Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad iPad Air 5 vs Samsung S8?
- Thread starter Technerd108
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
1st world problem. iPad (iPadOS) is good on software. While S8 (Android) is good on hardware. However with M1, iPad is also win (at certain extents) over S8.
It depends your priorities and use case. In overall, UX in iPad is much better. But you may have use case (ie, watching movie) which has higher priority than UX, where in this case, S8 is preferred.
Another alternative is to buy refurbished 2020 iPad Pro. You got all iPad Pro benefits except M1 (which still over-powered for current state of iPadOS).
Last edited:
all this is subjective.... it's the contrary for me, I prefer the iPad air hardware but also the Samsung OneUI. If I could choose I would run Samsung OneUI in the iPad air 5 hardware... (I wonder how many here use both these platform daily to have a clear and comprehensive knowledge of them...)
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
You don’t say. The whole point of the thread is to ask for others’ opinions, which is in the spirit by which I gave mine.
Still, the Pro has the far better screen, and a higher ceiling of storage, as well as FaceID which I find better than the touchID on the Air. And against the S8, all these features add up.
All that said, to each their own. I made my choice (12.9“ 1TB Pro) and I’m more than pleased.
The point of the forum is have others opinions including highlighting when other opinons may not suit the purpose. He does not want to splurge for the 11in M1 pro now, he wants to wait for either a M2 or a better sale, but he wants to have a tablet in the meantime.
As for "far better screen" I think you are confusing the 12.9 with with the 11. The 11 is a LCD with promotion just like the S8. In the S8 you have not only 128GB / 256GB but also microsd up to 1TB. As for face id, probably most people prefer it, I personally hate it and have disabled in tablets that stay at home. I much prefer touch id. We are different.
Well, as you… I use both OneUI and iPadOS. And it all boils down to application support between the two.. more on that later.
I use a Galaxy Fold for which when unfolded it… it’s marketed as a mini tablet. And I have iPad Pro as well, both of these devices I use extensively on a daily basis. Both have their strengths and weakness. And In terms of OS… I prefer OneUI over iPadOS, as you mention it has superior multitasking, file management is better, 3rd party integration is better… can do more customization with OneUI.
But if I was to choose hardware… I’d go with the iPad, primarily because of the M1 chip.. from all the testing and performance results the chip shows how it’s superior to Qualcomm ARM. But I think the deciding factor between the two is application support. There’s more dev support for the iPad and for that reason alone… I think the iPad is the better choice since it has more tablet optimized apps.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
I won't argue this to no end, but I'll say that an iPad Pro is the better comparative value.
In my opinion, and given the OP stating the iPhone is their primary device, I wouldn't consider the S8. It would be an Air vs Pro scenario.
Yes, you're paying a bit more but you get a better than Air screen (what I referred to earlier), FaceID (personal choice), better connectivity (if you plug anything in ever, OR if you plug your iPad into your Mac), and a better Pencil experience (even if occasional).
My suggestion to the OP is that the M1 Pro may "last" longer, and blend better with his/her iPhone/Mac setup given the (potential) advantages it has over the Air.
Decisions, decisions.
In the end I have decided to send back the air and S8. The S8 is very nice but the snapdragon 8 gen 1 is barely any faster than the snapdragon 865 in my S20 FE. I will be able to get a credit from Samsung so if I decide later I can purchase it and possibly there will be sales too during Thanksgiving.
I rebought the air base model from Apple education store and will get a $100 gift card. I also got a $50 discount so my idea is when the new iPad pro is released I can sell my air and take a small hit and use the gift card towards the Pro. That way I won't be out any money. If I like the air enough I may just keep it.
The 120hz refresh rate is very nice on the S8 but because it is a variable rate and lcd not OLED the difference is not as huge as I would have thought. The OLED panel on my iPhone is much smoother. I think there is just more smearing on the LCD screen as the pixels can't keep up with the refresh rate.
I am hoping the promotion I get from Samsung will be good for a few months because the snapdragon 8 gen 2 should be a major improvement from the 8 gen 1 and that is the Android device to buy which S23 will be here in February. Not sure if they will release a tab s9 next year but I think that would be my best bet.
