The iPad and Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra: A Comparative Analysis
When it comes to tablets, both Apple's iPad and Samsung's Galaxy S8 Ultra offer unique features that cater to different user needs. In this article, we'll delve into the key differences between these two devices and explore their respective strengths and weaknesses.
One of the most notable differences between the iPad and Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra is the dock feature on the former. The iPad comes with a dock, which is essentially a place to hold some apps, recent apps, and important ones. In contrast, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra features an edge panel that can attach to either edge of the device. This edge panel not only holds apps but also offers more functionality, such as storing task shortcuts and accessing clipboard history.
While Apple's simplistic approach often wins me over, I must admit that having one more app or two more apps on the screen at once is a killer feature that I would love to have on my iPad. However, overall, I prefer the iPad for its seamless and intuitive experience. That being said, the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra has some impressive software superpowers.
One such power-up is Dex, which provides a Windows-like experience reminiscent of Chrome OS. This allows users to hook up an external monitor and experience a more traditional computing environment. In my hands-on experience with the Dex feature, I found it to be surprisingly smooth and powerful. The ability to run multiple tasks simultaneously and access external monitors made it feel like I was using a proper Windows machine.
On the other hand, the iPad's software is designed for a more streamlined experience. While this makes it incredibly easy to use, I've noticed that there are occasional glitches and hiccups. Additionally, some apps on the iPad don't quite live up to their promises, resulting in a less-than-seamless user experience.
Another notable feature of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra is its Universal Control capability. This allows users to control multiple Macs and iPads using just one keyboard and mouse, making it an incredibly powerful tool for remote work and productivity. I recently made a video about this feature, which explores its potential in more detail.
In terms of software superpowers, both devices have their unique strengths. However, when it comes down to the iPad's overall experience, I find that it feels more fluid and smooth. While the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra has some impressive features, such as Dex and Universal Control, they don't quite outweigh the iPad's seamless user interface.
That being said, I must confess that my experience with the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra was nothing short of enjoyable. The device pushed the envelope in ways that the iPad didn't, and I found myself having fun exploring its features and capabilities. While it may not be my go-to choice for everyday use, it's definitely a compelling alternative.
Ultimately, whether you choose the iPad or the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra depends on your specific needs and preferences. Both devices have their strengths and weaknesses, and it's essential to weigh these against your own requirements before making a decision. In this article, I've tried to provide an honest analysis of each device, highlighting both their impressive features and limitations.
If you're considering purchasing either of these devices, I encourage you to explore them further in depth. The links provided below should give you access to more detailed information about each feature and functionality. Additionally, if you have any questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey it's chris i'm an ipad fan but today i'm going to be comparing the 12.9 inch ipad pro apple's flagship tablet against samsung's galaxy tab s8 ultra now before we even get any further here's my disclaimer because i can already see the comments swirling around in people's minds i am an apple fan i like apple's products there's a reason why i've chosen to put myself in that ecosystem that said i'm also a tech enthusiast and i really do just like experiencing new tech so before anyone gets any confused ideas i'm not claiming to be super unbiased here and while some people might think i'm going to make the ipad win no matter what in this competition it's really not a competition i'm just exploring i'm having fun and i hope you guys can have some fun along with me now i'm not going to be able to compare every tiny little thing i think there's other channels that are doing that for me there's kind of like five main things i really want to focus on number one just being the screens and then i also want to look at the official keyboard cases i definitely want to talk a little bit about the styluses is it stylus or styli then i want to talk about the front-facing cameras and the microphone quality and then i want to get into what probably is the media section of this video for most people the software experience all right let's start by talking about the displays because if you think about it that's basically the core of what makes a tablet tablet this piece of glass that looks gorgeous that you can hold now both of these are actually high quality 120 hertz displays what's interesting here is that samsung makes you choose whether you want 120 hertz or 60 hertz enabled across the board all the time the ipad on the other hand uses pro motion and that means that it's adaptive so it can scale up to 120 hertz but it can also conserve a little bit especially the battery life if you're not needing 120 hertz all the time now samsung's display here is an ammo led display on the other hand apple's using a mini led display at the moment i've got them both set to about 50 brightness so you can see how they look but where the ipad really excels is when it comes to hdr content because it can really really make those brights pop