Two-minute review
The tablet market had been on something of a downward trajectory until the pandemic gave slates a new lease of life. In a segment dominated by Apple, Samsung had been pulling the load for Android tablets as other brands bowed out over time.
This Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE review covers the company’s mid-range offering for 2021, which brings the best of the flagship Tab S7 series to a lower price point by retaining most of their impressive features, but with a less-powerful chipset running things in order to keep the price down. This makes it a great alternative for those looking for a capable tablet without having to spend laptop-level money.
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE (64GB Pink) at Amazon for $429.99 (opens in new tab)
Unlike Samsung’s budget tablet, the Tab A7 Lite, the Tab S7 FE offers the full Galaxy Tab experience, including DeX, Samsung’s proprietary feature that enables you to use a desktop-like interface – although while this works well as an alternate workspace, it does little to fix Android’s shortcomings on larger screens.
Similarly, like the Tab S7 Plus, it offers a large 12.4-inch display that makes it suitable for productivity tasks, but it misses out on premium perks such as an OLED panel or a high refresh rate. In our testing, those omissions were easy to live with, as it’s a great screen otherwise, and better than you’ll find on most other laptops or tablets at this price. Ditto for the stereo speaker setup.
If you’re looking to get a tablet for productivity purposes, you’ll be glad to know that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE comes bundled with an S Pen stylus, complete with all the associated features that the company’s flagships have enjoyed for years. It makes taking notes, sketching, annotating, signing and scrolling easy and enjoyable.
Unfortunately, our feelings about the keyboard cover are very different. Not only is it quite expensive, it barely adds to the experience owing to having no trackpad, limited adjustability and a basic feature set. On the plus side, it supports an array of shortcuts designed for multi-tasking.
Despite its svelte design, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE is powered by an impressively large battery. At over 10,000mAh it easily lasts for hours at a stretch, and the battery life is so good that we were able to put up with the frustratingly slow charging speeds.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE is a great option for anyone looking for a capable Android tablet for tasks beyond binge-watching. It’s much cheaper than its flagship siblings, and potentially smarter than its iOS counterparts – just don’t expect it to replace your PC entirely.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE price and availability
- Starts at $529 / £519 / Rs 46,999
- Prices go higher for more storage or 5G
- S Pen is included but Keyboard Cover isn’t
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE is available now in the US, UK and India. We’ve yet to hear if the tablet will be made available in Australia, but it may eventually make its way to the country.
For the Wi-Fi only version, there are three options but not every one is available in every market. One has with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage priced at $529 / £519 / Rs 46,999 (around AU$1,080), one has the 6GB+128GB model is priced at $599 / £629 / Rs 50,999 (around AU$1,150). In the US, there’s an option with 256GB of storage at $679.
In the US, there’s also a 5G version of the tablet with 64GB of storage that costs $669.99 (around £480 / AU$900).
The S Pen is included in the package, while the Book Cover Keyboard costs $159.99 £139 / Rs 14,999 – but there are some bundle deals that make it much cheaper. All models are LTE-capable, but Samsung tells us that a Wi-Fi-only v
