DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY!! iPad Pro vs Galaxy Tab S7+

Can the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus dethrone the iPad Pro as the new king of tablets? Over the past few years, Apple's been sitting pretty comfortably at the top as the best tablet around. And it almost seemed like each year the battle was over before it began. Then came Samsung and said, not so fast, we want a shot at the title. And depending on what you need, they may have done it. I've used both for everything from media consumption, office work like emails and notes, managing my YouTube channel, replying to comments, doing social media work, and then even gaming. Today I'm going to put these two devices head-to-head, talk about the good and bad, even though that rhymes, and help you choose which one is right for you. I want to start talking about the size because that's going to be one of the primary reasons I'd be looking at one of these two options. The iPad Pro comes in two display sizes, 11 inches and 12.9 inches. Both have identical feature sets. So the only decisions you need to make have to do with display size and storage. The Galaxy Tab S7 Plus has a 12.4 inch display, which is slightly longer, but a lot narrower than the iPad Pro. This actually makes the Tab S7 Plus feel and look significantly smaller than the iPad Pro. And it's essentially like a longer iPad Air 4. There are some practical implications to the different resolution and aspect ratio, which I'll cover in the display section of this video. When it comes down to choosing the right size, there's always a give and take in terms of portability because the iPad Pro is noticeably bigger, but the weight difference is negligible with the iPad Pro weighing at just 0.1 pounds more. And moving on to design, they're both actually quite similar. We've got two thin, sleek, and premium machined aluminum tablets. We've got rounded corners, squared off edges, and pin bezels, which don't get in the way of the display, and at the same time, give you enough room to hold the tablet without activating touch functionality. Both feel very solid and I've had no bending issues with either. I also don't intentionally bend my expensive tablets or my inexpensive tablets for that matter. I've had both tablets in different backpacks and messenger style bags, and I haven't had any problems. Looking at the edges, both tablets feature power buttons, volume controls, four speaker grills, and a USB-C port. But the Tab S7 Plus also has a micro SD card slot, which you can use to expand the internal storage of the device. But more on this later. The iPad Pro has a larger and more noticeable square camera module on the back, and the Tab S7 Plus has a thinner, elongated camera module that leads down to the magnetic strip used to hold the S Pen. I happen to really like where the pen is stored, and we'll get into that more in the accessories section. As far as colors, the iPad Pro is available in silver and space gray. The Tab S7 Plus comes in four colors, mystic black, silver, bronze, and navy, which is the one that I got, and I think it looks fantastic. I always have my tablets protected by some type of case or keyboard, so color isn't really a huge deal for me. It's more of an accent, but I do like having the option of some fun color choices. Next, let's talk about biometric authentication, which is an area where the Tab S7 Plus shines. The iPad Pro comes with Face ID, which is extremely fast, accurate, and secure. The Tab S7 Plus has face recognition, plus an in-screen fingerprint sensor. So when I'm home and not wearing a mask, the face recognition works great, and when I am wearing a mask, I just place my thumb on the right side of the display, and it quickly unlocks. Overall, I would say that I end up having to enter my password more on the iPad Pro than the Tab S7 Plus, but Apple's Face ID is more secure than Samsung's facial recognition. If you're still with me and have gotten value from this video, give it a thumbs up. It very much helps the video and the channel, and it lets me know what kind of content you like so that I can make more of it. And I still see that over 90% of you aren't subscribed yet, so hit that subscribe button. Now let's get to the fun part, the display. I love the Liquid Retina display on the iPad Pro. It's bright, it's beautiful, it's got nice contrast, 120 Hertz maximum refresh rate with Apple's ProMotion. It was definitely the best display I'd ever used on a tablet until I got the Tab S7 Plus. This Super AMOLED 120 Hertz display is spectacular, and it's now at the top of the hill as far as any tablet display that I've ever used. More colorful, and the image really pops off the screen. Whether you're watching movies, YouTube, playing games, or doing work, the Tab S7 Plus provides an excellent and smooth viewing experience. On the iPad Pro, we're getting a 4 by 3 aspect ratio with a resolution of 2732 by 2048 versus an aspect ratio of 16 by 10 with a resolution of 2800 by 1752 on the S7 Plus. The larger overall display on the iPad Pro gives us more real estate to work with, but the more elongated display on the Tab S7 Plus has smaller black bars when you're viewing content. So if I'm picking the best looking display, it's definitely going to be the Tab S7 Plus, at