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Although the budget tablet market has taken off, Samsung has proven that there is still an awful lot of life at the premium end of the tablet spectrum, and by dropping the price of its Tab Pro range almost instantly it becomes a lot more attractive.
Sitting between the Tab Pro 12.2 and the Tab Pro 8.4, this 10.1-inch slate has a lot of work on its hands to prove that it can take on the likes of the impressive iPad Air, but with a £380 ($319 in the US, around AU$340) price tag I think it deserves a little more breathing room.
We liked
The screen has to get a mention here given the amount of times that it highlighted in this review. Even after using the tablet for a while I found that the screen impressed me as much as the day I first opened the box.
The 2560 x 1600 resolution leaves everything crisp, whilst the impressive colour reproduction and brightness gives it that extra edge.
Whilst undoubtedly geared to more professional users, and coming out more impressive on the larger Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2, the Magazine UX still provides a lot of features that will get a lot of use to general consumers.
While I found the interface a little confusing and somewhat redundant (when it came to the Magazine UX) at times, the options to do what you need on a 'professional' environment, such as multi-window working etc are present and correct.
The camera also impressed me. Given my objection to using tablets for photography, I was surprised at just how well the camera coped and proved good enough for me to consider pulling out the Tab Pro 10.1 when I needed to take a snap.
Now that the price has dropped the Tab Pro 10.1 has gone from being slightly harsh on the pocket to being one of the better buys. It's relatively unheard of for a brand to lower the cost of something so powerful this soon after launch... way to turn a frown upside down, Samsung.
We disliked
Now that the price is lower there's a lot less to dislike about this tablet - it wasn't overly expensive before, but it perhaps lacked a real standout feature in terms of interface or design.
This is in no way aided by the plastic build of the Tab Pro 10.1. Whilst I'd argue that the tablet is well built, the metal chassis that adorns the iPad Air will undoubtedly help sway many opinions that it is a tablet worth the extra cash and the faux leather casing will still split opinion.
Finally I am also disappointed with the lack of internal storage that is on offer. There will always be a case to be made for the microSD and cloud expansion but having decent in built storage is still very necessary thanks to the large amount of apps that can't be moved across.
Heavy users may just find that a 16GB tablet fills up very quickly - it's the same accusation we'll level across all the big brands that hold up the 16GB variant of their flagship tablet, as it can simply fill up too quickly with the larger tablet apps.
Final Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is a tablet that offers a lot, and with the lower price could be seen as real winner in the tablet market
It's an odd paradox, where the Tab Pro 10.1 shares a lot of synergy with the likes of the Galaxy S5 in terms of design, power and screen quality yet Samsung has decided that it's OK to offer a tablet at a much lower price.
If Samsung can market the Tab Pro 10.1 right, and offer some decent deals to IT departments I can see it making waves as the tablet of choice.
Having staff all running the same device will certainly solve a lot of headaches attached to the mobile worker, but iPad's are still dominating this sector and the Surface 2 adds to the headache.
In short it's hard to see the Galaxy Tab 10.1 selling in the same sort of droves that the likes of the iPad does, but when Samsung has a tablet range that includes the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, Tab Pro 8.4 and Galaxy Tab 4, is that so much of a problem?
