Migrating from iPad to Samsung Tab

[JagRunner]

Its confusing as I read reviews, people say Android tabs completely suck other say iPad users are impressed with Samsung tablets.

I guess to each his own, must check one at a store and try it.

Watch reviews on Youtube and check it out at the store. In the end, it's your choice. Good luck!

 

[Awesomesince86]

Its confusing as I read reviews, people say Android tabs completely suck other say iPad users are impressed with Samsung tablets.

I guess to each his own, must check one at a store and try it.

Ive owned both in the past year.

The Tab S7 Plus has the better hardware and the software is decent. But for me the iPad still wins, right now, because the apps are more suited for a tablet experience. That could change if Google creates a fold device as they are rumored because then developers will have more incentive to add tablet mode UI for apps. So, as it stands I would say the iPad is the best choice. But that could change in the next year or so.

Also, if you intend to use the device primarily for media consumption and some productivity, then get the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. The display on that destroys anything the iPad can offer (at least until the miniLED Pro comes out).

 

[Klyster]

I love my Tab S4 but I only consume media with it.

The aspect ratio and Amoled are perfect.

Can't say I've ever been tempted by an iPad, but they may have oled screens soon, so who knows?

I want a Tab S7+ but can't justify the purchase considering my usage.

 

[LFC2020]

I guess to each his own, must check one at a store and try it.

If you end up buying one, make sure they have a return policy, got a feeling you'll be sending it back very quickly.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

Its confusing as I read reviews, people say Android tabs completely suck other say iPad users are impressed with Samsung tablets.

I guess to each his own, must check one at a store and try it.

What I did was to buy a middle road Samsung tablet, Galaxy Tab S5e, to see if it would do the job in the way that I wanted. It was good enough to do the job, I knew it wasn't going to be what I wanted to live with long term, but I was able to understand the job that I needed doing, the way it needed doing, and I was then able to choose what was right for me. Worst case, or best case depending on how you look at it, was that I sold it and went straight back to an iPad. The iPad it replaced was being replaced anyway so the only real downside was the difference of buying and selling the S5e. That got replaced by an S7+ in January. I still have the S5e in fact as it makes for a far better weekend trip type tablet.

I did exactly the same thing before it in replacing my iPhone SE with a Samsung Galaxy A8. That got replace by an S10 in under a year and the A8 got sold basically for what I bought it for. What I need to be clear about is that having an Android tablet probably wouldn't have worked as well had I not done the hard work in switching my phone beforehand. I probably would never have tried it. There are a lot of gotchas in having a mixed mobile environment and Apple knows this and plays straight into it. The fanboys don't in fact actually realise how they're caught in the system they are and because of it aren't able to judge fairly even if they wanted to. I "tried" Android twice before this and it failed tragically and very quickly both time. Firstly because Android from about Android 8 or 9 is significantly better to the Android of "before". But more importantly, iCloud is basically inoperable with non-Apple devices. Anyone going into any non-Apple device with the intent of clinging on to iCloud will result in failure in most cases.

So if you're able to pivot around iCloud and use it as a tool that is only for your benefit then you'll have a good shot at making it all work. Otherwise I'd probably recommend to you to probably not bother. FWIW I use iCloud on my Macs for move data from one place to another and only for email on my non-Apple devices. The rest of what iCloud does is done elsewhere. While I have a Google account, none of my data is with Google. The biggest collateral winner in this I think has been Microsoft. Mostly by default because of Microsoft 365 as well as Samsung's increased integrations with Microsoft and what comes with it, but the very recent switch to Edge as my browser of choice across the board has been working great for me. I can no fully get rid of Chrome as a bonus! Now that I've done this I'm able to choose from what is the best mobile device. It can be either as I have been careful to ensure that all my choices make me OS independent.

 

[Klyster]

Check out ALLSTARSPACE on YouTube for in-depth comparisons, not biased and they use all the devices and have no issue calling out what the strengths and weaknesses of the devices they review and compare.

Here's a vs video, but there are tons of reviews..

