Hands-on with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S6

iPads are the undisputed best tablets, but if you’re not about iOS or Apple’s walled garden, the best alternative is Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S6.

The new Android tablet succeeds the Galaxy Tab S4 — fun fact: there’s no Tab S5 — with a thinner, lighter design and faster performance.

Most importantly, Samsung has remedied the Tab S4’s key shortcomings. Specifically, the included S Pen magnetically attaches to the Tab S6 for storage (and charging) and the keyboard accessory includes a trackpad so you don’t need to connect a separate wireless mouse when the tablet’s in the desktop-like “DeX” mode.

Oh, and you’ll probably like this: the Tab S6 starts at $649 — $150 less than the 11-inch iPad Pro it’s competing directly against.

The first thing I noticed about the Tab S6 was its slimmer aluminum design. Compared to the Tab S4’s glass back, which was more vulnerable to damage if dropped and attracted fingerprints with ease, the metal on the Tab S6 is far more durable.

Samsung’s shaved the tablet’s profile from 7.1mm on the Tab S4 to 5.7mm, making it barely thinner than Apple’s iPad Pros, which are 5.9mm thick.

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A tablet this thin is likely susceptible to bending, but I obviously couldn’t test this during my brief time with it. It feel solid enough. I’ll leave this to the stress-testing YouTubers like JerryRigEverything.

Solid build quality aside, the Tab S6’s main hardware remains unchanged from the Tab S4. The 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display (2,560 x 1,600) is as bright as vibrant as before. Similarly, the AKG-tuned quad speakers are still present and support Dolby Atmos.

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Embedded under the display is a fingerprint reader. This scanner is an optical sensor like the one on the OnePlus 6T and 7 Pro and not like the Galaxy S10’s ultrasonic fingerprint reader. I got to test the Tab S6’s sensor for unlocking the tablet and it’s quite responsive. However, because it’s an optical sensor, it’s not as secure as an ultrasonic scanner; optical sensors can be fooled with high-res images of fingerprints. Still, an optical fingerprint reader is better than not having one.

The Tab S6 also has a face unlock feature. I’m told this is a 2D-based facial recognition system and not as secure as the iris scanner face unlock in the Tab S4.

On the back of the tablet are a pair of cameras: one main 13-megapixel option and a 5-megapixel ultra-wide angle shooter. These work well enough, though the ultra-wide angle camera is not as crispy due to its lower resolution. On the front is an 8-megapixel selfie camera.

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One thing you won’t find on the Tab S6 is a 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s gone, which means you’ll have to use USB-C headphones or go wireless with something like the Galaxy Buds or AirPods.

Powering Samsung’s new tablet is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip and 6GB of RAM. Samsung says users can expect up to 81 percent faster processing performance and up to 68 percent more powerful graphics performance compared to the two-year-old Snapdragon 835 chip inside of the old Tab S4.

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The $649 model comes with 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM, but you can also fork over $729 for a version with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The tablet also has a microSD slot that supports memory cards up to 512GB.

Battery life is also improved. Despite the battery capacity shrinking from 7,300 mAh on the Tab S4 to 7,040 mAh on the Tab S6, Samsung claims the new tablet lasts up to 15 hours of usage versus 14 hours.

As previously mentioned, Samsung made the biggest changes to the S Pen and detachable keyboard. The S Pen’s still included, but the Book Cover Keyboard is sold separately ($179).

For the S Pen, Samsung’s upgraded its features with wireless Bluetooth capability. In other words, the new stylus works like the Galaxy Note 9’s S Pen: you can use it as a remote shutter for taking photos, a clicker for advancing slides in a PowerPoint, or as a controller for playing media.

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The improved S Pen also magnetically attaches to the back of the tablet. There’s a long groove for the S Pen to fit. When attached, the Tab S6 also charges the S Pen up. The implementation is similar to how the Apple Pencil 2 attaches to an iPad Pro (2018). However, the way the S Pen attaches to the Tab S6 is clearly less elegant and the magnet didn’t feel reliably strong on demo units I saw.

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As for the Book Cover Keyboard, it’s also been tweaked for the better. First, it’s a two-piece design. One half with an adjustable kickstand magnetically attaches to the Tab S6 via a pogo pin connector and the other half, the keyboard and trackpad, connects to that. 

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When both pieces are attached, the setup is akin to what you get with on a Microsoft Surface Pro. On the Tab S4’s keyboard accessory, there was no trackpad. Samsung says it found 30 percent of Tab S4 users were connecting a wireless mouse so they decided to build a trackpad into the Tab S6’s keyboard case.

Adding a trackpad does come at a literal cost, though: the Tab S6’s Book Cover Keyboard costs $179, $20 more than the previous trackpad-less model.

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I tried both the keyboard and the trackpad and they’re OK. The keys are a little small and the layout felt a bit cramped, but they work and the keys at least have good travel to them. The trackpad was also a little jumpy whenever I moused around. Of course, the devices I checked out weren’t production units, so any bugs could be ironed out before launch.

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Easily my favorite new addition to the keyboard is the inclusion of a dedicated “DeX” button. Pressing the function key and the DeX button automatically switches the Tab S6 from regular Android mode to its desktop-like PC mode, complete with windowed app experience.

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There are a handful of other upgrades you’ll find on the Tab S6 as well. There’s a “game booster” mode that uses AI to improve gaming performance and integration with Discord via the Samsung Game Launcher. And, of course, Samsung’s One UI skin on top of Android 9 Pie is great.

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I didn’t spend enough time with the Tab S6 to determine if it’s superior to an iPad Pro (running iPad OS of course). Can Samsung’s new tablet replace a laptop and fulfill all of my work requirements? I’ll have to wait until I get a review unit in for testing to pass judgment, but I recall that I was pleasantly surprised at how much work I could accomplish with the Tab S4 and keyboard accessory.

The Tab S6 hits Samsung.com and retail locations on August 23.