Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 review: The Professional

Introduction

With the tablet market reaching near-saturation, another slab that's just as thin, light and powerful as the rest of them will hardly bring crowds to the stores. Every maker is desperate to get some breathing space but few dare look for a space to call their own.
Quick to take a gamble, Samsung is trying a new size again but this time around it's not what you would call a vacant niche that the Koreans are to develop. The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 has the scene set for its arrival by the LG G Pad 8.3 but it's actually two generations of iPad minis that the new Samsung slate is keener to meet.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 official pictures
Is there a bit of arrogance in that? Well, there may be but the new Pro lineup means business like never before. It isn't just a hardware upgrade hiding behind the same old Android/TouchWIz combo either. The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is vying to put Samsung's compact range of tablets back on the map - done playing second fiddle to the Notes.
Samsung has completely redesigned the TouchWiz user interface with a brand new homescreen and notification area, a new way of handling widgets, advanced multi-tasking with multi-view and floating apps. There's even a new business-grade office package. And although there is still Android KitKat below the magazine-like UI, the whole thing feels fresh and new.

Key features

• Optional 3G/LTE modem with quad-band GSM, tri-band HSPA and hexa-band LTE-A connectivity
• 8.4" 16M-color Super Clear PLS capacitive touchscreen of 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution
• Quad-core Krait 400 processor at 2.3GHz, Adreno 330 GPU; Snapdragon 800 chipset
• 2GB of RAM
• Android OS v4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz UI
• One of a kind split-screen multitasking and pop-up mini apps
• 16/32 GB of built-in memory
• 8 MP autofocus camera, 3264x2448 pixels, geo-tagging
• 1080p video recording @30fps
• 2MP front-facing camera; 1080p videos
• Side-mounted stereo speakers
• Wi-Fi 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Direct, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• HDMI TV-out (adapter required), USB host (adapter required), Ethernet (adapter required)
• microSD card slot
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Infrared port
• GPS with A-GPS support; GLONASS, digital compass
• Accelerometer, three-axis Gyroscope sensor
• Professional office document editor suite preinstalled
• microUSB port with MHL and USB On-The-Go support
• 4,800mAh Li-Ion battery

Main disadvantages

• Expensive
• No NFC
• Relatively poor audio and video codec support (no DivX and AC3 audio)

There is little the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 fails to provide, and it will make up for it with great software and usability skills. There are so many new features and improvements over the old version of TouchWiz that we can't wait to show you everything.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 live pictures
But before we dig into the operating system and its interface, let's take a closer look at the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4's design and controls.

Design, build quality, controls and handling

Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 utilizes the popular faux-leather-look plastic for the back, which Samsung premiered on the Galaxy Note 3 phablet. This may as well spiral into another wave of overused designs but we are still fond of these looks and we don't mind it being reused (for now).

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is the first mid-sized tablet from Samsung we meet in a really long time and its main rival is the latest iPad mini 2. The Tab Pro 8.4 footprint is close to that of the Apple's slate, with the different display aspects causing most of the difference. The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 spreads at 219 x 128.5 x 7.2 mm, which is 19 mm taller, 6 mm narrower and just a notch thinner than the iPad mini 2. The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and iPad mini 2 both weigh exactly 331 g and that might be more than just a coincidence.
The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 introduces an important control change compared to the Samsung slates of old - the capacitive Menu key is gone, replaced by Android's standard Task Switch control. Samsung has completely overhauled the task switcher and task manager, taking the tablet's multi-tasking capabilities to a whole new level.

The new Android control deck • The 2MP camera above the screen
The rest is pretty much the same and the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 looks like an upsized Galaxy Note 3. The default orientation of the slate is assumed to be the portrait one, just like with a phone.
Above the screen you get the ambient-light sensor and the 2MP front-facing camera and bellow, there's the Android control deck.

The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 controls
The 3.5mm audio jack is on top, while the microphone, Lock/power key, the volume rocker and the IR blaster are on the right. The right side also accommodates the lonely microSD port, covered by a small plastic lid.

The microSD card slot is on the right
The bottom of the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 has the microUSB 2.0 port, flanked by the stereo speakers. There's no microUSB 3.0 port here, unlike the Note 3 smartphone. Still, the 2.0 port on the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is MHL-enabled so it can serve as a TV-out and also supports USB On-The-Go for connecting external USB accessories.

The microUSB 2.0 port at the bottom
Finally, the 8MP camera and a LED flash are at the back of the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4. There is a metal frame around the camera lens.

A peek at the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 back
The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 can be held comfortably with one hand and operated with the other. It's thin, light and provides great grip because of its faux-leather plastic back. The material also feel great to the touch. Even though it's no actual leather, the feeling is quite close, taking the overall experience up a notch.
Samsung also deserves praise for not compromising on the build quality. We think everyone will appreciate the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 great handling and solid construction.

Display

The 8.4" Super Clear LCD on the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is one of the highest spec'd tablet screens to date. Along with some of its stalemates it has the highest resolution available in the mobile world and thanks to its smaller screen it has the highest pixel density of all slates.
The resolution of 1600x2560 pixels is higher than the iPad mini 2's (1536 x 2048 pixels) and adds up to a best-in-class pixel density of 356ppi (as opposed to 324ppi on the iPad mini 2). The Galaxy Tab Pro also has a regular RGB matrix, unlike its 12.2 sibling, meaning there are not going to be any crosshatch patterns visible here.

The RGB matrix of the Tab Pro 8.4's screen
Numbers aside, the image quality is excellent. Viewing angles are amazing and blacks look really deep. The outdoor visibility is great too.
We ran our usual display tests on the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and here are the results:

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4	0.34	281	830	0.60	498	822
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014	0.27	221	831	0.53	440	821
Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2	0.33	301	901	0.54	493	911
Google Nexus 10	0.26	223	859	0.50	443	878
Sony Xperia Tablet Z	-	-	-	0.53	531	996
Sony Xperia Tablet S	0.35	334	947	0.67	526	783
Samsung Galaxy Note 3	0	149	∞	0	379	∞
Apple iPad mini	0.25	208	838	0.51	458	812
Apple iPad 3	0.21	167	809	0.6	477	779
Apple iPad 4	0.21	163	797	0.63	476	762
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7	0	200	∞	0	328	∞
Asus Google Nexus 7	0.25	244	954	0.36	327	908
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1	0.27	223	832	0.49	406	821
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1	0.31	257	826	0.55	502	915
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus	0.17	196	1141	0.34	424	1236

Battery life

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is powered by a 4800 mAh Li-Ion battery. By Samsung's estimates, it should give you 127 hours of music playback and 11 hours of multimedia usage. We did our own tests too, and the tablet managed 7 hours and 23 minutes of video playback and 7 hours and 43 minutes of web browsing.

• Sony Xperia C 12:45
• Huawei Ascend Mate 8:17
• Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 8:17
• HTC One mini 8:12
• Nokia Lumia 610 8:01
• HTC One X+ 7:56
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 7:43
• Sony Xperia E dual 7:42
• Samsung Galaxy S III mini 7:38
• Nokia Lumia 720 7:37
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 7:35
• BlackBerry Z30 7:34
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus 3:01

• LG G Flex 19:57
• Sony Xperia ZR 7:30
• HTC Droid DNA 7:30
• Samsung Galaxy Note LTE 7:30
• Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2 7:30
• Sony Xperia SP 7:27
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 7:24
• HTC One mini 7:23
• Nokia Lumia 610 7:23
• LG Optimus G 7:16
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 7:03
• Asus Nexus 7 (2013) 7:03
• Nokia Lumia 710 3:27