 

[mi7chy]

There are so many great deals for Galaxy Tab S7/S7+ on slickdeals.net and through private parties that it's super easy decision. Personally, I try to avoid tablets that don't have full desktop browser but the deals are tempting.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

Personally, I try to avoid tablets that don't have full desktop browser but the deals are tempting.

Given you can install any browser you like, which tablet would you be referring to here? 🤔

 

[mi7chy]

Given you can install any browser you like, which tablet would you be referring to here? 🤔

You can install any browser on Android and iPadOS but they're still not full desktop browsers and don't have uBlock Origin adblocker except for maybe Firefox on Android. Mobile browsers are annoying as heck because not all sites render properly or they redirect you to app and mobile adblockers aren't nearly as effective. Plus, you don't need apps if you have full desktop browser with notifications like Chrome. Affordable full desktop browser device is $250 Lenovo Duet Chromebook. Nicest is Surface Pro X SQ2 but only if you find new corporate demo for ~$800 and not full msrp. Best bang for the buck if you don't mind laptop convertible is $500 Lenovo Yoga 6. Those are my only experiences as there are others out there.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

You can install any browser on Android and iPadOS but they're still not full desktop browsers and don't have uBlock Origin adblocker except for maybe Firefox on Android. Mobile browsers are annoying as heck because not all sites render properly or they redirect you to app and mobile adblockers aren't nearly as effective. Plus, you don't need apps if you have full desktop browser with notifications like Chrome. Affordable full desktop browser device is $250 Lenovo Duet Chromebook. Nicest is Surface Pro X SQ2 but only if you find new corporate demo for ~$800 and not full msrp. Best bang for the buck if you don't mind laptop convertible is $500 Lenovo Yoga 6. Those are my only experiences as there are others out there.

Right, so you're adding iOS and iPadOS in that which makes what you wrote earlier make a lot more sense. That said, while there's no uBlock (which is entirely up to uBlock!) I've not had any issues with other adblockers in iOS/iPadOS/Android. Like the MacRumors site work just fine, as an example, and ad blocks the way I'd expect.

I would put this to the web developers not programming correctly, not that their job in doing is as easy as it was, rather than laying it all at the feet of the browsers.

 

[mi7chy]

Right, so you're adding iOS and iPadOS in that which makes what you wrote earlier make a lot more sense. That said, while there's no uBlock (which is entirely up to uBlock!) I've not had any issues with other adblockers in iOS/iPadOS/Android. Like the MacRumors site work just fine, as an example, and ad blocks the way I'd expect.

I would put this to the web developers not programming correctly, not that their job in doing is as easy as it was, rather than laying it all at the feet of the browsers.

Trust me. You haven't seen highly intrusive ads. Was about to stream content to TV at a friend's place. No mobile Android, iOS or Android TV adblocker could overcome the ads even Adguard which is one of the better ones. Had to run home and grab the Lenovo Duet and Yoga 6 with uBlock Origin to successfully do it. From now on I will always have a full desktop browser device in the car like the Lenovo Duet.

Update: Firefox + uBlock Origin for Android might do the job but will have to test.

 

[MacBH928]

If you end up buying one, make sure they have a return policy, got a feeling you'll be sending it back very quickly.

My main caveat with iPad Air is the screen size. This should not be an eBook reader, more like an eNewspaper. If you have one just open an all text article and try to read it in portrait. Its the same size as MacBook Air I think or a past model of it.

I am hesitant to buy anything now because there is new iPads in the pipeline soon to be released and new Samsung tabs it seems. I am looking for the sweet spot of 9.7 or the closest thing to it. I tried a tab7+ for a little bit, although 11 felt much smaller than Air 4(same size). I wonder if aspect ration has to do with it.

What I did was to buy a middle road Samsung tablet, Galaxy Tab S5e, to see if it would do the job in the way that I wanted. It was good enough to do the job, I knew it wasn't going to be what I wanted to live with long term, but I was able to understand the job that I needed doing, the way it needed doing, and I was then able to choose what was right for me. Worst case, or best case depending on how you look at it, was that I sold it and went straight back to an iPad. The iPad it replaced was being replaced anyway so the only real downside was the difference of buying and selling the S5e. That got replaced by an S7+ in January. I still have the S5e in fact as it makes for a far better weekend trip type tablet.

