Android Gamer: Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 performance: benchmarks vs reality

Tablets are used for a variety of things, ranging from web browsing to much more intense tasks like gaming or photo editing. To keep up with those higher performance tasks, manufacturers have to put plenty of power into their tablets to keep them running smoothly. As Samsung’s flagship tablet for 2014, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 should have great performance. Let’s start our deep dive into the device by taking a look at its benchmarks.

Benchmarks

Benchmark Test	Score
AnTuTU	33811
Quadrant	18599
Geekbench 3	895 (single-thread) 2586 (multi-thread)
AndEBench Pro	6331
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited	13386
SunSpider 1.0.2	1082.2ms

As you can see, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 performs pretty well across the board. There are a couple higher-scoring devices out there, but this is one of the best ones we’ve seen. It’s important to take benchmarks with a grain of salt, though, as manufacturers can optimize devices for them. Benchmark performance rarely translates clearly into everyday usage, so if your device seems like it should have scored higher on benchmarks, don’t sweat it. If it runs well, that’s what counts.

Performance isn’t all benchmarks, however. How does the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 perform day-to-day?

Reality

In reality, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is odd. Samsung equipped the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 with an Exynos 5 Octa 5420 processor that runs four Cortex A15 cores at 1.9GHz and four Cortex A7 cores at 1.3GHz. When using the A15 cores, the Tab S 10.5 would fly along without a stutter, and gaming was impeccable. But when the tablet switched down to the A7 cores to save power, stutters would crop up here and there. Scrolling was a bit jerky and apps took longer to open.

This was a disappointing discovery. Due to the nature of the processor setup, the performance isn’t consistent. Had it been consistent like the A15 cores, I would give the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 full marks for performance. The reality, however, is that sometimes the tablet blazes along and sometimes it stutters.

While the Wi-Fi version uses an Exynos octa-core processor, the LTE model uses a Snapdragon 800 processor. I haven’t had a chance to test the LTE unit out, but I assume that the problem would be rectified in that model. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 is a very reliable chip that performs consistently well. I only wish that Samsung had used it in the Wi-Fi model as well.

Conclusion

Most of the time, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 will satisfy your performance needs and often go above and beyond what you need. There are those times, however, when jerkiness or stuttering will creep in and tarnish the experience for you. Perhaps this could be fixed in a software patch, but the inconsistency of the Tab S 10.5′s performance keeps it just short of top marks.

If you’re A-okay with that, then the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 should work beautifully for you.