least for now. This is not taking anything away from the iPad Pro display, which is excellent. It's just outclassed by the AMOLED display on the S7 Plus. Now moving on, let's talk about the camera and audio systems. Starting with the cameras, the iPad Pro has a 7 megapixel true depth camera, and the Tab S7 Plus has an 8 megapixel camera. Both are fine for video calls, which is really the only time I ever use them, and lighting is going to play a major role in the overall look of your video. Where I give the edge to the Tab S7 Plus is in the camera placement. The iPad Pro has the camera on the short side, meaning that when you've got it mounted to something like the Magic Keyboard, it's off to the side, and if you're sitting right in front of it and typing, you'll be very oddly framed. The Tab S7 Plus has the camera right in the middle of the longer side, so when you're sitting in front of it, you're going to be centered perfectly in the frame, very much like you would be if you're using a laptop. And moving on to the rear-facing cameras, the iPad Pro has a 12 megapixel main camera, and a 10 megapixel ultrawide, plus a LiDAR scanner. The Tab S7 Plus has a 13 megapixel main camera, and then only a 5 megapixel ultrawide. And without going into the weeds regarding the specs, resolution, and frame rate options, the iPad Pro crushes the Tab S7 Plus. It has better image quality and more frame rate options for 4K and for slow motion. The LiDAR scanner, while a cool feature that has some great uses for some users, isn't something that I've ever used in my everyday life. So you'll need to decide whether it actually provides any value to you. I also want you to think about whether you will actually use the rear-facing cameras on either of these tablets. Once again, so you can assign the proper value to this feature, if you do plan on using them, then the iPad Pro is definitely the way to go. When it comes to speakers, both tablets have a four-speaker system. Both are plenty loud and sound good for a tablet. The iPad Pro was slightly louder at about 130 dB versus 126 dB on the Tab S7 Plus. And I did find the iPad Pro to deliver fuller and richer audio with more bass. Now, neither offers a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, so you'll need to either use an adapter, or you can use wireless headphones, which is what I do. Next, let's talk about the keyboard and stylus options. The iPad Pro is compatible with Apple's Magic Keyboard, and the Tab S7 Plus uses Samsung's Book Cover Keyboard. And I like different things about each one. The Magic Keyboard is more solidly built, it has better keys with a nice amount of travel and feedback, and it has by far the better trackpad. The exterior of Samsung's Book Cover Keyboard has a nice feel to it. I love that the S Pen can be stored away in a dedicated bump out, so that it doesn't fall into my bag like it does with the Magic Keyboard. While you're doing work, if you're not using the S Pen, you can still attach it to the top of the tablet, and it will store there, it just simply won't charge. I also like the additional row of function keys at the top of the keyboard, which lets me do things like change the brightness or the volume levels, control media playback options, and a few other things that I'll cover in the multitasking section. Finally, I super appreciate being able to separate the top portion from the keyboard, so that when I want to use the S7 Plus as a tablet, I still have protection for the back and the S Pen. The iPad Pro is compatible with the second generation Apple Pencil, which costs an additional 130 bucks. In contrast, the Tab S7 Plus actually comes with the S Pen included, which is a significant added value. This way, you don't have to think about whether it's something that you're going to use or not, should you buy it or not, spend the money, and I think more users will find ways to use it to improve their user experience. The feel of the two input devices is actually quite different. The second generation Apple Pencil provides more of a rigid writing experience, and the S Pen has a softer feel to it, where it almost gives just a little on contact. It actually reminds me of writing on a notepad, where the pages would compress while you're writing, and ultimately, it's going to come down to personal preference, and I'd love to know which one you think is better for things like writing, drawing, and photo editing, so let me know in the comment section. I'm going to briefly talk about processing power, and let me start out by saying that both tablets are plenty powerful. The iPad Pro uses the A12Z Bionic chip and comes with six gigabytes of RAM. The Tab S7 Plus uses the Snapdragon 865 Plus Qualcomm chip and comes with six gigabytes of RAM if you get the 128 gigs of storage. If you opt for the 256 or 512 gigs of storage, then you get bumped up to eight gigs of RAM. Both are extremely capable, and I've had no issues when multitasking, editing photos, or gaming. For those of you who like benchmarks, the iPad Pro scored higher in Geekbench for both single and multi-core performance. For single core, we're looking at 1120 versus 957, and for multi-core, we're looking at 4694 versus 3135, and in both cases, a higher number is better. Personally, I don't really pay much attention to