Why the Tab S7 Still Matters After All These Years
When Samsung launched the Galaxy Tab S7 back in 2020, nobody was exactly losing sleep over tablets. The iPad Pro had been holding the line for years, and Android tablets were mostly seen as mediocre compromises. The S7 tried to change that narrative by stacking real hardware on top of Android with Samsung DeX running underneath. I bought one on release day because I was tired of wrestling with a laptop for certain workflows. Three years later, it still sits on my desk more often than my MacBook Air. The specs read like a phone list from 2021, and that is kind of the point. Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus. Up to 8GB RAM. 128 or 256GB storage. The display is where it actually diverged from being just a big phone: 11-inch WQXGA LCD at 120Hz, 2560 by 1600 resolution, covering 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. It is not an OLED, which means no perfect blacks, but the brightness hits around 400 nits and the 120Hz refresh rate is genuinely noticeable when scrolling through documents or drawing with the S Pen. The battery is 8400 milliamp hours, which sounds generous on paper. In practice, I get roughly six to seven hours of mixed use with the screen at 60Hz. Crank it to 120Hz and DeX mode, and you are looking at maybe four and a half hours of sustained work. That is acceptable but not impressive. The good news is the 45-watt charging, which brings it from dead to full in about two hours flat if you have the right adapter plugged into the USB-C port.
Audio comes from four Harman Kardon speakers with Dolby Atmos tuning. I know that sounds like marketing copy until you open up YouTube or Netflix and realize the soundstage on this thing is legitimately better than most laptops in this price range. It is not going to replace a desktop setup, but for casual media consumption on a couch, it works well enough that I stopped using external speakers for watching shows. The S Pen is magnetically attached to the side and charges wirelessly while docked. No drawers to lose. NoBluetooth pairing nonsense. Just stick it on and go. Latency sits around 9 milliseconds according to Samsung, and in actual drawing or note-taking applications, it feels snappy. I used it heavily for annotating PDFs during the pandemic, and the accuracy held up even during long sessions where my hand rested on the screen. There is a slight drag from the palm rejection algorithm, but it is not enough to slow you down meaningfully.
DeX Changes Everything About This Device
Without Samsung DeX, the Tab S7 is just a competent Android tablet with an okay screen. With DeX, it transforms into something closer to a lightweight laptop replacement for specific tasks. You launch it by either double pressing the power button or accessing it from the quick panel, and suddenly your interface looks like Windows or macOS. Apps arrange into resizable windows, a taskbar appears at the bottom, and right clicking works through two-finger taps on the screen. I set up a dual monitor workflow at home using DeX output over USB-C to HDMI. My home setup includes a 27-inch LG display alongside the tablet, and I ran Chrome, Excel, and a terminal emulator across both screens simultaneously. The Snapdragon 865 Plus handles this without breaking a sweat most of the time. There are hiccups if you push too many heavy apps at once, but for light to moderate productivity work, the experience is smooth. Keyboard case support is another area where Samsung actually delivered. The Book Cover keyboard detaches magnetically and folds around the tablet like a proper laptop lid. Key travel is short but functional, and I typed entire reports on it during late nights without discomfort. If you want to treat this as a daily driver for writing or spreadsheets, the keyboard case is worth the extra cost. The trackpad support in DeX mode is rough around the edges though. Gestures work most of the time, but you will find yourself reaching for the screen more often than you expect.
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Where This Tablet Actually Falls Down
The software has never matched the hardware. Samsung promised Android 12 and One UI 4.0, but early updates arrived late and carried bugs that took months to patch. I remember dealing with Bluetooth audio stuttering through February of last year. There were also periodic freezing issues when switching between DeX and regular tablet mode, which forced me to restart the device mid-workflow twice in a single week. Samsung has improved stability over time, but the update cadence still lags behind what Google ships for Pixel tablets or what Apple pushes to iPads. Storage is another sore spot. The base 128GB model fills up fast once you load apps, download files, and store notes. There is no microSD card slot on the Wi-Fi-only version, and even the cellular variant with expandable storage still leaves you wanting more for serious file work. I ended up buying the 256GB version and relying on cloud storage for backups, which adds monthly costs and dependency on internet connectivity. Multitasking across apps remains clunky compared to iPadOS or even Windows. Samsung added multi-window and pop-up view features, but they feel tacked on rather than built into the OS foundation. Dragging content between apps sometimes fails silently, and the split screen layout breaks unpredictably when rotating the device. I spent more time rearranging windows than actually working in the early months of ownership.
Performance Benchmarks and Real World Usage
In Geekbench, the Tab S7 scores roughly 1100 single core and 3100 multi core, which puts it in the same ballpark as flagship phones from the same period. Gaming performance is decent but not exceptional. Titles like Genshin Impact run at medium settings with acceptable frame rates, but pushing to high or max settings causes thermal throttling within twenty minutes. The aluminum back gets warm, and the processor backs off to keep things from cooking itself. For creative work, the 120Hz display makes a noticeable difference. Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, and Procreate-like alternatives on Android run smoothly enough for casual illustration. Color accuracy is strong thanks to the P3 gamut coverage, though it is not calibrated out of the factory. I ran a color calibration routine using a Spyder X editor, and the Delta E values dropped significantly, bringing the screen much closer to the intended output. Without calibration, you might notice slight greenish or bluish tint in certain apps. The rear camera setup is dual lens: a 13-megapixel main sensor and an 5-megapixel wide angle. Neither is amazing. Photos look fine for documentation purposes, but low light performance is mediocre and dynamic range struggles with high contrast scenes. I use the tablet camera mainly for scanning documents or video calls, not photography. If camera quality matters to you, look elsewhere.
What I Wish I Knew Before Buying
The biggest surprise was how useful Samsung Notes became for daily workflows. I started using it for meeting notes and project planning, and the integration with the S Pen made handwriting feel natural. Drawing diagrams, sketching layouts, and annotating screenshots all happened seamlessly. However, syncing across devices is unreliable at times. Notes created on the tablet do not always appear on the phone immediately, and occasionally entries duplicate themselves after a sync cycle. I learned to manually verify important notes rather than trust automatic cloud transfers completely. Another thing nobody mentions: the proximity sensor near the earpiece. When you hold the tablet close to your face for video calls or reading, the screen goes black unexpectedly because the sensor thinks you put it against your head. It is an annoying quirk that appears in certain lighting conditions and has no real workaround other than ignoring it or keeping the device slightly farther away. The sensor has been there since the first Galaxy Tab model, and Samsung still has not fixed it convincingly. If you are coming from an iPad Pro, the transition feels rough at first. App selection is thinner, especially for professional creative tools. Productivity apps like Microsoft Office work well, but specialized software options remain limited. If you are switching from Windows, DeX will feel familiar enough that you adapt quickly. The biggest friction point is learning to live with Android notification management and app permissions, which operate differently than on a desktop OS.
The Tab S7 remains a solid choice for people who want a tablet that can double as a lightweight computer. The display, speakers, keyboard case, and S Pen create a package that few competitors match at this price point. Just go in knowing the software will not be flawless and the battery life will not replace your charger during a full workday.
