Why You Can Trust CNET Samsung Galaxy View review: Biggest Samsung tablet ever, smallest TV in your house
Samsung's vast new 18.4-inch tablet moonlights as a smart portable TV, but its convenience comes at a price.
While visiting a friend in her charmingly cozy studio apartment full of beautiful worldly art and bountiful bookshelves, another friend lamented her lack of TV, because he wanted to watch a live basketball game. She said she usually watches TV on her laptop. At that moment, for the first time since I got my hands on one, I could confidently say, "The Galaxy View would be a great alternative for you."
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Bigger than a laptop, but smaller than a TV, the Samsung Galaxy View is a new type of tablet hybrid -- part TV, part tablet -- that suits anyone who watches a lot of video and either lives in a small place, or would like a supplementary screen for using around the house. This huge 18.4-incher teeters into TV territory with a main screen dedicated to popular streaming sites such as Netflix. It's not exactly a mini-smart TV, since there's no Ethernet or HDMI ports, and it doesn't come with a remote or a keyboard, but it has full Android capabilities and access to all of the apps in the Google Play Store.
Why use a tablet instead of a TV? For the same reason one would choose a tablet over a laptop; it's simply a conveniently portable option. Yes, it's very big for a tablet -- it's even bigger than the soon to be released 12.9-inch Apple iPad Pro, which has a higher resolution yet costs a bit more. But the Samsung behemoth's design features a useful built-in kickstand with a handle, to easily move it from room to room, a micro-SD card slot and a SIM card slot for Internet on the go. The downside is the flimsy and cheap plastic construction of its built-in kickstand, the lack of an HDMI port and disappointingly weak speakers. Oh, did I mention that it costs a whopping $599? (UK and Australia availability and pricing are not yet confirmed, but that converts to around £390 or AU$830.)
If you're low on space, but not on cash, the Samsung Galaxy View is a unique option that might fit your needs. Considering you can buy two 40-inch Roku TVs for less than one Galaxy View, its lofty price is a tough pill to swallow. There isn't anything else quite like it, however, if you like the idea of a giant Android tablet that could almost double as your coffee table. The Galaxy View is a slick tablet that works well as a TV alternative. Just be prepared to pay a lot for the privilege of portability.
Functional design and cheap feel
When I first saw the Samsung Galaxy View, it reminded me of a plastic binder clip. There's an additional separate panel on the back that's flat until you get to the top quarter of the tablet. At that point it curls back about 45 degrees. The part of the panel that's slightly curved also houses an oval handle in the middle. It's attached via plastic hinges and it can shift into two positions: one allows the tablet to stand upright, the other lets it lay down at an angle. The second position also frees up the handle to easily transport the tablet.
The back panel isn't removable and there's no low-profile option, meaning the tablet can never lay completely flat. Its mechanism isn't very smooth, either. In order to switch its configurations, you push the panel's protruding edge inward towards the chassis to connect with the back of the tablet, while the other edge flips outward, like a see-saw. It requires a forceful push and results in a loud violent slap every time. The plastic back panel also feels a bit rickety. It can easily bend under pressure, and since you need to put pressure on it to switch its position, I often found myself scared it would eventually snap in half. Luckily, it didn't.
It reminds me of a plastic binder clip.
Like any tablet worth its weight, the View is portable, but this doesn't mean it's mobile. Despite mostly being made of plastic, it's too heavy to carry around for a long time. Carrying it from the kitchen to the living room is fine, but you likely won't be able to fit it in a carry-on bag when you leave for vacation. Since the back panel can't lay flush to the tablet's edge, it's always protruding in some way. This gives it a clunky feel that makes it cumbersome to carry around if you're traveling from one destination to another. It's actually really annoying.
The Samsung Galaxy View is meant to be a big screen that's stays put most of the time, but there is plenty of room for improvement. The built-in stand is functional, but it feels cheap and wonky. Samsung would benefit from paying attention to Lenovo's Yoga tablets. Those include built-in stands that can position the tablet at various angles, and securely lay flush to the tablet's edge when not in use.
The plastic hinges attach the back of the tablet to the kickstand.
Is this just an expensive Roku TV?
The home screen design reminds me a lot of Roku's smart TVs, but you can pick up one of those for $300, which is half the price of the 18.4-inch Galaxy View. Running Android 5.1 Lollipop with Samsung's TouchWiz overlay, the Galaxy View essentially works like every other Samsung tablet, except that it has a Roku-like home screen.
Instead of your typical home screen full of widgets and app shortcuts, the home button in the middle of the Android navigation bar (the black bar on the bottom of the screen) directs you to a colorful page that's filled edge-to-edge with a four-by-four grid of rectangles. It drives home the idea that the Galaxy View is a mini-TV with Android capabilities.
The Galaxy View has a Roku face with a Samsung body.
Each rectangle is a shortcut for a video-watching app, save for the top left one, which allows you to log into your cable or satellite TV service. The apps that make up the home screen for US users include Netflix, Hulu, MGo Premium Movies and TV, CNN for Samsung, History, CBS, Showtime Anytime, Lifetime, NBC Sports Live Extra, PBS Kids, Watch ESPN, YouTube, Crackle, Twitch and AOL.On. UK and Australian users will get apps specific to their countries.
Though all of these are displayed on the home screen, you still have to individually download each. Some allow you to stream video for free, like Crackle and Lifetime. Most, like Hulu and Netflix, are subscription-based services that require a monthly fee, while others, like NBC Sports Live Extra and Showtime Anytime, require a cable or satellite subscription in order to stream.
Laying it down makes it easy to type on the big screen.
