Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 Video Review

Good things don’t come cheap. In fact with the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, just about the only thing we could find to complain about was the $399 price tag for the base WiFi-only 16 gig model. As 8″ tablets become the new 7″ in terms of popularity, the only thing missing was a high end model running Android. The $349 LG G Pad 8.3 was the first higher end model to hit the streets, but now it has serious competition from the Tab Pro 8.4. For $50, you get a better display and a faster CPU, though you won’t get the nice metal back on the LG. Samsung marches on with their plastic faux leather back, available in black or white. It’s actually nice looking and grippy, so we won’t complain. And yes, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 was once high end, but it’s nearly a year old and the specs are outdated. One thing the Note 8.0 bests the Tab Pro 8.4 on is pen input: sadly this is a “Tab” rather than “Note” tablet, so there’s no pen.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 has an 8.4″, 2560 x 1600 Super Clear LCD. That’s the same resolution as top 10″ Android tablets, and that translates into super high pixel density and text and graphics that are razor sharp. It’s one of the best tablet displays I’ve ever seen. Whites are white with no tint and colors are saturated yet natural. It’s a bright display too, with good contrast and decent, though not Super AMOLED, black levels.

The processor is top of the line too. The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 runs on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU with Adreno 330 graphics. That 2.26GHz quad core CPU is the same used on the newest Android flagship phones, and it few Android tablets are running on such fast CPUs (the LG G Pad 8.3 has a Snapdragon 600). The tablet has 2 gigs of RAM and your choice of 16 or 32 gigs internal storage plus a micro SDXC card slot. Yes, it feels fast thanks to the top notch processor, but also because Samsung’s new Magazine UX is more streamlined than the TouchWiz of old.

The Pro 8.4 has dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, a GPS, a microSD card slot, 2 megapixel front camera and a rear 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, 1080p video recording and HDR. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat.