Hello, this is my first review on Amazon. This review comes courtesy of a longtime Samsung user. Included is a picture of my S9 FE+ 256GB next to my second S6 Tab Lite (I lost the first one ;( ) shot on a S20 FE 5G. I will be comparing to my S6 Tab Lite. I really like the S6 Lite. I got it for $200 at Walmart (for both S6's). For comparison, I was given a Nexus 7 back in 2012, which was also purchased for $200. The Nexus is now 12 yo, and barely works. Using the S6 has been awesome. It's only chugged during intensive moments in gaming, and it only froze for a second or two. With three times the RAM as the S6, I don't think I'll have any problems for a long time.nThe size of the S6 Tab Lite is a lot more manageable for me. I could use it (the S6) one handed if I was only really using one half of the screen. I definitely can't with this! That being said, as somebody who's working on an engineering undergrad degree, I found the screen of the S6 too small. This screen feels big enough to use on most days. And with 256 GB instead of 64 GB, I can have games and lots of notes.
A few notes: the S9 pen is a bit thicker and has a smaller button than the S6 pen. Second, I was getting better rear photos on the S6 than the S9, I don't know why. I hope it's user error. I'll update you on that. Finally, the S6 feels slimmer in my hand even though they're the same thickness, thanks to the S6 having rounded corners versus the sharper/more upright edges on the S9.
Conclusion: For relaxation, the S6 is better, assuming you're not playing hard-core games (it ran fine on Honkai ... on the lowest settings). For work, the extra real estate pays dividends and with a good keyboard case, should be good to replace the laptop most of the time.
Proper Review:
When I wrote this originally, I didn't have the Samsung portfolio case. I left a review there about a month ago. (Short and sweet: It's very expensive, but it's also perfectly suited to what I need from this device. Backlighting would be nice, but I don't find it to be as much of an issue as I did a month ago.) Update on the camera: I think I smudged up the camera when grabbing the first time. I took a picture of an outdoor scene, and although it wasn't sharp, it wasn't really fuzzy either. I haven't done a side-by-side comparrison with the S6 Lite though. I'll update this update if I determine that smudges weren't the cause of the picture quality deficit.
I learned about more software features, like RAM+ and wireless mirroring. In options, it gives the ability for up to 8 GB of virtual RAM. However, I also noted that 4 GB of RAM+ was selected and turned on by default. When I turned it off, it still showed up as 12 GB. Hopefully, this means I can have 20 GB of RAM, although I can't possibly imagine I'd need that many. I've noticed that the tablet seems to use at minimum around 4-5 GB of RAM. Makes me wonder how the S6 Lite manages to run Honkai Star Rail. I've seemed to have more performance issues in games than the S6 on higher settings, but the battery life is much better. It feels like this will never die! The S6 could only do 3-4 hours of gaming, but this can do much more, I think atleast twice as much, maybe triple? This also has faster charging speeds. Let me demonstrate the battery life. I have 1hr 15 minute classes. With note-taking almost the entire time, this went down 7%. At that rate, that's probably almost 16 hours of on-screen time!
This tablet really is something special, especially with the portfolio case. It's small enough that I feel comfortable walking a mile to class with this in my hands (in a 13' Macbook case lol), and it's big enough that I can get work done on it - as long as I'm not constantly switching tabs. Windows is better for rearranging tabs, although Samsung provides more freedom - I just don't find that freedom useful personally. I still stand by my opinion that gaming is easier on the smaller screen - I accidentally pressed the accelerator in RR3 numerous times on the S9 FE+, but that never happened on the S6 Lite.
Anyways, that's it for me. I'd highly recommend getting the extra RAM, especially if you're like me who was raised to use stuff until it falls apart. If you're a student, I couldn't recommend this tablet more strongly.
| Standing screen display size | 31.1 Centimeters |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 2560 x 1600 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA) |
| Processor | 2.4 GHz |
| RAM | 8 GB |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Mali-G78 MP10 |
| Chipset Brand | ARM |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ax |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 2E+1 Hours |
