Though the Galaxy Tab S6 has been surpassed by the newer Tab S7 and S7 Plus, it was an important device in its time and a worthy tablet to buy. It’s undeniable that Apple dominates the tablet market with its excellent iPad lineups, but Samsung has been a strong rival too. In fact, it’s the only good Android tablet maker on the market.

Impressively, the Korean firm even balked in the face of Apple when it led the market with its mid-range Galaxy Tab S5e released earlier last year. However, the launch of the Galaxy Tab S6 finally delivers the finest tablet for the money.

Design

The design of the Tab S6 isn’t unique, but it’s still very appealing. It features an all-metal body with softer edges and a thinner body than those of the iPad Pro 11. It has a much lighter frame as well as a longer aspect ratio as well. This is also an upgrade in design compared with its predecessor Galaxy Tab S4.

The Galaxy Tab S6 has a lot of commons with the Galaxy Tab S5e. The biggest difference between these two tablets is that the premium model sports a lozenge-shaped dual-lens module along with an S Pen slot.

On the edge near the S Pen slot lie the volume, power buttons, and the SIM tray. Meanwhile, on the opposite edge, there is a connector for a keyboard cover.

Samsung gave this tablet four speakers, two of which located on either edge. On the bottom, there is a USB-C port. The tablet lacks the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Display

The Galaxy Tab S6 comes with a 10.5-inch screen, a 1600x2560 resolution, and a 287ppi pixel density. The best thing about this display is probably the Super AMOLED technology that Samsung uses on its flagship mobile devices.

It delivers vibrant colors, excellent contrast, as well as deep, pitch blacks. It’s a beautiful screen that makes video content look great to the eye. However, it doesn’t have the 120Hz refresh rate and the brightness is not very good.

The Galaxy Tab S6 offers an aspect ratio of 16:10, which fits movie content but makes portraits more cramped and awkward than the iPad Pro.

There is a fingerprint sensor mounted under the display, near the USB Type-C slot for unlocking the device. It works decently in testing though it’s slower than a dedicated fingerprint sensor.

Chip

The Galaxy Tab S6 is powered by the Snapdragon 855 from Qualcomm, one of the most powerful processors on the market right now. On Geekbench 5, the tablet gets 2,652 points for the multi-core score, just a bit lower than the score of the Galaxy Note 10 (2,745 points).

The device seamlessly handles multi-tasking for daily operation. Gaming is solid with no lags or frame drops in PUBG tests.

The S Pen

The main difference between the iPad Pro and the Galaxy Tab S6 is the S Pen stylus. There’s even an inbuilt magnetized slot under the main camera module to store the stylus. When the stylus is locked in place, the tablet will recharge it with about 90 minutes of charging time.

However, it can easily fall out of the slot, so you may want to consider storing it in your bag instead. The good news is, Samsung makes an official case that encompasses the stylus.

The S Pen works very well on the Galaxy Tab S6, allowing for efficient sketches and creative work. There’s also the PENUP app that gives you intuitive tools and guided drawings to help you get scrawling.

Though it’s not perfect and far from a comprehensive drawing tool for digital artists, the S Pen stylus is great for casual doodling.

Battery

The Galaxy Tab S6 packs a 7,040mAh battery that can serve you for 8 hours and 19 minutes. A moderate user can last for up to 10 hours.

There is support for 15W fast charging so you can quickly refill the battery juice in case you’re in a hurry.

Camera

There are two cameras on the back, including a 13MP main lens and a 5MP wide-angle lens. For daylight photos, the main camera performs very well, producing accurate colors. However, some images had a background blur.

Regarding the low-light performance, the Galaxy Tab S6 takes acceptable photos but there is background blur in several pics and noise on the edge of images.

Wide-angle photos are also acceptable but not as good as a smartphone camera. Test shots displayed colors very accurately and a lot of detail though there was distorted detail around the edge. And low-light shots displayed some noise and muddiness.

On the front, there is a single 8MP camera that takes excellent daylight images with great depth of field and color accuracy. The camera is also adequate for video conferencing. Low-light shots are fine but they have background blurring and some noise.