I like Android a lot but there are a lot of issues I ran into. With the iPad the UI is consistently smooth no matter what I do. I won't go into more detail but I had some issues but I will probably get a Android tablet in the future. Samsung just today released 12L or 13 on the tablet and there are some things I like and some I don't. So I think in a little while with a better chipset Android tablets could be much better.
I will never use Dex or iOS16 multi window mode docked to a desk. I don't like 2 in one set ups. I will use my tablet for light use and traveling and my laptop for everything so even with the air and stage manager not being able to use swap it won't matter.
The new iPad Pro models in new colors and glass back look pretty cool. I just hope they keep the price at $799 for the base model. Then I can sell the air and use the gift card and spend a hundred bucks for a Christmas present to myself. At least that is my plan for now.
Thanks to everyone for their opinions and not going to far down the ios vs Android and which is better rabbit hole. I value different opinions that actually contributed what they like about each because it helps me understand what I actually value in a device.
I prefer the iPad pro, but for me it's not really because of better apps. It's easy to say apps are better on iPad, without being specific. It's often that 1 or 2 apps that are critical to you that make all the difference for you but not for someone else. For instance iPad is superior for drawing but if you can't draw it doesn't matter.
For me the main reasons to prefer the iPad are (mostly hardware):
- Better support for thin bezels / accidental touches (rarely happens on iPad, happens all the time on Samsung tablets with thin bezels, but I am told it also happens on Surface pro 8/X). I guess it's hardware, or a combination of hardware and software.
- Better aspect ratio for portrait use (hardware)
- Better keyboard (magic keyboard)
- Better optimised browser (the S8 is basically as fast as the A12X on benchmarks but Safari is twice as fast as any browser on the S8, let alone on the M1, where it's 3 times as fast)
In terms of OS, OneUI is vastly superior to iPadOS, and with the Android 12L update that arrived yesterday (OneUI 4.1.1) it's even better.
In terms of third party apps for me it's almost a draw.
iPads have Lumafusion, but it will be coming on Android. As I said, I don't care about drawing since I can't draw. Music creation/playing apps are superior on iPad, and almost non existent on Android.
Otherwise, most of the apps I use are just as good and optimized on both systems (I use a lot of Google apps, Microsoft apps, streaming apps, TV apps, local news apps, cloud apps)
The only unoptimized apps are Facebook/meta apps, but I barely use them. Twitter has a perfectly optimized web app.
I also use a lot remote desktop apps and second screen apps.
On iPad remote desktop apps tend to be better, especially with the magic keyboard, but Android wins on second screen apps, which I use a lot, with some apps that are superior not only to Sidecar (that's not a very high bar), but to any third party apps on iPadOS (and I essentially own all of them).
So it's kind of a draw for me overall for me.
Luckily I don't need to choose and I can have the best of both worlds. But the iPads get more use overall.
And it really comes down to hardware (see above) and Safari optimization (I use Safari not only for browsing but also for youtube, not the youtube app). And even small things like selecting text in Safari is a much better experience than on Android or Windows (unless you have a mouse). But these are small things I do all the time...
I use Android tablets a lot as wireless monitors (because of the much superior apps, with support for 120hz, audio, zero latency etc.) and the S8 ultra for movies because of the larger size, but not for much else to be honest.
Well, for me. Reason why I think iPad is superior in regards to 3rd party apps is simple because there’s more to choose from. I can’t put a number on it… I recall Apple mentioned in one event where the number was ridiculous. I understand you looking at it in terms of popular apps are on both platforms and they work just as well on Android. But when someone refer to the amount of tablet optimized apps… that’s where the iPad wins.
Not sure what you mean by second screen? You mean… on an external display? So are we comparing Stage Manager to DeX? I’ll give you Android wins now… because Stage Manager has yet to arrive officially, which could make this a moot point.
There can be a millions more tablet apps on the App store, but if I don't use them, I don't care. I only care about the roughly 50 apps that I use.
Second screen is not Stage Manager or Dex.
I thought it was clear when I said Sidecar. Let me explain what Sidecar is: you can use your iPad as an external monitor for your mac (including wirelessly), with support for the Apple pencil.