now the samsung display on paper should have better darks because it's an oled display you can just turn those dark pixels all the way off if needed now i do want to note that i do have a paper-like screen protector on the ipad screen right now because it's one of my favorite accessories because it does give me a more paper-like feel when i'm using the apple pencil but honestly as you can tell as you just look at these screens they both look really great so if one of your goals when you purchase either of these tablets is to watch a lot of content you might take into consideration the aspect ratio here and the larger or i should say longer screen size here on the samsung because you can see there's smaller black bars around the content which some people are going to enjoy and as you continue to feast your eyes on the comparison here i do want to point out that because these are such nice displays they can both be used as second screens for either a mac or a pc and don't worry a little bit later in the video we are going to cover decks and universal control and kind of compare and contrast the extra things that you can do on the software side real quick before we go any further let me just say if you like these sort of comparisons if you like the vibe of this video why not get subscribed and let me know down in the comments what other comparisons you guys would like to see all right so this is the ipad pro's magic keyboard this is the white version and also comes in black and the ipad just pops right on here and then you can open and close it and this is kind of as far back as it pushes so you do have a somewhat limited array of viewing angles and this is the bottom half of the samsung keyboard case because it's two pieces you've got this piece that fits on the back of the display and then you've also got the actual keyboard and the two pieces attach magnetically as well and then you gotta pop out this little kickstand in the back and you're good to go and then as you can see from the top down angle here this is the biggest ipad and it has a smaller footprint with the keyboard case than this absolutely gargantuan s8 ultra over here which just spreads out a little bit more on your desk now one big bonus on the samsung side of things is that you actually get a row of function keys across the top including an escape key and a dex key among others and guess what on the ipad side of things there's no row of function keys that's something that people have complained about for quite a while now however typing on the magic keyboard is so much nicer than typing on the samsung keyboard it's a few things it's the key travel it's the comfort of pressing these keys over long periods of time and it's even just the sound honestly of the keys i just prefer that too the samsung keys just aren't quite as punchy for me literally everything about typing on the magic keyboard is just better the keys on this samsung here are usable but the typing experience on the magic keyboard i would label as feeling more luxurious to use where this is just super utilitarian and honestly my experience with the trackpad on the magic keyboard mirrors my experience with the keys this is an amazing trackpad over here on the ipad's magic keyboard and the trackpad over here is again just passable it's utilitarian now am i just being extra hard on the samsung i'm honestly not on the ipad i can click into the top corners i can click anywhere and it clicks great over here on the samsung it's kind of hard to press anywhere near the top over here it doesn't always work especially in this corner for me and one thing that really matters to me is that i can pick the magic keyboard up and and carry it around and use it on my lap whereas the samsung you can't you have to hold it with two hands if you're gonna carry it around open and it's just not usable on your lap but one time i was trying to balance it make it work and it's funny this bottom half of the keyboard case is so flexible that the mouse was actually pressing itself listen to this that's not me actually clicking the trackpad that is the trackpad clicking itself so these are both 350 one feels really premium though and the other doesn't and i think another consideration for me is just the aesthetics of the stands when you're using them the magic keyboard it really has its own identity with this floating hinge design that's pretty cool don't see that everywhere whereas the s8 ultra really has a microsoft surface style feel that you'll find on a range of different products from different companies so it's really not very unique so as a stand the magic keyboard really makes a statement and as i stand over here it doesn't really make a statement but i understand why they went with it you really get a much wider range of viewing angles and that really does count for something look how far i can push that down one thing that's a bit of a special feature is that the ipad has an extra charging port in the back left corner of its keyboard case which the galaxy doesn't and the reason that i like it is because it really keeps the cord out of the way when you're charging and over on the samsung side you have that cord sticking out the side it just doesn't look as clean also that frees up my thunderbolt port which we're going to talk about in a little bit and i don't get a free port over here because i'm charging with that port now in the keyboard comparison if you made me choose one over the other i would absolutely pick the magic keyboard with the ipad pro here because typing is a huge part of my work day and i want that typing experience to be as good and as enjoyable as possible more than i want a row of function keys even or a more adjustable stand now let's talk about these styluses here so so this is the apple pencil it costs 130 and this is samsung's s pen which actually comes included when you buy the s8 ultra so already that's pretty cool of samsung to include that right in the box now the apple pencil is just a little bit longer than the s pen but they both have these flat edges that number one makes