Samsung’s new Pro series of business-focused high-end tablets were announced at CES, and while the NotePro 12.2 was the star of the show (check out our first look at it here), the sleeper device of the Pro range is the Galaxy TabPro 8.4. In fact, its probably Samsung’s best tablet currently available, and one of the best Android tablets you can buy since it perfectly balances size, performance and value.
Just like the iPad Mini has eclipsed the full-sized iPad and is now the go to tablet for iOS users, smaller Android tablets have become more popular and infinitely more useful than the larger 10-inch (and 12-inch tablets). The Galaxy TabPro 8.4 is a direct competitor to the iPad Mini Retina - it has a very fast SoC, a high PPI display in an 8-inch form factor and is comparably priced.
The TabPro 8.4 (and other Pro tablets) shares the same design language introduced on the Note 3, with a faux leather back, and is available in white and black. Like the other Pro tablets, the 8.4 has quite a few business focused software features, such as a free full version of Hancom Office for viewing and editing Microsoft Office docs. However, one disappointment is that since this is a Tab, not a Note, there is no S Pen stylus.
Samsung Galaxy TabPro 8.4” Tech Specs
Unlike its bigger WiFi model brothers that use the Samsung Exynos 5 SoC, the TabPro 8.4 has a Snapdragon 800 SoC, and it’s all the better for it. Our testing shows that it’s one of the most powerful Android tablets currently on the market. Strangely, though, this even though it has the Snapdragon SoC, it does NOT have LTE capability, unlike the bigger Galaxy Pro tablets that use the same SoC. However, it’s more than likely an LTE version of the TabPro 8.4 will follow.
The 8.4 has a gorgeous 2560x1600 359 PPI screen that eclipses the iPad Mini Retina's 326 PPI. Its Adreno 330 GPU is able to run any Android game you throw at it super-smoothly, even on such a high-resolution screen, making the TabPro 8.4 a killer Android gaming device.
Also, since the TabPro 8.4 shares the same SoC as the Galaxy Note 3, it inherits that phablet’s stellar battery life, and with its bigger 4800 mAh battery, one can expect even longer run times from the TabPro 8.4 than the already unreal battery life of the Note 3
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 |
|---|---|
| CPU Core | 2.3 GHz quad-core Krait 400 CPU |
| GPU Core | Adreno 330 |
| Memory | 2 GB |
| Display | 2560x1600, 8.4 in (21 cm) WQXGA Super Clear LCD display, 359 ppi |
| Storage | 16 GB + microSD slot (up to 64 GB) |
| Battery | 4,800 mAh (non-removable) |
| Camera/s | Front: 2 MP (FHD)Rear: 8 MP with LED Flash |
| Expansion Ports | USB, microSD |
| WiFi | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac |
| Operating System | Android 4.4 KitKat w/Samsung Magazine UX |
| Dimensions | 128.5 x 219 x 7.2mm, 331g |
| Price | MSRP $400 |
Hands-On First Impressions
Available now in the US in white or black for $400, and is expect to be released in Canada on February 28th for $420. In the UK, the TabPro 8.4 is due early March and will be £349.
Samsung Canada was kind enough to let us look at the TabPro 8.4, and you can check out our hands-on video below.
Performance Preview
To give you an idea of the Galaxy TabPro 8.4’s performance on both the CPU and GPU we ran two popular benchmarks, Geekbench and GFXBench. Unfortunately, we didn’t have an iPad Mini Retina on hand to test to do a direct performance comparison to an equivalent iOS device.
We tested the Exynos 5 powered Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, the Tegra 4 powered EVGA Tegra Note 7 and the Snapdragon S4 Pro powered Google Nexus 7 2013.
As you can see, the Krait 400 CPU of the Snapdragon 800 SoC blows away the multi-core performance of the other tablets we’ve tested. The single-core performance while slower than Exynos 5 and Tegra 4 is still very good.
The Adreno 330 GPU in the TabPro 8.4 handily outperforms the other GPUs in the demanding GFXBench 3 OpenGL ES 3 Manhattan test, a test that really pushes the limits of mobile graphics.
Parting Words
With the Galaxy TabPro 8.4, we think Samsung has hit on the perfect balance between size, performance and price, and it goes head to head with the iPad Mini Retina, and in my opinion wins.
The only thing perhaps missing from it is the S Pen and LTE connectivity (very useful to have in a small tablet since it’s more likely to be used on the go than larger tablets), so hopefully Samsung will see fit to release a NotePro 8.4” with LTE in the same form factor soon.
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