There are several third party apps, including Duet display (I have the pro subscription), Luna Display (uses a hardware dongle) and Spacedesk (still in beta and free, but soon to become a paid app with more pro feature).
Sidecar works only with Macs, while all the others work with Windows too, and some work also with Android (Duet) or even exclusively with Windows and Android (and the best among all of them is a Windows and Android only app, Superdisplay).
It basically allows me to merge, just through this app, an Android tablet and a desktop pc, with the results being a sort of Surface pro, but with the power of a gaming desktop, the battery life of an iPad or better, zero lag and zero heat (and battery life stay constant regardless of load).
This should not be confused with remote desktop, as RD cannot turn a tablet into the equivalent of a native device, as you can't use multitouch the same way (try scrolling with jump desktop for instance and you'll see what I am talking about...). Also, remote desktop does not work (well) with multiple monitors.
Yeah, I get it. That’s why I mention looking at it from the standpoint of the apps that you use. But I’m only acknowledging a user gets more selection of tablet optimized apps on iPadOS and that could be a factor in choosing between S8 and iPad Air.
I’ve never really been a fan of using my iPad as a monitor (Sidecar never really appeal to me). Remote Desktop? Yes… but monitor, no. I’d rather just buy a monitor. But I understand now… you are not referring to Remote Desktop as a second screen.
The only argument I can see having the iPad as a monitor if you are using it for the Apple Pencil… but I’m of the mindset, just move the workflow onto the iPad Itself.
I have several portable monitors, but they are far from being the same thing. First of all they are not wireless, so I can't move them around the house. Second, as you said, they don't support a pen (only a couple 14in monitors do).
My normal setup has 2 monitors, a 4k 27in monitor and, below it, a 12.4 Samsung tablet (or sometimes a 14.6in one). I don't split screen etc. for me using 2 monitor is the way to go. I don't need 2 big ones, a smaller one and a larger one are perfect. But if I start watching or listening to something on one monitor I can bring the small one with me around the house to keep doing it and interactive with it. Not something you can do with a portable monitor.
Yeah, that’s my approach. I have a large monitor along with a smaller one, both 4k monitors. But I do keep a portable monitor as well (3 monitors total)… this is primarily for DeX though.
I understand your point and I can see that works for you. So, that‘s something you factor into the S8 vs Air debate, but I personally would rather move my workflow onto the iPad instead of casting it as a second screen.
If you manage to make your iPad your only device (and are therefore fine with it's file management and apps to do everything) it's perfectly fine to move to a full iPad workflow, although if you use 2 4k monitors I guess you are still using some Windows or MacOS device.
For me my tablets are companion devices, my main devices are a Windows desktop and a M1 Mac Mini at home and a thinkpad on the go. I need desktop-only apps for my work (including the full Office suite, desktop whatsapp and local syncing cloud services plus several windows only softwares) and there is nothing Apple can do to bring those apps to iPad short of putting MacOS with the ability to run parallels on it. So the iPads and Android tablets will continue to be entertainement and companion devices to me for(probably)ever.
I agree. I tried Surface Tablets with the keyboard and those are probably the best tablets for productivity. I tried Chrome OS Tablet with Keyboard Google made, I have tried Android with Dex. They all pretty much sucked for productivity and sucked at being a tablet. They were like 70-80% there but at the end of the day for productivity a laptop just worked so much better. Try to use a tablet with a keyboard on your lap for an extended period of time or a tablet and keyboard on a desk for an extended period of time or try to use a tablet as a tablet for an extended period of time. Most of the productivity oriented tablets have bigger screens which are too big to comfortably use as a media consumption device but too small to use as a true productivity device. 12.4" seems big as a tablet but when it is your only device it is too small. As a tablet only 12.4" is too big.
Tablets also have constrained cooling solutions so even a Surface Pro can't get all the power of the high end configuration you bought. Pay for an i7 and get i5 performance at best and then it throttles. Battery life is also usually an issue on productivity oriented tablets 2 in ones.
So in the end these type of devices always make compromises and they don't really excel at either end of the spectrum. So for me I decided a while back that Jobs was right. Keep tablets as a separate but additional device to a Mac or phone. Something in the middle when your laptop is too much but your phone is not enough. It is why I don't want to pay $800 plus on a tablet. A tablet will never replace my laptop or phone which are my primary devices. A tablet to me is a luxury and additional device that has a place but if I had to could live without.