them nice to grip and number two lets them rest on the device attach the device now the tips are quite different you get a harder tip with the apple pencil and true to its name i feel like that does really make it feel more like an actual pencil and it also doesn't hurt that i've got the paper-like screen protector on here as well that definitely contributes the tip of the s pen is a lot softer so when you actually press down on it it makes for a very different experience and it's actually going to be very subjective which one you prefer using but for me when it comes to handwriting i actually prefer the way that the s pen feels and how it works at least in the default samsung app we'll talk more about that in a minute now that isn't to say that i don't like handwriting over on the ipad at all because that's not the case so handwriting with both good i prefer the s pen maybe just slightly on the other hand when it comes to drawing shapes or sketching then i definitely prefer using the apple pencil it just feels more natural to me and again it's not like the s pen is bad in those situations i just like the way that the apple pencil handles itself in the sketching department now the ipad has kind of a capacitive hidden touch button here that if you double tap will switch between your latest used tools maybe the pencil and the eraser the s pen on the other hand has an actual button you can see it right there that comes in handy in a variety of situations as well but let's talk about performance this is one interesting area when it comes to these two styluses why well the apple pencil is very smooth basically all the time doesn't matter what app you're in or what part of the system you're interacting with this thing is smooth on the other hand performance with the s pen really varies or the experience that you're interacting with at any given time so it can be very smooth in apps like samsung's notes app here but i found that other notes and design style apps in the play store don't make for nearly as smooth of an experience and you can see that in action in my s8 ultra unboxing video all right while we're on the subject of the styluses one thing i want to point out is how you store and attach them on the ipad the apple pencil magnetically connects with a nice satisfying click on the top and it doesn't matter which direction you face it it's going to connect and charge either direction the s pen on the other hand can also attach magnetically to the top but you can also lift the flap in the back of the case here and attach it to the back and then when you shut that piece of the case you know you're not going to lose that s pen if you stick it in a backpack or if you take it somewhere which is interesting because i've actually lost my apple pencil for months at a time multiple times because i put it in a backpack or i brought it with me and the apple pencil is great to store on top when you're just at your desk but it's too easy to knock off and potentially lose for such an expensive thing otherwise all right so let's talk a little bit about the front facing camera you got a dual camera set up over here on the samsung and you'll notice that they've positioned it to be centered horizontally i really like that because that means that when i'm looking at somebody on a meeting it's going to look more like i'm looking at them making eye contact rather than looking off to the side which is what ends up happening over here on the ipad pro because apple has gone ahead and centered their camera in a portrait orientation now here's something i don't get and i don't like about the ipad pro's front-facing camera it's not 4k it's only 1080p it does have center stage which is great for centering you or anybody else that happens to be on the camera with you but i would rather look good on a video than be centered okay so here's just a quick little video test and microphone test the front-facing 4k camera on the s8 ultra you know what i think it looks pretty good how does it sound though you guys let me know down in the comments and here's a quick video test of the ipad pro's front facing camera and microphones now you'll see i'm holding this directly in front of me but my face is off to the side if i want to center myself i actually have to move this over here to look at the camera because of this awkward placement it just doesn't work as good and you know what i'm not sure that the quality is as good as it needs to be either for a pro device so as i'm just briefly comparing the footage that i just shot on each of these it's apparent to me that the galaxy here is just so much nicer in terms of the camera quality and the ipad honestly is just lacking it's not as good so in this department i definitely choose the samsung for its 4k crispy capabilities all right so now we come to the software experience we've talked a little bit about some of the hardware aspects but i think for a lot of people the software is really where the rubber meets the road how they use it how they interact with all this cool hardware so let's talk a little bit about multitasking over on the ipad you can have two split screen windows open at once and then you can also open up a third window and slide over but over on the samsung side i can actually have not just a split screen but i can open up a third app that lives on the screen without having to slide over at all which i love because i've been asking apple for years and years and years i just want to see three different apps on the screen so i can drag and drop and reference over here and do some work over here while i'm watching something over here apple just hasn't delivered that right they said no two apps on the screen will slide over that's good enough and honestly it's not it does feel limiting but we're not done over here on the samsung i can also drop in a pop-up window which i can then move all around the screen you can have an infinite amount of these pop-up windows up so honestly on the samsung side you can just do more now apple sting is always simplicity simplicity simplicity make sure things