I did exactly the same thing before it in replacing my iPhone SE with a Samsung Galaxy A8. That got replace by an S10 in under a year and the A8 got sold basically for what I bought it for. What I need to be clear about is that having an Android tablet probably wouldn't have worked as well had I not done the hard work in switching my phone beforehand. I probably would never have tried it. There are a lot of gotchas in having a mixed mobile environment and Apple knows this and plays straight into it. The fanboys don't in fact actually realise how they're caught in the system they are and because of it aren't able to judge fairly even if they wanted to. I "tried" Android twice before this and it failed tragically and very quickly both time. Firstly because Android from about Android 8 or 9 is significantly better to the Android of "before". But more importantly, iCloud is basically inoperable with non-Apple devices. Anyone going into any non-Apple device with the intent of clinging on to iCloud will result in failure in most cases.

So if you're able to pivot around iCloud and use it as a tool that is only for your benefit then you'll have a good shot at making it all work. Otherwise I'd probably recommend to you to probably not bother. FWIW I use iCloud on my Macs for move data from one place to another and only for email on my non-Apple devices. The rest of what iCloud does is done elsewhere. While I have a Google account, none of my data is with Google. The biggest collateral winner in this I think has been Microsoft. Mostly by default because of Microsoft 365 as well as Samsung's increased integrations with Microsoft and what comes with it, but the very recent switch to Edge as my browser of choice across the board has been working great for me. I can no fully get rid of Chrome as a bonus! Now that I've done this I'm able to choose from what is the best mobile device. It can be either as I have been careful to ensure that all my choices make me OS independent.

iCloud is no issue as its easily replaceable. I must say the biggest catch in the ecosystem is your iTunes library. You can't access that from else where. The only replacement is Google Play Store...YUCK!

Check out ALLSTARSPACE on YouTube for in-depth comparisons, not biased and they use all the devices and have no issue calling out what the strengths and weaknesses of the devices they review and compare.

Here's a vs video, but there are tons of reviews..

Good review, but...I am not sure if I understood correctly. Did you he say the Air4 has deeper blacks and better colours? I was under the impression that AMOLED was 100% better display.

 

[MacBH928]

You can install any browser on Android and iPadOS but they're still not full desktop browsers and don't have uBlock Origin adblocker except for maybe Firefox on Android. Mobile browsers are annoying as heck because not all sites render properly or they redirect you to app and mobile adblockers aren't nearly as effective. Plus, you don't need apps if you have full desktop browser with notifications like Chrome. Affordable full desktop browser device is $250 Lenovo Duet Chromebook. Nicest is Surface Pro X SQ2 but only if you find new corporate demo for ~$800 and not full msrp. Best bang for the buck if you don't mind laptop convertible is $500 Lenovo Yoga 6. Those are my only experiences as there are others out there.

Can't you have the browser ask for the desktop site? Its an option in all iOS browsers. On Android in addition to Firefox+uBlock Origin, you can also use Brave with built in adblocker. Same with iOS. Its the only browser with uBlock Origin like blocker.

Right, so you're adding iOS and iPadOS in that which makes what you wrote earlier make a lot more sense. That said, while there's no uBlock (which is entirely up to uBlock!) I've not had any issues with other adblockers in iOS/iPadOS/Android. Like the MacRumors site work just fine, as an example, and ad blocks the way I'd expect.

I would put this to the web developers not programming correctly, not that their job in doing is as easy as it was, rather than laying it all at the feet of the browsers.

Not really. There is no uBlock Origin for Safari on Mac. That is because Apple does not give the APIs and does not allow them to deploy such adblockers. Same on iOS. In fact on iOS Apple will not let them release a different browser than Safari. All the "browsers" on iOS are really just Safari with a Firefox or Chrome skin on them. Also Google soon to release Manifestv3 I think that will limit adblockers usage and will be same on Edge. FireFox and Brave decided not to do so.

So no its not up to the developers.

