Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Review UK

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Review: Overview & Price

In this Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e review we go over everything you need to know about this 2019 tablet.

We showcase the cheapest Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e deals as well as go over the design, display performance and more.

The tablet is designed to bring all of the perks of the Samsung Tab S4 to a much more affordable tablet.

Samsung released the Tab S5e back in February of 2019; with it being aimed at a more modest market the tablet has sold exceptionally well here in the UK.

The Tab S5e focused more on the consumer market rather than the creator, which the Tab S4 aims at.

This means you get the fancy OLED display that is perfect for those that love to binge-watch Netflix.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e price is currently £379 here in the UK, making it much more affordable than Samsung’s flagship tab.

Here are some of the Samsung Tab S5e specs;

• 10.5-inch AMOLED display
• 64/128GB of internal storage
• 4/6GB RAM
• 8-megapixel camera
• Android 9.0 & One UI

As you can see the tablet has an impressive spec, which makes it great for gaming, viewing content and scrolling through social media.

Let’s take a closer look at what the Tab S5e has to offer..

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Review: Design & Display

When it comes to the Samsung Galaxy Tab s5 design one of the first things you will notice is that it is extremely light.

Weighing in at 400g the Tab S5e is easy to carry around with you when attending lectures or work, it slips into a tablet bag easily and is barely noticeable when carried around in a backpack.

This makes it ideal for students or those that can use the tablet to work from.

The Tab s5e is also extremely thin; it measures 245 x 160 x 5.5mm, which makes it one of the thinnest tablets on the market to date.

This adds to the portability of the device as it can fit into small compartments of your bag and doesn’t take up much room whatsoever.

With the tablet being so light and easy to hold, we do recommend investing in a case and screen protector for the tablet as if you drop the device you could cause some serious damage.

That being said we do feel like the tablet is sturdy, and it’s easy to hold in one hand without feeling like it’s a bar of soap.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e has an aluminium body with a panel of glass around the front for the display.

The Tab S5e comes in either Black, Gold or Silver, we managed to get our hands on a Black one for just over a week to conduct this Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e review.

The only ports on the device are the USB-C, which is used to charge the device as well as a POGO pin connector that is used to attach a smart keyboard.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, which means if you want to listen to music on the device you will need to invest into a wireless pair of headphones, which isn’t great.

On the right-hand side of the tablet there is a power button that also doubles as a fingerprint sensor, perfect for keeping your passwords secure and your tablet free from intruders.

The volume rocker is just underneath the power button, then flipping the device over you will see the Samsung branding in the middle of the tablet.

As well as the AKG branding near the bottom, and the camera that sits in the top corner of the device.

As a whole the Samsung Tab S5e design is pretty clean, it’s thin, lightweight and easy to carry around with you.

It also looks super stylish thanks to its thin and clean design.

When it comes to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 5e display we found that it is perfect for watching movies on Netflix or YouTube.

This is because it has a 10.5-inch AMOLED panel with a 2560 x 1600 resolution.

The colours are extremely vibrant and punchy and the blacks are extremely deep too, much better than you will find on the cheaper LCD panels out there.

Brightness levels are great, the Tab S5e can go up to 450nits of brightness which allows you to still be able to see and use the device in direct sunlight.

Samsung has always been known for there fantastic displays, as seen on the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Note 10.

The Tab S5e is a fine example of what Samsung are capable of, it has excellent contrast and you are also able to place it into adaptive display mode which allows the screen to get super bright and vivid.

Samsung allow you to choose from multiple colour profiles too, you can use either Basic (sRGB), AMOLED Photo (Adobe RGB), AMOLED Cinema (DCI-P3) and Adaptive Display, which unlocks a native full-colour spectrum making the screen really pop.

With the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e display having 288ppi and a 16:10 aspect ratio, it makes the display wide so it actually feels like your holding a much bigger tablet than you actually are.

The display has very small bezels around the outside too, which makes for more real estate on the actual screen, again this adds to the media consumption experience as the tablet really makes use of this fantastic 10.5-inch display.

One downside though is that the Samsung Tab S5e does not come with the S-Pen stylus, this is to be expected though, as we mentioned previously Samsung are targeting a different market with this tablet.

They are going after the consumers who simply love to view content over there tablet, creators may want to check out our Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 review as this is a more powerful tablet aimed for Photoshop lovers and designers. 

Overall the Samsung Tab S5e display is spectacular, this is the reason why people are buying this tablet in 2019, and it has a ridiculous display that is extremely vibrant and punchy.

It is easy to be immersed in games and movies for hours when the display looks this good.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Review: Performance

When it comes to performance the Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e isn’t exactly lacking in this department either.

Equipped with the Snapdragon 670 chipset and 4GB of RAM, this device is more than capable of carrying you through some PUBG sessions without lag or fps drops.

Multi-tasking is easy on this tablet and allows you to watch YouTube at the same time as watching your friends, or gaming when also doing homework (not that we condone this).

However, we did find that after an extensive period of time the tablet would start to show signs of weakness.

After playing PUBG for an hour then switching straight into multi-tasking a YouTube video and drawing application we found the tablet slowed down and did give us some lag here and there.

See Related:

*Samsung Galaxy Tab A Review*
*Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 Review*
*Lenovo Tab 4 Review*

This wasn’t anything major as we do push the devices hard in our tablet reviews but it was a noticeable dip in performance.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e does come with 64GB of internal storage; this allows you to store plenty of music, applications and more onto your device.

However in 2019 this seems to get filled up faster than ever, so you will be glad to know that there is also an option to add microSD cards which can add an additional 512GB of storage.

This is perfect for those that travel a lot as it gives you the freedom to download Netflix movies on to your tablet for the plain journey when you are up in the air.

