Galaxy Tab S7 on Amazon
iPad Air 4 (2020) on AmazonTwo really good tablets with good keyboards as well
The iPad Air 4 (2020) and Galaxy Tab S7 are two of the top tablets in 2020 and heading into 2021. Each has a lot to offer, one for Android and one for iOS. Let’s take a look at some of the things that makes each one shine, what separates the two, and a few things that aren’t great on each.
Sound
Both the iPad Air and the Galaxy Tab S7 have great sound. The iPad Air has 4 speaker grills but seems to have only 2 speakers. The Tab S7 has 4 speakers.
I enjoy listening to both of them more than my Note 20 Ultra which is saying something because I like the sound from my Note 20 Ultra. I noticed that the sound is better in landscape mode on the Tab S7 because I tend to cover up the speakers if I listen in portrait mode.
Overall, the sound seems to be quite a bit richer on the Tab S7. The iPad Air sound seems muffled a little bit in comparison. There are a few extra sound settings you can choose from on the Tab S7 like Dolby Atmos and an equalizer. Also, the Tab S7 definitely gets louder than the iPad Air.
Below is a 32MB Wav format sound clip going back and forth between the two comparing their sound (maximum volume) on two different songs. I've noted in the clip which tablet is playing at what time. The microphone was directly in front of both tablets but centered between the two (with the iPad on the left). The recording was done with the Zoom H1n Portable Recorder.
Keyboards
Neither tablet comes with a keyboard unless you get it in a bundle like I did for the Tab S7. The two keyboards I’m comparing are the Apple Smart Folio Keyboard for iPad Air (4th generation) and the only Samsung made keyboard for the Tab S7, the Galaxy Tab S7 Bookcover Keyboard. I didn't have the newer Apple Magic Keyboard to compare with but I've read a lot of reviews/comments from people that actually prefer the Smart Folio keyboard to the Apple Magic keyboard.
I've never gotten completely used to Apple’s version of keyboard layouts. While I’ve made adjustments and can be productive with them, I'm much more comfortable with PC/Windows/Android keyboard layouts. I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts whenever I can. When I have to go back to an Apple keyboard, I have to remember what keys are the “control”, “Windows”, “alt”, and “function”, which isn’t fun.
There’s no home button on either keyboard. On the iPad Smart Folio keyboard there is a shortcut for going to the iPad home screen, “command-H”. The shortcut for going to the home screen on the Bookcover keyboard is “cmd-enter”.
Feel - Both keyboards are smaller than a typical PC keyboard obviously but they are also smaller than their bigger brother’s keyboards (the iPad Pro 12.9 and Tab S7+), so neither will be as comfortable as typing on those larger keyboards. The Tab S7 Bookcover keyboard moves around a bit because of the material just below where it connects to the tablet which is flexible. Below is a screenshot of what I'm referring to on the Tab S7 keyboard moving around a little bit because of that flexible material near where it connects to the tablet.
The Apple Smart Folio keyboard seems a little more sturdy because of this extra flex in the Bookcover keyboard, although the Folio keyboard has a little of this flex also.
Keys - The Tab S7 Bookcover keyboard feels more scrunched together. Although the two keyboards are almost identical in width, the Tab S7 has some bezel on either side giving less room to the keys. I don’t see the point of this and would have preferred more spaced keys like on the Apple Folio keyboard.
The Bookcover keyboard comes with a trackpad which is another reason why the keyboard is more scrunched together. I don’t actually use it much but it seems to work well and I always welcome alternative forms of navigation or input. If you want a trackpad on a Apple keyboard for the iPad Air, you’ll have to go with the pretty pricey Apple Magic Keyboard.
Typing on both keyboards feels solid. I prefer the typing on the Tab S7 Bookcover keyboard. I’m not sure why but I seem to make less mistakes than on the Apple Smart Folio keyboard. Each keyboard seems to require different pressure so it might just be a matter of adjusting on either one. The Apple Smart Folio keyboard seems to require a little more pressure when typing.