just work but sometimes just work doesn't let you do enough work the other thing that's interesting over here is that you can swap stuff and this is really handy for if you want to split the screen when you're in portrait mode and have something on the top and the bottom instead of on each side now something else to point out here is the ipad gives you the dock which is kind of just a place to hold some apps some important apps and recent apps over here on the samsung side you actually get an edge panel which can attach to either edge and it does more than just hold apps you can do things like store task shortcuts or you can access your clipboard history now it's time for some honesty honestly at the end of the day i do really like apple's simplistic approach most of the time however the ability to have one more app or two more apps on the screen at once let me choose you know if i want not just two but maybe three or four apps up on the screen that is really killer i would still pick the ipad though because things just work better overall for me there but that's killer now each of these tablets has some software superpowers as i'm going to call them on the samsung side you have dex and dex is a more windows-like experience something you might kind of recognize is like almost like a chrome os sort of experience and what's really cool about it is that you can hook it up to an external monitor and it's going to feel more like a windows machine with proper external display support and i've had that set up of my office at a standing desk where i've got a really nice 27-inch monitor hooked up and yeah you can get some interesting work done that way the ipad on the other hand doesn't have very good external monitor support people have been asking for it for years if you hook in your ipad to an external monitor it's mostly just gonna be a mirroring experience with like one or two exceptions keynote for instance but something that's kind of unique that the ipad does offer is something called universal control so what universal control does is allow you to control several macs and or ipads in a big cool setup with just one keyboard and mouse so it lets the ipad be the ipad retain its uniqueness it lets the mac be the mac retain its uniqueness so if you want to run really ultra powerful apps you can do that on mac if you want to use the apple pencil or face id you can do that over on the ipad and they can work together seamlessly and i made a video about that recently and you know what it's a really cool experience i'll link that video for you in the description so in terms of software superpowers these things are just different my experience with dex is that it doesn't change the apps that are available to me to use whether i'm in dex mode or not from the app store in other words there's no super heavy hitting apps that are gonna let me really take advantage of that big monitor and i'm really just stuck doing the light computing tasks that i would be doing anyways and if i'm gonna just be doing light computing stuff surfing the web checking email maybe watching some youtube and i want that bigger screen then yeah that's pretty cool but dex in and of itself is not a reason for me to use the samsung over the ipad now what i'm about to say has a lot to do with the software experience at the end of the day i do feel like and i've gotten several several comments that seem to agree with me on this i feel like the ipad os experience is just more fluid and smooth and seems to just work in tip top shape almost all the time certainly more of the time almost all the time compared to every now and then it feels like there's some hiccups and some glitches and the apps that are available just aren't quite as good or smooth over on the s8 ultra so for me this video was really just a fun exploration of another device and another ecosystem and other possibilities at the end of the day i remain an ipad fan and this is still going to be a workhorse that i integrate into my daily but here's what might surprise you samsung didn't send this to me i went out bought it with my own money this expensive keyboard too and as i've been using it you know what i feel like i'm also a samsung fan in a way that i wasn't before because there's a lot of fun to be had with this it pushes the envelope in ways that the ipad doesn't and it's cool to have options and alternatives and you should definitely pick up and use the one that seems like it fits your situation your work your entertainment needs the best i feel like it's really not up to me to make that call for you i've kind of told you a little bit about my experience for each of these and i hope that it was helpful i'll link up both down below so you can kind of explore the features more in depth and in detail on your own and if you want to see any follow-up content with these let me know i still am going to have them around but that's it for this video i'll catch you guys in the next one laterhey it's chris i'm an ipad fan but today i'm going to be comparing the 12.9 inch ipad pro apple's flagship tablet against samsung's galaxy tab s8 ultra now before we even get any further here's my disclaimer because i can already see the comments swirling around in people's minds i am an apple fan i like apple's products there's a reason why i've chosen to put myself in that ecosystem that said i'm also a tech enthusiast and i really do just like experiencing new tech so before anyone gets any confused ideas i'm not claiming to be super unbiased here and while some people might think i'm going to make the ipad win no matter what in this competition it's really not a competition i'm just exploring i'm having fun and i hope you guys can have some fun along with me now i'm not going to be able to compare every tiny little thing i think there's other channels that are doing that for me there's kind of like five main things i really want to focus on number one just being the screens and then i also want to look at the official keyboard cases i definitely want to talk a little bit about the styluses is it stylus or