Tablets in Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S8 series are Android’s answer to Apple’s pro-level iPads, and the best devices for professional creative work on the platform. The Tab S8 is the smallest model in the lineup, but it still has plenty of power power, sports a beautiful 11-inch screen, and comes with Samsung’s excellent S Pen stylus. We’re also fans of Samsung’s productivity-focused Dex mode, which bridges the gap between Android and Chrome OS. But at $699.99, the Galaxy Tab S8 costs more than comparable iPads and Windows tablets, while offering fewer pro apps than those devices. Until Android’s tablet experience catches up to the competition, all high-end Android tablets, no matter how impressive the hardware, remain at a disadvantage.
The Smallest Tab S8
Three versions of the Galaxy Tab S8 are available. The 11-inch Galaxy Tab S8 I’m reviewing here feels like the most natural competitor to Chrome tablets and iPads. The $899.99, 12.4-inch Galaxy Tab S8+ is physically larger; it sports an AMOLED display rather than an LCD, has a bigger battery, and offers 5G connectivity. Finally, the $1,099.99, 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is one of the largest tablets I’ve seen—it’s just as usable as a small TV as it is a gigantic sketchpad.
The Galaxy Tab S8 looks pretty standard, with a black-glass front, a silver metal frame, and squared-off edges. It measures 9.99 by 6.51 by 0.29 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.11 pounds, which makes it a little taller and heavier, but narrower, than the latest M1-based iPad Air (9.74 by 7.02 by 0.24 inches; 1.02 pounds).
The screen has a bit of a bezel, but no physical buttons are on the front. All of the action happens around the edges, including the quad speakers, a USB-C port, volume buttons, a microSD card slot, and the power/fingerprint sensor. (The fingerprint sensor is your best bet for authentication, as I couldn’t get the face recognition option to work well, even when I wasn’t wearing a mask.) On the back, a narrow glass window sits next to the two cameras. This is where the S Pen (very loosely) magnetically attaches and charges.
As you might imagine, the Tab S8’s 600-nit, 2,560-by-1,600-pixel LCD is ideal for entertainment. That said, video playback is table stakes for a tablet—if you just want to watch videos, more affordable models such as the $149.99 Amazon Fire HD 10 and the $279.99 Lenovo Tab P11 Plus are just as capable. The bigger news is the display’s 120Hz refresh rate that enables smooth scrolling and seamless S Pen use. The new iPad Air has only a 60Hz screen, for comparison.
The Tab S8’s speakers produce room-filling, but not particularly bassy, audio. Still, they sound less tinny than the ones on my 2020 iPad Air. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro offers better audio, but it also costs $400 more.
Galaxy Tab S8: Under the Hood
The Tab S8 runs the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor as the Samsung Galaxy S22, has 8GB of RAM, and comes with either 128GB or 256GB ($779.99) of storage. The tablet benchmarked very similarly to the S22 series of phones, but it turned in a better score on the Basemark Web 3.0 browser benchmark. Apple’s A15 processor in the iPhone 13 turns in even better benchmark scores, but what’s important is that the tablet feels speedy and didn’t get bogged down at any point in testing.
Also important is that the Wi-Fi 6 radio in the S8 tablet is very good. I got about 20 more feet of range on the 5GHz band than I did with previous-generation devices over a connection to my Netgear router. The tablet also works with Wi-Fi 6E; although routers that support this standard are currently expensive and difficult to find, it future-proofs the Tab S8 a bit. If you need 5G connectivity (from AT&T or T-Mobile), you need to spring for the larger S8+ and S8 Ultra models, however.
I got 7 hours and 25 minutes of video streaming on full brightness with the tablet’s 8,000mAh battery. That translates to a full day’s worth of use, and is better than most iPads I’ve tested. It charges back up in 80 minutes on a 45W or greater charger.
Fine Cameras for Video Calls
The Tab S8 has a 12MP, f/2.4 120-degree front-facing camera in addition to 13MP f/2.0 main and 6MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle sensors on the back. The cameras are capable of 4K video recording.
Microphone noise reduction and camera auto-framing features are designed to improve video calls, and are relatively app-independent. In testing, they worked in Duo, Meet, Teams, and Zoom. Like Apple’s Center Stage feature, the auto-framing isn’t magic, but it tries to center you if you move a bit left or right. Oddly, it works a bit better in apps that aren’t Teams; in that app, the camera sometimes zoomed more onto the top half of my head.
Camera quality is fine. If you’re in an environment with decent light, the cameras take good pictures without hesitation. They tend to blow out bright areas and sometimes aren’t completely sure where to focus, but you can say the same for most midrange phone cameras. And like most tablet cameras, the ones on the Tab S8+ produce noisy low-light images. You don’t get a night mode, either.
An S Pen for Your Thoughts
All of the tablets in the Tab S8 lineup come with the S Pen. Earlier tablet S Pens, but not phone S Pens, also work on the Tab S8. The newest S Pen has one flat side to prevent it from rolling away, and a single action button. It features a matte plastic material and measures about 6.5 inches long; it’s a bit shorter and more manageable than the large $99.99 S Pen Pro. You charge the pen by magnetically clipping it onto the aforementioned glass window on the back of the tablet.