Angle - on the iPad, you can’t lean the screen far enough back in certain circumstances. The Tab S7 Bookcover keyboard’s stand can change to almost any position including almost flat. Also note that the iPad’s keyboard won’t work at all unless it is in one of the two available positions. If you lay it flat, the keyboard no longer works.
Both keyboards can fold all the way around and out of the way if you want.
Detachable keyboard - the Tab S7 has a detachable keyboard while the iPad does not. This is a nice feature on the Tab S7 Bookcover keyboard.
Pen storage - The Tab S7 has a place to store the included S Pen Stylus in the keyboard cover. This is also how you charge the pen. And Samsung put a little icon to show you the correct direction to store the pen for charging. There's a magnet holding the pen in place also.
I don’t like that the number keys row on the Tab S7 have smaller keys. You can see this in one of the pictures earlier in the review. This is probably the biggest dislike I have for the Tab S7 Bookcover keyboard. I very often mistype (I’m a 10 finger touch typer) when I use it. It really becomes more of a problem starting around the 6 or 7 key. For example, I’m constantly hitting the “9” key when I mean to hit the “8” key. The number keys row on the Apple Smart Folio keyboard are full size which I completely prefer.
Power Button, Fingerprint Sensor, and face recognition
The fingerprint sensor (both on the iPad Air and on the Tab S7) is on the power button unlike the under-display fingerprint sensor on the Tab S7+. The Tab S7 also has face recognition which honestly is sometimes miss or hit, but I still like having face recognition as an option. If you want face recognition on an iPad, you’ll have to shell out more for the iPad Pro. The iPad Air doesn’t have it.
The power button on the Tab S7 is flush with the side. This makes it a little difficult to find which in turn makes finding it for fingerprint sensing a little difficult. It's easy to see in the photo that the volume buttons protrude a little while the power button does not.
The iPad Air’s power button protrudes a little which makes it easy to find when turning the iPad on and using the fingerprint sensor for anything (including signing into apps with fingerprint).
The power/fingerprint button on the iPad Air needs to be pushed in to trigger power, although you can double tap the screen to turn on the iPad first, and then just rest your finger on the fingerprint sensor. On the Tab S7, just resting your finger on the power switch will turn it on and unlock it. You’ll need to push the button in to turn the Tab S7 off.
On the iPad Air, I really like that whenever you need to use your fingerprint to login to something, it shows a onscreen graphic of exactly where to place your finger.
Software
Everyone knows comparing iOS to Android and iOS apps to Android apps is often like comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended), but there are a few things I’d like to mention. If you’re dead set on one ecosystem, you can probably skip this section.
GarageBand and iMovie
One of the reasons I originally bought the iPad Air 4 was to do my piano and guitar lessons in GarageBand that I had been doing on my iMac. Unfortunately, the lessons are only available on the iMac version of GarageBand. That was very disappointing and one of the reasons I’ll be returning the iPad. But at least this kind of software comes free on the iPad with no free (installed) similar app on the Tab S7.
Another app that is nice to have and comes pre-installed on the iPad is iMovie. This is an app without an equivalent (at least not pre-installed) on the Tab S7. But I’ve lived without it for so long, it’s not a big issue for me, and if I really need it I can use my iMac version of iMovie.
Sharing to Google Keep
This is kind of a specific use case and due to a difference between iOS and Android, so it's not specific to these tablets, but since I use Google Keep a LOT, this one is important to me. When you share something to Google Keep from another app, if you’re on the iPad, once you click “Post”, you’re done. It doesn’t give you a chance to edit it right there. If you want to edit it right away, you’ll need to go find the Google Keep app and then find the note you just created. On the Tab S7 (and Android), after you click “Save”, it immediately gives you a button to “View” right there so you can make changes. I use this feature all the time.
Integration with Google Apps
It makes sense that the Tab S7 is going to integrate better with Google apps since it runs Android by Google. Since I use Google apps like Keep, Gmail, Contacts, Chrome, and Calendar, I definitely prefer the Tab S7 for Google app integration. I really don’t need the iOS equivalent apps or even the Samsung equivalent apps. But the Samsung equivalent apps don’t seem to push me further into their eco-system like the iOS equivalent apps seem to do.