Don't get me wrong I love tablets but I just don't want to spend much north of $500 for them. After you go past $500 or so you get into laptop and phone money-obviously less expensive but still not always. For example I bought at BestBuy a Lenovo 7i 14" 2 in one laptop with 12th gen i7, 512ssd, 16gb ddr5 ram with a 2.5k touchscreen for $550 on sale. Granted it was a crazy sale and normal price was over double that but my point is For the cost of an iPad air base model at Apple Edu store I got a full blown decent Windows laptop. Why would I spend $800 or more on a tablet that won't be able to do close to what I can do on the laptop and even if it could it won't do them as well.
This is why I was torn so much between the S8 tablet and Air. I was able to get discounts on both so they were in that price range I am willing to pay for a good quality tablet but not so crazy I would regret my purchase.
However they both had such a matched set of strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately I liked the hardware of the S8 better but liked the software and chip on the Air. Having an M1 chip in the air was really nice. Everything was super fast and I know that it would handle anything I did with ease for many years. The S8 had that beautiful 120hz, brighter color saturation, better speakers, and I slightly prefer the 16x10 aspect ratio but it has a Snapdragon 8 gen 1 which in single core was almost double the speed of my SD 865 in my S20FE but in multi core was only 200 or less points ahead. This matters because my S20 is already noticeably slower than the 8 gen 1. Which means in a couple years the S8 will start to slow down. The next Snapdragon chip the 8 gen 2 is suppossed to be a much better and faster chip design so that means that the Tab S9 which will most likely be released at the start of next year or spring will be a lot faster. While the iPad air should enjoy a couple of years before a refresh and will not slow down as the M1 is so overkill for iPadOS.
I was seriously considering the Ipad pro as well but I just can't get over the cost of the base model. I contacted Apple because I wanted to know if the new iPad pro will retain the same base price as the current one. Of course they couldn't tell me anything definitively because it has not been released yet but they said that all new devices typically have a price increase. So this tells me that the base model iPad Pro will cost $899 like a lot of rumors have said. That is a crazy price. So if I get the Pro now it would be $749 plus a $100 gift card making it $700 with tax which is around $200 more than the air. So I either spend the extra $200 for all the extra features of the Pro or just deal with the Air which is still a very nice tablet for what I will do with it.
I agree that the pro it's a luxury, but as I am a tech enthusiast it's a luxury I am willing to splurge for. I guess it's a matter of priorities. Some people buy a $2000 OLED TV set, I have no TV at all and don't care... And with a TV you can be even less productive.... so it's all relative.
As for the SD 8 gen 1, the single core makes a big difference in browsing. It's over twice a fast. And even benchmarks confirm it. The browserbench 2.0 gave me barely 40-45 with the SD 865+ (in my S7+) while it's at 110 with the S8. Sure, nowhere near the iPad, where even the budget iPad is almost double (also thanks to a better optimized Safari, which is faster than other browsers).
Otherwise, I am still convinced that the 11 pro with M2 will not increase in price if it does not get mini led.... but we'll know soon enough...
I agree mostly with your post. The single core speed is almost double which makes a huge difference. Also in terms of Android it is one of the fastest chips.
I am waiting because I returned the S8 to get back a credit I had for $250. I see the S8 price on Samsung has lowered to $599 and with my discount that would make it $349 and I am hoping that it will dip even further during Black Friday sales and at the point if I can get it for closer to $300 I will buy it and have the air and the S8.
That would be better than me paying $300 for the new M2 iPad Pro 11” but I am going to consider all options.
The air hasn’t shipped yet and we should know about the new Pro iPad in a week or two and then I will weigh all my options.
I can cancel the air order before it ships or return it within 14 days if I decide to get the Pro. If I get the pro I won’t get the S8. I will probably just trade my S20 FE and use the $250 discount to get a new S22 or wait for the preorder of the S23. Most likely I will wait for the pre order as Samsung will probably throw in some earbuds for free and with all the discount I will pay like $200 for the newest model with the better chip.
