Techie Talk: Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4

Luck finally struck me again.  And no I did not win the BMW X3 but I walked home 1 galaxy tab richer.  Lots of gratitude to Ctibank's unlock BMW X3 contest.



First of all, I'm not exactly a tablet fan.  Maybe because my first tablet, the Lenovo K2110 is a bit of  a let down.  But since it's free and I validate the hell out of that damn thing, I have little complain.  My parents are happily using it now for their candy crushing madness.



But since I started to grow a bad habit of reading e-books and reading from my tinny tiny iphone screen won't do, this tab comes at the right time.  So how would a far modern tablet fare against my old Z2460 powered tablet?

First and foremost, the outside.  The finishing were good.  Very Samsung like.  Just think of a up-scaled Galaxy S5.  But if you look closer, there are plenty of rough edges such as microphone holes, edges around micro USB slot etc.  It can be ignored most of the time.  But once you noticed it, it's quite obvious.  The physical buttons are a bit flimsy.  Not a solid click you get from Apple devices.  Very Samsung like again.  Overall, it still feels good in your hand.

Very light, weighing at 298g.  It won't tired out you hands holding it for a prolonged period of time.  8.4 inch is just a right fit.  Larger than regular 7 inch tablet means you'll get more screen area without the weight of a 10 inch tab.  This one has a 2560 x 1600 resolution which is amazing. One noticeable thing, the screen is still bluish in shade.  Just like all other galaxy lineups.  All because of the PenTile matrix Saunsung is using across their products.  Very Samsung like indeed.

Inside, this runs on Exynos quad 1.9GHz A15 + 1.3GHz quad A7 processor.  3GB RAM provides *good* mutitasking.  16GB internal storage with expandable micro SD slot.  This thing has a 8MP world facing camera for a decent snap.  I still feel my iphone 5 takes better picture though.  You can get more detailed spec here.

The Tab S comes with 4.4.2 KK but 5.0.2 Lollipop is available for download.  I went straight for the Lollipop update.  For those who use Samsung phone before, you'll have no problem getting accustomed with the TouchWiz UI.  

Although the TouchWiz provides some nifty features, it does suck up some of the performance especially during heavy multitasking where you jump from app to app.  I did experience some 2-3 second hang time under heavy usage.

 














I won;t comment much on the CPU or GPU performance as I don't really do 3D intensive stuff.  But from what I know, the Mali GPU is always a bit under-powered.  But in exchange you get a power efficient GPU.  Give and take.

Overall, this one is definitely a winner over my old K2110.  Not only the spec went up by quite a huge margin, the weight comes down making it far easier to use.

Windows 10: Almost a Month with the New Windows

C:\> Wintel
It's me again.  If I got you readers excited with the new upcoming version of Windows, then it's good.  Whenever Microsoft sells more Windows machine, Intel sell more processors.  Face it... Intel don't sell more processors cause Krzanich says so.  Intel sell more processors cause Nadella says so.



C:\> Win 10 is Coming
I installed the Technical preview (build 9926) almost a month ago.  My initial reaction is not that impressed with the new Windows.  In this short month, Microsoft has been constantly updating newer releases every now and then.  If you got your copy and still wondering why you're not getting the latest and greatest releases, you're probably not on the fast ring.



Switch to the fast ring and you'll be leaving the 99xx branch into the much faster 100xx branch builds.  Microsoft has lately made the 10074 build the Insider preview, kind of the latest stable build based on the fast ring.

C:\> Windows 10 Insider Preview
The insider preview is definitely more aesthetically pleasing compared to the technical preview.  With some more tweaks and fixes over the previous 100xx releases.

One thing I forgot to mention on my previous review is that Microsoft did try to unite all Microsoft utilities into Windows 10.  Much like Android when you sign in with your Google account, you'll get your contacts, calendar, Google drive etc all synced up.  Here, you'll get the exact same treatment with personalized Edge browser, one drive, outlook etc.  Provided if you sign in using your Microsoft account of course.



