Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is for working from home

Samsung’s new Tab S8 tablet addresses the need to attend virtual meetings and remotely share experiences online.

Samsung Galaxy S8 tablet computer

Samsung’s new Tab S8 tablet has been influenced by the working from home phenomenon; the need to attend virtual meetings and remotely share experiences online. Samsung brands the Tab S8 as designed for “a video first world”. The Tab 8 range was announced at Samsung’s Unveiled event this week.

There are three variants – an 11-inch Tab S8 (from $1099), 12.4-inch Tab S8+ (from $1499) and big 14.6-inch Tab S8 Ultra (from $1799).

As with the S22 smartphone range, the S8 range uses one of the first Qualcomm produced four nanometre computer chips. Models have either 8GB or 12GB of memory and storage options of 128GB, 256GB, and for the Ultra, additionally 512GB and 1 terabyte. The S8 units support up to 1TB of extra storage through a microSD card. The most expensive model costs $2499.

An S Pen stylus is included in the cost but you’ll pay from $299 to $499 for a book cover keyboard if you want a laptop-style experience.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8

Some past Tabs haven’t offered the best of battery life, but Samsung claims up to 15 hours of video playback with the S8 Ultra, and with a 45-watt charger, a Tab can fully charge in 80 minutes.

You can recharge a Galaxy S22 phone from the tablet using a USB cable.

These tablets use Samsung’s One UI Tab 4 operating system which, like the smartphone OS, prioritises customisation.

The three models appear to be well set up for video calls with three mics together aimed at reducing background noise during calls, and three cameras: a 13MP autofocus, 6MP ultrawide lens and flash at rear and a 12MP ultrawide lens at the front.

Tablets have tended to be laggards when it comes to camera capabilities. Here, all three models offer 4K recording at 30 frames per second front and back, and 8K playback at 60 frames per second.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8

You can use Samsung’s dual recording feature to record both your face and either screen contents when producing, say, a tutorial, or your face and the back-view when video blogging.

Galaxy Tabs have been renowned for their great multi-tasking. It’s easy to have four apps running in four quadrants of the screen and to use the S Pen to drag content between them. The S Pen clips to the frame magnetically. The S Pen can also act as a magic wand when taking selfies or hosting presentations.

Quick share lets you transfer files from a Samsung phone to tablet almost instantly, and the tabs support Wi-Fi 6 and 6E. You can use a Samsung S22 phone as a colour palette when sketching on the Tab S8.

You can link another screen and use the Samsung DeX feature which projects Tab apps onto the screen in a laptop format.