The Tab s5e has a seriously impressive set of speakers, with four drivers it is capable of producing crystal clear sound even at high volumes, which adds to your gaming experience.

Bass sounds great but it is a shame that there is no 3.5mm headphone jack here, which essentially forces you into purchasing wireless headphones if you don’t want to annoy everyone in your home.

As a whole the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e specs are impressive, the device is more than capable of handling gaming sessions, YouTube videos and more without lag.

That being said the device certainly isn’t as smooth as say the iPad Pro or iPad Air 2019.

Software-wise the Samsung Tab s5e used Android 9.0 along with Samsung’s One UI on top.

If you own a Samsung Galaxy phone you will feel extremely comfortable with the software on this tablet.

The device has ‘Digital Wellbeing’ which lets you know exactly how much time you have spent on certain apps, perfect for those looking to kick a social media addiction.

One of our favourite features is that it allows you to open applications in ‘Pop view’, which is essentially popping the application out but not fully, allowing you to multitask with other applications at the same time.

One thing we found with the iPad Mini 2019 is that because of its small screen, this feature would not work as well as we hoped.

However, on the Tab S5e thanks to it having a large display, you can open 2, 3, 4 applications and still have room for more.

This allows your productivity to go through the roof, as there are countless examples of what you can be doing at the same time on this tablet.

The S5e has ‘Dex mode’ which essentially allows you to use the tablet as a desktop-like device, allowing you to use applications like Google chrome in windows mode.

There is also a ‘Samsung Account feature’ that allows your remote access to your Samsung smartphone which is used with the same account, this is perfect if you are like me and save a ton of information into your notes app on your phone.

This will allow you to gain access to your notes without actually having your phone to hand.

There are ‘Child Safety’ features too which allow you to restrict certain applications and data use, combined with the fingerprint scanner this makes it hard for anyone to gain access to your tablet without you knowing about it, particularly children.

The Samsung Tab S5e is also the first tablet that comes with Bixby digital voice assistant pre-loaded onto the device.

Which allows you to use voice commands with the tablet, asking, “what is the weather like today?” or “What is the Newcastle football score?”

As mentioned previously the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e does have a POGO connector which allows you to hook it up to a smart keyboard.

This works surprisingly well and can transform your tablet into a laptop-like device that is great for those that work from home or on the move.

We managed to get a hold of one for the week when testing this tablet and we worked with it on the train home from London, we found it offers a similar experience to our MacBook.

It is extremely easy to connect and doesn’t need wires or batteries to use, making it stress-free and easy to use.

We have to say we are impressed with the Samsung Tab S5e software, it feels and operates just like our Samsung Galaxy S10, and we love that it now has Bixby which enables users to use voice commands just like our Amazon Echo.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Review: Camera

If you are reading this Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e review thinking I hope it has an awesome camera, then we suspect you need a better smartphone.

As the last thing people look for in their tablet is a 48-megapixel quad camera set up.

The main rear camera is a 13-megapixel with an f/2.0 aperture; it doesn’t use a flash, which means you are unable to take decent photos in low light.

The Samsung Tab S5e does have Pro mode, live focus, panorama, video hyper-lapse and more.

Shooting in daylight can provide some impressive shots, however detail does lack quite a bit.

The sensor uses the tablet allows you to take pretty fast shots too, and it uses HDR processing to tweak your images and make them look as best they possibly can.

Around the front of the tablet is an 8-megapixel f/2.0 aperture lens which is perfectly fine for taking selfies in good lighting.

That being said the camera does lack when it comes to shooting in daylight, so don’t think you’re going to be able to capture some fantastic Instagram ready images with this device.

The tablet can shoot video footage in 1080p (Full HD) but there is no 4K mode here, there is some stabilisation software too which tries to stabilise the footage, but it doesn’t work very well.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e camera is more than capable of shooting some images in your home, but we would recommend using your smartphone instead as it is much more powerful and can produce better images.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Review: Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e has a 7040mAh battery, which is slightly smaller than the 7300mAh seen in the Samsung Tab S4.

Nevertheless, the S5e has more than enough juice to keep you going all day.

Samsung claims that the device will last you 14.5 hours, and we found this to be rather accurate depending on how you are using the device.

The tablet does have fast charging but it is nothing like the one seen on their smartphones, with the tablet being able to charge from 0-100% in around 130 minutes.

If you go into the power modes in the settings you are able to change the modes into maximum power saving mode which will close applications in the background that you are not using to help you save battery.

We have to say the Tab S5e battery life is definitely better than the battery in the iPad Air 2019, and when you consider how thin and light the S5e is this is really impressive.

You are also able to use the POGO connector to charge the device but it is much slower than the USB-C, so we don’t really know why this is an option but it is.

The Tab S5e can also be used as a power bank if needed, which comes in handy if your phone is running low and you need to grab some charge and don’t have your charger.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Review: Summary

So should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e?

Well if you are looking for a cheaper alternative to the Samsung Tab S4 then yes.

Given the price of some of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e deals, we do feel it could be a better choice than the Tab S4 for those looking to save some money.

The S5e has a fantastic display that is perfect for long periods gaming or watching Netflix, the display really is the key aspect of this device and the reason why we feel most consumers have bought this tablet.

As well as the display the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e specs are impressive, allowing you to play Fortnite, PUBG and more without any lag or fps troughs.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e 64G Wifi Black 

Battery life is impressive too, with the ability to use this device as a power bank for your smartphone and 14 hours life, its certainly not bad considering how thin this tablet is.

As a whole, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e is an impressive tablet that offers exactly what you expect of a tablet in 2019, plenty of power and an impressive display.

We hope you have enjoyed our Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e review; feel free to check out the best Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e deals at the top of the post and leave a comment and share.