I just wanted to let you know that if you are looking for a new tablet and can't afford to buy an iPad, then do yourself a favour and either keep saving or wait for the Galaxy Tab S5, because I've made the mistake of buying a Tab S5e. 

 

So far I am completely disappointed and underwhelmed by it, the on/off button is hard to find and it doubles up as a fingerprint sensor which is a right pain to set up and get right. 

 

The display is the real disappointment, advertised as being able to make colours rich, deep and lifelike, nothing could be further from the truth, they're dull, muted and poor, I've tried tweaking them but got nowhere, the text is just OK, but my old Tab S2 has sharper quality text than the S5e. 

 

Mine is a WiFi only version, but for some reason it still offers me the option to make phone calls, which may be OK if you have Skype but I don't but I can't disable it. 

 

Networking is not good, we have two networks in our house one using a BT home hub 6 and one using an ASUS router and both have repeaters to boost coverage, my old S2 has no issue with it, but the S5e can't see the home hub or repeaters that the S2 can and even when it does connect it's a bit flaky. Not good. 

 

Sound is nothing special despite them bigging it up on the adverts and promotional material, you'll also need to get a USB C - 3.5mm converter if you want to use big standard earphones or headphones, otherwise it's a case of buying a pair of Bluetooth ones. 

 

Trying to send a file to the tablet is a complete nightmare, I tried to send two files from my phone to it via Bluetooth and it won't do it, despite being fully paired with it, it would only do the transfer via WiFi Direct, but even getting that to work properly for me was hard work and I would have been able to do transfer far quicker using Bluetooth. 

 

Trying to find files can also be time consuming, even if you are familiar with the method of other Tab S series which are dead easy, I spent a good few minutes trying to find the email receipt that was sent to me by Samsung. 

 

Email is another pain to set up, it tries to do it automatically, it fails abysmally and it's best to set it up manually. 

 

The speed of the device is slightly improved, but it seems to get slower quite quickly, for no real reason and the only way to fix it is to use the device maintenance system or reboot it. 

 

So all in all, it's a retrograde step, not worth the £399 (after cashback) that they're asking, so I would recommend that you either save your money and get an iPad, wait for something else or wait until the S5 arrives. 

Edited 22 May, 20197 yr by TheWanderer

I was quite impressed with mine and have no real cause for complaint. After trading in, discount and selling the free 512gb micro SD, it cost me £240 for the 64gb WiFi.

 

Display is good, performance is fine, and I thought the sound was rather good - all of these better than my partner's iPad 2018 which cost more. Haven't noticed the WiFi issue either which has been all over the internet.

 

Is it perfect? Probably not. But overall for £250ish and for casual web surfing etc it's great I think.