Database Users

Is there a better tablet coming soon?

I bought a 32gb Nexus 10 from Staples over the weekend and am enjoying it, but I realize that I'm seven months late to this hardware (while still paying full price). Is there anything coming in the next month that I should return this unit for? A high PPI is a must at this point.
Thanks.

Samsung was trying to get a Nexus 11 going and had specs for it, but at the time Google had not yet approved the production of it. No word has been heard since then about a new model upgrade for the Nexus 10.

trimalchioinwestegg said:
I bought a 32gb Nexus 10 from Staples over the weekend and am enjoying it, but I realize that I'm seven months late to this hardware (while still paying full price). Is there anything coming in the next month that I should return this unit for? A high PPI is a must at this point.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The next Nexus 7 will probably come out in a month or so, if you're okay with a 7" tablet. If you must have 10", the high-end announcements so far are a new Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, not coming till the fall, and the Toshiba Excite Pro, coming next month, both running Tegra 4 and with the same 2560 X 1600 resolution as the Nexus 10. If you want a stylus, the Toshiba Excite Write is the same as the Pro, but with a Wacom digitizer and a stylus.
There are always new announcements being made in the runup to the holidays, this is just what we know so far. We can't say how good any of these devices will be, as none of them are out yet.

Just got the Toshiba Excite Write
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!

babblin5 said:
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will keep my tablet thanks. At least I know my benchmark scores are 100% raw horsepower and not shady nVidia "optimizations".

brees75 said:
I will keep my tablet thanks. At least I know my benchmark scores are 100% raw horsepower and not shady nVidia "optimizations".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Suit yourself, but that's a lot of wasted CPU cycles and amps there for a misplaced sense of "power." Mobile devices are all about optimization right now, and if the reports show the device to be fully usable, then you're unlikely to run into issues. Certainly this has my eye.

babblin5 said:
And it looks to be a damn fine tablet. Antutu scored 28k+ and the graphics power is phenomenal. Has built in video and audio enhancements, seems pretty stable on this kernal build, although I expect an update soon because of a couple of weird quirks. The stylus works great (love the eraser by turning over the pen!), but not as developed as the Note 10.1, however, the screen rez is fantastic at 320 DPI and looks as good as the Nexus 10. The rear camera is REALLY great...best I've seen so far on a tablet, and the speakers are clear as a bell with excellent surround sound controlled in hardware, so anything you play gets enhanced. It does get a little warm on the left side under the camera when running an intensive app.
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you get your hands on it? None of the major tech sites have even reviewed it yet and they say it's not supposed to be delivered to buyers for another week.
How does it compare to the Nexus 10 otherwise? Specifically, the resolution is the same, but are the colors as good or better? Forget about benchmarks, do you notice any differences in a quad-core A15 compared to the dual-core A15 in the Nexus 10 in real-world use? What is battery life like with such a powerful CPU? Do the speakers go louder than the Nexus 10's speakers, when cranked up to the max? Can you post some pics from the rear camera, so we can see how good it is?
I'm happy with my Nexus 10, so I doubt I'll be picking up another tablet for a while. But I'm curious how these upcoming spec-hogs will compare to the current spec-hog king, the Nexus 10.

joakim_one said:
How did you get your hands on it? None of the major tech sites have even reviewed it yet and they say it's not supposed to be delivered to buyers for another week.
How does it compare to the Nexus 10 otherwise? Specifically, the resolution is the same, but are the colors as good or better? Forget about benchmarks, do you notice any differences in a quad-core A15 compared to the dual-core A15 in the Nexus 10 in real-world use? What is battery life like with such a powerful CPU? Do the speakers go louder than the Nexus 10's speakers, when cranked up to the max? Can you post some pics from the rear camera, so we can see how good it is?
I'm happy with my Nexus 10, so I doubt I'll be picking up another tablet for a while. But I'm curious how these upcoming spec-hogs will compare to the current spec-hog king, the Nexus 10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a Nexus 10 at the moment for direct comparisons, but I personally think the brightness and color are at least on par. I do feel that the viewing angles aren't quite as high however in the Write. Don't know if this has anything to do with the digitizer or not. The pic of my kitteh was taken with the rear camera in room light, but I'll shoot a few more and post.
I also think that the Write's Tegra 4 delivers the goods in gameplay, even when set to balance mode, there's no stuttering in anything I've thrown at it so far, and Autocad 360 rendering is blazingly fast in real time 3D view, even when rotating fully rendered 3d models. I'm not sure how well the Nexus 10 would handle the same stuff, especially in power saving mode.
I do question the battery life a bit, as it seems to chew through the battery at times, and at this point I'm kind of doubting the life claimed by Toshiba. I'm not sure if the current kernel build is fully optimized yet, as there's at least one major issue when streaming or watching video, both through Google Play or from a file saved on the SD card. The screen goes black after a few seconds of playback, although the sound continues to play. Pressing the power button to put it in sleep mode, then again to wake it up, solves the issue and everything plays and streams fine after that. YouTube streaming doesn't have this issue. Also, it doesn't matter which player you use, it still does it, which leads me to believe that the unit I got might still have an early, unoptimized build on it. I seriously can't see them mass shipping with that kind of readily apparent bug, but who knows?
The sound is also a bit odd. It seems pretty muted, even at full volume, when playing any type of media. Games are plenty loud though, and the stereo separation and surround enhancements are simply stellar, even when I have the thing parked on my lap. I strongly suspect that there's some sort of limit as to the max volume switched on in the hardware to avoid blowing out the speakers or something, or it could be in the kernel itself...I honestly don't know at this point. I just know that the maximum volume is significantly lower in media playback for some strange reason.
As for how I got it, I'm just as amazed as you are. I pre ordered on July 2, and the shipping date showed July 3 on my order. I called toshiba and asked them if this was correct, and was told that they weren't scheduled to ship until the 18th. I thought they'd go in and change the date after I called attention to the ship date, but it stayed showing the 3rd. Low and behold the next day I got an email with a tracking number, and sure enough it arrived the following Monday due to the delay caused by the 4th (2 day shipping).
Was it a mistake? I have no frigging idea, and feel pretty privileged to have one before any of the major sites have reviewed it. Here's a pic of the tablet and box it came in, to satisfy any doubters that might be out there, as well as the invoice that came with it.

babblin5 said:
Was it a mistake? I have no frigging idea, and feel pretty privileged to have one before any of the major sites have reviewed it. Here's a pic of the tablet and box it came in, to satisfy any doubters that might be out there, as well as the invoice that came with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info, sounds like a nice device, although with some early hiccups. This is the first Tegra 4 device on the market, now that the Nvidia Shield has been postponed, so I was curious how it would do.
How long does it last in normal, continuous usage? My Nexus 10 goes about 5-6 hours.

joakim_one said:
Thanks for the info, sounds like a nice device, although with some early hiccups. This is the first Tegra 4 device on the market, now that the Nvidia Shield has been postponed, so I was curious how it would do.
How long does it last in normal, continuous usage? My Nexus 10 goes about 5-6 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say it's at least 5-6 hours, but nowhere near the 9-11 that Toshiba claims.

Here's some photos off the rear camera of the Excite Write.

