ever was, this is a well-thought change. I know its nitpicking, but it wouldve been nice to see a camera light to know when the camera is in use.

The back also houses a dual-camera setup that consists of a wide and an ultrawide sensor. Although, youre guaranteed to get better shots from just about any other smartphone - ones that even cost as low as INR 10,000.

The Tab S7+ houses a 10,000mAh unit that can easily power a days worth of usage. I could easily get through a day - with 120Hz refresh rate enabled - and clock up to 7 hours of screen-on time. The Tab S7+ supports 45W fast charging but Samsung bundles only a meagre 15W charger with the tablet which takes a ridiculous amount of time to completely charge the tablet. I made use of the 25W charger I had at my disposal which completely charged the table from 0 to 100 in about 2 hours. So, if you dont have a fast charger lying around, Id definitely recommend you get one with the Tab S7+.

Does it go beyond being just a tablet?

When I switched over to the Tab S7+ as my primary computing device, this is a question I really wanted to get an answer to. Was it actually possible to replace the Tab S7+ with my Macbook Pro? The answer to this question relies on three main additions to the Tab S7+ that really gives it the juice to go beyond: the S Pen, the Keyboard cover, and Samsung Dex. So, lets talk about these three pillars.

S Pen

The S Pen on the Tab S7+ is remarkably better than the one which shipped with the Tab S6. For starters, it's not oblong in shape and is actually shaped like a pen, albeit with a flat side so that it can magnetically attach itself to the back of the tablet.

If youre not going to be getting the kickstand cover, the Pens resting space is still an awkward placement. Although, this time around Samsung has remedied that to an extent in that the pen will magnetically attach to the side of the tablet. But, time and again, youll still need to attach the Pen at the back to charge it to make sure the Air Gestures still work.

Samsung Notes has a useful set of tools that help with note-taking.

Like was the case with the S Pen on the Note 20 Ultra, the Tabs Pen too has a latency of 9ms. And trust me when I say this, using the S Pen is a treat! Ive been preparing for an exam and have used the tablet as my sole scratchpad and boy is it convenient! When using certain applications such as Samsung Note and Noteshelf, the Pens button can be configured to quickly switch to a favourite pen/brush or an eraser.

The Samsung Notes application is also pretty extensive and offers some kickass features such as handwriting-to-text recognition that converts handwritten text to editable text, and auto-fix shapes that automatically corrects sloppily drawn shapes to make them look proportionate. Another interesting feature is easy writing pad that lets you write neatly in straight lines. This comes rather handy if youre trying to maintain a legible notebook that you can refer to later.

The above-mentioned Noteshelf application - which is paid otherwise - comes preloaded on the Tab S7+ and is actually a great application if youre trying to maintain separate books for separate subjects. You can also add in clip art and choose amongst different layouts to suit your needs.

While the S Pen is great for note-taking, its equally useful if youre a creator and makes use of applications such as Clip Studio (free 6-month trial) and Autodesk to whip up art. So, if youre a college-going student or are looking to create art, the Tab S7+ is a great gadget that could replace a conventional laptop. Speaking of laptops, lets move over to the keyboard cover which is the second pillar of the beyond experience.

Keyboard Cover

Without the keyboard cover, the Tab S7+ doesnt come quite close to replace that traditional laptop. So, if youre looking to really juice out the S7+, the keyboard cover - which is expensive at INR 14,999 - is a must-buy with the tablet. Having used the Tab S6 Keyboard Cover, I can vouch that the Tab S7+s keyboard cover is better in almost every way.

The new Keyboard Cover is sturdier than ever before which makes the Tab S7+ usable on the lap too.

Firstly, Samsung has gotten rid of the flimsy adhesive-based mechanism that rendered itself almost ineffective in just about a couple of months use. The back cover now has an entire layer of magnet which means the case will stay put just as well in the long term. The kickstand at the back is also quite sturdy which means you will be able to place the tablet on your lap and use it without the setup falling apart.

The top of the back cover has a flap that covers the S Pen and gives you the convenience of not having to worry about placing the tablet on a surface.

The keyboard on the Tab S7+''s Keyboard cover is quite good but misses out on backlight.

The second part of the keyboard case is - obviously - the keyboard itself which magnetically snaps to the bottom of the tablet via a three-pin connector. The keyboard is bigger than before and now houses a function row which gives you quick access to settings such as brightness, volume, and navigation keys. The keys on the Tab S7+ are rather satisfactory to type on and have a good amount of travel. The only complaint I have regarding the keyboard is the lack of a backlight. Considering that tablets arch-rival, the iPad Pro has a backlit keyboard cover, it wouldve been nice to see on the Tab S7+ too.

