Review on 📚 Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 10.4", 64GB WiFi Tablet Angora Blue - Review & Overview by Tom Beland

I'll start this review with these words: (1) I clearly prefer Android as a medium to iOS. (2) This rating may not be entirely "fair" to Samsung, but it is fair to users/prospects. There's already an iPad Pro out there, but there are a few key things I wanted from this tablet: Something "handier" with a larger screen, which you can't get with Apple's 4-screen form factor: 3- Access and store files from my "main" computer is much easier than it is possible with iOS. Ability to run Termux to access Linux. Being able to use the mouse with my tablet on the go from time to time, with a * pointer. I needed an Android tablet. In the past I would have gone with Huawei, but now they are not a good choice due to all the geopolitical intrigue and software limitations. I didn't get the Tab A because it doesn't have an ambient light sensor (no auto screen brightness) or the full S6 because the price was too high. So the S6 Lite seemed like the right choice. PROS: - Slim, light, well built, thin bezels - Much more touch sensitive than Tab A series tablets - Fast enough for most applications - Much better screen color than Tab A series tablets - TFT screen technology (instead of AMOLED ) means much less degradation over time - All the flexibility and power of the latest Android versions CONS: - TFT (rather than AMOLED) means screen brightness and color are still uneven - Edge lighting issues (bright ghosting on screen edge) and poor viewing angles for the modern era - Brightness and color certainly not as good as AMOLED - Default icon set and Samsung UI feels clunky (fixed with alternate launcher and icon set) - SOFTWARE. APPS, APPS, APPS When I turn on a major Android tablet for the first time in years, it's clear that Android tablet apps haven't gone away since I last saw them. There are serious problems: (1) 95% of Android apps only display one column of full-screen content, like on a phone. This layout is suitable for a phone or a 7-inch tablet, but applications are difficult to use on a tablet as large as this. You have all that screen real estate but no columns. Almost zero layout. Most iPad apps have two or three columns—navigation and controls on the left, content in the larger right pane. iPad apps use screen space in chunks like a desktop app because you have all that real estate to work with. Android apps for tablets. a line at the bottom of the screen. Evernote on the iPad operating system? Three columns, one for navigation/options, one for list and one for notes content. Evernote for Android? A full-width column, like a phone, making sorting notes much slower and more difficult. The same goes for Reddit. The same goes for pretty much everything. A big hit for usability.(2) Most of the *best* apps don't exist on Android yet. Ulysses or Scrivener for writers? nope Bear for organizing notes? nope Sente or research work? nope Adobe apps for creativity? nope There are very few *serious* apps on Android. Yes, you might not like the way iPad OS handles multiple windows and a mouse (I don't like that!), BUT the reach and weight of iPad OS apps means it can rightly claim for many people to be a laptop replacement. Android? no This is a huge screen phone. That being said, there are some powerful devices that work great on Android. Google Docs/Slides/Sheets and Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Office on Android are serious full-featured apps (although the iPad versions of the operating system still have important features and usability improvements not found in the Android versions such as Page -View). Edit instead of creating the first draft on separate "pages" in Word). But that's almost the entire list. App to app, between two platforms, when apps exist on both platforms, the iPad OS version looks like a "full" app and the Android version like a "light version - for phones" of the same app. Plus, there really aren't that many app comparison apps out there, as there are *so many* powerful apps that are absolutely worth paying for on iOS, and only as many as you can count. at your fingertips on Android. Ironically, while Samsung's S Pen is great and works very well on a tablet, there's not much you can do seriously with it. iPad OS has *so many* serious productivity and creativity apps to use with the Apple Pencil compared to others (Notability is my favorite). Samsung Notes (almost not that powerful) and that's basically all on Android. So they did their best to make great hardware but not much software. If you just want Office (either Google or Microsoft) and Netflix on a tablet and can't afford an iPad, an Android tablet like this makes sense. If you're running Termux and need to easily move files in and out of the tablet's file system and access them directly, this Android tablet makes sense. But for everyone else, it's hard to tell that iPad OS is just around the corner. the current best environment for tablets. As a user, I seriously prefer the Android OS to the iPad OS, at least in terms of the OS interface and user experience. But even as a user, I'm not denying that while the iPad is getting closer and closer to being a legitimate laptop replacement (albeit with limitations I'm struggling with - that's why I'm buying it), the an Android tablet is still just a huge android phone - mostly with a phone. , and far less so than iPad OS with its increasingly serious productivity ecosystem. It's a shame, because the hardware is great for the price, the screen shape makes a lot more sense, and Android's openness means power users can do a lot of other things. But there aren't many power-user apps that live up to this ideal. So, can I recommend? If you know you need an Android tablet and are willing to compromise, yes. The hardware here is very reasonable, especially for the price, and there's very little adware. I use it for what I need it for and for everything else I use my iPad Pro when I need a tablet. But for regular users? Take that money and spend it on the cheapest iPad and take advantage of what the iPad operating system and ecosystem has to offer, which is much better suited to most users.