Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 launched in 8- and 9.7-inch models

[HEXUS]

Said to be the thinnest (5.6mm) and lightest tablets ever.

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[Pleiades]

I can understand Samsung trying to take the high end what with all the little fish circling and biting at its ankles LOL, but it has to differentiate and innovate more to command those sort of prices. Mercs and Kias (yes, the auto analogy sry!) are a lot easier to tell apart than generic Chinese tabs from Samsungs (or even Apples)...

Personally went from Note 8.0 to Xiaomi MiPad btw. Sammys just don't look great value atm...

[crossy]

Why the concentration on lightness and especially thinness? I'd really prefer a meatier battery. And then of course, those two Tab's will be "enhanced" by Samsung's legendary bloat collection.

By the way, in the pictures under the Sensor heading is "Hall Sensor" - what the heck is that?

Oh, and while these new Samsung's may be quite good, I'm not impressed with the looks (slap-in-the-face plain compared to previous models like the Note's) and I've got a Lenovo Yoga2 that I'm pretty impressed with.

[Pleiades]

A Hall effect sensor is a transducer that varies its output voltage in response to a magnetic field. Hall effect sensors are used for proximity switching, positioning, speed detection, and current sensing applications. In its simplest form, the sensor operates as an analog transducer, directly returning a voltage

They're used in my joystick apparently

[keithwalton]

The hall effect sensor will just be used for detecting if a cover is over it or not...

4:3 ratio screen though, is that because the nexus 9 is a roaring success ? oh wait it's not it's a total flop!

4AH battery in the 8 is a joke, 5.87AH in the 9.7 is better but still weak, sure modern (14nm) chips a little less juice but not by much when paired with thirsty screens.
My 3 year old note 10.1 has a 7AH battery and guess what it's biggest drawback has been.
Yup you guessed it could do with a longer battery life when in use. It'll idle for two weeks but use it and you get 8 hours out of the battery and it's gone.

[crossy]

The hall effect sensor will just be used for detecting if a cover is over it or not...

Ah right, the light dawns - thanks!

4:3 ratio screen though, is that because the nexus 9 is a roaring success ? oh wait it's not it's a total flop! 4AH battery in the 8 is a joke, 5.87AH in the 9.7 is better but still weak, sure modern (14nm) chips a little less juice but not by much when paired with thirsty screens. My 3 year old note 10.1 has a 7AH battery and guess what it's biggest drawback has been.

Yes, the current fad for "4 by 3's" doesn't win me over - for what I use a tablet for the 16:9 or 16:10 "widescreen" size feels much more natural.

Like you I've got a Note 10.1 (old model) and while it's been a good machine overall (use it daily) the battery hasn't been the biggest annoyance - instead it's Samsung's god-awful software. For example, if I launch the web browser (with a single tab of a page on Amazon) then it takes more than 30 seconds to get to the point where I can select another page - utterly unacceptable. Funnily enough I switched from TW to Nova for my front-end and while Nova feels a little "unpolished" I've seen an across-the-board increase in responsiveness.

If Samsung were listening (ha!) then if they want me to buy another Samsung tablet then I want a 2015/2016 Note 10.1 that is no lighter and especially not thinner than the current one. If they can save on the internals then I would want that saving used for extra battery. Oh, and most important, no fixed-in-place bloatware (and I particularly mean "Samsung Apps"). Oh, and preferably microSD card support and for the sake of all that's holy swap out that proprietary connector for a microUSB and none of that "you must use the official charger and cable" nonsense!

Actually, last time I suggested dropping the special cable I got told that it was needed for the current draw. Not true - the old HP Touchpad, my LG G3 phone and Lenovo Yoga2 and S8 tablets all charge at 2.0A, yet can use any 2.0A charger and the "standard" cable.

[keithwalton]

Before the official Kitkat rom came out for the note 10.1 (2012) there was a few aosp rom's that ran much better than official firmware and used the google now launcher. Idle battery life was much much higher on the aosp rom.
Once it sat idle in a draw and over a month after putting it there I heard it bleep low battery and wondered what it was!
You can set a different browser as the default if the inbuilt one is struggling though it should be chrome based already.

I'm guessing the current 4:3 fad was started by the nexus 9 and that these tabs were significantly developed when the 9 was released and thus to late to cancel. Widescreen was a + point over ipads because it was better for movies and ebooks/print