I am very lucky to be in this position. I was able to sell a bunch of my older electronics to raise some money for this new iPad and upgrade my Samsung phone or keep the phone and air and get the S8.
I tried the Bora Purple base model s22 and got a free upgrade to the storage to 256gb. I use an android only app that I need that is not available on iOS. So no matter what I need an android phone. The S22 was really nice and fast. It did heat up at times and battery life could have been better but everything was good. It is a great phone. My iPhone just works better for day to day use as I have android auto and apple car integration but Apple works better and android glitches a lot. Other issues with android so it will never be my daily driver but it wasn’t a bad experience. I just find I need more work arounds and more steps to get some things to work which I don’t have to with iOS. Also FaceTime and family.
For me it's the opposite, I have a Samsung phone and I am tempted by the iPhone but there are too many things that stop me. I don't want anything bigger than 6.1in and the pro is so much more expensive than a S22 / S23... and it's getting even more expensive, while the regular iPhone doesn't even have promotion, always on display (which I use a lot) and no way I am going from USB C to lightning. And USB C is not coming before next year anyway.
Also here in Europe there is no facetime and family, everyone uses Whatsapp, end of the story. Including for business. And when you have a decade of photos, videos and conversations you don't want to risk it by moving to a platform that does not have direct transfer (google drive for Android, iCloud for iPhone). Also I have heard that notification management is not as good as on Android, and all I use my phone for is notifications, calls and camera. I don't watch videos, I write all my messages via Whatsapp desktop or emails via my PC or Mac, barely use any social network on my phone. So it's just that, notifications, calls and camera. So notifications have to work perfectly.
Makes a lot of sense. I would do the same in your position.
Notifications are equally annoying on both. Lol
Seriously the Android implementation of notifications is better but it is not a huge difference. The biggest issue is swiping away notifications. Apple needs to improve how you dismiss notifications otherwise they are the same.
Apple phones are just so much faster and smoother for so much longer than Android and the resale value is also way better. I upgrade my phone every two years on Apple and with Android I did it every year. And I don’t feel I need to upgrade even after two years. I have a 13 pro max and I could use it for 5 years easy if I wanted and wouldn’t miss an update the minute they were available, I wouldn’t notice any slow down probably ever, and even at 5 years old it would be worth something. At the end of two years since I have Apple care I could get a new replacement phone for $100 and sell it as new if I wanted to trade up or keep it for another 2years out of warranty with an essentially new device. The battery life is almost two days with heavy use. I could go on and on. iCloud backup is way better than Google or Samsung even though Samsung is pretty close.
So in my use case iPhone are way better even if they have a couple things that could be better. Also the reflective screen on the S22 was annoying while Apple has an anti reflective coating.
I personally like the lighting port. If they would just improve the transfer speed I prefer it to usb c. Usb c gets dirty easier and I tend to scratch the area around the port more than with a lightning port.
And as I said A series chips are blazing fast.
All that being said Android is more fun to customize. Samsung has a really good implementation of Android except for the bloatware, even my S20 FE is still plenty fast and fun to use but next year is the last year it will get major updates and the year after it is just security patches while the 11 pro max I traded for my 13 will get regular updates as fast as my 13 for many more years. Samsung does offer more hardware features for less cost for sure and the new phones get 4 years major updates and 5 years security updates.
I guess I am saying both are very good in their own ways but iPhone has more advantages overall. You have to use an iPhone to really understand all the advantages. My biggest gripe with iOS is gestures. Android gestures of simply swiping up or to the right or left to go forward or back IS SO much better than iOS friken arrows. I hate having to search at the top of the screen for an arrow to go back or find an arrow to navigate the UI. Android is clearly better in gesture support and that feature alone is almost enough for me to go back. Same with iPad. Just copy android gestures and things would be so much better. Lol
Last edited:
I have an iPhone SE on IOS 15 (because I want to be in every major platform) so this morning I tried installing all my major phone apps (except whatsapp, which can only be on 1 mobile device) with notifications on to try it, and... I hate it... Gives me a solid good reason not to consider iPhone as a possible alternative, at least until they seriously improve this... I don't want to hate on iPhone and even less on iPhone fans, but I don't do much on a phone other that checking notifications, calling and taking pictures and videos, so.... for me it's a deal breaker...