Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e Review

October 10, 2019 at 8:37pm
By Jason Stettner

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e delivers what’s an incredibly thin, and light tablet that doesn’t really feel as though it had to lose much in the process. This is seriously thin at just 5.5mm and it weighs around 400 grams. That’s somewhat great, especially if you’re looking for something comfortable for light browsing, videos or generally bringing it along with you anywhere.

The shell case is rather sleek, being aesthetically pleasing. It also has a nice sense of quality when held, which I personally feel is a nice touch with electronics. It can be hard to find a balance of cost, and how the casing feels when it’s held. It should also be noted that this isn’t waterproof, and being a tablet I wouldn’t expect it to be.

With phones more commonly having this feature of water resistance I thought it was worth noting in case there was an expectation involved. This is a 10.5 inch sAMOLED screen, with a bit of a bezel around it. I felt they could have went a bit thinner when it comes to the bezel around the actual screen, it’s not a big deal yet somewhat noticeable.

The resolution for the screen is 2560x1600 with 287 ppi. The playback is 4k UHD (3840x2160) at 30fps, wish 60fps would have been possible. It also lacks HDR and Dolby Vision support with the former being quite disappointing considering the feature being more standard in today’s screen based market.

The audio quality is mostly excellent, it’s loud and backed by Dolby Atmos which really is feeling like a standard for products these days. I listened to some videos, and generally music as well with this. It was powerful enough in close proximity, could have had a little more of a bass kick behind it though generally fine for its needed use. There are four speakers, two at the top and two at the bottom. You can feel it when maxed out, but it’s rather well balanced as not to cause any shaking of the casing. The sound is handled by AKG.

If you’re into voice based commands, Bixby is integrated into this and connects with other Samsung devices. Speaking of Samsung based content, you get choices for some apps from the company. If you’re not interested in those, this is running Android P so you can grab things from the Play Store as well. I did play a number of games and tried some standard apps. It played the games fairly well, at the highest resolution options.

This included titles such as PUBG Mobile and Minecraft. These two examples ran well, offering high visual options and not really having any issues. I was satisfied with the stable performances and you could certainly use this as an option for mobile gaming. Performance wise this includes a Qualcoom Snapdragon 670 (Dual 2.0 GHz + Hexa 1.7Ghz). The Ram memory options are either 4GB or 6GB, which is plenty for this type of device. The storage options are 64GB or 128GB with the option to expand it further to 512GB via microSD card.

There’s Wifi 802.11, Wifi Direct and Bluetooth 5.0 support with LE being up to 2Mbps. Finally port wise there’s a USB 3.1 (gen one) option. The battery is 7040mAh so it lasts a fairly long time, and there’s fast charging present. I personally couldn’t test that out as I wasn’t provided with the standard charging cord for the product. From there, we move onto the camera. This isn’t quite as important considering it’s somewhat strange to take pictures or videos from tablets, but it’s a feature to cover none the less.

Here we get a rear camera with 13MP featuring a f2.0 Aperture with a sensor size of 1/3.4” and a FOV of 80 degrees. The resolution for the video camera is 4k UHD (3840x2160) and it’s slightly disappointing they couldn’t have had it capable of 60fps as frame rates are important tech wise in my opinion. The front camera is 8MP featuring a F2.0 Aperture with a sensor of 1/4” and a FOV of 80 degrees. Sadly the front camera maxes out at HD (1920x1080p) which is disappointing.

The cameras do take some fairly quality pictures, and provide decent video capture at lower frame rates. If you are taking pictures with this, it definitely is a good enough option. I largely used the sample photos I took as the wallpapers for this device so that I could spend more time taking a look at the quality. I’ll also mention that the camera offers many filter, and other options for tweaking how you take photos.

The Conclusion

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e brings some stellar value for what’s an incredibly thin, lightweight and excellent tablet option for basically any basic desired function. I found this to be excellent for casual reading, internet browsing or video viewing. It generally delivers a quality experience no matter what you’re viewing and it’s very comfortable to hold. It feels like a premium product, and generally looks quite appealing.

I feel they could get that bezel shrunk down a bit going forward. Hopefully they’ll also be able to deliver HDR and 60fps 4k when it comes to playback and their camera in future device iterations. These aren’t huge things for people I’m sure, but they do matter for future proofing and general playback/capture for some forms of media. Still, visually it looks great for videos or any sort of viewing. I’m honestly blown away by how light it is, and how thin the device is. It is practically just a piece of glass which is great.

It runs well, it also plays gamer competently. No real complaints there, should be able to handle anything mobile wise that’s thrown at it. You get a great battery here, the audio is perfect for what you’re likely to be using this for and the Dolby Atmos support is appreciated. Generally this is a great option in terms of what you would need for a tablet, it brings great value considering the pricing options that are present. It has many features, and should meet all expectations for a regular user.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e Review product loaned by Samsung.

Rating Overall: 8.4