Samsung Galaxy Tab S3

[funlovinkid]

I've been waiting for some time now (like a year) for Samsung to finally release its Galaxy Tab S3, and today I went into several shops to check it out.  However, I found some interesting (and surprising) things that I thought someone here might be able to explain.

 

 - none of the four or five shops I visited had a model on display.  They all seemed to have the item "in stock", and either would open a new box, or had one already open, that they would allow me to look at.  But of course, this was a brand-new item that hadn't been charged, and they didn't want to power it up with the charging cable.  So I could look at it, but not test it.  Normally, I would expect Samsung shops to have one of their latest and greatest products proudly displayed, not dragged out of the back room for a quiet viewing.  It felt like I was expressing interest in something illegal!  This makes me wonder if something is wrong, that the shops don't want me to discover.  I'm supposed to buy a new 24,500 Baht tablet without first trying it?

 

- its available in the WiFi/LTE model (which means it will accept a SIM card, and is more expensive), but not in the WiFi only model.  Why?

 

- it's only available in black.  Samsung has apparently manufactured this model in both black and silver (and from what I've read, the silver model is a lot less 'smudgy' in terms of fingerprints), but apparently silver is not available here.  When Samsung released its Galaxy S7 Edge phone last year, all four colors manufactured were easily available in Thailand.  So why is Samsung only making a limited supply of its new flagship tablet available here?

 

If anyone has any insights, I'd be very curious to know what's happening here!

 

 

 

 

[shady86]

Samsung​ decides to release the Lte and black only model here.

The tablet market is dying so I'm quite surprised they still decide to release this. Which stores you went to by the way?

http://www.samsung.com/th/tablets/galaxy-tab-s3/?cid=th_ppc_google-sem--model-model_hhp-tabs3-launch_170515&gclid=CLDq7peukNQCFdKJaAodT2IAjw


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[funlovinkid]

14 minutes ago, shady86 said:

Samsung decides to release the Lte and black only model here.

The tablet market is dying so I'm quite surprised they still decide to release this. Which stores you went to by the way?

http://www.samsung.com/th/tablets/galaxy-tab-s3/?cid=th_ppc_google-sem--model-model_hhp-tabs3-launch_170515&gclid=CLDq7peukNQCFdKJaAodT2IAjw


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I went to two Samsung shops, Banana IT, and two or three other tech shops in Central Festival (sorry, I don't remember the names of those shops), but the experience was the same at each one.

 

[guzzi850m2]

Well they don't want to open the boxes since Samsung haven't provided a demo model and if they open the box, they can't sell it as new anymore.

 

I will assume they assume Thai customers prefer Lte so they have i-net everywhere and not limited to wi-fi and at that high price, I think many will get an Apple tablet. If you go to the Apple store in Central, they have all phones/tablets on display and you can try them out. I am not saying the Apple tablets are better but in this high price bracket, a lot of hi-so snobbery are involved, and Apple are likely "more cool" in hi-so Thai society (only guessing, LOL)  

 

Maybe the tablet market is dying, I don't know, but I just bough a Lenovo Yoga Tab3 Plus 10.1" tablet and I am very happy with it for its intended use.

 

I had to get it from Amazon since I couldn't source one in Thailand so I am taking a risk, can't get it repaired in Thailand if it breaks down but I am willing to do that.

[shady86]

Yes, thanks to your previous recommendation, guzzi850m2, I bought a Lenovo Yoga Tab 3, but found a Tab 3 Pro with 4GB Ram and 64GB ROM on Ebay and from S. Korea. Cost 18,000 and a few baht plus 1,300 baht VAT on delivery. Seller shipped it FedEx although I didn't pay the extra for this service as I wanted EMS, and it arrived within 4 working days. Very, very pleased with it.

That's a good deal but getting warranty will be an issue. I've sent my tab s and S2 for battery and motherboard replacement previously.

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[Gary A]

A month or so ago, I bought a Huawei MediaPad M3. I have to say that I am seriously impressed with it. I didn't want to pay that much but it was the only one I found with what I thought was an ideal screen size, 8.4 inch. The 7 inch is too small and the 10 inch is too big. Since I use prepaid for that tablet, I wanted the 4G SIM because I don't have to remove the SIM to top it up. 

