Tab S3 models

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I'm considering an upgrade from my Tab S and the S3 seems to be the only thing decent unless I go up to a Surface. It's used at home for normal Tablet things but seems most action when traveling - roadtrips or holidays. The Tab S has been great and has never let me down in those regards. The screen is still pretty impressive to this day and the MicroSD makes moving music, movies, or anything else super easy. Used it to show pictures to family in care facilities without needing an internet connection.

The difference between the 2 can be as much as $100 Canadian. With that said, I'm strongly considering Costco.com and getting the one with the Keyboard. Even with the exchange, it's still $50 cheaper than the tablet alone and the keyboard up here is $200 more!!!!

The S2 is also tempting on Costco's site, but it's pretty outdated.

I had a Tab S2 8" for a couple years. Great little tablet. When I decided to upgrade, it came down to the Tab S3 or iPad Pro. Tough choice because I loved the Samsung's AMOLED screen, but I got a sweet deal on an open box iPad Pro 10.5". All I do is stream Netflix, Amazon, DirecTV, etc. and read books, so either tablet is overkill, anyway.

The Tab S3 seems like the only real option for a higher-end Android tablet, which is unfortunate. It seems like that race to the bottom in pricing left Apple and Samsung as the only ones really catering to people who want more than a $100 Netflix viewer.

If it were me I'd get an iPad Pro (which I did), but I know the desire for a microSD slot makes that impractical.

Still loving my Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2

An iPad Pro is tempting, but the 256GB versions are $1000 here. At that price I feel like a Surface would be better though it would also have tradeoffs. Used... Larger models are unicorns and insanely expensive. Can you drop files on it yet or is everything still down through iTunes?

Poik said:

An iPad Pro is tempting, but the 256GB versions are $1000 here. At that price I feel like a Surface would be better though it would also have tradeoffs. Used... Larger models are unicorns and insanely expensive. Can you drop files on it yet or is everything still down through iTunes?

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If you use cloud services, there's a Files app in iOS 11 which aggregates any cloud service that hooks into it (including Google Drive, Dropbox and the like) and can make it easy to directly save files and lpay them. Also, if you have a Mac, there's AirDrop (extremely easy wireless drag-and-drop). And if you use Netflix, you can download shows for offline viewing.

In short: you don't need iTunes, but it may be best if you're on Windows and don't use a cloud storage service.

I have an iPad Pro 9.7" (with a Logitech keyboard case) and a couple of surface pros (the original and a surface pro 4), I've honestly stopped using my Surfaces now. The screen on the iPad Pro being better and brighter might have something to do with it. I don't develop on my Surface or iPad directly. If anything I remote into a development server. But I would rather do that on my desktop or laptop instead. Because I could only develop Apple apps on a Mac, I have a MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro just offers a more pleasant typing experience to develop on rather than a surface pro. The surface pro's separately changed type cover with keyboard and touchpad is just not up to par for me. Sure, it's better than nothing. The biggest pro is that the surface has over the iPad is mouse/touchpad support. For work, I have my big ergonomic keyboard and mouse. Using the surface pro with that kind of defeats the purpose of portability. Office touch on the iPad is great. If you're doing real work and have no other desktops or servers, that's like the only people I could think of for Surface Pro. The latest surface pro commercial with the lady scouting locations for Pacific Rim 2, I question that a lot cause i dunno how the surface could do that kind of 3D rendering fast without her remoting into another server. sorry able just typing some random thoughts...

I have a Tab S3 which I use primarily to watch Netflix(it gets HDR) and Twitch on. It's pretty great for those purposes. Good Android tablet software is rare compared to iOS though.

Since I use mine primarily as a screen for video watching I don't care much, and I appreciate much better blacks and colors of the OLED screen, but if I were to use it for more varied tasks I would probably prefer an ipad. If the ipad ever gets OLED I doubt I'll buy another Android tablet from that point onwards.

I have the keyboard cover and it's not bad but I almost never use it.

Sancus said:

I have a Tab S3 which I use primarily to watch Netflix(it gets HDR) and Twitch on. It's pretty great for those purposes. Good Android tablet software is rare compared to iOS though.

Since I use mine primarily as a screen for video watching I don't care much, and I appreciate much better blacks and colors of the OLED screen, but if I were to use it for more varied tasks I would probably prefer an ipad. If the ipad ever gets OLED I doubt I'll buy another Android tablet from that point onwards.

I have the keyboard cover and it's not bad but I almost never use it.

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Yeah, an OLED iPad would be the tits!!

If my upload wasn't totally embarrassing I'd make more use of the cloud, but as it is even backing up a larger number of pictures or heaven forbid a movie completely borks the internet for me. Download is also not what many would call speedy. Also, Canadian ISPs cap all the bandwidth. My cellphone curb stomps the cable modem I have at home, but I'd blow up the monthly usage in under a day with Netflix alone. Makes somethings more difficult as it's really easy to use up most data plans in just a couple days.
I'm sure I could come up with some workarounds, but the convenience of moving the card, or just plugging directly into a desktop is just so simple and easy not to mention that an S3 with keyboard and 256GB card is about $250 less than a 256GB iPad. 128GB is an even larger gap.
I had a Macbook Pro back in the day, but it was a model with the flakey backlight and the flakey Apple warranty. My wife and family are all Apple lovers, but I have a hard time justifying the Apple tax when they burn people with their dropped support. Sorry, your 64-bit iMac doesn't support the newest iOS because we'd rather you buy a new one. Meanwhile, my E6300 based desktop, which was about 3 years earlier than the iMac, rocks Windows 10 without any real issues. I understand dropping support for 32-bit and such, but EOLing stuff just because is a dick move IMO.