Important things first: Samsung's Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7 + are great Android tablets.
In fact, we just named the Tab S7 the best Android tablet of 2020.
This is largely due to the fact that the Android tablets that compete with the Tab S7 and S7 + are almost all also from Samsung, one of the few manufacturers that takes this type of device seriously.
Last year's crop of Tab S6 models left us wanting more, and with the Tab S7 and S7 +, Samsung has delivered.
You can buy the Tab S7 or Tab S7 +, with configurations starting at $ 649.99 and $ 849.99, respectively.
That gets you a tablet and Samsung's S Pen in the box, with 128GB of storage.
We have enjoyed using both tablets in recent weeks, but while they are fantastic Android tablets that benefit from Samsung's improvements, they are not perfect.
Design
Let's talk about the obvious: The Tab S7 and S7 + look a lot like Apple's iPad Pro.
If it weren't for the 16: 9 widescreen aspect ratio, it would be almost too easy to confuse the two devices.
The S7 have square edges, with the volume and power buttons on the right side and a USB-C port on the bottom that is used for charging or transferring data.
On the left side, or at the bottom when the tablet is horizontal, there are three pins that are used to power the keyboard and provide a path for data to go between the two devices.
A case can be magnetically attached to the back of the tablet, and it even has a place that protects the S Pen, which is also magnetically attached.
The screen on the Tab S7 measures 11 inches, while the S7 + is larger at 12.4 inches.
The larger surface area not only gives you more room to work on the screen, it also means that the keyboard accessory has more space.
Any keyboard is fine for typing, but the smaller version feels cramped, and we were more prone to typos during the first few days of use.
Perhaps our favorite design aspect of the Tab S7 is the front camera, which is now focused on the tablet when you hold it in landscape mode.
It's great because you no longer have to look to the side of the screen when you're on a video call, and it keeps you focused at all times.
It's a small but important design tweak, especially with the number of video calls we're all in at the moment.
In general, the design of the Tab S7 and S7 + is familiar, but with the fingerprint of Samsung.
That said, we would have loved to see Samsung use the same design approach as the Galaxy S20 or Note 20 phones in the Tab S7 line.
That would have been something special.
performance
In general, the Tab S7 and Tab S7 + are the same tablets.
Both devices come with Android 10 and Samsung's proprietary One UI interface, with full support from Google.
Both tablets are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ processor;
they have 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB storage options;
they have displays with a screen refresh rate of up to 120 Hz;
have optional 5G connectivity;
have support for 45-watt fast charging through the USB-C port;
and they come with an S Pen stylus in the box.
Where the S7 and S7 + start to diverge is screen type, screen size, memory, and battery life.
The S7 + uses Samsung's Super AMOLED screen and measures 12.4 inches, while the S7 is 11 inches and is an LCD screen.
On paper, the S7 + should be the clear winner, offering brighter colors and more vivid images compared to the S7, but in use, the two displays looked almost identical when playing the same video.
The S7 + has 8GB of memory, while the S7 has 6GB of memory, which means that the S7 + will be better suited for multitasking or keeping applications open in the background for longer, an especially important factor when you start to use. Samsung's DeX software that transforms the standard Android interface into a laptop-like interface.
You can activate it automatically by connecting either tablet to the Samsung keyboard accessory, which is sold separately, starting at $ 199.
DeX is an interesting approach to fix the problem that all Android apps fall victim to.
Specifically, the vast majority of Android apps are not optimized for tablets.
For example, instead of opening an app and seeing multiple columns, like you do with Gmail with your inbox on one side and the body of an email on the other side of the screen, you're stuck with the phone version of an app, only bigger.
The end result is a lot of wasted space, and not an efficient experience.
That changes when you attach the Tab S7 to the Samsung keyboard accessory;
automatically enables DeX and changes the interface to look more like a Windows 10 or Chrome OS design.
There is an app dock at the bottom, showing you which apps are currently open, and an app drawer that you can use to open more apps.
But where DeX shows its potential is with the ability to run multiple applications at the same time in windows of different sizes, rather than adjusting the applications to specific sections of the screen.
In other words, the DeX desktop with multiple windows open looks and works almost exactly like a laptop.
And for the most part, it's cool.
The familiarity of managing multiple windows and multi-tasking between them makes for a seamless transition.
But where the experience starts to falter is with Android apps that aren't optimized for DeX.
Chrome, for example, doesn't have the default desktop mode.
Instead, you must manually switch from the mobile version of the browser to access the desktop version of a website.
With other applications, like Geekbench 5, you cannot resize their windows.
There is a tool built into DeX Labs that will force the app to resize, but it is strictly for getting in and out of full screen mode, and requires you to restart the app every time you want to switch from one window to full screen or vice versa.
That's not ideal, especially if you're in the middle of a project and you have to worry about losing your job.
Don't get us wrong: there's a lot we like about DeX, and we much prefer it over using standard Android apps on a tablet, but we wish it was a seamless experience across all apps and services.
One more difference between the two tablets is that the S7 has a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, while the S7 + has a fingerprint sensor built into the screen.
It comes down to personal preference on which one you like best, as both are fast.
When the S7 + is docked to the keyboard cover, the fingerprint reader is on the right side, roughly halfway across the screen.
It makes it easy to reach and press your thumb on it, while the S7's fingerprint reader is on the top edge of the tablet and is somewhat awkward to access.
Outside of screen size, battery life is probably the biggest difference between the two.
The S7 has an 8,000 mAh battery, and the S7 + has a 10,090 mAh battery.
Don't let the battery size fool you.
During our benchmark battery test of playing a video loop repeatedly with the tablets in airplane mode and the screen brightness set to 50%, the S7 lasted for 15 hours and 22 minutes.
The S7 + gave up after 10 hours and 5 minutes.
In other words, the S7's battery will last all day and well into the next, while the S7 + should be enough to get you through a full day of use.
Performance on both tablets, as a regular Android tablet or in DeX mode, was silky smooth.
We never experienced any hiccups or issues with slow apps, even when we had multiple apps open.
As we do with any device we test, we run Geekbench 5, a benchmark app, to quantitatively measure the performance of the tablets.
Because the tablets are so similar, we were not surprised that they performed almost identical to each other.
The Tab S7 scored 969 on single core and 3,193 on multi-core test.
The Tab S7 + scored 964 and 2,742 for the same tests, respectively.
The difference between the multicore scores is likely due to differences in resolution and screen size.
In everyday use, we didn't notice any performance difference between the two.
Compared to previous Galaxy tablets, the Tab S7 and Tab S7 + offer a more complete package.
From battery life to performance to screen quality, there is no real comparison.
Better, because you can choose which device suits your needs based on size.
conclusion
Android tablets are rare, but that shouldn't detract from what Samsung has accomplished with the Tab S7 and Tab S7 +.
Both are solid tablets that integrate with the Google and Samsung ecosystem of applications and services.
Deciding which S7 tab you should get comes down to screen size and how much you want to spend.
The best bang for your buck is the smaller S7 tab, making it currently CNN Underscored's best Android tablet of 2020.
Note: The above prices reflect the price at the time of publication of the article.