benchmarks. I care about actual user experience, which brings us to multitasking, and Apple has made some improvements with iPad OS, adding split view, slide-out windows, and mouse support, but the Tab S7 Plus wins this battle because of DeX. And DeX lets you use the tablet as a laptop replacement by providing more of a desktop-like interface. We're getting a taskbar and an actual desktop with icons. We can have multiple windows open simultaneously, and we can either snap them to the side or just have them floating, exactly like you would on a laptop. Mouse support has been very good, and DeX is definitely superior when it comes to multitasking, at least in concept. The problem is the software, or rather the apps, and I cover this more in-depth in my detailed Tab 7S review, but there are issues with the browser being a mobile browser, so websites like YouTube serve you the stretched-out mobile version, which looks really strange on a wide screen. Some apps like Twitter, again, use a stretched-out mobile interface, which just looks terrible on a large tablet. The Twitter website actually comes up with the desktop version, so I use the website instead of the app. Some apps won't open to full screen at all, some don't work in landscape, and then some randomly alternate between landscape and portrait, even when the tablet is horizontal. This is without question an area where the Apple ecosystem is stronger, and it's time for Android developers to step up their game because the hardware is ready to perform. As far as battery life, both tablets perform pretty well, and I found that I was getting better battery life on the Tab S7 Plus than on the iPad Pro, an advantage that I'm going to give Apple is that the iPad Pro's 120 Hz refresh rate is adaptive, so it's only using the higher refresh rate when the content demands it, and therefore it's saving battery life. On the Tab S7 Plus, you have to choose between 60 Hz and 120 Hz, and that choice is static. I'm always going to have a power bank with me when I'm on the go, so anything over 10 hours of battery life is plenty good for what I do. One quick advantage that I want to mention has to do with cellular service, and in particular 5G. Of these two tablets, only the Tab S7 Plus offers 5G support, so if you're interested in using this higher bandwidth service and it's available in your area, that's a bonus. I don't buy cellular models of tablets because the majority of the time I'm on Wi-Fi, and the rest of the time I can just tether off of my phone, so this doesn't impact my choice. Next, I want to talk about gaming, and that's where I wasn't sure that the Tab S7 Plus would be able to keep up, but to my surprise, it actually outperformed the iPad Pro in some areas. It let me play games like Call of Duty Mobile at the max frame rate and the very high graphic quality settings, whereas the iPad Pro would only go to high graphic quality if I set the frame rates to max. Short of looking at the settings, the gameplay on both tablets was outstanding, and while both are 120 Hz displays, again, I noticed better overall image quality on the Tab S7 Plus. I was able to install the Xbox Game Pass app on both, but I was only able to play via the cloud on the Tab S7 Plus, whereas on the iPad Pro, I had to download the games and then use up a significant amount of internal storage. You are able to remote play on the iPad from your Xbox, but that's for another video. Speaking of internal storage, I want to quickly talk about the storage options and pricing, and then we'll get to my conclusion. Samsung's pricing seems to fluctuate quite a bit, and right now, the 128GB Tab S7 Plus is selling for around $750, $256 for $800, and 512GB for $880. The 128GB iPad Pro sells for $999, $256 for $1,099, $512 for $1,299, and there's also a 1TB version for $1,499. It's much less expensive to upgrade the internal storage than a Tab S7 Plus, and you're getting the additional 2GB of RAM, so I highly recommend it. The Tab S7 Plus also has a microSD card slot where you can expand the internal memory even more, and I added an additional 512GB with a SanDisk Ultra, which cost me about 70 bucks. All right, so which tablet is better depends on your needs and what other gear you have. If you watched my Apple ecosystem video, it's going to be challenging to convert Apple users to a tablet that's outside of their existing system. The Tab S7 Plus has hands down the best display, an excellent laptop-like experience with DeX, great multitasking, it's less expensive, offers two forms of biometric authentication, and comes with the S Pen. I like some of the functionality of the Samsung book cover keyboard, and the Tab S7 Plus also offers inexpensive storage upgrades, expandable storage, cloud-based gaming, and 5G support. The iPad Pro is an extremely powerful tablet. It has a more optimized app ecosystem, which leads to a significantly improved user experience, has a better camera system, it offers much better typing and trackpad experience with the magic keyboard, and it has a larger display. Remember that I have links in the description to all the products that I talked about. Hopefully this video was helpful. Click on my face and then watch one of these videos. You know what I always say, buy it nice or buy it twice. Good luck and see you soon.