Excellent stuff, thanks for posting babblin :thumbup: I have one heading my way (shipped July 12th) and will admit to a certain amount of trepidation since that last 5 tablets I've tried to buy (2 Nexus 10, 2 Nexus 7, 1 Xperia Tablet Z) were faulty out of the box.
I'm curious — although I suppose I'll find out for myself soon enough unless it's a total dud — does stylus pressure register in any drawing app (eg. SketchBook)?

TellTenPeople said:
Excellent stuff, thanks for posting babblin :thumbup: I have one heading my way (shipped July 12th) and will admit to a certain amount of trepidation since that last 5 tablets I've tried to buy (2 Nexus 10, 2 Nexus 7, 1 Xperia Tablet Z) were faulty out of the box.
I'm curious — although I suppose I'll find out for myself soon enough unless it's a total dud — does stylus pressure register in any drawing app (eg. SketchBook)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure, but I'll check into it. I did use it to sign a PDF though, which was pretty cool...

babblin5 said:
If you have any questions or requests, fire away!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the available ram after reboot? The N10 GPU takes 800 meg now so only ~1.2gig available.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

no.
this tablet will long for the next 3 years at least

rxnelson said:
What is the available ram after reboot? The N10 GPU takes 800 meg now so only ~1.2gig available.
T
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have quite a few things running in background, and it's using .89 gb

To the OP...
There is "ALWAYS" a better tablet coming soon. You should never, ever, ever purchase a tab because of what is around the corner.
Of course this means that you'd never, ever, ever own a tablet either
I don't see a problem with an N10 purchase around this time, after all, I purchased one last month. The closest "reviewed" tab is the Sony 10.1" tab and it's not enough of a boost over an N10 to warrant upgrading from the N10 to one.
Specification wise, other than a microSD slot (which has less benefit with each release of Android due to DRM), camera and the ability to take it swimming (water isn't good for the Nexus), the N10 still seems to have the top specs. Screen resolution, audio quality and several GPU benchmarks appear to have the N10 still in the lead.
This fall? That's when you'll likely see some 10" tablet refreshes.

babblin5 said:
Here's some photos off the rear camera of the Excite Write.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, there's no way the Nexus 10 produces shots like those, with its below-average camera. Looks like a clear win for the Excite Write camera, though I barely use the camera on my Nexus 10, so not a big deal for me.

To answer my own question, the Toshiba Write doesn't get pressure sensitivity — much less good performance — out of either SketchBook Pro or Ink. It does, however, do a nibble job in HandyNote Pro which is why I bought it.
The normal swiping and app switching is not quite as smooth as I was expecting from the "next gen" Tegra 4 — especially not in Balanced performance mode. I also find it odd that it has a dedicated charging port which I keep mistaking for the headphone/mic jack, but at least it charges reasonably quickly which is good because battery life leaves something to be desired — like more of it.
Nevertheless, I'm still giddy from actually being sent a tablet without any discernible defects. 6th time the charm And it only took 8 months.
Update - July 29, 2013:
I celebrated too soon — defects discerned.
1) Brightness fluctuates even with Auto-brightness OFF. The screen seems to go brighter when displaying light content and dimmer when displaying dark content. It does it abruptly and annoyingly at any brightness and there's no way to disable it.
2) Dust under screen protector or, worse, glass. The Write, like the Xperia Tablet Z, seems to have a factory installed screen protector over the glass. Whether the dust was under this protector or the glass I could not tell. The two Nexus 10 I had (and returned) had stuff under the glass so it's possible.
I contacted Toshiba Canada and they sent me a box to send it back to them for service. At least they're paying for all the shipping.
After a week's heavy use, I have to say that either the OS is still unoptimised for the hardware, or the tablet I got was defective (not beyond the realm of possibility). The Balanced mode was very stutter-y and sluggish especially in app switching. Maximum Performance mode was smoother but ran real hot and got about 6 hours battery life.
Furthermore, some apps (including the built-in Think Free Office) flickered when the onscreen keyboard was engaged. Also happened with the xda-developer app and Flick Note and a few others but not with Google Docs or Evernote so I suspect it's down to app/OS optimisation for high res screens. Does the Nexus 10 have this problem?

10.1.2014 versus Sony Xperia Tab Z

I've seen lots of discussion comparing with the various iPads, but not much discussion on the Sony Xperia. I was pretty much sold on the Note originally as I LOVE my S3 phone, but I must admit I do see the reason behind all the negative Samsung reactions in terms of bloatware. Man do they put a bunch of junk on there! Luckily I have my S3 rooted and have successfully turned off bunches of bloat, and the phone is now massively faster . . . . . even on the stock ROM.
The more I play with the Xperia and read the reviews, the more I like it. The biggest 2 drawbacks in comparison are (1) lower screen resolution and (2) no S-pen. Neither one of those are deal brakers for me, but they do factor into the overall decision.
So, I know I'll get lots of pro-Samsung comments given the forum I'm in, but I'd like some honest feedback. Has anyone had lots of time with both tabs that can give some user level insight as to which way they would recommend? I have no doubt both are quality devices. Just trying to make a smart spend with my hard earned $. :fingers-crossed:
Thanks in advance.
~Vol
P.S. The new Kindle HDX is sneaking into the discussion, too. It has a *whopper* of a set of specs at a great price point. Root and install a well-built custom ROM, and maybe it kills all of them??

Vol4Ever said:
I've seen lots of discussion comparing with the various iPads, but not much discussion on the Sony Xperia. I was pretty much sold on the Note originally as I LOVE my S3 phone, but I must admit I do see the reason behind all the negative Samsung reactions in terms of bloatware. Man do they put a bunch of junk on there! Luckily I have my S3 rooted and have successfully turned off bunches of bloat, and the phone is now massively faster . . . . . even on the stock ROM.
The more I play with the Xperia and read the reviews, the more I like it. The biggest 2 drawbacks in comparison are (1) lower screen resolution and (2) no S-pen. Neither one of those are deal brakers for me, but they do factor into the overall decision.
So, I know I'll get lots of pro-Samsung comments given the forum I'm in, but I'd like some honest feedback. Has anyone had lots of time with both tabs that can give some user level insight as to which way they would recommend? I have no doubt both are quality devices. Just trying to make a smart spend with my hard earned $. :fingers-crossed:
Thanks in advance.
~Vol
P.S. The new Kindle HDX is sneaking into the discussion, too. It has a *whopper* of a set of specs at a great price point. Root and install a well-built custom ROM, and maybe it kills all of them??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I love the resolution and feel of the 10.1 2014 but hate lack of root (0x0) and the physical button. S-Pen is a must for me or I would probably just go with the upcoming Nexus 10 refresh.
I really just wanted to say.....GO VOLS

Are you saying root and custom Roms won't be possible on the 2014? THAT would be a deal breaker for sure! Haven't looked much at the N10, but I guess I should. When is refresh product due out?
And on the Big Orange, I firmly believe Butch is the man to get it done. Our true freshmen have shown some "sparks" here and there. Just don't have the exp or conditioning to bring it for 60 solid minutes. I remain big time optimistic we are finally headed back up. Goodness knows we mist definitely bottomed out over the last few seasons. Wow.

ckelly33 said:
I love the resolution and feel of the 10.1 2014 but hate lack of root (0x0) and the physical button. S-Pen is a must for me or I would probably just go with the upcoming Nexus 10 refresh.
I really just wanted to say.....GO VOLS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what refresh? as far as i know nothing has been announced and rumors say there wont be another 10 inch nexus this year

The Xperia Tab Z was my first choice was as I have an Xperia Z1 phone, however I ended up returning the XTZ after a couple of days and getting the new Note 10.1.
The biggest issue with the XTZ for me was the video playback quality. When viewing 1080p movies it seemed to be dropping frames, and as well Netflix and Youtube playback was no where close to my iPad. I didn't want a situation where I was only able to use the tablet for some things and then had to go back to using my iPad for watching movies or reading ebooks. There is also the issue of the Bravia engine on the XTZ which seemed to be putting too much contrast and sharpening into all of the videos and images. I can understand why they are using Bravia as it does give the illusion of a slightly higher resolution display, but it's no where near iPad quality.
The XTZ is a great tablet though, and if the Note 10.1 didn't exist it would be the Android king without a doubt.
The best thing for me about the Note 10.1 is that it is capable of doing everything with pretty much state of the art quality. I've had a few jaw dropping moments with it where the display truly give the illusion of looking through a window. It's fantastic for video playback.
It's been a long time coming to finally get an Android tablet that matches or exceeds the iPad and I'm so far pretty thrilled with my 10.1.