The cover also has a trackpad which is roomier than the one on the Tab S6 but not as roomy as some conventional laptops. Either way, the trackpad works just fine and even has support for multi-finger gestures. For instance, a three-finger swipe-up reveals the multitasking menu while a three-finger sideways-swipe lets you jump between applications. Palm rejection is pretty good too.

If youre wondering, you can also hook up a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to the Tab S7+.

So, as far as the hardware is concerned, the Tab S7+ seems to be in a good place. But is the software - more specifically, Samsung Dex - good enough for the S7+ to be a worthy alternative to a laptop?

Samsung Dex

Android is a great operating system.for smartphones. When it comes to tablets, Googles vanilla Android is quite dumbfounded when run on tablets. Applications dont scale up as well, elements arent designed to be useful for a big display, and the UI is just not suitable to be used with input devices such as a mouse or a keyboard. This is where Samsung steps in with Dex. Samsung Dex is Samsungs software suite that gives the tablet a Windows-like UI. But is the experience as intuitive?

Dex is not new and is something that Samsung has been toying with for a while and its definitely more robust and intuitive than it ever was. If you havent used Dex before, the UI is quite similar to what weve seen on Windows. The UI greets you with a desktop where you can place your preferred app shortcuts. There is a taskbar at the bottom which shows you which applications are open and also lets you pin your favourite ones for quick access.

Dex mode on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+.

The right-end of the taskbar gives you access to notifications, quick settings, and status icons. There are also three shortcuts: keyboard, sound profile, and screenshot. Each application in Dex opens in a floating window that you can force to go full-screen. These windows have three action buttons at the top-right: minimize, maximize, and close.

The experience will be familiar to you if youve used a Windows laptop before. In fact, Samsung has also implemented keyboard shortcuts that weve come to be used to on Windows laptops. For instance, CMD+L locks the tablet, CMD+Left Arrow snaps windows to the left, and Alt+Tab lets you jump between applications. In fact, there are dedicated shortcuts to launch your go-to music and email applications (amongst other things).

So yes, Dex gets the basics right and Samsung has put in enough effort to make sure this doesnt feel like a half-baked feature. But the Dex isnt perfect by any means. Its still not completely optimized for mouse input - having to swipe away notifications and having to long-press quick toggles such as WiFi are two examples of the same. Similarly, its not completely optimized for keyboard input too. For instance, when you open a new tab on the Samsung Internet browser, youll have to tap on the address tab again in order to be able to type. I know this is nitpicking but these experiences that Ive shared are just representations of some inconveniences youll have to get used to in the long run.

But this nitpicking apart, I think whats more important is that Android applications are still not quite optimized for tablets. Popular applications such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook look ridiculous on the tablet. This is obviously not Samsungs fault; Google better steps up with improved support for larger displays on Android now that were seeing more foldable phones. What is Samsungs fault is that certain applications just wont open in Samsung Dex. Enpass, a password manager tool, just wont open in Dex mode. This is likely the case for banking and finance applications too.

Having said this, the Tab S7+ along with Dex mode might just work fine for you if you dont rely on profession-specific applications such as Premiere Pro or AutoCAD which straight up arent available on Android. But if your work involves using the Microsoft suite of applications which includes Word and Excel, youll be happy to know that Dex supports these applications (and a few more).

My work majorly involves browsing through the internet and writing, and hence I didnt really face much of a problem while switching to the Tab S7+ as my primary computing device. Obviously, your mileage may vary.

Where does this leave us with the Tab S7+?

If you've come this far, Im pretty sure youve got an idea of the experience that awaits you if you take the decision of buying the tablet. The Samsung Tab S7+ is an excellent Android tablet that offers an incredible 120Hz display, snappy performance, and day-long battery life. The S Pen is obviously a sweet touch. But as Ive said before, its fair to expect the Tab S7+ to be more than just an excellent tablet.

And on that front, the Tab S7+ has actually performed better than I expected. The keyboard cover along with Samsung Dex comes closer than ever in offering a desktop-like experience. It isnt perfect but given Googles seemingly lack of concern towards this form factor, its appreciable what Samsung has done with Dex.

If your work doesnt require you to have specific applications which arent available on Android, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ is actually worth auditioning. Not only will it take care of your work, but itll also double as an excellent media consumption device.

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