Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 hands-on: First look

Synthetic benchmarks

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 features a 64-bit Exynos 5433 SoC with 1.9GHz quad-core Cortex-A57 CPU and 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU, coupled with 3GB of RAM. The GPU is Mali-T760.

This particular chipset was featured a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 variant last year, so we know that it is no slouch. We put the tablet through the usual set of synthetic benchmarks. Take a look at its results below.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  4464
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  4275
• HTC Nexus 9
  3470
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  3276
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  2881
• Nokia N1
  2835
• Apple iPad mini 3
  2486

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  60297
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  52170
• Nokia N1
  46547

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  70.4
• HTC Nexus 9
  60.2
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  53.1
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  36
• Nokia N1
  29.7
• Apple iPad mini 3
  28.2
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  25
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  22.5

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  52.2
• HTC Nexus 9
  46.2
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  39.6
• Nokia N1
  25.3
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  25
• Apple iPad mini 3
  23
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  14

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  32.6
• HTC Nexus 9
  31.5
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  27.3
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  14
• Apple iPad mini 3
  13.1
• Nokia N1
  13
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  8.1
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  5.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  24.7
• HTC Nexus 9
  22.6
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  19.8
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  12
• Nokia N1
  9.6
• Apple iPad mini 3
  8.9
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1
  4.7
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  2.9

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  3953
• Apple iPad Air 2
  4054
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  4135
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  4647
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  4777
• Nokia N1
  5154
• Apple iPad mini 3
  5382

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  2588
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  1953
• Nokia N1
  1693
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  1515
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  952

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  1937
• HTC Nexus 9
  1890
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  1192
• Apple iPad mini 3
  1099
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  1039
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  829

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air 2
  29753
• HTC Nexus 9
  28244
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  24456
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  17434
• Apple iPad mini 3
  14781
• Nokia N1
  12839
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  6875

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• HTC Nexus 9
  3777
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  3224
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  2394
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  1999

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7
  13708
• Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9
  8547
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5
  7493
• HTC Nexus 9
  7187

Overall, Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 offers improved performance over last year's model, especially on the GPU side. However, it isn't as powerful as the 14nm Exynos 7420 found in the Samsung Galaxy S6 family and Galaxy Note5.