30Seconds said:
It's been a long time coming to finally get an Android tablet that matches or exceeds the iPad and I'm so far pretty thrilled with my 10.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are your comments on the bloatware and all the built-in Samsung apps? Did you delete or disable a bunch of those? And I doubt I'll be doing much movie watching on the tab, but I do like to play some of the higher end games every now & then. Currently read a lot of e-books on a rooted Nook Tablet, but hoping the new device will ultimately replace that as well. And I agree that one of your obvious goals is one of mine. Use 1 tablet for pretty much everything outside of phone & texting with my S3.

I also remember now why I punted the Nexus . . . . . no SD card. That plus constantly changing connectors plus the "do it our way or not at all" mentaility is the main reason I moved away from Apple products. I used iPhones up through the 4 models, and then made the Android switch. Haven't looked back on that particular decision!

30Seconds said:
The best thing for me about the Note 10.1 is that it is capable of doing everything with pretty much state of the art quality. I've had a few jaw dropping moments with it where the display truly give the illusion of looking through a window. It's fantastic for video playback.
It's been a long time coming to finally get an Android tablet that matches or exceeds the iPad and I'm so far pretty thrilled with my 10.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Truth. The display is the best I've ever seen on a tablet. At full brightness it's absolutely incredible. The functionality of the SPen was the main draw for me with this tablet though. If you're a student or work in a setting that demands a lot of note taking then this tablet is the way to go. If I didn't need these functions, I would have waited for the new Nexus 10, which I'm sure will be superb as well. The ability to use this tablet as a virtual notebook for all of my classes made this the right choice for me though, even though it was quite expensive.

I currently own both of these tablets Samsung better screen better speakers and its faster I would go with the Samsung myself but the Sony is a nice tablet I have it running pacman ROM and it is very smooth
I am going to China on the weekend and was actually thinking of returning my samsung taking the Sony with me and then trying to find the 10.1 LTE version in Hong Kong on my way home so on a side note does anyone know how much the LTE version will cost in Hong Kong and a good place to buy it thanks
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium HD app

I loved my Z while I had it. My only complaint was that bad boy was a fingerprint magnet. I haven't yet tried a Note 10.1 2014 because there is no development for it or the Note 3.

golfinggino said:
I currently own both of these tablets Samsung better screen better speakers and its faster I would go with the Samsung myself but the Sony is a nice tablet I have it running pacman ROM and it is very smooth
I am going to China on the weekend and was actually thinking of returning my samsung taking the Sony with me and then trying to find the 10.1 LTE version in Hong Kong on my way home so on a side note does anyone know how much the LTE version will cost in Hong Kong and a good place to buy it thanks
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know, 10.1 2014 is not yet available in Hong Kong.

Vol4Ever said:
What are your comments on the bloatware and all the built-in Samsung apps? Did you delete or disable a bunch of those? And I doubt I'll be doing much movie watching on the tab, but I do like to play some of the higher end games every now & then. Currently read a lot of e-books on a rooted Nook Tablet, but hoping the new device will ultimately replace that as well. And I agree that one of your obvious goals is one of mine. Use 1 tablet for pretty much everything outside of phone & texting with my S3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far all I have done is install Nova Launcher and turn down the animations to 0.5 in the developer settings. This makes it more than fast enough for me and I am not going to root or flash until we get a look at more finalized OTA firmwares. I know there are a lot of early reviewers that say this tablet lags, but since the first OTA update it has been running as quickly as one would expect it to.
I'm completely thrilled with this tablet, I can finally get rid of my IPad.

I've had the chance to own both for a while and there's pros and cons to each. The xperia was light, quick enough, NFC, DLNA, etc. Screen was good for movie watching. Expandable memory. Water proof. And it seemed less bloated although it really does have a crap load of Sony stuff on there. On the flipside, as one user said, it was a finger print magnet. It also felt extra long in portrait mode. Luckily it's a light tablet so it's not super uncomfortable but it does create a weird experience in portrait. Also, being a snapdragon s4 chipset, it's significantly slower during intense operations or even if you put a live wallpaper like ditalix live wallpaper on it.
The note has all the specs necessary, minus NFC. S pen is great just like my note 3. Screen in gorgeous. Relatively light in the hands. But again, as another user mentioned, the physical button is quite annoying in portrait mode and for a tablet so expensive, there should be no stuttering. Rooting is a fix for that though.
Although, neither was meant for portrait use, Web browsing feels more natural in portrait mode, much like the ipad. I still own both tablet, along side the ipad air. Note 10.1 2014 is my productivity beast at work and I travel with it. The xperia is my wife's favorite because she can read in the pool with it without a care, and takes it to the beach. The ipad is my favorite at home. Perfect for browsing the Web, chromecasting content, watching videos in bed, reading magazines, etc. Although, the note can do those things perfectly fine, it just doesn't have the same feel as the ipad for me when I'm in lazy mode.
Basically, if you u spend a lot of time outside with the tablet, xperia. If you need productivity first, note. If you want an all around great experience without all the bells and whistles, ipad.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda app-developers app

30Seconds said:
The Xperia Tab Z was my first choice was as I have an Xperia Z1 phone, however I ended up returning the XTZ after a couple of days and getting the new Note 10.1.
The biggest issue with the XTZ for me was the video playback quality. When viewing 1080p movies it seemed to be dropping frames, and as well Netflix and Youtube playback was no where close to my iPad. I didn't want a situation where I was only able to use the tablet for some things and then had to go back to using my iPad for watching movies or reading ebooks. There is also the issue of the Bravia engine on the XTZ which seemed to be putting too much contrast and sharpening into all of the videos and images. I can understand why they are using Bravia as it does give the illusion of a slightly higher resolution display, but it's no where near iPad quality.
The XTZ is a great tablet though, and if the Note 10.1 didn't exist it would be the Android king without a doubt.
The best thing for me about the Note 10.1 is that it is capable of doing everything with pretty much state of the art quality. I've had a few jaw dropping moments with it where the display truly give the illusion of looking through a window. It's fantastic for video playback.
It's been a long time coming to finally get an Android tablet that matches or exceeds the iPad and I'm so far pretty thrilled with my 10.1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To echo this, I would go into Best Buy to play with the tablets all the time, coming closer and closer to pulling the trigger to purchasing but stopping. When I read the specs of this tablet, I had to bite and I've been rewarded immensely for my purchase. I've had those jaw dropping moments as well. I ask it to do so much and it's almost like it's mocking me, tackling everything I throw at it with ease.

