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Battery
This svelte package houses a 7,040 mAh battery, which is the same as the Tab S5e’s. The overall battery life is a little shorter than its predecessor. Even with that, we would usually be able to last an entire workday on a single charge. We would touch about 8 hours of screen-on-time with moderate to heavy use. You shouldn’t be killing it in a day if used as a secondary media consumption device instead of a primary work computer.
The included 15W USB Type-C charger takes the Tab from 0 to full in a little over 2 hours, which is acceptable for a battery this size. Interestingly, it wouldn’t charge when connected to our OnePlus Warp chargers, shattering our dreams of a single cable handling all of our devices.
Software and Samsung DeX
For any wannabe laptop that runs a forked variant of a smartphone operating system, the software skin is the most crucial factor. Hardware and performance are rather easy to match, but those are also not directly crucial to the experience and are easy to compromise on.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 runs on Android 9 Pie with One UI 1.0 atop. One UI isn’t bad for power users and comes with loads of features that put multitasking and floating windows at the center. But that is not enough to validate a high-end smartphone (the Note10), let alone a productivity device.
In fact, Samsung did more than its share of hard work by creating an entire productivity-first interface with DeX. But honestly, it’s just a glorified landscape launcher that just shifts UI elements to the bottom “taskbar” from the status on the bar. We like how it treats notifications and doesn’t let them dominate the screen and how apps open in resizable windows. But that barely makes the cut when compared to what iPadOS does with its responsive gestures that are meant to work seamlessly between apps, and comes with a full-blown desktop browser.
The more high-end tablets Android OEMs maker, the more apparent it becomes that they all have the common Achilles heel in terms of the operating system. This is a fundamental issue that needs reworking from Google’s end if Android tablets want to survive another generation. We do not deny that the Tab S6 is the best Android tablet, but it’s still so far behind Apple, primarily due to incompetent software.
Samsung did a great job of incorporating the stylus and keyboard shortcuts to the heart of the experience and deserves full credit for that.
S Pen
The S Pen returns to a Samsung tablet after many years, and this time, it learns quite a few new tricks while being better dressed. For the most part, it is a blown-up Note10 S Pen that charges wirelessly from the Tab S6’s body and is sized closer to a regular pen.
It attaches to the back of the tab and is in a very accessible position and snaps off with the right amount of tension. Since the tab is predominantly made of metal, it can’t support wireless charging in direction. Samsung has smartly worked around that by adding a tiny plastic slit that delivers power to the S Pen when attached. The company says that a full charge will take about 90 minutes, but in our usage, it never went below 80%. Your mileage will vary if you’re a digital artist of sorts.
If you thought that using the S Pen is a joy on the Note10, it’s even better on the Tab S6, partly due to the bigger canvas, partly due to the bigger tool. It adds a level of precision that is unmatchable with human fingers, and really shines while using in complicated places such as the backend of a website which has numerous toggles and checkboxes. Without this stylus and a half, navigating through the pages would have been scary.
Then there’s also this entire suite of creative tools for taking notes, making sketches, or designing storyboards. It might not be relevant for everyone, but it is a bit that users will enjoy trying out, even if it’s just for a bit.
On the subject of relevancy, all the Air Gestures introduced on this year’s Note are also present here. Sadly, they aren’t any less gimmicky on a bigger form factor. The media controls are still sensible if you use it to watch shows or YouTube from a distance. The gestures will then control volume, seeking, and play/pause. A floating bubble will guide you through these.
Overall, the S Pen is a worthy addition to the entire tablet experience and big props to Samsung for including one.
Keyboard cover
From one essential to another, the smart Keyboard cover completes the productivity experience. Unlike the last generation, this time, it is a separate accessory from the back cover and attaches to the tab only via the magnetic connectors on the bottom. The keyboard chassis starts with a thin cloth-like strip that adds unsolicited flimsiness, which becomes very evident while using it on the lap. Desk usage was fine.
This time around, we even get a trackpad on the bottom, which brings up the mouse cursor. It’s a nifty addition but acts as a hindrance to other tasks. Typing, for example, is a less-than-optimal experience only because of the trackpad’s terrible palm-rejection, which moves the cursor a lot. The only way to avoid that is by typing while pushing your elbows out and supinating your wrists, which gets uncomfortable after a while.
Except for that, the keyboard is decent, and the small keys were surprisingly easy to get used to. There are a host of keyboard shortcuts (some borrowed from Windows), which are probably the best part of the Tab’s experience. It makes multi-tasking much more convenient, which is what we’ve been aiming for, from the get.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 barely has any weak links and scores well in departments that matter, such as design, display, performance, and battery. This beastly hardware is held back by unpolished software, most of which is out of Samsung’s reach to fix.
Entering this review, we didn’t expect it to fare so well and so got in striking distance of the iPad Pro. But with the recent move to iPadOS, Apple has pushed its offerings into a territory that can pose a challenge to laptops. At the same time, we saw Google reduce its care for tablets, handing the victory to Apple on a silver platter.
Samsung has single-handedly been carrying the weight of Android tablets for a few generations. If this trajectory continues, we don’t see Samsung produce too many successors to the excellent Tab S6.
But in the present tense, there’s no non-Apple rival to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6. With a beautiful display, excellent audio output, and speedy performance, it even trumps many laptops in its price segment, which is primarily what the Tab S6’s reason for existence was.
For now, the Tab S6 replaces my ultrabook in my everyday carry for every occasion that calls for a minimal carry-on.
