Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 vs Apple iPad Air: specs comparison
Samsung has just announced its newest flagship tablets (that don't include S Pen styluses), so we naturally want to see how the new Galaxy Tab S devices stack up to the current competition. This one focuses on the larger display category, and that means it is time for a specs battle between the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and the Apple iPad Air.
The big focus of the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 was in the dimensions and the display, with both changes aimed squarely at the iPad Air. Samsung was able to build a tablet that has a larger display with a higher resolution than the iPad Air, while still making the table thinner and (just barely) lighter. Maybe even more impressive is that the Galaxy Tab S doesn't have a footprint all that much bigger than the Air, even though its display is 0.8 inches larger. If you can get past Samsung's usual plastic backing materials, that could make for an impressive tablet.
Unsurprisingly, the other internals of the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (SoC, RAM, etc) look far more impressive on paper, but we'll have to wait and see how the device performs in real world conditions, because Samsung's software additions tend to cause performance issues.
For this comparison, we've also added in the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1, which was released back in February and is the most direct predecessor to the new Tab S 10.5.
Display
Size
Technology
IPS LCD
Super Clear LCD
Super AMOLED
Screen-to-body
71.65 %
70.97 %
72.88 %
Features
Oleophobic coating, Ambient light sensor
Ambient light sensor
Ambient light sensor
Hardware
System chip
Apple A7
Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974
Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5420
Processor
GPU
PowerVR G6430
Adreno 330
Mali-T628 MP6
RAM
Internal storage
128GB
32GB
32GB
OS
iOS (12.x, 11.x, 10.x, 9.x, 8.x, 7.x)
Android (4.4)
Android (6.0 Marshmallow, 5.0 Lollipop, 4.4.2)
Battery
Capacity
8820 mAh
8220 mAh
7900 mAh
Music playback
147.00 hours
132.00 hours
Video playback
10.00 hours
12.00 hours
Camera
Rear
Single camera
Single camera
Single camera
Main camera
Specifications
Aperture size: F2.4
Focal length: 33 mm
Focal length: 33 mm
Video recording
1920x1080 (Full HD) (30 fps)
1920x1080 (Full HD)
1920x1080 (Full HD) (30 fps)
Recording format
H.264, MOV
MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV
Features
Time-lapse video, EIS, Video calling
Video calling
Front
1.2 MP
2 MP
2.1 MP
Video capture
1280x720 (HD) (30 fps)
Design
Dimensions
(240 x 169.5 x 7.5 mm)
(243.1 x 171.4 x 7.3 mm)
(247.3 x 177.3 x 6.6 mm)
Weight
the average is 18.2 oz (521 g)
the average is 18.2 oz (521 g)
the average is 18.2 oz (521 g)
Materials
Back: Aluminum
Biometrics
Fingerprint (swipe)
Features
Touch sensitive control keys
Buyers information
Price
$ 929
See the full Apple iPad Air vs Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 specs comparison or compare them to other tablets using our Tablet Comparison Tool.
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