Well, so much for that technicality...
So here is my first impressions of my Tab S and keyboard after setting it up and using it a few days. It's not perfect but the pluses outweigh the detractors by a pretty large order of magnitude.
This is a pretty powerful tablet. It's speed and lack of lag, even stuffed with TouchWiz, is impressive. It even manages to scan a 128 GB SD card pretty fast. The screen is awesome. I replaced the TouchWiz launcher with Nova Prime which gives me greater control of the Launcher's visual features. So far, I am using only one Home Screen as if it were a computer. I use the Nova settings to shrink the icons a bit to take better advantage of the great Amoled screen.
I have three main groups of functions for this tablet and I'm finding this tablet more and more taking over from both my phone and my desktop. They are writing work (Text Maker HD is a godsend), Internet browsing including email, banking app, etc., and Multimedia (especially video). My desktop is still better for heavy duty information gathering, such as when I'm researching something and have about 10 tabs open. The desktop remains the home station where everything is synced to and backed up. I also have some resource intensive functions using propietary software on Windows such as producing radio shows that the Tablet can't take over. The Nexus 5 handles coms and can do the other things when I really don't want to carry anything more than what is in my pockets, but is becoming more and more of a look-up device rather than a data entry device.
Jury is still out on battery life. Has been doing pretty well since I turned down the brightness on the screen rather than leaving it on Auto. I have BT and wifi on pretty much all the time, so one has to take that into account.
10.5" is about the right size, particularly with such good screen resolution. It fits comfortably in your hand carrying it around or slips easily in a bag, but is sharp and clear and easy to read. The Logitech Type-S Keyboard case is terrific. It fits very tightly (though easy enough to put on and take off) and everything is held in place so rigidly that it is very steady and balanced even on your lap. It really completes this device. It may be that the Samsung keyboard case is just as wonderful, I haven't seen it, but I really like Logitech keyboards and this is very similar to my desktop keyboard. Pairing is very smooth and it is much less fussy than the Lenovo keyboard I have. Once paired, the Tablet will pick up the keyboard almost instantly, even if it has gone to sleep. The keyboard case has it's own battery. It does add a little weight and bulk, but it is still a very light and comfortable item in the hand when folded up.
I had no problems connecting the Tab to my computer for transferring files. I didn't have to install the USB drivers. Both internal memory and the SD Card are mounted in Windows. In general, this has been a very easy and sweet transition.
I haven't mentioned the camera, which is a very nice 8mp camera as far as I can tell, but I am not much into cameras in the first place and am particularly not into them on a tablet. If they had a cameraless version for cheaper, I would have taken it. I find cameras on a tablet just whack.
The drawbacks are pretty minor. The biggest shock was coming from several years of Nexus devices. I had previously only had The Samsung Galaxy Player 5. I had forgotten just how much crapware Samsung stuffs in these things (I think it has gotten worse) and how entrenched and deep TouchMyWiz goes (also worse I think). Even the settings are repulsively skinned. Nova only cleans up the launcher window. You can't uninstall any of the baked in apps, although on some it does offer the option to "Turn OFF" which seems to be equivalent to freezing an app in Titanium Backup. I've turned off a few to test and they disappear from the app drawer and from installed apps in the Play Store. However, not all apps offer this option.
Multiwindow is a nice feature when it works, but not all apps are allowed to play. I suspect the code for it must have to be in the app. Not sure why all devs wouldn't put it there, but apparently not. Also, there are subtle differences in how it is utilized. Some apps will multiwidow only if they are opened full screen first and then another app added for the second window. If you pull the full screen app out second, it goes full screen anyway. It is handy where it does work, but probably won't keep me from romming if a good ROM comes along.
I will hopefully go for a while before rooting to clean the Tab up so that I can make sure it doesn't have any defects before I blow warranty. I am happy enough with it for now and it is doing pretty much what I want it to do. At the alleged retail price of $499, I don't know if I would have jumped as fast, but I found a deal for $355 plus free shipping that was a no-brainer. That allowed me to add both a 128 GB SD card and the keyboard case and, as I mentioned before, end up with about the same cost as I had been about to spend on a 32GB Nexus 9 plus shipping (not free).
Upshot: This is a fantastic, very powerful tablet which, with the high quality Logitech keyboard case, is turned into a powerful and fast mini-laptop. It is as functional for real work as it is for entertainment. What's more, the state of Android and Android apps are good enough to get real work done even if, like me, you aren't heavily invested in Google apps or the cloud (I did get 50GB of Dropbox free, which is one of the few cloud things I use). I am very very happy with my purchase.
