The trackpad is also slightly wider than before, giving you extra space for three-finger swipe-like gestures to zoom in or pinch apps. The touchpad felt a bit sluggish though, and I often end up connecting a Bluetooth mouse. The Surface Pro’s trackpad is more responsive, while the iPad’s smart keyboard is not one of the folio. Apple’s new Magic keyboard has a trackpad that works well.
The smaller Tab Tab S7 also has its own keyboard cover, though apparently it’s more crushed. The keys are smaller and they feel a little clicker than the S7 +. It also misses a large keyboard row of function keys, but you can still access shortcuts like decks and screenshots using the Fn button at the bottom left.
Keyboards are decent, but don’t work as well as they should on a PC. However shortcuts, such as Alt-T Alt B, CRTL-Z and CRTL-Backspace Work, are not supported by some, such as CRTL-Dell or CRTL + or – to zoom.
Charlene Law / Engadget
As a laptop Wanabe
Samsung did a lot to mimic the desktop experience, but there are a few ways that the TabB S7 and S7 + fall short. The most obvious of Samsung’s laptop-emulating efforts is the decks mode, which you can trigger on the screen or keyboard shortcuts, but also handle automatically when you snap on the cover.
I’ve had problems with the Dex in the past, but in ernda testing, I realized that a lot of the problems don’t come with the Samsung. Android apps aren’t just designed to work with keyboards and cursors. While Dex does an admirable job of adding a taskbar to mimic the desktop experience and allowing you to launch multiple windows at once, there are still a few important disconnect.
Let’s start with the things that Samsung can improve: When I launch Chrome in dex mode, it should enable the desktop version by default instead of finding me and enabling the setting. Also, I want full keyboard shortcut support so I can hit Ctrl-0 and go back to my original zoom setting or use Ctrl-Del to delete a word next to a line. I would also like to shift-space to trigger language shortcuts longer. Whenever I type “I” it constantly trips me and the system eats up the space it was supposed to come. For example, I would type “Spain” instead of “S Pen”, or “I think” instead of “I think”.
Charlene Law / Engadget
There are a lot of small questions in Dex mode that Samsung will need to work with developers to fix. YouTube, for example, will stop playing video if I go to another app in dex mode, but it will present what was being viewed in a picture-in-picture viewer outside of dex. Netflix also struggles in dex mode. The system will ask you to restart the application if you want it to run fullscreen, but when you do, return to the version with the same window that you cannot resize.
Speaking of which, DX lets you run an unlimited number of windows at the same time, and while you can resize most like Chrome, Telegram and Google Play, you won’t be able to do that with Instagram and Netflix. I understand why some applications need to maintain a certain aspect ratio or size, but this discrepancy can be overwhelming.
That’s a relatively minor issue compared to my main complaint: Android wasn’t just made for mouse and keyboard. This comes in most when I try to write a long review or chat with friends. When I finish writing a message in telegram, for example, pressing the enter key does not send it – it turns to a new line. I either have to click the “Send” button on the screen or use Ctrl-Enter, which is the opposite of what it would be on a PC. This is not a dex problem. The same thing happens when I use an app outside of dex mode – Android doesn’t understand that when the keyboard is connected, I want an enter key to send messages.
Charlene Law / Engadget
I can’t even use the cursor to select parts of the text. On PC, I will be able to hover my word over a few words, then click and drag to publish what I want. On the Tab S7 +, the cursor does not change when it is hovering over the text, and I have to double-click first to highlight a word before dragging the selectors. Worst of all, in apps like Slack, I can’t even pick words with the mouse, so if my editor sends me a header suggestion, I can’t copy and paste it into Google Drive. Oh, and even better, only occasional right-clicking works. Often, though, you’ll find that you can’t right-click on a conversation in a chat app to see more options. In some cases right-clicking closes the application completely. Have fun!
Outside of Dex mode, you can run Samsung’s multi-window feature as well as three apps side by side, but the configurations available aren’t limited. Also, some apps like Slack don’t work well when confined to a small tile, and only display useless information like the channels you open.
There are ways to work around some of these issues, using web applications in Chrome and requesting a desktop version of those sites or using my finger to select text. Personally, many of these issues are not dealbreakers. But together, they paint a bad picture for why it’s hard to use Android tablets as productivity machines. I commend Samsung for trying to make the best of difficult situations with Dex mode, but Google needs to work hard with its partners to improve Android for these big screens. IPadOS has evolved and now works better with cursors, and while Windows isn’t the most touch-friendly interface, it’s best for productivity.
Charlene Law / Engadget
Samsung Note and S Pen
One thing that makes TabSB7 good is to take notes. Samsung includes the S Pen, which has been upgraded to offer better delays and also acts as a remote control for things like taking selfies and moving presentation slides.
To help you make better use of the stylus, Samsung also includes a six-month free use of Clip Studio Paint, pre-installed on the Tab Tab S7. Fans of the app, which were previously available on the Apple Plus and Windows platforms, may find it helpful. It’s better than Samsung’s own notes to draw more sensitive functions, though, I still wish the company could improve its palm rejection.
I was already impressed with my awesome signature ability to index my to-do lists and make them easy to find. Along with the latest software, Samsung also added the ability to import PDFs, making it easier to sign and edit documents. I especially like the new audio Dio bookmark feature that lets you record sound while taking notes and make your words timely on the clip for playback.
I hung it up to write the lyrics to the song as soon as I recorded it playing, and the Samsung notes matched the accuracy I typed in the part of the song I was writing. This new tool is a great companion for apps like tertter.e or Google’s Recorder, which transcribes your recordings but does not allow you to write your own notes on time when something is said.
Performance and battery life
While it didn’t bother me with keyboard or mouse issues, the Tab Tab S7 + performed admirably. With a Snapdragon 865+ processor and 6GB of RAM, things went smoothly even when I had 12 apps open in dex mode, including YouTube, Google Docs, Slack, Telegram, and Chrome. Although there was no delay in switching and launching apps, it took a while for the app drawer to show results to search engines. It also took a few seconds to get in and out of Dex mode.
When I saw that the Tab Tab S7 didn’t hit even 10 hours in our battery test, it gave 9 and a half hours. Then I remembered that the screen is running at 120hz, which consumes significantly more power. I re-tested at 60hz and found the Tab S7 + a respectable 11 hours and 58 minutes. The TLB S7 thanks its LCD panel for a very long time, at 11 and a half hours at 120 Hz and 12 and a half hours at 60 Hz. In the real world, I usually need to work outside of the Tab S7, before I need to plug it back in. The iPad Pro 2020 delivers the same runtime in real-world testing, while the Surface Pro 7 falls short here, barely making it. It’s 8 hours on our test.
Charlene Law / Engadget
Summarize
As tablets, the Tab Tab S7 and S7 + shine. They have beautiful displays and they make excellent machines for entertainment or digital artists, come with useful S Pen and note taking software software. But as a laptop stand-in, the Tab S7 still needs work. Samsung has improved the productivity capabilities of these devices by using a high-end processor and offering some supporting software, but some keyboard shortcuts are still missing. More importantly, Android needs to get better at supporting desktop-style environments and apps.
For the 50 650 and 50 850, respectively, the Tab Tab S7 and S7 + are excellent but expensive Android tablets. In a pinch, they’re also good for cracking quick emails or edits. Just don’t expect this to replace your laptop.
