So, if you are trying to decide between this and an iPad, here is why you should choose this device, or at least give it a hard look.
1. Chromecast. This little inexpensive device is much cheaper than the Apple TV counterpart. For much less up front, you can mirror your screen on your TV. You can get a first gen Chromecast right now for $20 or $25. The new one will cost you $35, and the new Apple TV costs $149. You can get previous gen Apple TVs for less, but not $25. Now the first time, I connected this to a Chromecast, I got a warning that mirroring is not optimized on the S2, but I saw no issues when I was playing around with it. I did have to adjust my TV screen to get it to show properly though. Once that was done, it showed every bit as clear as my iPad on the Apple TV.
2. Micro SD. With an iPad, you are either stuck with what you have for memory (16, 64, 128 GB) or you use a cloud service. With this (and most other Android tablets), you get a Micro SD card slot that will accept up to an additional 128 GB, and you can swap them out to further expand your storage. Of course you can still use cloud storage as well, and this thing comes with 100 GB of One Drive for two years! For me, I need the micro SD because on deployment, I don't have access to a cloud.
3. USB Host. Yes, this tablet has USB host. What does that mean? We all have USB flash drives laying around somewhere. With a USB OTG cable (we are talking like $6), you can connect your flash drive to the tablet and transfer files to and from it. You will never be able to do that with an iPad. The most an iPad will support is pictures from a camera. With this option on the S2, you can import movies, pictures, documents, music, etc. Keep in mind that in order for the tablet to natively see it, the drive needs to be formatted to Fat32, which windows will do by default anyway. If you have a NTFS drive, you can still use it with a program like ES File Explorer, which is free on the Google Play store.
4. Speaking of the Google Play store, let's talk about the App store options on this vs the iOS App store. Apple has always been very picky about what it allows in the app store. And, if it isn't in the app store, good luck getting it on your iPad. With my S2, I currently have three app stores installed. First is the Google Play store, second is the Samsung store that is installed with the tablet, and third is the Amazon Underground app store. Google Play is obviously the native app store for Android devices (minus your Amazon devices). It has millions of apps available. Google is a bit more lenient on the store vs Apple. To the consumer, that means there is much more variety, but a higher chance you will find an app that isn't quite compatible with your device. The advantage Apple has here is that the devices running iOS come from one company...Apple. With Android, you have probably 100 companies all developing devices to run android with a multitude of combinations of hardware. This will inevitably cause issues for certain devices. But, Samsung has realized that and created the Samsung app store. This store has all the apps that have been specifically tested to work on your S2. The list isn't too shabby either. Finally, the Amazon Underground app store. This is a new idea from Amazon. They take apps you would normally pay for, and make them free to the consumer through a new marketing strategy. To be honest, I am not sure what that strategy is or how Amazon funds this, but what matters is that you get FREE apps that you would normally pay for. So, if you can't find the app you need on one of these stores, you aren't looking hard enough! One distinct advantage in terms of apps is that you can get utorrent on Android. You can not on iOS.
5. Customization. Now, iOS has started to open up to this, but it is still nowhere near where Android is. With Android devices, if you don't like your launcher, you can change it. if you don't like your widgets, you can change them. If you want certain apps on the home screen and certain ones to only show up in the app drawer, you can do that. Of course, all these customization options leave some people feeling over whelmed and that is where the simplicity of iOS has won the hearts of millions, but if you want to venture into the unknown and make your device yours, with this you can. By the way, ask an iOS user what a widget is...they don't know.
6. Media Files types. So with iOS, you are limited in terms of the media files you can play, and there is no VLC player to make up the difference. On an iOS device, you will never get a .avi video file to play. So, this is a big deal breaker if you have a library of .avi movies. With Android, there are a number of media players that will play just about any file you throw at it.
7. File system. On iOS, you can go to a file directory and find the specific file you want and decide what to do with it. Files open in specific apps and if you are lucky, another app will recognize it. With Android, you can go to the file directory (much like windows) and drill down to a specific folder with a specific files and choose to delete, copy, open, etc.
Okay, enough about the differences in Android vs iOS and more about this specific, beautiful device.
1. The screen is amazing. Very bright and vibrant. The colors really pop. Of course, this 4:3 format and resolution is a copy of the iPads, and for good reason. A 4:3 tablet is just better than a 16:9 tablet. It feels better holding it in portrait because it is more square. 4:3 uses more screen in less area. When you are talking about small screens, that little extra makes a world of difference.
2. The speakers are pretty good. You can definitely watch a movie or listen to a song without headphones. It is definitely on par with an iPad, if not better.
3. The design is beautiful. The gold color is subtle. Not too flashy and not quite dull. I love it.
4. The finger print scanner works every bit as good as the iPads and iPhones. It makes unlocking your tablet a breeze.
5. The first thing I noticed when I picked this thing up is how light it is. Coming from an iPad Air (1st gen), I could definitely feel that this is lighter. It makes holding it a wonderful experience.
6. In several days of use with my new S2, I have experienced zero lag or freezes. The dual quad core (yes, 8 cores) CPU and 3 GB RAM in this thing really make the device super smooth. It won't slow down and lag like your sub $300 Android tablets. It will handle all apps very well and you can multitask without it slowing down.
7. The cameras are pretty darn good! The clarity is great and even low light shots seem to do pretty well. They are definitely on par with the iPad.
Now, here is where an iPad wins vs the S2.
1. I will go back to the polished look. iOS apps generally look more polished than their Android counterparts. But, you will have to go into an app (i.e. Facebook) to notice the difference. On the home screen, you will see the S2 and think how beautiful it is. The launcher and home screen are very polished and go head to head with iOS. It is underneath, in the apps that you will start to notice a difference.
2. Battery Life. I would venture to say that iPad battery life is better than the S2. Not by much, but I can tell a slight difference. My battery gets to 90% on the S2 a little quicker than it did on my iPad. Of course, I have played with it off and on all day and still didn't get past like 50%, so battery life is definitely not shabby, just slightly less than an iPad.
...And that's it. That is the only two advantages I can think of for the iPad.
So, after a series of unfortunate events, I was faced with a decision, a Galaxy Tab S2 or an iPad Air 2. I chose this and I am absolutely happy I did. It is a beautiful device that changes the playing field in the tablet world. iPad is no longer the premier device. In my opinion, this thing wins in a head to head battle with an iPad.
Because the tablet has a super amoled display, blacks are really dark, and the high resolution leaves images very clear. It is hard to see the pixel matrix even at 6 inches from the display. However, the background of whites/grays are just a little grainy due to how the display technology works. Touch is integrated into the screen, and is extremely responsive - those nipped stylus pens especially work well even with low pressure. There is even an extreme power saving mode that turns everything black and white, enabling a few essential apps to stretch out battery (The display consumes less power when displaying black as it is not innervating many pixels).
I do not have much experience comparing white/black bezels aside from using my previous device which was white, but it seems black would be better for multimedia, and white for text, as it would be less obtrusive. I had not put much thought into the bezel color when purchasing. In a normally lit room, the black border does not bother me at all, but in low light it is slightly straining. With this black version it works well at night to enable greyscale and inversion under accessibility to gain borderless white on black text. I really wish android had a high contrast reading mode that supported all apps and the system theme, which would do white on black without inverting images. This would also save power on an amoled screen. Unfortunately there is no built in option for this and it takes a few menus to switch back and forth. I know of most e-readers support white on black, so I am just splitting hairs here.
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