 

[Klyster]

Good review, but...I am not sure if I understood correctly. Did you he say the Air4 has deeper blacks and better colours? I was under the impression that AMOLED was 100% better display.

Nope, you understood correctly, but the Tab S7 hasn't got an OLED screen, it is a LTPS TFT screen.
The Tab S7+ is the OLED screened tablet.

 

[Shanghaichica]

What I did was to buy a middle road Samsung tablet, Galaxy Tab S5e, to see if it would do the job in the way that I wanted. It was good enough to do the job, I knew it wasn't going to be what I wanted to live with long term, but I was able to understand the job that I needed doing, the way it needed doing, and I was then able to choose what was right for me. Worst case, or best case depending on how you look at it, was that I sold it and went straight back to an iPad. The iPad it replaced was being replaced anyway so the only real downside was the difference of buying and selling the S5e. That got replaced by an S7+ in January. I still have the S5e in fact as it makes for a far better weekend trip type tablet.

I did exactly the same thing before it in replacing my iPhone SE with a Samsung Galaxy A8. That got replace by an S10 in under a year and the A8 got sold basically for what I bought it for. What I need to be clear about is that having an Android tablet probably wouldn't have worked as well had I not done the hard work in switching my phone beforehand. I probably would never have tried it. There are a lot of gotchas in having a mixed mobile environment and Apple knows this and plays straight into it. The fanboys don't in fact actually realise how they're caught in the system they are and because of it aren't able to judge fairly even if they wanted to. I "tried" Android twice before this and it failed tragically and very quickly both time. Firstly because Android from about Android 8 or 9 is significantly better to the Android of "before". But more importantly, iCloud is basically inoperable with non-Apple devices. Anyone going into any non-Apple device with the intent of clinging on to iCloud will result in failure in most cases.

So if you're able to pivot around iCloud and use it as a tool that is only for your benefit then you'll have a good shot at making it all work. Otherwise I'd probably recommend to you to probably not bother. FWIW I use iCloud on my Macs for move data from one place to another and only for email on my non-Apple devices. The rest of what iCloud does is done elsewhere. While I have a Google account, none of my data is with Google. The biggest collateral winner in this I think has been Microsoft. Mostly by default because of Microsoft 365 as well as Samsung's increased integrations with Microsoft and what comes with it, but the very recent switch to Edge as my browser of choice across the board has been working great for me. I can no fully get rid of Chrome as a bonus! Now that I've done this I'm able to choose from what is the best mobile device. It can be either as I have been careful to ensure that all my choices make me OS independent.

That’s an interesting strategy for switching. Try out a cheaper mid range device before you commit to the full switch and flagship device.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Right, so you're adding iOS and iPadOS in that which makes what you wrote earlier make a lot more sense. That said, while there's no uBlock (which is entirely up to uBlock!) I've not had any issues with other adblockers in iOS/iPadOS/Android. Like the MacRumors site work just fine, as an example, and ad blocks the way I'd expect.

I would put this to the web developers not programming correctly, not that their job in doing is as easy as it was, rather than laying it all at the feet of the browsers.

I’ve never been able to get add blockers to work on my iPhone or iPad.

 

[mi7chy]

I’ve never been able to get add blockers to work on my iPhone or iPad.

Which adblocker? Apple made changes to Safari that gimped adblockers.

https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari/issues/158

Nothing beats the simplicity and effectiveness of uBlock Origin.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

That’s an interesting strategy for switching. Try out a cheaper mid range device before you commit to the full switch and flagship device.

I have to say that the "try before you buy" mentally mostly existed with my phone rather than tablet. It's a more important device and I was really not confident of success give my prior experiences. The tipping point was in fact the decision to erase my iPhone (removing any possibility of caving/going back) which forced me to truly resolve the issues.