The Galaxy View can also be used as a normal Android tablet. It's not limited to just binge-watching "Gilmore Girls." You have access to the full breadth of apps via the Google Play Store, so you can also write emails, check your Facebook and play your favorite flavor of Angry Birds.
Pretty good for a tablet, but it's no TV
I could list a bunch of specs, but at the end of the day what's important is how well this thing works. How fast is it? Is it buggy? Can I see the crisp individual curls of Jon Snow's luscious head of hair while streaming an HD episode of "Game Thrones"?
Just so you know, it supports the latest version of Bluetooth, the fastest Wi-Fi standards, a SIM card slot and it houses 32GB of internal storage, with a microSD card slot for expanding your storage.
Bet you can't carry your TV around like this.
For casual tasks, like checking email, browsing social media and surfing the Web, the Galaxy View performed like a dream. Navigating the operating system was swift and, with a strong Wi-Fi connection, Web pages loaded quickly. It's not remarkably fast or anything, but it was consistently smooth. I barely encountered any bugginess while using it. When downloading apps or updates, performance became sluggish (it took a few more seconds to respond to swipes and taps, and apps took longer to launch), but this is a common problem with most tablets.
The Galaxy View provided a satisfying gaming experience, for some games. Its bulky design and built-in kickstand prevent playing certain games comfortably -- particularly first-person shooters and other games that require both thumbs to be on the screen -- though the stand worked to its advantage for games that didn't require such a hands-on approach.
Hearthstone took a bit longer to load than Angry Birds 2, but ran smoothly once launched.
While playing games like Angry Birds 2, Best Fiends and Hearthstone, I was able to prop up the tablet with the kickstand (instead of holding the tablet like normal), allowing me to relax in my seat. Big games like Hearthstone took a few more seconds to launch in comparison to simpler mobile games, like Angry Birds 2, but it ran without a hitch once loaded. In 3DMark benchmark testing, the Galaxy View didn't come close to top dogs like the Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro or the Dell Venue 8 7000, but since it's centered around watching video and not hardcore gaming, it's a bit forgivable.
Though the Samsung Galaxy View straddles the line between TV and tablet, its screen is definitely in tablet territory. It has a full HD 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution that looks fine on the 18.4-inch screen. Yet, for such an expensive tablet, I was hoping for a sharper, more vibrant screen, similar to the one on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. It still looks sharp when displaying HD video and its colors were fairly accurate, though I found green hues to look a bit oversaturated.
Featuring top streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, the Galaxy View also works for cord-cutters.
I'm assuming Samsung thinks most people will use headphones with the Galaxy View, because it equipped the tablet with a poor excuse for speakers. Between the tablet's back panel and kickstand, you'll find a speaker on the left and right sides. Their sound is muffled, because they're pointed at the kickstand, not your ears, but even if they were, they'd still sound pitiful. Audio is tinny and weak at loud volumes and even at mid-range, they sound anemic. This is standard fare for most tablets, but for a tablet that doubles as a TV, I'd hope for better sound to complement the big screen.
There's a solitary 2.1-megapixel camera on the front of the View It takes a decent selfie and works fine for video conferencing. It's sharp enough to capture details on your face and skin tones look true to life. Due to its weird design and moveable back panel, Samsung skipped the rear camera. Since most tablet cameras take underwhelming, washed-out photos, this is a forgivable omission.
The stand prevents it from laying flat.
Our battery test consists of looping a local 720p video at medium brightness in airplane mode. After testing it in the CNET Labs, the Galaxy View averaged 9.2 hours. That's pretty good for a tablet,, and in the ballpark of Samsung's estimated 8 hours. If you're using Wi-Fi however, I can easily see how it would drain faster.
The Samsung Galaxy View is kind of like a TV, but really not at all. It's a good TV alternative if you don't have one, or if someone in your house is hogging it to watch the latest episode of "Empire." To be sure, you're not getting the same experience as you would with a regular TV. The Galaxy View isn't mountable and it doesn't offer ports to connect a game console or Blu-ray player. But you can take it outside to watch the game while you lounge in the sun, as long as you're still within range of your Wi-Fi network or you've installed a SIM card.
Not many port options. In fact, there's just one.
If you need a TV, this shouldn't be your first choice. Buy a TV instead. But if you don't have much room in your apartment, trying to fit a 32- or 40-inch TV into it isn't may not be the best idea. The 18.4-inch Galaxy View is big enough to enjoy videos on, but small enough to fit into any room, making it a great alternative for those in tight situations.
Should you buy it?
At $600, the Samsung Galaxy View is hard to recommend to just anyone. If you're short on space but not on cash, the Galaxy View might be the Android you're looking for. I can see how someone who shares a common area or lives in a small apartment might find it useful to have a personal portable TV with Android apps, but at that price, you can buy both a decent TV and a tablet separately. You're paying a premium for the tablet's portable TV functions.
I enjoyed my time with the Samsung Galaxy View, but I wouldn't pay $600 for it.
It's hard to compare other tablets to the Samsung Galaxy View because, well, there aren't any similar tablets around -- large tablets typically aim to replace your laptop, not your TV. The most similar Android tablet to the View is the 13-inch Lenovo Yoga Tab 2. It also features a built-in stand, but can lay flush to the tablet's edge and be adjusted into several positions. The Lenovo is also much better for handheld use, because it's smaller and has a chunky rounded spine that makes it easy to grip in one hand.
I like the idea of the Samsung Galaxy View more than the device itself. For $600, it should offer a sharper screen (some tablets these days have twice its resolution) and a more practical design. The only way to justify buying the Galaxy View is if it meets your very specific needs. I hope the next version, if there is one, refines the design and upgrades the screen. Then, maybe, it'll appeal to more than just the space-challenged.