[guzzi850m2]

On 5/27/2017 at 8:41 PM, bahtboy said:

Yes, thanks to your previous recommendation, guzzi850m2, I bought a Lenovo Yoga Tab 3, but found a Tab 3 Pro with 4GB Ram and 64GB ROM on Ebay and from S. Korea. Cost 18,000 and a few baht plus 1,300 baht VAT on delivery. Seller shipped it FedEx although I didn't pay the extra for this service as I wanted EMS, and it arrived within 4 working days. Very, very pleased with it.

I am a bit confused by reading your post.

 

Did you buy both a Yoga and a Tab3? 

 

If so, is there a huge difference in screen/performance?

[funlovinkid]

On 5/27/2017 at 10:53 PM, guzzi850m2 said:

Well they don't want to open the boxes since Samsung haven't provided a demo model and if they open the box, they can't sell it as new anymore.

 

I will assume they assume Thai customers prefer Lte so they have i-net everywhere and not limited to wi-fi and at that high price, I think many will get an Apple tablet. If you go to the Apple store in Central, they have all phones/tablets on display and you can try them out. I am not saying the Apple tablets are better but in this high price bracket, a lot of hi-so snobbery are involved, and Apple are likely "more cool" in hi-so Thai society (only guessing, LOL)  

 

Maybe the tablet market is dying, I don't know, but I just bough a Lenovo Yoga Tab3 Plus 10.1" tablet and I am very happy with it for its intended use.

 

I had to get it from Amazon since I couldn't source one in Thailand so I am taking a risk, can't get it repaired in Thailand if it breaks down but I am willing to do that.

You mention that you believe Samsung hasn't provided the vendors with a demo model - buy why would Samsung do this?

[baker]

Hi all,

 

I went to the Samsung shop in Central Festival (Phuket) on Sunday. They had the Tab S3 on display (and in stock).

Ended up buying one. I haven't had a tablet in years, but in my head I could justify buying it, since it has the s pen. With the s pen I can easily sign pdf documents without printing, signing and scanning them. And that made me buy it. And I was having a thought that, with a tablet, I might not need my laptop with me on short travels....

I bought a 256 GB microSD card and the original magnet cover as well.

Unfortunatly they did not have the keyboard cover in stock. Thats the only thing i am missing at the moment.

 

Well I have only set it up and maybe used it for max. 1 hour since buying it, so will see later if it was a waste of money or not....

[funlovinkid]

On 5/30/2017 at 2:37 PM, baker said:

Hi all,

 

I went to the Samsung shop in Central Festival (Phuket) on Sunday. They had the Tab S3 on display (and in stock).

Ended up buying one. I haven't had a tablet in years, but in my head I could justify buying it, since it has the s pen. With the s pen I can easily sign pdf documents without printing, signing and scanning them. And that made me buy it. And I was having a thought that, with a tablet, I might not need my laptop with me on short travels....

I bought a 256 GB microSD card and the original magnet cover as well.

Unfortunatly they did not have the keyboard cover in stock. Thats the only thing i am missing at the moment.

 

Well I have only set it up and maybe used it for max. 1 hour since buying it, so will see later if it was a waste of money or not....

 

Thanks for your reply here.  Well, for what it's worth, I ended up buying one as well!  I've been using it for a couple days, and so far, I love it.  I didn't realize that I could sign legal documents with the S pen, so that's a surprise upside for me.  Not that I do a lot of legal paperwork, but it's good to know I have the capability if and when I need it.

 

Also FWIW, I no longer have a laptop (the last one died several years ago) - and I've NEVER had a tablet.  So, baker, I'm looking forward to bringing this with me whenever I travel as well. 

 

My gut feeling on this purchase:  great tablet, maybe a little too expensive, but I'm OK with that, as it seems to be integrating pretty well with my Galaxy S7 Edge phone which I bought last year.  And, I'll be moving into a new apartment soon which has a new 55" Samsung HDTV, so I'll be curious the extent to which I can integrate all this stuff together.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2017 by funlovinkid

[baker]

I have the Samsung Note 5, which I have been using for signing some pdf documents which is just sent back to the other part by email.

But I find the Note 5 to be a bit big, so my thought was that with a tablet with the s pen, I could have a physically smaller phone (like the S8) in my every day life. And on the odd occation I need to sign something, I can just use the tablet.

 

Good luck with your tablet!

[Aussie69]

I have Galaxy S7 phone, Galaxy Tab S2, and Samsung TV. You can cast the screen or videos/media to the TV very easily.