The S Pen has been around for a long time, and the experience is very consistent between Samsung devices now. The stylus is very sensitive to pressure and I didn’t notice any input lag in testing, though technically, the lag is 6.2ms. Samsung’s UI layer lets you quickly tap to start a new note or doodle, and to use the pen to write on a screenshot. Hardware-wise, the S Pen is absolutely on par with Apple’s 2nd Generation Pencil.
The problem is the software. iPadOS has Affinity Designer, Photoshop, Procreate, and other top-of-the-line, desktop-class art and design apps, as does Windows and macOS. Android does not. Yes, there are Android apps for art, design, and taking notes, including ArtRage, Autodesk Sketchbook, and Clip Studio Paint, but you have fewer options.
In terms of taking notes, you can run OneNote or sync Samsung’s notes app to OneNote. Bamboo Paper also works well. If you’re mostly a note-taker, and especially if you’re all-in with Microsoft, this tablet is a good choice. But so is an iPad. In short, the Android ecosystem lacks experiences the iPad offers, and doesn’t offer many features the iPad doesn’t. That’s a problem we’ll come back to later.
Galaxy Tab S8 Software and Dex Mode
The Tab S8 runs Android 12 with Samsung’s extensions, which are relatively light and elegant. Samsung guarantees Android version upgrades to version 16 and security updates through the Android 17 cycle.
Samsung purports to offer features that enable Galaxy devices to work together the way Apple devices do, including the ability to copy and paste across products, as well as resume apps on different devices. But I couldn’t figure out how to make these integrations work—and I’ve used a Galaxy S21 Ultra as my primary phone for months. That said, calls I received on my phone automatically popped up on the tablet.
The tablet’s Dex productivity mode isn’t as beholden to Android’s limitations. It enables a traditional multi-window OS where you can run different Android applications in separate windows, as well as use a keyboard and mouse to navigate.
Samsung included a $199.99 Book Cover Keyboard with my Galaxy Tab review unit, a slim case that unfolds into a full five-row keyboard. The keyboard uses the Tab’s smart connectors and draws power from the tablet. But the deck is cramped—the keyset is 10 inches wide, and much less comfortable than my desktop keyboard (which is just shy of 12 inches). I really notice the narrow width while typing, but unfortunately, that’s how wide the keyboard needs to be to properly fit the tablet. Apple’s competing Smart Keyboard Folio for 11-inch iPads is just a touch wider, at 10.25 inches.
For the best Dex experience, you need a mouse, too. I plugged my desktop USB mouse into the tablet’s USB-C port and it worked perfectly, but any Bluetooth mouse works.
Managing office work is far easier via Dex than in the tablet’s standard mode. You can keep multiple Microsoft Office documents in overlapping windows open, for instance. Dealing with tablet-unfriendly Android apps like Twitter becomes easier too, because you can resize them to preference. I tried various apps in Dex—Adobe Acrobat; Twitter; Google and Microsoft office applications; and even Kindle and Marvel Unlimited—and they worked fine.
The roadblocks I ran into once again involved the de-featured nature of Android apps. Specifically, I was working in Excel and needed formulas and data types that aren’t available in the app. I wanted Dex to turn the Tab S8 into a straight-up laptop, but it doesn’t quite accomplish that feat.
Android’s Best Isn’t Good Enough (for Tablets)
If you’re invested in Android apps or just really don’t like Apple or Windows products, the Galaxy Tab S8 (and the other models in the lineup) offers more power for creativity and productivity than any other Android tablet. But the Tab S8 is pricey, especially if you start adding accessories; the combination of the entry-level $699 model, a $199 keyboard, and a mouse takes you close to the $1,000 range. And although you can cheap out with a $65 Logitech K780 Multi-Device Keyboard, a $15 generic wireless mouse, and a $20 Fintie slim case from Amazon, the assemblage then becomes pretty kludgy.
The other problem is that the Tab S8 simply doesn’t offer as premium an experience as iPads and Windows tablets. Creative types don’t have as many apps at their disposal, and Samsung’s Dex mode isn’t ready for full-scale productivity. Ultimately, the pricing is a Samsung problem and the apps are an Android problem.
If you’re willing to look beyond Android, the $599 HP Chromebook X2 ($599) includes a keyboard and a pen, so while it’s noticeably slower than the Tab S8, it’s substantially more affordable. In addition, Microsoft offers an Intel Core i3 version of the Surface Go 3 tablet ($569) that you can outfit with a Surface Go Type Cover ($99.99). That device runs the full version of Microsoft 365 apps and Photoshop.
And then, of course, there’s the new iPad Air. Apple’s competing tablet costs $100 less than the Tab S8, and it runs all of those iPad creative apps that aren’t available on Android. We haven’t reviewed this model yet, but if you’re looking for a pro-level in the $600 to $700 price range, it looks to be the one to get.