C:\> The Feel?
If you still remember, I install this on a 10 year old machine and the performance I dare not say it's good.  Several updates later, the same feeling doesn't go away.  The latest build still hogs the processor time.  Although me putting more colgate on the thermal heat sink of my machine does help mitigate the heat problem, the fan still spins far too quickly.  So I'm still limiting it to 50%.

So tips for buyers.  Microsoft is saying if your PC can run windows 8.1 i.e. having 1 GHz processor, 1GB (x86) or 2GB (x64) of RAM, then you can run Windows 10.  See here.  They're bullshitting you.  I have a limited to 1 GHz dual core processor and 2GB or RAM and it runs like shit.

Another tips for buyers.  I think you'll need at least a Nehalem or newer processor for this.  And who in the right mind still have only 2GB of RAM.  Samsung Galaxy Note 4 already has 3GB of RAM mind you.  So, buy new machine to enjoy Windows 10.  Buy more... it'll be good for Intel.

C:\> More Testing
Forget about my old junky machine.  I brought this to work and got Windows 10 on my work machine.  I'm doing Windbg stuff so I'm not catching snake or anything.

Here's the spec of my work machine (give me some woah....!!!)
Processor: Core i7 4770K 3.5GHz
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600
Storage: 480GB Intel SSD
Graphics: 780GTX
Host OS: Windows Server 2012 x64

OK, I don't put this on native hardware but on virtualized with hyper-v.  So I bottled down the resources to match what I have on my Merom machine.  Single core and 2GB of RAM.  As a added bonus, I have a Windows 8 on the exact virtualized setup as control.

Sorry, screenshot is from build 10061.

I must admit, Windows 8 does perform beautifully even on a limited spec machine.  But Microsoft screw it all up by giving it a 如花 like appearance.  On the contrast, Windows 10 insider preview kind of crawling on the same setup.  Maybe the final release will be more polished.  But a significant user will consider upgrading their hardware in the anticipation of this.  Good news for Intel.

The look is a lot better now with much cleaner interface and icons.  I'm still not much of a fan of those modern UI apps but having live tiles (yet to work) on the redesigned start menu is definitely a win.  One thing is I'm still surprised that 3rd party desktop app still doesn't design an icon fit to match the tiles despite all the time they have with Windows 8.x.  You'll end up having an enlarged desktop icon pinned together with the live tiles.  Looks silly.  Blek!



My major complain right now is still the performance.  Lots of apps, including the all new project spartan (still being called as such) does crash upon launching.  Or they just launch too slowly like 10 to 15 seconds after I clicked it from the start menu.

The live tiles doesn't work for me on the insider preview.  Maybe some secret potion is needed, I don't know.  And the search bar takes too much space out of the taskbar so I minimized it to an icon (Yup, it's possible).  Then again, the search box are way to slow to be anything useful.  Cortana takes forever to load and the search result are just dismal.

And the legendary non responsive modern UI start menu still exist.  You click the start menu, nothing happens.  Clicked harder still nothing.  Clicked rapidly and harder, still nothing.  Not like it's new to me cause I've seen similar behavior in Windows 8.1 and server 2012 but it's just so damn annoying.  If you don't have the my computer shortcut on your desktop, then the only way to navigate around is using the run box.

C:\> The Verdict Again
Windows 7 has been the winner for more than half a decade now.  It's very easy to get around this OS and it's very user friendly and reliable.  Just like your good old year 2000 Benz, good, expensive and reliable.  But it doesn't have all the great features of a more modernized OS.  Just like your old year 2000 Benz without those fancy touch screen head unit, DRL, paddle shifters etc.  Windows 8.1 have all these goodies but it looked terrible, just like the 2014 Honda Civic.



Windows 10 will be a game changer.  No doubt.  The insider preview is a step up from the technical preview.  Usability can still be improved (read my previous rant about the start menu).  Performance is an area to improve.  Right now it looks a bit like my K3.  Looks gorgeous, feature packed but with sluggish handling, non responsive head unit and guzzling gasoline like mad.