It is an old battle in terms of tablets, Apple vs. Samsung, and the iPad Air 2 with the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 have a score to settle. What makes each of these devices worth purchasing? Is it the build, the features, or maybe the price? Let’s put them head to head and see.
Both tablets are remarkably thin. The iPad Air 2 comes out ahead, though, measuring in at 240 x 170 x 6.1 mm (long, across, deep) and weighing in at 437 grams. Its counterpart, the Galaxy Tab S, is slightly larger at 247 x 177 x 6.6 and weighs in a little extra, at 465 grams.
The build on the iPad Air 2 outdoes the Galaxy Tab. We are talking about high-end aluminum materials on the Apple slate, while Samsung offers a plastic encasing. Disregarding the material it’s made out of, the Galaxy Tab S is comfortable in the hands. Apple offers the new tablet in three color variants: space gray, gold and white, while the Samsung Tab is offered just in bronze and white.
The display debate is quite heated. The iPad Air 2 has a nice, crisp 2048 x 1536 resolution on a 9.7 inch display, with 264 ppi (pixels per inch). On the other hand the Galaxy Tab S is a bit sharper in this aspect: 2560 x 1600 resolution on a 10.5 inch display, with 288 ppi. The display type on the lightest and thinnest iPad ever is an IPS, while the Galaxy Tab S employs an AMOLED display, which has some advantages regarding the richness of the colors and the contrast. The iPad Air 2 on the other hand features an anti-glare display, opposed to its counterpart.
Both devices feature fingerprint sensors, but the iPad Air 2 offers the fastest option with the Touch ID feature. The cameras for both devices are 8 MP on the rear, while the front snapper of the Galaxy Tab S at 2 MP outdoes its contender’s 2 1.2 MP camera. The battery capacity on the Apple flagship tablet is a tad smaller, 7.340 compared to the Tab’s 7.900 mAh. The Galaxy Tab S also features an Ultra Power Saving Mode, enabling it to limit app usage and turn its screen black and white to save a lot of run-time.
In the storage wars the iPad Air 2 gets a huge lead. It features three variants: 16/64/128 GB, while the Galaxy Tab S only gets two, 16/32 GB. Even so, the Tab comes packing a microSD card slot, which the iPad doesn’t have. Regarding the chips, the iPad Air 2 packs a 64-bit, tri-core, 1. GHz A8x processor, while its counterpart comes with an Exynos 5 Octa 32-bit, octa core, 1.9 GHz + 1.3 GHz. One might assume that given the number of cores and clock-speed the Galaxy Tab would run faster; that is not the case. When tested with Geekbench 3, a benchmark app, the iPad Air 2 scored 104 % higher in the single-core test and 66 % higher in the multi-core one. Both devices are up to date and in tip-top shape, but the iPad Air 2 has the raw performance to stand by it. The memory aspect serves the Galaxy Tab S more, as it features 3GB of RAM, opposed to the newest iPad Air that only has 2 GB.
The Galaxy Tab S features split-screen multitasking, a feature that is not yet made available for the iPad Air 2. The Tab runs on a Android 4.4 KitKat, with promises from Samsung to upgrade to the new Android 5.0 Lollipop early this year. The Apple slate runs on the new iOS 8.
The starting price for both devices was 500 $, a decent one for what they are worth. Both devices have pros and cons, and they balance each other out quite evenly. In terms of build and processing power the iPad Air 2 comes above, while the Galaxy Tab S in terms of display and battery has a slight upper hand. Then again it comes down to which ever you like, both being decently equipped devices.