Other specific apps
For some reason, the Google app (Google search and news) has a two-column layout on the iPad in landscape mode. On the Tab S7, it uses one column even if you change the font size to smallest and screen zoom to smallest. I more often prefer the two-column layout on a tablet.
Speaking of multiple columns in an app, the Twitter on the iPad has two columns with a left side menu while on the Tab S7 it’s one column and no menu. You can use Twitter in a browser on the Tab S7 if you want it to look more like the iPad’s Twitter app.
Instagram is pretty bad on iOS. This isn’t Apple’s fault but it sure makes a difference using it on the Tab S7. The version that runs on the iPad isn’t designed for iPad. It’s a phone interface and can be zoomed in or out. The Android (on tablet) version looks like it was designed for the tablet and can be run in windows using DeX.
YouTube music in background: You can’t run YouTube in the background for music on the iPad without a YouTube subscription. On the Tab S7 you can shrink a window with YouTube in it, and work on something else without interrupting music playback in YouTube.
Other software differences
In general, I’m much more comfortable in Android than in iOS. I know others that are the exact opposite. For me, this is the first time I tried going back to iOS on a regular basis in quite a while and it never got comfortable. Samsung’s added features, like One Hand Operation+ (and other Good Lock apps), are extremely useful to me. Also, I haven’t liked the dated iOS interface for a very long time. For me, it's not horrible, it’s just not very good especially when compared to Samsung’s UI on top of Android. Here are a few examples:
- I like gestures better with Samsung’s One Hand Operation+ (part of Samsung's Good Lock suite of apps) for navigating around the Android OS. I also like being able to still use soft navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen or remove them if I want. The added functionality with One Hand Operation are great: bring up a task list, go back, go home, quickly switch to previous app. On the iPad I constantly was trying to decide how far I wanted to swipe up on the bottom bar to either open a list of apps or go to the home screen (if I'm being honest this happens on the Tab S7 also). I do like the 4-finger swipe on the iPad Air to go to other apps. And the finger pinch gestures on the iPad are very useful.
- No back button on iOS. This has been talked about ad-nauseum so I won’t go into it much here, but it’s still a big sore point when going from Android to iOS. I know there are sort of back buttons in most apps but it’s really not the same at all.
- DeX, multi-tasking, multi-windows: Both the iPad and the Tab S7 allow forms of multi-tasking and multiple windows open at once. The Tab S7 version using DeX is much better. You can move around the windows and organize your work or workflow the way you like it. On the iPad you have a very simple multi-window option that allows 2 apps side by side. It works well but definitely doesn’t come close to the feature set for multiple windows on the Tab S7. First, you have two options for multiple windows on the Tab S7. You can use the multi-window options that are also included on the Note series phones, or you can use DeX. DeX takes it to another level. I used DeX mode to write part of this review. Not only can you use DeX as a windowed environment right on the Tab S7, you can also connect to a monitor or PC and control your Tab S7 in a windowed environment there. There is also a feature called DeX labs that allows you to use some additional features that are unsupported but useful, like allowing apps that aren’t officially supported by DeX to be resized. In DeX, if the app supports rotating (but doesn't officially support DeX), you can rotate it using a rotate button in the toolbar. Some apps, like Google Docs, that support DeX can be resized to any size. On the downside, some apps, like LastPass, don’t run at all in DeX mode although you can run LastPass in a mobile browser like Chrome.
Pen / Pencil
I can’t compare the two pens on each tablet as the iPad Air 4 doesn’t come with the Apple pencil and I didn’t spend the extra money to get one. I can tell you the iPad Air supports only the Apple Pencil (2nd generation) so if you have the first generation Apple Pencil, you will have to shell out for the second generation pencil. The Tab S7 includes the S Pen Stylus. Not that it’s crucial or a deal breaker not to have one, but it’s a very nice added feature that you don't have to pay extra for. I use it for signing documents, marking up documents, selecting text or areas of images for text recognition or markup, and simple navigation when I’d rather not smudge up the screen with my fingers.
Screen/Display
Fingerprints on the display: The iPad Air’s screen is a fingerprint magnet. So is the Tab S7’s but it seems much worse on the iPad Air.
