Qs Laptop
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2018
- Messages
- 3,554
FWIW, I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7, and it's by far the best tablet I've ever owned, accompanied with the keyboard for same. I use it literally every day at home and it's excellent for travel, so I think I'm getting my money's worth despite paying more than the OP wants to spend. I think the idea of getting the S6 Lite might be a good one.
In terms of operating system upgrades, my recollection is that Samsung now leads even Google in how many years of OS updates they offer. Is this just for phones? I had assumed it was for tablets too.
Samsung had the lead for a couple of months. Google Pixel 6, just released a couple weeks ago with Android 12, now leads in this category with three OS upgrades and five years of security updates.
Google does not make tablets anymore, though there are rumors of a Pixel tablet being developed.
I just checked and my S7 is running Android 11, One UI version 3.1, last security update was in September.
Thanks for that info.
My Samsung phone --- a Galaxy S21 --- is also running Android 11 and One UI version 3.1, last security update was last month (October). So pretty much the same at this point anyway.
Just got Android 12 for my Pixel 5a and of course Google Pixel has monthly security and software updates.
A minor thing that I like about having two Samsung devices is that when traveling I can take photos with my phone and then very easily transfer them to the tablet for easier viewing. Or just transferring any files to/from tablet or my wife's phone.
That is a nice feature.
Indeed these devices have no dedicated wired audio output; you use the USB-C power slot with a little dongle for a wired headphone or speaker or whatever. For travel, I bought a little unit that plugs into the USB-C power slot and allows me to plug in both a power cord and a wired headphone, though I have since found wireless headphones that I like better.
I've got a set of wireless ear buds and I could not imagine going back to wired headphones.
I guess the main thing that I notice about this tablet is all of the things that I DON'T notice --- I've owned several tablets over the years and each and every one has been somewhere on a "this is annoying" spectrum for various reasons. I just don't get that with current higher end Samsung devices.
Isn't that great?!!
I periodically get tempted to look into newer products by competitors --- such as the latest Pixel phones. But I expect I'll stick with Samsung going forward so long as they keep producing products that don't bug me (and I'm a guy that's pretty easy to 'bug' with techno and other failures ... just ask my wife ).
The thing that has kept me away from Samsung phones is their UI skin they place over stock Android. It's gotten a lot less intrusive lately, but in the past there were tons of complaints that it slowed down the phones, especially as ownership got into a year or so. Last August I almost bought an S20 FE but opted for the Pixel 5a. Talk about a phone that just "works" and doesn't produce things that bug me.