With the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, Samsung has a compact tablet on offer that could be very interesting for some, especially in times of home offices and homeschooling. Samsung provides the buyers of the S6 Lite with a filigree S Pen, which can be used to exploit the tablet’s full potential. Notes and drawings are thus not only fun, but are now also available in digital form. However, Samsung’s tablet can do much more. You can find out how the tablet performs in our test in the following review.
Specifications
| Operating system: | Android 10.0 |
| Display: | 10.4″, 2000×1200, 224ppi, multi-touch, digitizer, IPS |
| Camera (rear): | 8.0 megapixel, f/1.9, AF |
| Camera (front): | 5.0 megapixels, f/2.0 |
| Interfaces: | Bluetooth 5.0, WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2×2), LTE-A Cat11, UMTS, USB-C 2.0, jack |
| Sensors: | Position sensor, accelerometer, light sensor, Hall sensor |
| CPU: | Samsung Exynos 9611, 4x 2.30 GHz (ARM Cortex-A73) + 4x 1.70 GHz (ARM Cortex-A53) |
| GPU: | ARM Mali-G72 MP3 (iGPU) |
| RAM: | 4GB LPDDR4X |
| Memory: | 64GB |
| Battery: | Li-ion, 7040mAh |
| Inserts: | SIM, microSDXC (up to 1TB) |
| Dimensions (mm): |
254 x 254 x 7 |
| Weight: | 467 grams |
| Price: | € 379.00 * |
Scope of delivery
In addition to the tablet itself, the typical sheets, such as user manual, quickstart guide and warranty conditions are included. As we already know from smartphones, we also get a SIM card pin here to open the card slot. It does not matter whether you decide for or against the LTE version. Since the WIFI version also offers the option to insert a microSD card. The most important addition is of course the S Pen. This is included in the scope of delivery of all S6 Lite versions. A USB-C cable as well as a power plug complete the package.
Workmanship and design
The overall workmanship is very good. The choice of materials do their part. On the front, we have a glass panel that makes a very solid impression and even when pressed harder, no pressure marks can be seen on the display. The back has a very nice aluminum case, which is really good to touch. The S6 Lite is available in Oxford Gray and Angora Blue.
Darker plastic applications have been incorporated at the edges to match the gray color scheme. The plastic parts are on par with the metal and do not have the function of scratch protection.
If we take a closer look at the edges, the following interfaces and buttons stand out.
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- Top: audio interface (aux), microphone, speaker
- Left: none
- Right: buttons for loud and quiet, on/off, SIM or SD card slot
- Bottom: USB-C interface, speaker
Display
The display is a 23.6 cm / 10.4 inch TFT with a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels (WUXGA+). One point of criticism can be found in the display selection. For example, if you place it in front of you on the table and set the brightness to the lower third, the displayed things are rather difficult to recognize. We would have liked to see an OLED display in this price range, as is already common in competing products. The glass on the front is also very reflective, so using it in inappropriate lighting conditions could be a problem. Overall, however, the colors are displayed very nicely and the individual commands, whether with or without a stylus, are recorded very precisely.
Battery
Samsung uses a 7040 mAh, lithium-ion battery for the power supply in the S6 Lite. To test the battery’s durability, we ran a Full HD video at medium volume in an endless loop. After just under 8 hours, the tablet went out. Samsung even gives a reference value for this. A video playback time of up to 13 hours is indicated. After a charging time of just under 4 hours, it was fully charged and ready for use again.
The S6 Lite in everyday use
The tablet has found its target group! That’s not gamers, because that’s not what the S6 Lite was designed for. The, in our opinion, excellently designed S-Pen allows making drawings or writing notes very easily and precisely. This is a great advantage for home offices and studies because you have direct access to your notes in digital form. Websites also load quite quickly when surfing the Internet. The S6 Lite is also capable of multimedia applications. Watching YouTube videos or movies or even listening to music is fun thanks to the dual speakers. They are optimized by AKG and Dolby Atmos and deliver a rich sound that can easily fill the whole living room.
Even though it was not designed for games, they can of course be installed on it and enjoyed in appealing graphics. The difference to more powerful models becomes apparent in more demanding titles in terms of frame rates, heat development and battery consumption.
The S Pen
The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite comes with the wonderfully shaped S Pen. The pen has been given an elegant plastic case with discreet Samsung lettering. It is easy to grip, light, and feels very good in the hand. The ergonomics are similar to a standard pencil. A small button with a special function is incorporated into the case. A menu with shortcuts (also freely configurable) can be called up via the button. This provides quick access to the notepad or other apps that the user has stored there, for example. The tip of the S Pen is made of a hard rubber. The part that glides over the display is made of a softer fabric-like material. Since the pen sends a signal via the button, it naturally has to be charged. For this, it is sufficient to comfortably attach the pen to the holder on the tablet (lower right side), because it is also charged wirelessly there. The pen is held to the tablet via a magnet.
Camera
A main camera with a resolution of 8 megapixels was installed. A flash, supporting the main camera, is completely missing. Videos are recorded in Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), at a frame rate of 30fps. The front-facing camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels, which is perfectly sufficient for the intended use of the S6 Lite. Overall, tablets are not considered photo wonders, as in this case.
The picture quality is sufficient for a few snapshots. Poor illumination reveals weaknesses in focus and detail reproduction.
Performance test
Even though the S6 Lite is deliberately not one of the most powerful tablets or smartphones, we wanted to know how it performed overall. For this purpose, we ran the Geekbench 5 benchmark on the one hand and two test runs in the 3D Mark Slingshot benchmark on the other.
Geekbench 5
We have summarized the tested CPU score and graphics score in a table for you.
| CPU: Single-Core Score | 345 |
| CPU: Multi-Core Score | 1224 |
| GPU: OpenCL Score | 1437 |
3D Mark Slingshot
To get a comparable score to other devices, we ran the 3D Mark Slingshot and the more demanding Slingshot Extreme benchmark once.
The device achieved a total score of 1949 points in the normal Sling Shot benchmark. Thus, the result is better than 62% of all devices tested so far. The more demanding Sling Shot Extreme benchmark shows that the S6 Lite was rather designed for multimedia and office applications. Here we achieve a total score of 1535 points. Thus, the device is better than 42% of all devices tested so far in the 3D Mark benchmark.
Connectivity
Besides WIFI and Bluetooth 5.0, our test object also has the option to insert a SIM card. The card slot offers two sides for this. On one side you can insert a microSD card with a size of up to 1 TB, and on the other side you can insert a SIM card. Besides a 3.5 mm jack, the S6 Lite also offers a USB-C 2.0 port.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite offers a very coherent overall package for its application range. It functions as a compact companion for at home or on the go. We had to criticize the display selection. Samsung relies on a TFT display for the S6 Lite, which makes it rather difficult to recognize the displayed pictures with low screen brightness and a flat viewing angle. At an MSRP of around €430 for the LTE version, we would have liked to see an OLED display. Overall, however, the S6 Lite offers very great features for taking notes or drawing artwork, also thanks to the included S Pen. The battery life is sufficient in our opinion, but a shorter charging time would have been nice. The choice of materials was also noticed positively, in noble gray the device is very nice to look at.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite
Workmanship
Hardware
Multimedia
Performance
Battery
Value for money
90/100
Very nice and compact tablet for office and multimedia applications. A matching stylus (S Pen) is included.