The best thing about starting mid-range is that they are easy to get rid of/sell and the loss on the sale is limited. Even if you halve the buy price the loss is only like $US150 max… and in my specific case with the A8 the phone only cost 180€ to begin with - what's the worst that can happen there?? Going flagship you can lose a boatload. Part of it too was an effort to cost cut. I'm in a place where the "Apple tax" is no longer acceptable to me and if you going to go cheaper, actually try going massively cheaper. End result, mid-range will more than do the job and the door is wide open to the upper end of Samsung's A-series else something like a OnePlus if I'm not happy with Samsung's S-series. In the past couple years the mid-range is getting all the love and it's now an easy call to go that way.

The tablet I already knew 85% of the result. The only real question was whether the mid-range processor was enough. I was mostly buying it for the OLED display and it's wider aspect anyway so it wasn't really the decision that the phone was. Had a client not given me a very generous Christmas present this past year I'd probably still be using the S5e.

 

[mi7chy]

On Samsung site staring at Galaxy Tab S7 512GB (same price as 256GB) for $377 and S7+ 256GB (512GB out of stock) for $479 and even less if you have a trade-in. Includes pen.

https://www.samsung.com/us/shop/discount-program/education/

 

[Infinite Vortex]

On Samsung site staring at Galaxy Tab S7 512GB (same price as 256GB) for $377 and S7+ 256GB (512GB out of stock) for $479 and even less if you have a trade-in. Includes pen.

https://www.samsung.com/us/shop/discount-program/education/

Not all of us can buy at educational pricing. Although yes, educational or not, highly discounted Samsung product can be really attractive and is a big big reason why I no longe care to tie myself to an ecosystem from either side.

 

[mi7chy]

Not all of us can buy at educational pricing. Although yes, educational or not, highly discounted Samsung product can be really attractive and is a big big reason why I no longe care to tie myself to an ecosystem from either side.

Looks like they're currently giving EDU/EPP discount to everyone.

Plus $250 trade-in for iPad 9.7". It's a hotter deal than I originally thought plus I get to rid of my dust collector iPad 2.

 

[pencilscribbler]

I’ve never been able to get add blockers to work on my iPhone or iPad.

Have you tried 1Blocker?

I use that across my iPhone, iPad Pro, and Macs.

There are also other Safari ad-blocker alternatives eg Firefox Focus (which is both a Safari ad-blocker extension, and a standalone browser for iOS)

IMHO 1Blocker is probably the best Safari ad-blocker extension for iOS/iPadOS/macOS, but I haven’t researched the alternatives in the last 12 mths so I cannot guarantee there aren’t other better ones now...

 

[mi7chy]

IMHO 1Blocker is probably the best Safari ad-blocker extension for iOS/iPadOS/macOS, but I haven’t researched the alternatives in the last 12 mths so I cannot guarantee there aren’t other better ones now...

1Blocker doesn't properly block YouTube ads besides other things so not as good as uBlock Origin.

 

[pencilscribbler]

1Blocker doesn't properly block YouTube ads besides other things so not as good as uBlock Origin.

Yeah, uBlock Origin is probably better & more customisable.

That said, 1Blocker works with Safari and uBlock Origin doesn’t.

Also for my use case (iPhone, iPad, macOS)
- YOUTUBE WEBSITE ADS: I don’t really surf YouTube on the website (I use the YouTube app on all my devices except my Mac), so I don’t see any YouTube website ads.
- YOUTUBE VIDEO ADS: YouTube video ads that run during video playback, doesn’t really bother me. I think that’s the price of free video. I think uBlock Origin on Windows/Android can block these YouTube video ads, right?
- SAFARI: 1Blocker is good enough for my Safari needs — eg. I actually didn’t realise some websites (eg. macrumors) was ad-supported until one day I had to use another computer to access it 😜

 

[mi7chy]

- YOUTUBE VIDEO ADS: YouTube video ads that run during video playback, doesn’t really bother me. I think that’s the price of free video. I think uBlock Origin on Windows/Android can block these YouTube video ads, right?

uBlock Origin blocks video ad interruptions which are the most annoying. On Android you have YouTube Vanced app. It's like having a conversation with someone that keeps interrupting you. I'd rather support via other means like affiliate links to make purchases, donation, buying merchandise, etc. That's why I don't consume content on iOS/iPadOS/Safari on MacOS since it's a lesser experience.