Between the Note and the Xperia, it all comes down to the screen. The Note wins, hands down.
I do like the whole waterproof thing, and it's a touch lighter than the Note. But the large bezels really make it feel clunky and less weildy in landscape mode. Samsung's decision to trim the bezels really pays off in usability. It feels closer to the iPad in portrait mode even though it's still the same 16:10 screen.
BTW, another area where the Note wins hands down is reading comic books. It's the closest thing to the printed page. I am awed by how great comic books look on the Note, even though the pages are less resolution than the screen itself.

I was looking at buying the xperia but decided to wait for this to come out. I tried both of them in a shop and the xperia was too bezzly for me and the screen of the Note was unreal. Anyways I just got my Note about an hour ago and the screen alone makes this awesome.

I have had a Xperia Tablet Z since it was released and its very nice. My wife loves it as well. The thing that is nice is that its extremely fast and has no lag. I am very impressed with the build quality, and battery life as well. I am not a fan of the case I have on it because it is a el cheapo leather case that is not that impressive. That doesn't detract from how happy I am with this tablet.
I am going to get a Note 10.1 2014 through work in the next week or so. When that comes in, I will give my wife the Xperia since she loves it. I think the Note 10.1 is going to be better for what I do than the Xperia. I am most worried about lag or response time with this device. I am going to use Nova launcher for sure, and root the device if possible.

One area where the Note beats the Xperia hands down is remote desktop. The MS app defaults to 1280 x 800 on the Note and is very fast. It defaults to 1980 x 1200 on the Xperia and chugs along with lots of tiling with tiny touch targets. The SPen allows you to hit touch targets too small for your finger and allows you to hover over links and menus. It's a fantastic rdp implementation on the Note but almost unusable on the Xperia.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2464769

My personal experience with z2 tablet and yours?

Hello. I've owned this tablet for nearly 4 months and I think i can now give a brief of my personal experience but i would also like some others opinions.
Firstly, I would like to mention that I've not regretted buying this device from the moment i unpacked it and still going. It's an absolute pleasure.
The design is brilliant, it looks so damn premium and feels it too. The weight doesn't bother me and it feels nice to hold. Even better after i received the 'poetic graph grip' rubber case. This case feels premium as the rubber texture and quality is so great. Anybody who doesnt like a flip case should definitely invest in one of these.
Onto the tablet performance, it is practically flawless. In every aspect. The speed of app switching and the animations is smooth and with hardly any noticable delay. Scrolling is just as smooth. I have noticed no graphical glitchery of the sorts. So it's speed overall is amazing.
The battery life, considering the speed i mentioned above, is some sort of sorcery indeed. I get roughly 1 hour SOT per 10% battery life and it doesn't seem be affected by how I'm using it much. I could be playing games, watching video or browsing facebook. The difference between those uses and the impact is almost negligible. As in there's no real impact. And I'm a heavy user. No I dont use battery saving modes either. When this battery cycle is done I'll add screenshots to this post.
The display quality is stunning and the colour reproduction is near damn perfect. I did slightly adjust the rgb ratio marginally to get a slightly brighter white by increasing the blue and green by 10 each. I like that i have this option. Sony likes this too, they know someone that buys a sony is very likely keen on the display so they make sure not to miss a trick there. Great job.
Next is the sony software. Okay here i have to admit that I'm not a big sony app user. Firstly sonys gallery and movies apps don't seem to like my sdcard and i have no idea why. So I have quickpic, mxplayer and es file explorer. They all work flawlessly. But i am sad that i can't make 100% use of sonys best apps
They are all beautiful though, so it can be said that there's nothing wrong with them at all if you use the devices built in storage.
Bravia and xreality really pack a punch and nobody does it well as sony. These should be taken full advantage of.
I like the rest of the apps such as social life, lounge, remote, sketch, smart connect and even sony select is pretty good. Of course im going to use third party apps, thats why i chose android. But for once, this brand of built in apps really has everything it should have and they're splendid too. I feel guilty that i don't use them frequently enough.
I don't know what else to say really, this device is pretty magical.
Oh and I'm still using stock 4.4.2, with towel root. It failed the update because it can't be verified im guessing because i rooted it. I'm scared to update it anyway, it works too well and i know from my experiences that if something works perfectly just leave it as it is.
What are others opinions? Do you think my review is correct?
I rushed the post and no I'm not going to correct my grammar and punctuation, even though i could. Just read it.
There's no reason you shouldn't buy it if you're looking for a good tablet. Sony really deserves a pat on the back. Looking forward to my next sony device.
Oh and f**k Samsung. Never will i buy a samsung again. Ugly piece of bloated laggy trash.

iKlutz said:
Hello. I've owned this tablet for nearly 4 months and I think i can now give a brief of my personal experience but i would also like some others opinions.
Firstly, I would like to mention that I've not regretted buying this device from the moment i unpacked it and still going. It's an absolute pleasure.
The design is brilliant, it looks so damn premium and feels it too. The weight doesn't bother me and it feels nice to hold. Even better after i received the 'poetic graph grip' rubber case. This case feels premium as the rubber texture and quality is so great. Anybody who doesnt like a flip case should definitely invest in one of these.
Onto the tablet performance, it is practically flawless. In every aspect. The speed of app switching and the animations is smooth and with hardly any noticable delay. Scrolling is just as smooth. I have noticed no graphical glitchery of the sorts. So it's speed overall is amazing.
The battery life, considering the speed i mentioned above, is some sort of sorcery indeed. I get roughly 1 hour SOT per 10% battery life and it doesn't seem be affected by how I'm using it much. I could be playing games, watching video or browsing facebook. The difference between those uses and the impact is almost negligible. As in there's no real impact. And I'm a heavy user. No I dont use battery saving modes either. When this battery cycle is done I'll add screenshots to this post.
The display quality is stunning and the colour reproduction is near damn perfect. I did slightly adjust the rgb ratio marginally to get a slightly brighter white by increasing the blue and green by 10 each. I like that i have this option. Sony likes this too, they know someone that buys a sony is very likely keen on the display so they make sure not to miss a trick there. Great job.
Next is the sony software. Okay here i have to admit that I'm not a big sony app user. Firstly sonys gallery and movies apps don't seem to like my sdcard and i have no idea why. So I have quickpic, mxplayer and es file explorer. They all work flawlessly. But i am sad that i can't make 100% use of sonys best apps
They are all beautiful though, so it can be said that there's nothing wrong with them at all if you use the devices built in storage.
Bravia and xreality really pack a punch and nobody does it well as sony. These should be taken full advantage of.
I like the rest of the apps such as social life, lounge, remote, sketch, smart connect and even sony select is pretty good. Of course im going to use third party apps, thats why i chose android. But for once, this brand of built in apps really has everything it should have and they're splendid too. I feel guilty that i don't use them frequently enough.
I don't know what else to say really, this device is pretty magical.
Oh and I'm still using stock 4.4.2, with towel root. It failed the update because it can't be verified im guessing because i rooted it. I'm scared to update it anyway, it works too well and i know from my experiences that if something works perfectly just leave it as it is.
What are others opinions? Do you think my review is correct?
I rushed the post and no I'm not going to correct my grammar and punctuation, even though i could. Just read it.
There's no reason you shouldn't buy it if you're looking for a good tablet. Sony really deserves a pat on the back. Looking forward to my next sony device.
Oh and f**k Samsung. Never will i buy a samsung again. Ugly piece of bloated laggy trash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a Samsung guy through and through...........
............ Or at least I was until a week ago.
I have had Samsung for years now and although I have tried other brands I always seem to go back to Samsung.
Well, last week I swapped our lass my Galaxy S4 for her Xperia Z2. I was going to trade it in by the second day for another Samsung, but she talked me into persevering with it a little longer....... and I'm so glad she did!. It's big, it's very square, but now I'm used to it I actually like it. I prefer it over the Samsung for the fact that Sony don't force loads of bloatware on you. The screen is great, the camera is fantastic! and battery life is amazing compared to any Samsung I have had.
So what has the Z2 phone got to do with a review of the Z2 tablet???........... Nothing........but.....
I always have a tablet to match my phone. So now I am used to the Z2 I plan on trading my Note 10.1 and Nexus 10 to get the Z2 tablet.
It's just bloody typical, when I didn't want the Z2 tablet our local secondhand shop had a couple in. But now I actually want one, they have none!.

