Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE review: Big tablet, little value

A fine tablet misses the mark on price

I was really excited about the Galaxy Tab S7 FE. Samsung’s euphemistic Fan Edition branding, meant to signify a lesser version of an existing flagship at a lower price, last showed up on 2020’s Galaxy S20 FE, a phone I positively adored: it skimped a little on fit and finish to deliver an otherwise great experience at a very reasonable price.

With the Tab S7 FE, though, Samsung seems to have taken the opposite approach. The tablet’s build quality is fantastic, right up there with the premium Tab S7+, and it even keeps the bundled S Pen. But a bunch of bizarre concessions make it hard to recommend over other, similarly priced options — even some of Samsung’s own.

Design, hardware, what’s in the box

At a distance, the S7 FE isn’t easy to distinguish from its pricier cousins. It’s got the same boxy, aluminum build, right down to the magnetic S Pen charging pad next to the camera bump. It feels just as nice, too: it’s weighty and doesn’t give under pressure, and it feels just as dense and solid as the like-sized Tab S7+.

This is all in line with the Fan Edition precedent set by last year’s S20 FE: it brings some of Samsung’s high-end features downmarket in a more affordable but still-pretty-premium package. But the S20 FE took big swings where it counted — namely, in its fantastic 120Hz OLED display and Snapdragon 865 chipset — while bunting on nice-to-haves like materials. The Tab S7 FE makes cuts in places you’re more likely to notice. Its display, a big, 12.4-inch panel clocking in at 1600p, is a TFT LCD panel capped at 60Hz. The base model has four gigs of RAM — downright skimpy by 2021 Android standards, mid-range or no.

The most bizarre cut, though? There’s no fingerprint sensor on this thing (and if you’re thinking maybe it has secure face unlock or something, no such luck. We’re talking PIN or pattern only). On something like a Galaxy Tab A7, I can live with that — but that tablet costs $230. This one starts at $530 (though sales have started trickling in).

Still, credit where it’s due, this thing’s a hell of a media machine. A 60Hz display is plenty for most video content, and the Tab S7 FE has robust sound thanks to its stereo speakers. And while I almost universally value refresh rate over resolution (to a point, anyway), 2,560 x 1,600 is a meaningful bump from FHD, especially at this size. It’s very crisp.

Like the more expensive Tab S7s, the FE comes with an S Pen in the box. But in a weird and annoying bit of cost-cutting, its included power brick is woefully inadequate at 15 watts. (The keyboard accessory shown above is not included.)

Software, performance, and battery life

You’re getting the typical Samsung software experience here. The S7 FE is running One UI 3.1 over Android 11, which will be familiar if you’ve used any Samsung Android device in the past few years (and the learning curve isn’t too steep if you’re used to, say, Google’s or OnePlus’s skin). It’s got all the tricks: easy multitasking with splitscreen and windowed apps, Edge panels for shortcuts, and the ability to jot notes on the screen while the tablet is asleep using the bundled S Pen — a feature I love, even if the LCD panel doesn’t have the perfect blacks of an OLED.

Performance is totally fine for a mid-range tablet, too, but the situation there is a little weird. The less expensive Wi-Fi model is packing a Snapdragon 778G, while the pricier 5G version comes with an older 750G chipset. That’s not likely to matter in any practical sense, but even so, the thought of paying more money for less horsepower makes me wince a little. It ain’t a small markup, either: the Wi-Fi model starts at $530, while the 5G variant is $670 through carriers or direct from Samsung. Still, I’m using that ostensibly less powerful 5G version, and it doesn’t feel perceptibly slow unless I push it. Even some fairly intensive tasks like editing RAW photos in Lightroom are completely manageable.

My only real worry when it comes to the S7 FE’s guts is the base model’s paltry four gigs of RAM. For a media-oriented tablet, that’s enough, but if you want to use this thing for any type of work — be it Slack and email or sketching and photo editing — it’s gonna turn into a bottleneck sooner or later. To get more memory, you’ll have to pony up an additional 70 bucks. That’ll net you six gigabytes of RAM, plus 128 gigs of storage space — double the base model’s. But it also nudges the price up over $600 with tax, which is creeping past mid-range territory (by my yardstick, anyway).

To make matters worse, those upgrades are only available on the Wi-Fi version. The 5G variant I’m using is only available with four gigs of RAM and 64 of storage — which really hobbles its potential as a connected mobile workstation and makes its high MSRP feel more than a little ridiculous.

Battery life is very strong, at least. With a 10,090-mAh cell, this thing doesn’t need charging all that often, especially if you’re using it casually. In my use, I generally saw between six and eight hours of screen time over several days between charges. That’s good, because the included 15-watt charger takes hours to top the tablet up — you’ll probably want to let it charge overnight. It does support PPS chargers up to 45 watts, though, if you’re willing to shell out for one.

Should you buy it?

I’m not really sure why you would. If you handed me $530 and told me to buy a Samsung tablet with it, I’d head straight for the smaller Galaxy Tab S7, which is available for that price or less more often than not lately. At 11 inches, it’s not as large, but it beats the FE in a few ways: it’s got a faster chipset, more RAM, double the storage space, and, critically for me, a fingerprint sensor.

There’s also last year’s iPad Air, which typically costs between 0 and 0 on Amazon, depending on the day. Like the Tab S7 proper, it’s got a smaller 11-inch LCD screen — but it’s slightly higher resolution. Its A14 Bionic chip also walks all over the S7 FE’s Qualcomm CPU(s), and you’re getting access to Apple’s better tablet app selection and great accessory ecosystem (it’s just a shame Apple doesn’t bundle a stylus — and that its Pencil is so egregiously overpriced). Oh, and it has a fingerprint sensor, too.

If you’re dead set on buying a large Samsung tablet and your budget stops short of the Tab S7+, the S7 FE certainly isn’t a bad pick. In a vacuum, it’s a very nice tablet. But if you can wait for another significant S7+ sale or live with an iPad, I think you’ll get a lot more value for your money.

Buy on Amazon:

Galaxy Tab S7 FE

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