styli then i want to talk about the front-facing cameras and the microphone quality and then i want to get into what probably is the media section of this video for most people the software experience all right let's start by talking about the displays because if you think about it that's basically the core of what makes a tablet tablet this piece of glass that looks gorgeous that you can hold now both of these are actually high quality 120 hertz displays what's interesting here is that samsung makes you choose whether you want 120 hertz or 60 hertz enabled across the board all the time the ipad on the other hand uses pro motion and that means that it's adaptive so it can scale up to 120 hertz but it can also conserve a little bit especially the battery life if you're not needing 120 hertz all the time now samsung's display here is an ammo led display on the other hand apple's using a mini led display at the moment i've got them both set to about 50 brightness so you can see how they look but where the ipad really excels is when it comes to hdr content because it can really really make those brights pop now the samsung display on paper should have better darks because it's an oled display you can just turn those dark pixels all the way off if needed now i do want to note that i do have a paper-like screen protector on the ipad screen right now because it's one of my favorite accessories because it does give me a more paper-like feel when i'm using the apple pencil but honestly as you can tell as you just look at these screens they both look really great so if one of your goals when you purchase either of these tablets is to watch a lot of content you might take into consideration the aspect ratio here and the larger or i should say longer screen size here on the samsung because you can see there's smaller black bars around the content which some people are going to enjoy and as you continue to feast your eyes on the comparison here i do want to point out that because these are such nice displays they can both be used as second screens for either a mac or a pc and don't worry a little bit later in the video we are going to cover decks and universal control and kind of compare and contrast the extra things that you can do on the software side real quick before we go any further let me just say if you like these sort of comparisons if you like the vibe of this video why not get subscribed and let me know down in the comments what other comparisons you guys would like to see all right so this is the ipad pro's magic keyboard this is the white version and also comes in black and the ipad just pops right on here and then you can open and close it and this is kind of as far back as it pushes so you do have a somewhat limited array of viewing angles and this is the bottom half of the samsung keyboard case because it's two pieces you've got this piece that fits on the back of the display and then you've also got the actual keyboard and the two pieces attach magnetically as well and then you gotta pop out this little kickstand in the back and you're good to go and then as you can see from the top down angle here this is the biggest ipad and it has a smaller footprint with the keyboard case than this absolutely gargantuan s8 ultra over here which just spreads out a little bit more on your desk now one big bonus on the samsung side of things is that you actually get a row of function keys across the top including an escape key and a dex key among others and guess what on the ipad side of things there's no row of function keys that's something that people have complained about for quite a while now however typing on the magic keyboard is so much nicer than typing on the samsung keyboard it's a few things it's the key travel it's the comfort of pressing these keys over long periods of time and it's even just the sound honestly of the keys i just prefer that too the samsung keys just aren't quite as punchy for me literally everything about typing on the magic keyboard is just better the keys on this samsung here are usable but the typing experience on the magic keyboard i would label as feeling more luxurious to use where this is just super utilitarian and honestly my experience with the trackpad on the magic keyboard mirrors my experience with the keys this is an amazing trackpad over here on the ipad's magic keyboard and the trackpad over here is again just passable it's utilitarian now am i just being extra hard on the samsung i'm honestly not on the ipad i can click into the top corners i can click anywhere and it clicks great over here on the samsung it's kind of hard to press anywhere near the top over here it doesn't always work especially in this corner for me and one thing that really matters to me is that i can pick the magic keyboard up and and carry it around and use it on my lap whereas the samsung you can't you have to hold it with two hands if you're gonna carry it around open and it's just not usable on your lap but one time i was trying to balance it make it work and it's funny this bottom half of the keyboard case is so flexible that the mouse was actually pressing itself listen to this that's not me actually clicking the trackpad that is the trackpad clicking itself so these are both 350 one feels really premium though and the other doesn't and i think another consideration for me is just the aesthetics of the stands when you're using them the magic keyboard it really has its own identity with this floating hinge design that's pretty cool don't see that everywhere whereas the s8 ultra really has a microsoft surface style feel that you'll find on a range of different products from different companies so it's really not very unique so as a stand the magic keyboard really makes a statement and as i stand over here it doesn't really make a statement but i understand why they went with it you really get a much wider range of viewing angles and that really does count for something look how far i can push that down one thing that's a bit of a special feature is that the ipad has an extra charging port in the