I came in not having an andriod tablet since 2011. It has been a very long time. I haven't had an andriod phone since around 2013. I went full ios after getting tired of the operating system and it's inconsistencies. I have an iPad Air 3 and love it. It's fast and ios over the years has allowed for more input even though it's still pretty closed off as far outside install. I was looking towards using retroarch and older retro gaming along with a touch screen. I had been using my iPad but I hated having to sign in once a week on my laptop and I don't need much power for the older stuff so I did alot of research before coming to a decision on the s7 fe. The other devices seemed too expensive for my needs and I also read alot from others that the S8 models using the gen 1 chipset has a limit on how much power can be output before it throttles so I didn't see the point in spending more for receiving less.
And boy, let me tell you, alot has definitely changed in the past 10 years. I had no idea that Andriod has now become iOS. I bought the 64gb thinking I could transfer apps to the micro SD card. You can't. Many of it is locked into the internal drive. While you can have the apps access data off of the micro SD card the apps itself install on the internal. Only very little amount of apps can transfer but it was only 1 or 2 I was able to transfer. Had I known this I would've spent more on the 256gb. If you're reading this and deciding PLEASE DO NOT get the 64. Save yourself the future worry and stick to the 256. I was planning on doing bare minimum as far as the Google Play Store went. But without installing a single thing and after fully updating my tablet I had 30% of storage gone. Just gone. After a week of "bare minimum", Netflix, Crunchyroll, etc., I have 40% storage taken up. I'm currently considering returning and exchanging it but I've already spent alot on it to cover and care for the screen with protectors.
NOW for performance I am highly, highly impressed. From experience the only reason I can see why everything is internal now is for stability. And so far I've only had one real issue. The tablet is very responsive. I saw videos from earlier this year how the device wasn't fully capable of doing 4K YouTube but from my experience these past few days it's been quick and snappy. 4K/60 on YouTube hasn't had any issues playing. All my other apps as well run quick. I'm really enjoying the size of the screen. And the screen itself is bright enough and clear when displaying videos or playing a game. The tablet is larger than my iPad Air and I'm happy with it. I don't like small devices. And depending on how big you are and your hands you'll definitely love this size if you are bigger. It's not heavy at all, I had no problems using it in one hand and using the other to write on it. I LOVE the drawing app on it. If you love to draw you'll definitely love using this tablet. If you've seen videos online as well sometimes it doesn't look impressive but when I used it suspringly felt nothing like what I saw on YouTube. It's so good. I didn't know that it also had sensitivity and was surprised when I pressed harder to see the digital ink change. While I have no idea how to actually draw and probably the worst at it I really did enjoy just scribbling away and using the paint feature on Samsung's own app. I also like to practice kanji and it works as well as my iPad. I can see this being an iPad alternative for those who don't want an iPad. Though to be honest at a certain price point once you reach S8 levels the iPad is by far the better option. There is no comparison. But for the sale price of this s7 fe under $400 you can't beat it.
As for gaming, retro gaming, I want an all in one device. I wanted to play my DS games I already own on a bigger screen and my other systems including psp in handheld and Dreamcast games without hooking up my DC and getting a converter. Everything has been great. Even some Sega Saturn. I'm having some issues getting Saturn running without quitting in RA but those that do run flawlessly. NDS runs great. PSX is running good as expected. And transferring my psp saves was as easy as hooking my psp via usb to the tablet via usb adapter and transferring saves to my micro SD card. Ppsspp read my saves and I was able to continuing my jrpgs on the tablet and to my TV via hdmi. Samsung Dex also ran great. There's also other things that look very ios like (outputting sound has the same look now)and I'm glad that it's actually as smooth as it now.
In the end, for under $400 the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE is an excellent choice for a variety of uses. Whether you're using it for school, drawing, writing letters and using the web - to streaming apps and Retro gaming it is by far the best device for every use. I am glad Android has come a long way to fixing many of the issues I had with it. I can not recommend this tablet enough. I don't think you'll find one better at this price point with so many features including the desktop-like Dex mode. I gave my review based on not seeing the uses I'd use it for so I hope it helps someone in their decision making.
Highly recommended!!
—FEBRUARY 2023 UPDATED—
I still highly recommend this tablet. However I returned it for the S7+ model. Woot had a really nice sale for it for only $20-30 more than what I paid for the FE model. How can one pass up the offer? There is a nice noticeable improvement over the FE. YouTube 4K works consistently. As I stated in my review I did not see any harsh sluggish performance on the FE. For a good amount of videos it was fine but I did start to run into issues more and more where it would stutter. And it would with more photographic videos. I also think it may have to do with RAM as well as Android seems to hold more in the memory than my iPad does. Fortunately and To be completely honest on the FE it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between 1440p and 4K so I left it at 1440p as that looked really crisp. If you’re having issues with 4K the 1440p works perfectly fine and looks superb.