I have had it 6 Months. I did buy the official sony case but generally use it without it, except when im out and about. Holding it now without a case it feels great as it always did since the first time I bought it. Slim as hell, but confident I could drop it and still recover. Its an odd design with wide bezzels but keeps me from tapping on the sides. Camera is bad, and that is the only negative I have. But who uses a tablet to take pics. I reackon when it gets lollipop im sorted for a tablet for the next year, im a techo geek and like to keep up to date, but dont see myself upgrading this for a while, and I think that says alot. It has never let me down and has done everything I ask of it in the last 6 months, so im staying with it, and will invest in a nice sony phone aswell.

Im a bit disappointed with mine but the fault of the first 2 fall on to bell
1. My bootloader is locked (made the mistake of buying through a carrier) which leads me to two
2. Unable to customize with roms/kernel
3. The bezels make it hard, even impossible to shop for universal 10" cases
4. The battery for me isn't what i thought it would be, an hour of use it drops 15-20 %
Other then those, everything is great, performence, display, sound(with headphones)
Things would be different if i was able to unlock my BL... Now I am happy to have root and some control of the stock kernel at least.

If your battery is dropping 15-20% a hour, you're doing something wrong. {Except you're gaming, then it's perfectly normal.) This device is really battery efficient, 10% per hour is normal.
Use Stamina Mode, and look whether there are apps in the background which consume battery. Tame them by deactivating (with Titanium Backup) or by using Greenify/Amplify.
For the case, simply get the Sony case. It's perfectly fine.
And you don't need ROMs or kernels on this device. Stock ROM + Root + Xposed is perfectly fine, looks good and has by far the best battery life.
So just enjoy!

Hey guys I've been looking for a tablet for a while now that fits my needs. I'm thinking the Z2 Tab is the way to go, beautiful design, big enough and backed by Sony who are known for timely updates.
Now I've never owned a Sony Device and I've had a look in the forums... What's the deal with rooting and such? Most threads seem to point towards the 'Sony cross-device forum' and I'm a bit confused. I've only owned LG and Samsung devices and they both seemed to have more device specific Development...

I really like of this tablet. All most every single aspect of it is really good.
But my real problem with it is touch screen. It's the worst touch screen have been used. I update to last version and it is really batter but still with minor problems. My LG G2 has a really better touch screen than this tablet. What do you think about it's touch screen? These minor problems are common on other tablets ? I tried a Ipad 2 and the touch is really amazing.

Excellent tablet
I must agree with the original post, this is really an awesome tablet.
My wife has always gone with apple, both for her phone and ipad. The rest of my family and friends are all hard core Samsung or Apple users. At the beginning of the year I got an Xperia V phone, which was taken from me a month later when I was attacked walking my baby. A friend gave me his Samsung Galaxy to use. But I really loved the experience with the Sony, and being able to use it outdoors in sand and water. So when it came time to use my book and equipment allowance at work I put it towards a Sony Z2 tablet. I am really happy with the decision. After updating to 4.4.4 I find the touchscreen no longer gives issues, and while the camera performance is sub-par, it doesn't really bother me as using it for voip and anything esle other than a DSLR works great!
A big thumbs up to sony, and to all the xda developers that help us use this device the way we want to!

I just ordered mine, the 32 gig lte version, I decided to get this over the shield and a 128gig ipad air because I like sony products and hope this is as good as it looks.

You wont be disappointed.
I got this earlier this month. I had immediate buyers regret day one because the screen was being iffy. I also almost never used it that day because I was chatting and its a pain in the butt to type on a tablet.
Then day 2 rolled around. I was amazed by the battery life (10% for every 1 hr SOT) and how amazing the Sony Music, Video and Phones apps were. The only problem was its inability to play audio on mkv files. The audio booster was another thing that made a huge difference. By far the best.
The screen almost never gets glitchy anymore (thank god). If it does it goes away after turning the screen off and on. The color reproduction was fantastic.
They only downside to this was some of the built in sony apps i cant uninstall. I think people can make good use of them. Just not for me. Also wish they would give some freebies from their media store for buying a $450 purchase

GalaxyWhy said:
Hey guys I've been looking for a tablet for a while now that fits my needs. I'm thinking the Z2 Tab is the way to go, beautiful design, big enough and backed by Sony who are known for timely updates.
Now I've never owned a Sony Device and I've had a look in the forums... What's the deal with rooting and such? Most threads seem to point towards the 'Sony cross-device forum' and I'm a bit confused. I've only owned LG and Samsung devices and they both seemed to have more device specific Development...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you dont have high budget , can consider xperia tablet compact or xperia tablet z first generation

Got it today, already rooted without unlocking bootloader and charging now ?
So far I'm very glad I bought It!!! Amazing job Sony ?
Inviato dal mio SGP511 utilizzando Tapatalk

My first tablet purchase ever, so not much to compare with cept for the ipads we get at work (yawn). It works a treat so far, keeping it stock 4.4.4 for the moment, tho I look forward to removing the bloat. I wasn't able to play hearthstone on my phone so it's taken up most of my initial testing hah. I've noticed a rare slight creak from the back panel somewhere to the right and I think I read another review saying the same. And I know it's certified water resistant, but it could finally get to me, having to pick out the tab every time I want to charge or connect to the PC. I've had zero freezing, lag etc runs cool as a cucumber. Not like my galaxy note that can heat up just as good as my microwave.
Sent from my SGP521 using XDA Free mobile app

The only real issue I've experienced with my tablet is the touch issue, no creaking or anything and it froze once, but other than that it's run awesome and it plays hearthstone fantastically

I do have a touch issue with icons on the home screen, especially if they're positioned close together.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Free mobile app

I just get an issue where touches aren't resisted, for instance in heath stone when I drag a card it drops like I let go but my finger is clearly still there, turning the screen on and of again fixes it

thanitos said:
The only real issue I've experienced with my tablet is the touch issue, no creaking or anything and it froze once, but other than that it's run awesome and it plays hearthstone fantastically
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the Wifi version play Hearthstone just as well as LTE version, and why would LTE be 'better'? What version Z2 do you have?

