Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5


The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is a 10.5-inch Android-based tablet computer produced and marketed by Samsung Electronics. It belongs to the ultra high-end "S" line of the cross between the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Samsung Galaxy S series, which also includes an 8.4-inch model, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4. It was announced on 12 June 2014, and was released on July 2014. This is Samsung's first 10.5-inch tablet which is aimed to be a direct competitor against the iPad Air.

History

The Galaxy Tab S 10.5 was announced on 12 June 2014. It was shown along with the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 at the Samsung Galaxy Premiere 2014 in New York.

Features

The Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is released with Android 4.4.2 Kitkat. Samsung has customized the interface with its TouchWiz Nature UX 3.0 software. As well as the standard suite of Google apps, it has Samsung apps such as ChatON, S Suggest, S Voice, S Translator, S Planner, WatchON, Smart Stay, Multi-Window, Group Play, All Share Play, Samsung Magazine, Professional pack, Multi-user mode, SideSync 3.0, and Gear/Gear Fit manager.
The Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is available in WiFi-only and 4G/LTE & WiFi variants. Storage ranges from 16 GB to 32 GB depending on the model, with a microSDXC card slot for expansion up to 128 GB. It has a 10.5-inch WQXGA Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2560x1600 pixels and a pixel density of 287 ppi. It also features a 2.1 MP front camera without flash and a rear-facing 8.0 MP AF camera with LED flash. It also has the ability to record HD videos.
The Galaxy Tab S was designed with a ‘Multi Window’ feature that lets users consume two kinds of entertainment on one screen, for example when running two apps simultaneously such as a video and social media application.
The WiFi model of the tablet is powered by the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5420 CPUs. The LTE model comes either with a Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400 on top of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset or with the Exynos octa-core CPU. Models for South Korean domestic market have upgraded Exynos 7 Octa 5433 CPUs.

Updates

Galaxy Tab S 10.5 WiFi received Android 5.0.2 Lollipop in France and Canada on March 17, 2015.
As of April 6, 2015, only Canada and France have receive the OTA Update, exclusive to the WiFi only model. Reasons for the two countries getting the update first, could include the high sales of the Tab S tablets in both countries, and the fact 5.0.2 adds additional French language support, a language predominantly spoken fluently by some 60 Million French and 10 Million Canadians.
Samsung has announced that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 4G/LTE with an OTA Android 5.0 Lollipop update would be released in some European countries during the last half of April. These countries included Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Switzerland.
From June 2015 the tablet received an update to Lollipop in Italy.
As of October 2015, Android 5.0.2 rolled out to the United States as well.
The Galaxy Tab S lineup got an upgrade to Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 OTA. The update for the 10.5 variant began on August 26, 2016. for all versions, except any Canadian LTE models, to which there will not likely be an update to Marshmallow.

Third-Party Updates

14.1 is available for the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 Wi-Fi.

Reception

The Verge praised the AMOLED display, liked that it is thinner than the iPad Air, and found the Multi-Window software feature useful. However, The Verge did not like the plastic body, numerous confusing software features and the hard to use fingerprint sensor.