Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e SM-T725 10.5″ 2019 Wi-Fi+Cellular Black

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e SM-T725

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e strikes a perfect balance between a great multimedia companion and a productivity tool. The display, design, and audio make sure you’re covered for your binge-watching sessions even on the go with an impressive battery backup. It’s one of a kind offering at its price range as there are no other tablets in its territory that have such a versatile set of features.

Design, display and audio

The moment I held the Galaxy Tab S5e in the hand, I was impressed with how lightweight and sleek it feels in the hand. Even with the keyboard accessory on, which adds significant weight to the body, it seems like a thin notebook.

You can slide it into any small bag or sleeve and if you are using the keyboard cover, it’s still sleek enough to be carried around in your hand. It weighs around 400 grams which makes it easy to hold for extending periods of time, and it also becomes much easier to be used on the go.

It measures 245 x 160 x 5.5mm, making it one of the thinnest slates on the market – however it comes at the expense of losing the headphone jack. But you do get an adapter in the box, however, allowing you to plug in your wired headphones via the USB-C port.

The only ports on the Galaxy Tab S5e are a USB-C opening and a POGO pin connector for attaching a smart keyboard.

The power/lock key is towards the top of the right side of the tablet (when held in portrait), and it has a fingerprint sensor built into it.

Meaning, there’s no home button on the front to incorporate the fingerprint sensor, which allows more real estate for the screen. But that doesn’t mean that it’s bezel-less or anything close to that, the borders are relatively smaller than previous generation tablets but still noticeable.

The volume rocker is right below the power/lock key, and it’s easy to reach but of course, not with just one hand.

The metal unibody provides a rigid and premium touch and feels to it, but there’s no escaping the fact that the rear looks very bland similar to the budget tablets from a couple of years ago. So the back eventually fails to offer a richness to the aesthetics that you see on the Apple iPad.

(Image credit: Future)

There is no place for a stylus as it does not come with an S-Pen neither it supports any external pen.

There’s a squarish camera module on the top left, a chrome Samsung logo in the middle and AKG branding at the bottom of the rear panel.

The AKG branding on the back is because the tab has four stereo speakers located on each end of the tablet tuned by AKG. For those who don’t know, AKG Acoustics is an acoustics engineering and manufacturing company under Harman, which is owned by Samsung Electronics.

Anyway, what matters is if the audio is good, and it’s surprisingly good. The four speakers are loud, crisp and make video/audio consumption on this tab a treat.

(Image credit: Future)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e surprised us not once, but twice during our first encounter with the tablet. First with its form factor and second with the 10.5-inch QHD Super AMOLED display. We expected it to be good, but it’s better than what it looks like on paper. The aspect ratio and higher screen to body ratio add up to the viewing experience a lot more.

The AMOLED displays are extra vibrant and have deeper blacks compared to the LCDs, so naturally, the Tab S5e delivers excellent clarity and ample vibrancy for video watching. It was our go-to device for the on-going Cricket World Cup streaming during work, and you also get access to HD content on Netflix and other video streaming apps.

(Image credit: Future)

Multitasking and gaming

With a Snapdragon 670 chipset and 4GB of RAM at its heart, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e is relatively well-equipped to deliver a stable Android experience. Keeping that in mind, we stressed it out with pushing it with multitasking and gaming.

We had multiple PUBG sessions with the device, and it’s a better tab than the Galaxy Tab S4 to play games on. While the performance is matchable, the form factor here plays a crucial role in making it a better tablet for games. It handles PUBG Mobile’s fast-paced Team Deathmatch easily while keeping the graphics at medium level. In comparison to iPad 9.7 32GB Cellular? The iPad offers better gaming performance.

Multitasking is pretty fluid on the Tab S5e; it can handle everything that you would practically do on a tablet at a time. But note that the performance degrades after a point of time and switching, opening and closing of apps might show a lag after a few months of usage. It is fast, but it lacks the fluidity of the Tab S4 or its iPad rivals.

It comes with 64GB of internal storage. But Samsung knows consumers are obsessed with external cards (especially in India) so it keeps support for microSD cards for up to 512GB, which makes it even better for movie/series collectors. It comes handy for storing your media or files for times when there’s no internet.

(Image credit: Future)

Software and features

The Tab S5e runs Android 9.0 with Samsung’s One UI on top. It is snappy, responsive, and straightforward to use for all age profiles. What I personally not like is the choice of icons packs, but rest looks good. The transitions and animations make a massive difference in how fast the UI feels compared to Samsung’s older UI.

There’s a general issue with Android tablets that a handful of apps support the larger layout. Samsung needs Google’s support to solve this problem, while Google does something about it, Samsung has made some neat software tweaks in the UI.

The main interface is similar to what we’ve seen on new Samsung Galaxy phones. The key differentiator in its case is the Dex mode, which allows a desktop-like experience for better productivity. You can switch to the Dex mode from the quick action menu within the notification bar.

It is made for multitasking and working on the go while you can still watch a Netflix show on the adjacent window. But there’s a limit to multitasking while in the Dex mode. You can’t expect it to match up to a laptop where you have ten tabs open while listening to music and writing an article at the same time.

Apart from Dex, there is a Samsung Account feature that allows remote access to your Samsung smartphone when used with the same account. Also, it is the company’s first tablet with Bixby digital voice assistant pre-loaded, where it uses its far-field mics for voice commands to keep you organized. But sadly, Bixby’s word recognition is still not at par.

For children, it has child safety features where parents can restrict access to certain apps and data.