Aid777 said:
Does the Wifi version play Hearthstone just as well as LTE version, and why would LTE be 'better'? What version Z2 do you have?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Game would play the same, WIFI AND LTE are just different technologies for connecting to a network. It'd only be if you had a poor connection through either, because you must log online to play.
Sent from my SGP521 using XDA Free mobile app

Yup the device certainly has touch issues as from the general concensus.
Mine has too. The screen will lose feedback while you drag things. It doesnt happen always but its more than enough to break the immersion.

Yeah ive got the z2 tablet and what Sony has achieved is great.
What is dissapointing however is the range of Android apps for the device.
Or should i say android tablets in general. An iPad provides better valute to the consumer, and until the ranger of apps available drastically improves im regretting the choice of eco system rather than sony itself.

Nexus 9 and Tegra based tablets are "Tablets to Avoid"

My nexus 9 recently started doing this...
Credit to Andrew Spyker
I've always had Nexus items.. First gen Nexus tablet, second, 3rd.. hell I have a nexus Q
So with this new issue I've run the gamut of Nexus 9 issues. Frisbee backplate, speed that, so you have a reference understandable to the human mind, ill describe as glacial. Charge to 100% eta. 2017. I got stuck on android 5.0.0 because.. who the hell knows. And now randomly my tablet has what I can only describe as seizures. HTC wants me to RMA it.. but you know what, I do not want to RMA it because then I'd be given another one and I would rather have the current one blow up in my face then to subject myself to the false hope of receiving a replacement and assuming, nay believing that all is well.
This is twice Nvidia has been contracted to put a processor in a Nexus and this is the second time the result has been total complete garbage. The entire Nexus9 experience has gotten me closer than I have ever been to buying an Ipad.. Google's and to an extent all Android tablet makers ability to get a tablet produced that even comes close to an Ipad in its ability to run the same way every day has been weighed and measured and found wanting.
The phones, which by all accounts are still their main focus have not suffered like the tablets so I will continue to enjoy them.
They seem to be unable to produce a table that is consistent or compelling and are thus going through the motions and just making a tablet because they have to.. So the Ipad decision is because quite frankly Apple does "going through the motions" better than Samsung/Google/HTC apparently can.
Maybe this will all change.. maybe it will not. At some point I will make the change these manufacturers will not. One thing I will not do is be suckered into a new tablet every 12 months.
More...

I'm not happy with my Nexus 9 either. It's lacking in both hardware and software.
Hardware:
- backlight bleeding
- too heavy
- flex in the back cover
- battery life is not that great
Software:
- random reboots / crashes
- RAM bug (causing chrome tab reloads for example)
- slow performance occasionally (probably caused by the RAM bug)
- software updates were rather slow for a Nexus device, we had to wait months for 5.1.1
I don't have any hope that Android M will fix any of the software problems. The Nexus 9 has been out for almost a year and there hasn't really been much improvement since the release.
I would like to buy an iPad mini 4 (never owned an iPhone or iPad, but I think there are no good Android tablets out there), the problem is that the Nexus 9 has a bad resell value (<250€) and the iPad mini 4 costs 389€ and I really don't feel like spending that much on a tablet again considering that I haven't even had the Nexus 9 for a year.

Asus zenpad 8.0 S. ... Love mine, sold my Nexus 9 to buy it. Super thin, great screen but get the CA version

I jumped on the bandwagon and bought the 32gb N9 from Google Play in December. After a month of use I felt it was an "okay" tablet. Last month I inherited an iPad Air 1st gen. The iPad gives a much more gratifying user experience.
I feel that Google really blew it with the N9, rushing to get a tablet out and winding up with a rush product at a premium price. I will be much more reluctant to go with another Google product in the future.

I don't know but I actually love my tablet... The biggest gripe I have with it is the tabs in Chrome refreshing, but besides that the tablet works great... There is a small light bleed but nothing as bad as my G3... Sorry to hear you guys had a bad batch, but what might have helped my tablet experience is that I rooted mine and running dirty unicorn...
Sent from my Nexus 9 using XDA Free mobile app

cables2590 said:
I don't know but I actually love my tablet... The biggest gripe I have with it is the tabs in Chrome refreshing, but besides that the tablet works great...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. And my N9 is bone stock.

hardware is fine, but the drivers running it are crap. stutters, background task getting killed, refresh on tabs when browsing, touching the screen ramps up the processors (it's why the browser uses more power than the screen, each touch takes a crap-ton of power. a few updates back fixed it to 1/2 but still is too much. lowering it to 800 and it stutters, my other tablets only ramp up to 300 with no stutter)... as crappy as samsung is with support i'd have gotten a better tablet sticking with them. i've tried four different roms with the same results and was on stock/rooted for the longest with fire-ice kernel.

I assume you've done a full wipe and ruled out it being a software bug?
If the company is offering to RMA a defective unit in favor of a non-defective one and you turn them down how is that Nexus/HTC/Android/whomever's fault other than your own?
Other than the backlight bleed I don't have too many issues with my Nexus. And that was purchasing a refurb scratch/dent 32gb model from Amazon Warehouse for $290. Is it what I'd expect for a $290 tablet? Absolutely.
I'd consider an iPad Air 2, but those guys are $600 and won't sync up quite the same as all my other crap. Or alternatively the Mini 4 ($500).

Mine is on Preview M unencrypted. I really like it. My 10 is a fine tablet, as well. The 7's I've had I've never really liked.
The apple tablets I've tried seem no different to me. I've even changed my Window animation scale 1, Transition animation scale 1 and Animator duration scale 1.5 and it acts just like an apple tablet.

The freeze on OP's video is caused by an undervolt-powersave thing. It has been reported many times and only an RMA can save you from that.
The RAM deficiency is caused by the one and only Chrome that consumes a ****load of ram on any platform. It fills my G3's 3 GBs of ram in just 5 tabs.
Just use another browser.

ive got a sluggish n9, backlight bleed and a few reboots. battery life is weak...
love aspect ratio though and still think this is still a good tablet overall...

There is no way anyone that is happy with this tablet uses multiple profiles on a regular basis.
If you fresh boot and sign into one user things are ok... not horrible or super fast but ok. Sign in to an additional profile and the tablet goes to complete hell. Stutters, stalls, crashes, etc.
Really sucks because its shared between myself and my girlfriend. This has been the case since 5.0.1 through 6.0 preview 3.

People are never happy with what they have. Yes the tablet has a few issue here and there. Very little consumer grade electronics are "perfect" there will always be something that bugs you.
I like this tab, took a little tweaking, as it usually does with any device to reach the standards of a "current XDA'r".
But at the very LEAST i would disagree with this being a tab to avoid.
Sent from my Nexus 9 using Tapatalk 4

No offense but your optimism does not apply here. Get off the koolaid

osiris355 said:
No offense but your optimism does not apply here. Get off the koolaid
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The incredible pessimism doesn't apply here, nor belong, either. Get off the juice.

RickInHouston said:
The incredible pessimism doesn't apply here, nor belong, either. Get off the juice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
His post is misleading and mine is not pessimism when its reality. Everyone knows this tablet has issues worse than typical bugs or hardware annoyances.
Edit: I just finished flashing 6.0. I can't believe I am saying this but it looks like google has finally fixed most of the performance issues. I can finally load up multiple profiles/chrome browsing and it doesn't start hanging/crashing. 1 year later and they finally got it right. Too bad it still heats up when gaming but that's not as big of a deal.

