Samsung launches Galaxy Tab S4 with DeX support, aiming to replace your Surface

The rumor mill has been churning for a while now surrounding the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. Today, Samsung launched the latest-and-greatest in its tablet lineup, and it comes with a few new features that make it a viable replacement for your laptop.

Most notably, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 is the first tablet to support Samsung’s DeX hardware, which makes it incredibly easy to use the tablet as a full desktop computer. Simply attach the tablet to a DeX dock, and you can work with a desktop-style OS experience along with monitors, keyboards, and a mouse.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Galaxy Tab S4 physically is that it has some seriously thin bezels, at least when compared to other tablets in its class (including the previous Samsung Galaxy Tab S3). Those thin bezels surround a 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display, an 11 percent increase of viewing area over the Tab S3 – but in the same form factor.

The display’s resolution is 2,560 x 1,600 with 287 pixels-per-inch, in a 16:10 ratio.

The next thing you’re likely to notice is that the physical home button that’s usually on the front of Samsung tablets is missing. That’s because the tablet will unlock using facial recognition technology combined with an iris scanner. This enables you to unlock your tablet by merely looking at it, although a PIN or password unlock is still available as a fallback. There is no fingerprint sensor.

Under the hood, the Galaxy Tab S4 sports four speakers tuned by AKG and Dolby Atmos immersive sound technology. Samsung claims this will deliver crisper dialog, enveloping sound fields, maximized loudness without distortion, and consistent playback volume.

The display and audio capabilities of the tablet are supported by a Snapdragon 835 Octa-Core processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB or 256GB of storage, and a 7,300mAh, fast-charging battery. The tablet will ship with Android 8.1 Oreo out-of-the-box.

There’s a USB Type-C port at the bottom of the device for charging and connections, a microSD slot for adding up to 400GB of extra storage, and an 8MP front camera with a 13MP camera on the back.

As with the Galaxy Tab S3, the Galaxy Tab S4 comes with a Samsung S Pen stylus, which allows you to draw and write text on the tablet with high accuracy. However, the tablet still doesn’t have a slot to hold the S Pen (as the Galaxy Note line does), which is a bit of a disappointment.

The stylus also does not connect to the tablet via Bluetooth, which the S Pen on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is likely to do.

Samsung is launching the Galaxy Tab S4 with a keyboard cover (sold separately) that will help you type faster and more efficiently than with the on-screen keyboard. When you combine the tablet with the keyboard cover and the stylus, it’s hard to not view the Galaxy Tab S4 as Samsung’s answer to the success of the Microsoft Surface tablet.

The tablet will come in two varieties: a Wi-Fi version and an LTE version. We know that the LTE version will work on Verizon, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular at some point this year. However, Samsung says Verizon will get the tablet first as a temporary exclusive.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 Wi-Fi version will go up for sale on August 10 and cost a pretty penny: $650. The next Samsung Unpacked event – where the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will launch – is happening on August 9, so the Galaxy Tab S4 will be available the following day.

However, if you’re committed to buying the tablet, Samsung is giving you a sweet incentive: reserve the tablet between now and August 9, and you can get 50 percent off a compatible keyboard cover. Normally $150, you’d pay $75 for the keyboard cover, bringing your total price for the tablet to $725.

Click the button below to reserve your tablet now!