Apps on the S7+ start up faster (but not by much and I did have an app that weirdly kept loading faster than the S7+ but may have been due to cache). I was impressed with the start up speed of the FE. The S7+ shines brightly with its OLED model, the videos I tested side by side clearly shows black blacks with the plus model and switching between 120 hertz vs 60 hertz is also very noticeable especially when I was transferring my files and just checking out the different apps and videos. It’s the same feeling you get when you see 60/30.
Another major difference for me personally, as is with my retro retrospective is that Saturn games seemed to work so much better. I could not get Enemy Zero to run whatsoever and afterwards just crashed Retroarch. It ran fine on my iPad Air 3 and on the S7+ I am happy to report it runs good as well. However on a sad note upscaling DS games even by 2x stutters bad on the plus while on the FE it just came to a hault. On my iPad Air 3 I was able to upscale multiple times with zero issues. The reason why I include my iPad now is because the Air gen 3 cost the same as the S7+ msrp. Unfortunately it’s tedious to set up and a pain to keep refreshing every single week to get emulation working on top of only allowing 3 apps at a time to be installed. There’s no doubt that the iPad Air 3 is significantly more powerful than the S7+. With that sad it’s no slouch. It is wonderfully fast. I’m really loving it and because of the OLED and refresh rate of the S7+ screen I find myself going to it even for random “every day” tasks over the iPad.
There is ONE COOL thing the android does that I am unable to do on the iPad and though it may seem trivial if it interests you if you enjoy watching YouTube or music while gaming (or retro gaming in this case) this ability is very neat. In DEX mode (by the way it can’t be overstated how awesome this is by Samsung) when connected the tv I like to play my DS games too/bottom. The “action” portion of the screen gets the left major side and size of the screen while the “map view” gets the bottom right and smaller size of the tv screen. This leaves the top right of blank square. What I do is I open YouTube with my playlist for gaming and resize the screen to fit the square! So while I’m on a long jrpg I can also watch whatever I’m in the mood for to fit what I’m doing. How cool right? And since retroarch has a built in volume gain (many old games especially handheld don’t have in-game volume controls) you can adjust the sound so they don’t overlap so much between YouTube and games.
Speaking of COOL things, if you’re using a Dual Sense ps5 controller the touchpad also works as a mouse! Allowing you to do everything with just the ps5 controller. You’ll be able to double click on apps and well do anything a mouse can do. On a side note you’ll have to be in DEX mode to properly use it as I’ve noticed in tablet mode the dual sense mouse direction is sideways meaning if you scroll up it’ll go right. I think it’s turned 90 degrees in all directions. But in DEX mode it’s normal. (If you’re reading this and it’s still sideways control, turn off the tablet screen.. DEX doesn’t turn off only the tablet. That’ll fix it). I’m assuming the DualShock 4 with its touchpad will also work the same.
Last but not least, I had no real interest in converting my ps2 and GameCube for Dolphin as I still use those plus my Wii connected via hdmi. HOWEVER there are a few games I don’t have that I’d love to play. They play okay. They have to be on native resolution otherwise any upscale has major slow downs. The FE couldn’t bother to run them properly even at native resolution. And if Apple ever allows these apps to run without going through hoops they all run excellent on the Air 3.
I wrote a lot here and I really hope it helps someone because I mentioned I wished I could’ve had a it more insight especially well after release since YouTube videos seem to be all based off early testing. Many things change over time just like android 11 taking away the ability for apps to move to micro sd card and turning into an iOS. That is one nice thing is that my roms are on a now 512gb. My ipad has 256 so I’d be out of room. I’ve been super excited revisiting my old games. Even my GBA saves like ff6 (with sound restoration) save transferred to Retroarch once I was able to find out by trial and error that mGBA was the correct core to use. Btw, GBA on the S7+ OLED screen, just (insert chefs kiss gif/meme and all the above here) You’ll also want to use MelonDS. It doesn’t have the upscale Desemu has but you can’t anyway and I find it a little easier to use. Only Mario Kart DS seems to crash if I rewind in melon over Desu but I’m still sticking with it to keep everything in sync. It’s been nice having my library and saves in ONE place with a touch screen, finally.
Thank you so very much for reading this far!!
Happy gaming!
| Standing screen display size | 12.4 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 2560 x 1600 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 2560 x 1600 Pixels |
| Processor | 2.2 GHz |
| RAM | 64 GB |
| Hard Drive | 64 GB |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11a/b/g/n/ac |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 181 Hours |