I love mine personally, there is a tiny hint of backlight bleeding but it's hardly noticeable. Battery life isn't that great, but that's the only downside for me. It always gets me through 2 days of use anyway since I have a phone for other functions. I also would gladly take a slight issue or two for the vastly superior sound setup for media consumption. Apple could maybe get my buck if they integrated FF speakers, and good ones at that. Until then the Nexus is the best for me. I was also thinking about the Asus 8.0 too, it looks good but it's too damned small. I actually think my Nexus is a bit small too, but it's the biggest and best tab I could get for under $300

I've had all sorts of issues with my Nexus 9. Software is better now than it used to be. But up until 5.1.1, multitasking made me want to kill kittens. It's more usable now with the latest 5.1.1 revision on the Pure Nexus ROM and Fire kernel. Except for Chrome, even XDA makes it choke. HD video performance is hit or miss, MX player with Tegra plug-ins was OK and other media apps stutter with high bit rates. I'm not on M now but when I tried it the battery life improved so there is that to look forward to.
The screen bleed on the bottom has gotten worse.
I learned my lesson and won't buy Nexus products again till they are on the market for a while and are thoroughly reviewed/patched.

Stock feels a little clunky on the Nexus 9. Installed CM and it feels much smoother. Overall, I am fairly pleased with mine.
Then again, I do not use Chrome, rather I use Firefox with Adblock+.

I have has both gen 7, and now the 9. I have also had iPads' and a Sony Tablet.
The 1st gen 7 was my favorite. Its form factor felt the best in my hand, the 2nd while faster was uncomfortable to hold. I'm not an Apple fan but work gave me an iPad 2. I rarely used it. Seemed okay. The Sony Z3 Tablet Compact has AMAZING quality. I just wish I could put AOSP on it, not a fan of the Sony tweaks, but over all its made from great materials and its very smooth to operate.
The 9 for me has been great so far. I did the following as soon as I got it, these are things I generally do to EVERY Android device when I get it.
* Change DPI to the screens native DPI (288 in this case)
* Added a line in build.prop to enable hardware UI rendering. <-- not sure if this is really needed anymore so I continue to add it until I'm told its not.
* Hard code the DNS used to the Google DNS servers
* Set all animation scales to .5
* Force GPU rendering to ON
I have never had any crashing or RAM management issues. I DO have the light bleeding issue, but not bad enough to really complain about.

If you're on the fence about buying this tablet, well just don't. Yet...

This is one of the most unbelieveably slow tablets I have ever experienced. It is VERY interesting that there is such a high percentage of people on this forum who claim their tablet doesn't show any signs of slow down and is very snappy, no lag at all, and gaming performance is top notch. I am here to tell you that these people either work for Samsung or literally have something wrong with the connection between their eyeballs and brains.
Now before I get into the details I would like to say that not all is lost for this tablet and it may someday be the best thing money can buy. Let me explain.... I noticed something very similar when using this tablet. I couldn't put my finger on it right away and then it hit me. This thing feels just like that terribly sluggish s7 edge I used to have. HMMM what do those two have in common you say??? Same SOC, same manufacturer, same-ish software. This thing CHUGS! and I don't want to hear anyone try to refute it. It is unbearable. Just exactly like the s7 edge.
I figured I might be able to clean up the performance on this thing with a custom kernel, just as they have done over on the s7 forums. I was wrong. I rooted and installed a kernel that would allow me to set the governor to performance to see if it helped. It did, but not enough. And performance smokes your battery in no time anyway so isn't a real solution. Samsung has literally destroyed this chip with their DVFS junk just as they have done in the past. I can't belive this was allowed to be released like this AND at this price.
Now for the good part. The s8 was pretty slugglish at release as well (not quite like the s7), but was recently updated to Oreo and it FLIES, just like the Note 8 does. It seems Samsung has finally started taking performance seriously and has figured out how to make their phones have great performance without sacrificing battery life. The tab s3 is slated for the Oreo update in 2018, so we will see what it does to the performance.

Since Google completely messed up their last tablet (the Pixel C's wifi is worse than a 5 year old Nexus 4) and left the market, samsung is the only player left in the so-called highend Android tablet space so here we are with a SD820 from early 2016 instead of a SD835 and broken wifi power-saving since launch. I fully expect Samsung to continue this crap with the Tab S4: copy the 10.5 screen size from the new ipad pro so it looks good on paper but then use the SD835 from 2017 instead of the SD845 which will have been shipping for 6 months by the time they launch the S4 in mid 2018. Hopefully we get a fully working device this time and not something like the Tab S3 and it's totally borked wifi sleep. But hey, could be worse, a fast wifi chip that doesn't sleep and causes power drain is arguably much much better than the slow as molasses crap Google put in the Pixel C (google Pixel C wifi or head over to Anandtech for a deep analysis).
Gone are the good days of the Tab S2 and Nexus 9, both good devices with small shortcomings.

undertaker2k14 said:
Since Google completely messed up their last tablet (the Pixel C's wifi is worse than a 5 year old Nexus 4) and left the market, samsung is the only player left in the so-called highend Android tablet space so here we are with a SD820 from early 2016 instead of a SD835 and broken wifi power-saving since launch. I fully expect Samsung to continue this crap with the Tab S4: copy the 10.5 screen size from the new ipad pro so it looks good on paper but then use the SD835 from 2017 instead of the SD845 which will have been shipping for 6 months by the time they launch the S4 in mid 2018. Hopefully we get a fully working device this time and not something like the Tab S3 and it's totally borked wifi sleep. But hey, could be worse, a fast wifi chip that doesn't sleep and causes power drain is arguably much much better than the slow as molasses crap Google put in the Pixel C (google Pixel C wifi or head over to Anandtech for a deep analysis).
Gone are the good days of the Tab S2 and Nexus 9, both good devices with small shortcomings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh the irony!
So I bought 5 tablets this week: Tab s2, Tab s3, Shield Tablet, Nexus 9, and Pixel C. I thoroughly tested all 5 and came to the conclusion that I am keeping the Pixel. And now you hit me with this! lol
So I ran to the tablet with my Note 8 in hand and started doing side by side speed tests and range tests. I found that the Pixel is getting up to 3 times faster download speeds, about the same uploads, and the range seems consistent between the two. Hmmm. I already have the Pixel on Oreo so maybe that has something to do with it?
Not sure, but even if the wifi performance is slow or range bad, it is much better than the other 4 in my opinion. I made a post over on the Pixel C forum to inquire and will try to get to the bottom of it.
I needed a tablet that would game well, multi task, and word process fairly easily. The s2 was my favorite of the bunch but just didn't have the horsepower I was looking for, you know how I feel about the s3 already lol (it would be my fav by far without the lag), the shield has a crap touchscreen, and the good ole Nexus 9 actually does very well for it's age once you get the stock software flashed off. The Pixel C was winner by default, not by choice. I hope 8.0 fixes the Tab s3 so I can buy one 2018. I really didn't want to go above 9 inch due to portability, but there just isn't anything out there and I was forced to look at the bigger ones.

What's most aggravating about the Pixel C situation was that Google employed their forum mods and drones for months on end to drown out folks like myself who were complaining about the wifi situation until anandtech confirmed what we had known all along:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/9996/revisiting-the-google-pixel-c/4
With samsung, they have kind of acknowledged the wifi power drain exists on their official forums, they are just indifferent to it.