Brightness: I have to admit I like the highest brightness setting on the iPad Air 4 a little more than on the Tab S7. This is with no other filters like True Tone on the (iPad) and night filters on either. The iPad Air’s screen gets very bright. And it gets whiter than the Tab S7. The Tab S7 has a slight yellowish tint when showing whites (which I’m not a fan of at all) but seems almost as bright as the iPad Air’s screen. I tried to show the difference in the following picture but for some reason it didn't come out as I expected. The photo was taken with a Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. In the photo, the iPad Air appears to have more of a yellow tint but this isn't at all how it is in person. It's the opposite with the Tab S7 having the yellow tint.
Weight: From just a “feel” perspective, the iPad feels lighter (no keyboard) than the Tab S7. With the keyboard, the weight difference is even larger. The Tab S7 starts getting a bit heavy with that Bookcover keyboard.
Size/aspect ratio: For regular work, I like that the iPad screen is slightly taller and less wide (23:16 aspect ratio) than the Tab S7 (16:10 aspect ratio). But if you’re a movie watcher, then the Tab S7’s aspect ratio might be a better choice. It’s an immersive experience when watching a Netflix movie on the Tab S7 with no black bars like the ones that show up on the iPad Air (see photo below). Add to that the better sound on the Tab S7 and movie/video watching is even better on the Tab S7 than on the iPad Air. Note in the following photo, the Tab S7 may be stretched. You can see that there are sections on each side on the iPad Air that are not there on the Tab S7. So, the Tab S7 will sometimes show black bars also but I believe they should be smaller than on the iPad Air 4 due to the difference in aspect ratios.
120hz Tab S7 panel: I haven’t really noticed much of a difference in the smoothness or speed between the Tab S7’s 120hz panel and the panel on the iPad Air. Both are very smooth and very fast. I was surprised by this as I really notice the 120hz smoothness on the Note 20 Ultra.
Cameras
There are plenty of reviews covering the cameras on each of the tablets so I'll only touch on a couple of camera items. In general, I didn't purchase a tablet for the camera experience and I think most people don't purchase a tablet for the camera (although I know there a niche areas where they are needed). All I wanted to make sure of was that the camera was not very bad on a tablet that I purchase.
Front facing camera placement: Not a big deal to me but the front-facing camera placement is different between the iPad and the Tab S7. On the iPad its at the top when in portrait mode. For the Tab S7, its at the top when in landscape mode. Seems some people prefer it the way it is on the Tab S7 since a tablet is often used in landscape mode.
Rear camera specs: The iPad Air uses a 12MP Wide camera with an ƒ/1.8 aperture capable of 4K@24/30/60fps and 1080p@30/60/120/240fps. The Tab S7 has two cameras, a 13 MP Wide camera with f/2.0 aperture, and a ultrawide 5 MP camera with f/2.2 aperture. Video can be shot at 4K@30fps.
Front camera specs: The iPad Air uses a 7MP camera with an ƒ/2.2 aperture and is capable of 1080p HD video recording at 60 fps. The Tab S7 front camera is a 8 MP, f/2.0, wide camera capable of video at 1080p@30fps.
Although I didn't do a comparison of the camera quality of each tablet, here is a photo taken with each of the back-facing cameras on these two tablets.
External Storage
The Tab S7 comes with an external storage micro sd slot. The iPad Air doesn't. I’m one of those that uses that extra storage slot to add anywhere from 32GB to a terabyte of extra storage. I store my entire music collection on the SD card and also plenty of movies.
I have to say it’s good to finally be able to attach a USB-C storage device to the iPad and transfer files. A standard USB-C port was one of the biggest reasons I considered an iPad again after a long period with no iOS devices. Of course, Android has been doing this for a very long time and I use the feature quite a bit.
Conclusion
Overall, I chose the Tab S7 over the iPad Air 4 (2020). I really like the iPad Air, but in the end, a number of features mentioned above are what made me choose the Galaxy Tab S7 over the iPad Air, including sound quality, external storage, and included pen.
Galaxy Tab S7 on AmazoniPad Air 4 (2020) on Amazon
Related posts: