So my old Samsung Tab S2 finally broke -- it was still working fine but it fell. I then thought: "It's 2020, I should try out a cheap low-to-mid-range brand, surely they've come a long way." Well, not really. I spend $200 on a Vankhyo tablet with case and pen (P31); when I first got it, the heft of the tablet, the pre-applied screen protectors (front and back, back is glass too), the fact that it came with Android 10 pre-installed, etc., gave me a somewhat good impression. But the quality of the IPS screen and UI and many other things on the cheaper tablet left much to be desired. There is one thing that econo-tablets lack: finesse. Well, that and just good hardware. This Samsung S5e tablet has all that and it makes a huge difference.
The screen of the S5e is just leagues above cheap tablets. It is, of course, an AMOLED display which allows for very deep blacks. I'm talking about black as night blacks. Most of my reading I do at night, and the fact that (when you invert the text) the black can get pretty much as deep black as the bezels is just incredible. The resolution is 2560 x 1600 with pretty high pixel density and that makes for fine/crips lines and detail. My Tab S2 had all this too (and at only 8 inches!) and it's a must if you're reading with the lights off because you don't want a light-haze to blast your eyes right before you're going to sleep. The Vankhyo tablet, even though it had a pretty good resolution at 1200x1920 (IPS screen), could not achieve deep blacks. In fact, everything including videos just looked washed out. So if you're using your tablet to read at night or you appreciate good contrast in videos I would really recommend you get a tablet with an AMOLED (or: OLED) display that can achieve deep blacks. Cheaper tablets from Samsung that have IPS/TFT screens, although quite good, also can't achieve deep blacks like AMOLED can, although they're probably better than cheaper non-brand tablets. For example the new Samsung A7 does not have an AMOLED screen and it achieves a minimum brightness (or maximum darkness) of: 3.66 cd/m², whereas the S5e gets: 1.74 cd/m² -- so from that you can see how much darker the screen of the S5e can get at half the A7's value.
A 10.5 screen is quite big for a tablet, especially when mainly used for reading books. In a way I prefer the 8 inch Tab S2 that I had because it's such a good size to hold in your hand and move around and has a better aspect ration for my use. Samsung has stopped making high end 8 inch tablets, but I'm hoping they'll return to that because there is utility to these. The Tab S2 has 4:3 ratio which is better suited to reading/editing documents and books. Widescreen tablets are really geared toward media consumption (i.e., movies, series, videos) but there is so much else you can do with a tablet that I think it shouldn't be given that much emphasis -- or at least they should offer 4:3 options as well. The S5e has a 16:10 ratio and if you read books in contiguous mode it is quite enjoyable. Since it's quite a large screen, you can keep the tablet at a greater distance which, depending on your position, can be useful.
Everything from the material finish to the UI to the smoothness of operation to the overall feel just exudes quality and finesse. Yes, it cost $349 at my time of buying but the extra $ over the econo-tablets is more than worth it. I am sure that, for most people, the new Samsung A7 will be just fine as well and it currently sells at $249 and is going to be better than any cheap- or non-brand tablet. No. 1 for tablets are Samsung and Apple, of course; if you're already tied into the Apple eco-system it makes sense to go with Apple, but otherwise Samsung is king. If you have a PC and just want to drop some music or PDFs onto the tablet, it is way easier with an Android device. Apple's closed system makes it so you have to install iTunes on PC, etc.; just a hassle really, so I'd recommend going with Samsung for ease of use unless you have all Apple devices already.
I think it's a sport for Samsung and Apple to make devices as thin and feature-rich as possible, but personally I wouldn't mind having the device a little thicker if it somehow increases longevity. I would also rather have a 3.5mm headphone jack rather than only the USB-C port and the headphone converter dongle. I did test the USB-to-3.5mm dongle with some Sennheiser corded headphones and the sound was good. The sound over the tablet speakers is surprisingly good. The A7 does have a 3.5 jack still so if that is important to you maybe get the A7 instead. All high-end tablets by Samsung have left behind the 3.5mm jack in favor of just a USB port. I don't like having wireless devices *on my head* for any great length of time so I'll always want wired headphones.
The S5e is kind of the sweet spot right now. Its price is much lower than the newer high-spec tablets but you get a premium tablet with great picture and sound, and it is still getting Android updates from Samsung. When I received the tablet, Android 9 was installed on it. After configuring I checked for updates and it downloaded Android 10 (~2gb in size). After this installed and I rebooted, I checked for updates again and a 700mb November update was then installed. I read that this tablet is also slated to receive Android 11 (and UI 3.0 that comes with it) so it is still future proof for a while.
If I had to find some negatives, I'd probably say that the touch swipes and such don't always quite register as I intend, but I don't think it's due to any hardware issue with the screen so it could just be an Android 10 thing. When I swipe up to get past the lock screen, it will require a more thorough (greater distance) swipe upwards to actually unlock it, while I would think that the movement in itself should indicate what I want to achieve and that it shouldn't require me to travel as great a distance. One the Tab S2 I would just do a half-hearted swipe up with my thumb while holding the tablet with the same hand and that would unlock it, but not so much with this tablet. I like the power button being inverted, whilst the volume button lever is extraverted (so you can easily tell the difference between the two) but, at least with a case around it, I often find myself having to feel around and then use my nail to "get in there" to press the power button.
In summary: this is a great, high quality tablet and is the current sweet spot for people wanting a Samsung tablet with high-res AMOLED display. It is worth the extra money over cheap exotic brand "high spec" tablets. If an unknown brand tablet has similar specs like 4gb of RAM, 64gb of storage, etc., it doesn't mean it will perform the same -- it won't. Samsung tablets are at another level. This performs better in most things than a Samsung S6 Lite (it being in the price range of the S5e). The processor and graphics on the S5e are better, however the S6 Lite has an S-Pen included. The S5e does not support the S-Pen and doesn't offer palm-rejection, so if you need S-Pen functionality in this price range you're better off with the S6 Lite.
| Standing screen display size | 10.5 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 2560 x 1600 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 2560x1600 Pixels |
| Processor | 2 GHz AMD_Kabini_A6_5200M_Quad_Core |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| Hard Drive | 64 GB |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Snapdragon 670 |
| Chipset Brand | Qualcomm |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | 5 GHz Radio Frequency, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4 GHz Radio Frequency |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 15 Hours |
