Yeah, it's that time when considering a new tablet. I was looking in the sub 8inch range, a bit larger than my Nexus 7 but still portable enough to carry around in your pocket. My first pick was the Sony Xperia Z3, it was a fairly good tablet, but it did led to one disappointment and that's the screen it's an IPS display and all that different from my Nexus 7. Compared to one of its competors the Tab S display did seem like a more promising tablet.
I returned the tablet to the shop and traded it for the Samsung Tab S 8.4. First off there's alot good things to say about Z3TC and there's only one bad thing to say which is the screen. There's are alot more bad things to say about the Samsung tablet although those are software issues mostly.
Sony Xperia Z3TC
Pro's
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PS4 remote play
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Excelent battery life
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Good/premium build quality
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Frontfacing speakers
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Thin and lightweight
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Snapdragon 801 @ 2.5Ghz
Con's
The color display isn't very impressive with the Sony tablet. White balance is oftenly to blueish. It's still a fine looking IPS display, it's very bright, but if you put all 8 inch competers together it's clear who's the winner.
It's CPU is very fast, it has no problem multitasking like opening apps one after another it performs flawlessly with the Snapdragon 801 chip clocking at 2.5Ghz.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
Pro's
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Gorgeous Super AMOLED display
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Outstanding battery life during video consumtion
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Thin and lightweight
Con's
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Lag and performance issue
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TouchWizz drains the battery
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Bloatware
The colors of the Tab S are really outstanding, the colors are very vibrant, punchy and suturated. They are definitely not accurate colors, but they do look gorgeous and one of the main selling points of this tablet. It is really the best looking display on any handheld right now.
The Sony's cons are just a minor setback compared to the Samsung. For the average consumer the Samsung has some very noticeable setbacks. The Tab S has a very good battery at 4900mAh, but the battery's life is very disappointing, there's sometimes lag swiping through menus, pulldown menus or switching apps. This is an high end flagship tablet and that's simply inexcuseable. That being said, I'm a thinkering kind of person so what I did is flashing a stock Android based ROM namely CyanogenMod 12.
After cleaning the entire tablet and doing a fresh CM12 install, all these software issues were solved. No more lag, tablet performs just beatifully, buttery silky smooth. Tablet is very snappy and fast. The battery life has also improved ever since getting rid of Samsung's TouchWizz and bloatware.
Conclusion
In the end with tweaking Tab S wins over the Xperia Z3TC or nVidia Shield. With no tweaking I would pick the Xperia Z3 over the Tab S. The Xperia Z3TC performs very smooth and fast with the super fast Snapdragon 801 CPU.
I personally would not recommend the Tab S to the average consumer it has many set backs the only positive trade off is its beatiful gorgeous Super Amoled display. Most setbacks are software related, but it's no secret either that Samsung is fillled with BloatWare and that TouchWizz is resourceful. But despite of all these setbacks if the screen is still drawing you the Tab S might still be for you. If performance is your main priority and you don't want to go through the trouble flashing a custom ROM to the Tab S Xperia Z3TC or nVidia Shield Tablet would be a better choice for you.
Lastly, Tab S is still an excellent tablet and has an amazing Super Amoled display. Its minimal bezels and a 8.4 inch display makes it really the botherline of being a portable tablet that fits in your pocket. If you are a poweruser this tablet requires tweaking and a custom ROM to unlock its full potention and to get the best experience out of this tablet. The nVidia Shield and Xperia Z3 tablet don't because they're pretty much stock Android already and have tons of good features without bloatware and will be getting 5.0 very soon. |