Reading and annotating papers
Published:
Following is the comparison of tech specs of my new tablet (USD 315 + taxes) with the older tablet (USD 280 + taxes):
| Specification | Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite | Asus Google Nexus 7 (2nd generation) |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Samsung Exynos 9611 (2.3GHz x 4 cores, Cortex-A73 + 1.7GHz x 4 cores, Cortex-A53) | Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 (1.5GHz x 4 cores, Krait 300) |
| iGPU | Arm Mali-G72 (850MHz, Bifrost) | Qualcomm Adreno 320 (400MHz, Ardeno) |
| RAM | 2 x 2GB LPDDR4X | 2GB DDR3L |
| Storage | 64GB eMMC | 32GB eMMC |
| Battery | 7040 mAh (fast charging) | 3950 mAh (supports wireless charging) |
| Ports | 3.5mm headset jack, Type-C USB 2.0 and microSD card slot (upto 1TB) | 3.5mm headset jack and SlimPort (microUSB) |
| Network | WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4+5GHz) and Bluetooth 5.0 | WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4GHz+5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC (Android Beam) |
| Audio | AKG dual speakers (Dolby Atmos) | Sterio speakers (Fraunhofer Cingo) |
| Display | 10.4” 2000x1200 WUXGA+ 225ppi Wacom digitizer LCD | 7” 1920x1200 WUXGA 323ppi 10 finger multi-touch LCD with scratch resistant Corning Fit glass |
| Camera | 8MP rear-facing with auto focus and 5MP front-facing with face unlock support | 5MP rear-facing with auto focus and 1.2MP front-facing |
| OS | Android 10 with One UI 2.5 (updated quaterly or later) | Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, upgraded till Android 6 Marshmallow (apps were supported till 2019) |
| Warranty | 1 year | 1 year |
| Bottomline | Comes with S Pen which magnetically sticks to the edge of the tablet (Wacom’s battery-free EMR pen with 4096 pressure level sensitivity) | Designed for portability, can even fit in big pockets. Could easily annotate PDF using Adobe reader and fingers. |
| Additional accessories | Official Book Cover (USD 32) and S Pen nib replacement kit from Note 10 box (eBay, USD 10) | Official Travel Cover (USD 31) |
The Nexus 7 is one of the best piece of hardware I ever owned, but it lacked good quality acccesories. Moreover, in my opinion, Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is a modified version of Samsung Google Nexus 10 with added Wacom drawing tablet functionality, reduced screen resolution, and removed camera-flash (full comparison). On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy Tab S series in general have filled the void left by Google Pixel C after Google dumped Android in favor of ChromeOS tablet Google Pixel Slate which supported Pixelbook Pen (Wacom’s AAAA-battery AES pen).
Initially, since reading was the main purpose of the tablet, I tried replacing my older tablet with Kindle Paperwhite (3rd generation). However, its small screen made it impossible to quickly jump between the pages of the large documents. Moreover, to be able to read pdf/DjVu files properly, one first has to optimize them for viewing using k2pdfopt or jailbreak kindle (complicated). Another adavantage of using a tablet PC instead of an e-reader is that nowadays there are many open source online textbooks available, like The Stacks project and nLab.
| Purpose | Old tablet app | New tablet app |
|---|---|---|
| PDF reader and annotator | Adobe Acrobat Reader | Xodo PDF Reader & Editor |
| Sync folder with Google Drive | FolderSync | Autosync for Google Drive |
| Adblocker for in-app ads (including Chrome, not YouTube) | N/A | AdGuard DNS |
Review
Took some time to get used to writing on bigger screen than Nexus 7.
Settings > Display > Navigation bar > Swipe gestures > Swipe from sides and bottom
Also, enable “Block gestures with S Pen” and in Xodo app enable “Stylus as Pen”
Cons: low resolution, speakers position only good for landscape viewing, front camera is only good for portrait use.