Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 – Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 has a solid camera array for a tablet. Its rear camera uses an 8-megapixel sensor and f/2.4 lens. It’s supported by a single-LED flash.

We don’t expect superior performance from a tablet camera, but this one is quite good. It’s fast to focus, and extremely fast to take shots. It’s likely the same camera setup we saw in the Note Pro 12.2.

Picture quality too is fairly good. Colours are reasonably well-judged, perhaps just a shade undersaturated at times, and exposure levels are sound. We found the Tab Pro 8.4 better than the iPad mini 2 on this front – the iPad was prone to overexposure thanks to its overzealous attempts to make its photos look bright and lively.

1:1 pixel crops from the Tab Pro 8.4 and the competition

You get many of the same photo modes here as in Samsung’s phones. There is an HDR and a number of multi-exposure burst modes that offer an easy way to hedge your bets when taking photos of action or groups of people.

The camera also shoots video at 1080p and offers stabilisation. This isn’t the same optical sort seen in the Nokia Lumia 1020 mobile phone, though. Instead of tilting the camera lens hardware, it crops into the normal view of the camera, so there’s a ‘buffer’ it can cut into when processing the video, to reduce natural judder.

If you’re more into video chat than making home videos, you’ll be pleased to hear the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4’s front camera is fairly good too. It has a 2-megapixel sensor, which is towards the higher end for tablets. Some phones are starting to offer much higher-quality 5-megapixel front cameras, but we’re yet to see one on a Samsung tablet.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 – Battery Life

The Tab Pro 8.4 has a 4800mAh battery that is fairly small for a tablet of such high resolution as this. It’s no great surprise that the battery stamina is not great.

It lasts for seven hours 20 minutes when playing an SD-quality video on loop, which is slightly less than we hope for in a tablet these days. It is worse than the iPad mini, for example. Apple’s tablet lasts for 9-10 hours off a charge. However, slightly smaller Android tablets often have compromised battery life – including the Nexus 7. It lasts for slightly less time, in our tests.

Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4?

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is a handy-sized tablet that’s pretty great in most respects. Unlike some smaller tablets, it doesn’t feel at all like a budget model. And the build is better than most earlier Tab-series products.

However, there are a few issues. There are more glitches and performance problems than we’d expect given either the price or spec, and the screen’s colours are a little oversaturated.

These are things Samsung could fix with a software update. Fingers crossed it will, as with these little bits ironed out it’d be a pretty great Android alternative to an iPad mini.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is a high-quality Android tablet with good specs for the price. However, a series of issues with performance and the otherwise-impressive screen mean it has strong competition from cheaper Android rivals and the similarly-priced iPad mini with Retina Display.

Next, read our best tablets round-up

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