back left corner of its keyboard case which the galaxy doesn't and the reason that i like it is because it really keeps the cord out of the way when you're charging and over on the samsung side you have that cord sticking out the side it just doesn't look as clean also that frees up my thunderbolt port which we're going to talk about in a little bit and i don't get a free port over here because i'm charging with that port now in the keyboard comparison if you made me choose one over the other i would absolutely pick the magic keyboard with the ipad pro here because typing is a huge part of my work day and i want that typing experience to be as good and as enjoyable as possible more than i want a row of function keys even or a more adjustable stand now let's talk about these styluses here so so this is the apple pencil it costs 130 and this is samsung's s pen which actually comes included when you buy the s8 ultra so already that's pretty cool of samsung to include that right in the box now the apple pencil is just a little bit longer than the s pen but they both have these flat edges that number one makes them nice to grip and number two lets them rest on the device attach the device now the tips are quite different you get a harder tip with the apple pencil and true to its name i feel like that does really make it feel more like an actual pencil and it also doesn't hurt that i've got the paper-like screen protector on here as well that definitely contributes the tip of the s pen is a lot softer so when you actually press down on it it makes for a very different experience and it's actually going to be very subjective which one you prefer using but for me when it comes to handwriting i actually prefer the way that the s pen feels and how it works at least in the default samsung app we'll talk more about that in a minute now that isn't to say that i don't like handwriting over on the ipad at all because that's not the case so handwriting with both good i prefer the s pen maybe just slightly on the other hand when it comes to drawing shapes or sketching then i definitely prefer using the apple pencil it just feels more natural to me and again it's not like the s pen is bad in those situations i just like the way that the apple pencil handles itself in the sketching department now the ipad has kind of a capacitive hidden touch button here that if you double tap will switch between your latest used tools maybe the pencil and the eraser the s pen on the other hand has an actual button you can see it right there that comes in handy in a variety of situations as well but let's talk about performance this is one interesting area when it comes to these two styluses why well the apple pencil is very smooth basically all the time doesn't matter what app you're in or what part of the system you're interacting with this thing is smooth on the other hand performance with the s pen really varies or the experience that you're interacting with at any given time so it can be very smooth in apps like samsung's notes app here but i found that other notes and design style apps in the play store don't make for nearly as smooth of an experience and you can see that in action in my s8 ultra unboxing video all right while we're on the subject of the styluses one thing i want to point out is how you store and attach them on the ipad the apple pencil magnetically connects with a nice satisfying click on the top and it doesn't matter which direction you face it it's going to connect and charge either direction the s pen on the other hand can also attach magnetically to the top but you can also lift the flap in the back of the case here and attach it to the back and then when you shut that piece of the case you know you're not going to lose that s pen if you stick it in a backpack or if you take it somewhere which is interesting because i've actually lost my apple pencil for months at a time multiple times because i put it in a backpack or i brought it with me and the apple pencil is great to store on top when you're just at your desk but it's too easy to knock off and potentially lose for such an expensive thing otherwise all right so let's talk a little bit about the front facing camera you got a dual camera set up over here on the samsung and you'll notice that they've positioned it to be centered horizontally i really like that because that means that when i'm looking at somebody on a meeting it's going to look more like i'm looking at them making eye contact rather than looking off to the side which is what ends up happening over here on the ipad pro because apple has gone ahead and centered their camera in a portrait orientation now here's something i don't get and i don't like about the ipad pro's front-facing camera it's not 4k it's only 1080p it does have center stage which is great for centering you or anybody else that happens to be on the camera with you but i would rather look good on a video than be centered okay so here's just a quick little video test and microphone test the front-facing 4k camera on the s8 ultra you know what i think it looks pretty good how does it sound though you guys let me know down in the comments and here's a quick video test of the ipad pro's front facing camera and microphones now you'll see i'm holding this directly in front of me but my face is off to the side if i want to center myself i actually have to move this over here to look at the camera because of this awkward placement it just doesn't work as good and you know what i'm not sure that the quality is as good as it needs to be either for a pro device so as i'm just briefly comparing the footage that i just shot on each of these it's apparent to me that the galaxy here is just so much nicer in terms of the camera quality and the ipad honestly is just lacking it's not as good so in this department i definitely choose the samsung for its 4k crispy capabilities all right so now we come to the software experience we've talked a little bit about some of the hardware aspects but i think for a lot of people the software is really where the rubber