I have had no issue's with my Tab S3 SM T825 I do have to wait on it on occasion hey it's SD 820 but it's only about a second or two so not an issue.
This is from from am Android developer so
And rooting it pretty much renders Netflix useless and I want HDR so won't go into magisk and all that crap just a clean plain Samsung tablet with developer mode on
My OnePlus 5 is more than enough for root stuff
Plus you can always sideload apps so I don't know what you're ranting about and you don't even mention specifically where you found to slow
Gaming is good only game that didn't detect Adreno 530 was Telltale Batman. Video binge watching lasts me 8 hours from 100 percentage at 67 percentage brightness.
What else do you want from this tablet word office s pen
What the heck you trying to do? MOVE A MOUNTAIN?
---------- Post added at 08:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 PM ----------
undertaker2k14 said:
What's most aggravating about the Pixel C situation was that Google employed their forum mods and drones for months on end to drown out folks like myself who were complaining about the wifi situation until anandtech confirmed what we had known all along:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/9996/revisiting-the-google-pixel-c/4
With samsung, they have kind of acknowledged the wifi power drain exists on their official forums, they are just indifferent to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi power drain I tested today its fine from 33 percentage it went down to 27 after 3 hours that's ok with me. I charge my tab s3 once in two days or so

Fully agree with OP
Chrome is unusable. I check everyday for a stock rom. It'd embarrassing from Samsung for this price..

SS2006 said:
Fully agree with OP
Chrome is unusable. I check everyday for a stock rom. It'd embarrassing from Samsung for this price..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's all in the software man don't worry. Oreo will turn the tablet into lightning just like the note 8. Go look at the oneplus 3, same 820 chipset and it flies and never slows down. Samsung destroyed all the 820 devices with bad software. It will be fixed sometime this year.
It still amazes me that there are people on this site that will argue with you until the end of time that this device doesn't lag lol I can't relate to these people at all.

seh6183 said:
It's all in the software man don't worry. Oreo will turn the tablet into lightning just like the note 8. Go look at the oneplus 3, same 820 chipset and it flies and never slows down. Samsung destroyed all the 820 devices with bad software. It will be fixed sometime this year.
It still amazes me that there are people on this site that will arguing with you until the end of time that this device doesn't lag lol I can't relate to these people at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha I've given up hope on this thing.
It's basically just a Netflix display and PDF reader for me.
Multitasking just kills it, and I'm sure the skeleton Dev team Samsung has put on this device will not be able to implement Oreo properly either.

seh6183 said:
This is one of the most unbelieveably slow tablets I have ever experienced. It is VERY interesting that there is such a high percentage of people on this forum who claim their tablet doesn't show any signs of slow down and is very snappy, no lag at all, and gaming performance is top notch. I am here to tell you that these people either work for Samsung or literally have something wrong with the connection between their eyeballs and brains.
Now before I get into the details I would like to say that not all is lost for this tablet and it may someday be the best thing money can buy. Let me explain.... I noticed something very similar when using this tablet. I couldn't put my finger on it right away and then it hit me. This thing feels just like that terribly sluggish s7 edge I used to have. HMMM what do those two have in common you say??? Same SOC, same manufacturer, same-ish software. This thing CHUGS! and I don't want to hear anyone try to refute it. It is unbearable. Just exactly like the s7 edge.
I figured I might be able to clean up the performance on this thing with a custom kernel, just as they have done over on the s7 forums. I was wrong. I rooted and installed a kernel that would allow me to set the governor to performance to see if it helped. It did, but not enough. And performance smokes your battery in no time anyway so isn't a real solution. Samsung has literally destroyed this chip with their DVFS junk just as they have done in the past. I can't belive this was allowed to be released like this AND at this price.
Now for the good part. The s8 was pretty slugglish at release as well (not quite like the s7), but was recently updated to Oreo and it FLIES, just like the Note 8 does. It seems Samsung has finally started taking performance seriously and has figured out how to make their phones have great performance without sacrificing battery life. The tab s3 is slated for the Oreo update in 2018, so we will see what it does to the performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had a Tab S3 for a year now, and am absolutely delighted with it.
Previously a Tab S, that was getting long in the tooth. Prior to that Nexus 7 and the updated version.
The Tab S is as fast as I could wish for, and great battery life.
I object to your characterisation of people who like it. I expected better from a Senior Member of this forum.

I bought my S3 off Amazon and it was pretty sluggish but flashing another region's firmware on it made it fly, been really happy with its battery life and performance over the last six months or so.
Having said that I really don't think high end android tablets are worth it so this is probably my last for a while yet, the cost is too high for the marginal improvement in functionality over a high end smartphone. I knew HDR was a gimmick going in but I was hoping that I'd be able to replace a laptop with the S3 but it just can't quite hang when it comes to any sort of real work load.

Look at my posts
HDR is no gimmick. There is no such possibility. It's like the js7200 which has HDR but they haven't shown it. But tab has better brightness.
And for all here saying tab lags it just doesn't it's the best flagship tablet to get besides the ipad but oled mean my eyes don't redden anymore or strain at all.
So it's not like a phone flagship ok. But most of your PC's would do a worser job on word than this! Also pixel c just don't match.
Chrome does drain battery I read twd comics entire and every single time it drained 1 percentage for 5 to 10 mins each. Samsung internet had zero to minimal drain considering and in stark comparison. Don't blame the tablet blame google.
Everything is smooth sometimes rarely it acts weird like it's dead but then it's ok like it's got the Hangover once or twice every month for a few minutes.
Stop the hate, this is the only tab that you can love if you can't use ipad or want OLED. I mean it's better than the TV. Now my TV is just the playstation monitor.

Kizznyc said:
HDR is no gimmick. There is no such possibility. It's like the js7200 which has HDR but they haven't shown it. But tab has better brightness.
And for all here saying tab lags it just doesn't it's the best flagship tablet to get besides the ipad but oled mean my eyes don't redden anymore or strain at all.
So it's not like a phone flagship ok. But most of your PC's would do a worser job on word than this! Also pixel c just don't match.
Chrome does drain battery I read twd comics entire and every single time it drained 1 percentage for 5 to 10 mins each. Samsung internet had zero to minimal drain considering and in stark comparison. Don't blame the tablet blame google.
Everything is smooth sometimes rarely it acts weird like it's dead but then it's ok like it's got the Hangover once or twice every month for a few minutes.
Stop the hate, this is the only tab that you can love if you can't use ipad or want OLED. I mean it's better than the TV. Now my TV is just the playstation monitor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you get tab S4 :cyclops:
It is a great tablet, but it has its faults, a limited battery, limited software to take advantage of the Spen, the lack of mechanism to hold the Spen is another serious error, to mention some opportunities.
It's not hate, it's the feeling that it could have been an unparalleled tablet that finally feels like a tab 2.5 and not a real tab s3, and Android does not help much to take advantage of our tab.
Definitely I have enjoyed my tab S2 more than my tab s3, the deficiencies are there and it is something that Samsung will have to improve in the future tab s4. And any laptop with the same retail price its seriously better for daily work over our tab.
In conclusion, great tablet that could have been something that did not finish to achieve.

I have asked the mods to remove this thread or close it permanently, so it should be going down soon. I will be replacing it with a new post soon. The new post will explain everything.

Closed per OP request