meets the road how they use it how they interact with all this cool hardware so let's talk a little bit about multitasking over on the ipad you can have two split screen windows open at once and then you can also open up a third window and slide over but over on the samsung side i can actually have not just a split screen but i can open up a third app that lives on the screen without having to slide over at all which i love because i've been asking apple for years and years and years i just want to see three different apps on the screen so i can drag and drop and reference over here and do some work over here while i'm watching something over here apple just hasn't delivered that right they said no two apps on the screen will slide over that's good enough and honestly it's not it does feel limiting but we're not done over here on the samsung i can also drop in a pop-up window which i can then move all around the screen you can have an infinite amount of these pop-up windows up so honestly on the samsung side you can just do more now apple sting is always simplicity simplicity simplicity make sure things just work but sometimes just work doesn't let you do enough work the other thing that's interesting over here is that you can swap stuff and this is really handy for if you want to split the screen when you're in portrait mode and have something on the top and the bottom instead of on each side now something else to point out here is the ipad gives you the dock which is kind of just a place to hold some apps some important apps and recent apps over here on the samsung side you actually get an edge panel which can attach to either edge and it does more than just hold apps you can do things like store task shortcuts or you can access your clipboard history now it's time for some honesty honestly at the end of the day i do really like apple's simplistic approach most of the time however the ability to have one more app or two more apps on the screen at once let me choose you know if i want not just two but maybe three or four apps up on the screen that is really killer i would still pick the ipad though because things just work better overall for me there but that's killer now each of these tablets has some software superpowers as i'm going to call them on the samsung side you have dex and dex is a more windows-like experience something you might kind of recognize is like almost like a chrome os sort of experience and what's really cool about it is that you can hook it up to an external monitor and it's going to feel more like a windows machine with proper external display support and i've had that set up of my office at a standing desk where i've got a really nice 27-inch monitor hooked up and yeah you can get some interesting work done that way the ipad on the other hand doesn't have very good external monitor support people have been asking for it for years if you hook in your ipad to an external monitor it's mostly just gonna be a mirroring experience with like one or two exceptions keynote for instance but something that's kind of unique that the ipad does offer is something called universal control so what universal control does is allow you to control several macs and or ipads in a big cool setup with just one keyboard and mouse so it lets the ipad be the ipad retain its uniqueness it lets the mac be the mac retain its uniqueness so if you want to run really ultra powerful apps you can do that on mac if you want to use the apple pencil or face id you can do that over on the ipad and they can work together seamlessly and i made a video about that recently and you know what it's a really cool experience i'll link that video for you in the description so in terms of software superpowers these things are just different my experience with dex is that it doesn't change the apps that are available to me to use whether i'm in dex mode or not from the app store in other words there's no super heavy hitting apps that are gonna let me really take advantage of that big monitor and i'm really just stuck doing the light computing tasks that i would be doing anyways and if i'm gonna just be doing light computing stuff surfing the web checking email maybe watching some youtube and i want that bigger screen then yeah that's pretty cool but dex in and of itself is not a reason for me to use the samsung over the ipad now what i'm about to say has a lot to do with the software experience at the end of the day i do feel like and i've gotten several several comments that seem to agree with me on this i feel like the ipad os experience is just more fluid and smooth and seems to just work in tip top shape almost all the time certainly more of the time almost all the time compared to every now and then it feels like there's some hiccups and some glitches and the apps that are available just aren't quite as good or smooth over on the s8 ultra so for me this video was really just a fun exploration of another device and another ecosystem and other possibilities at the end of the day i remain an ipad fan and this is still going to be a workhorse that i integrate into my daily but here's what might surprise you samsung didn't send this to me i went out bought it with my own money this expensive keyboard too and as i've been using it you know what i feel like i'm also a samsung fan in a way that i wasn't before because there's a lot of fun to be had with this it pushes the envelope in ways that the ipad doesn't and it's cool to have options and alternatives and you should definitely pick up and use the one that seems like it fits your situation your work your entertainment needs the best i feel like it's really not up to me to make that call for you i've kind of told you a little bit about my experience for each of these and i hope that it was helpful i'll link up both down below so you can kind of explore the features more in depth and in detail on your own and if you want to see any follow-up content with these let me know i still am going to have them around but that's it for this video i'll catch you guys in the next one later\n"