Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 targets iPad Pro beatdown with unexpected upgrade

A Geekbench entry suggests the Galaxy Tab S7 will get Qualcomm's rapid Snapdragon 865 Plus chip

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Apple iPad Pro
(Image credit: Pigtoucoques / OnLeaks)
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Recent leaks of the Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7 Plus had us thinking that Samsung had no unexpected tricks left up its sleeve for the upcoming tablets. But apparently we were mistaken.

That's because MySmartPrice has spotted a Geekbench listing which suggests that the company’s answer to the Apple iPad Pro may be a bit more powerful than we thought.

It seems that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 will be one of the first devices to feature Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 865 Plus chip, if a listing on Geekbench is to be believed.

The entry shows an entry for the SM-T875 (the model number for the Tab S7) which mentions a core clocked at 3.09GHz. That, notably, is 250MHz faster than the max clock speed of the regular Snapdragon 865,  which caps at 2.84GHz.

What this means in practice is that the Tab S7 is a decent performance upgrade on last year’s Tab S6. While Samsung’s 2019 tablet managed scores of around 720 to 750 on single-core benchmarks, and 2,300 to 2,500 on multi-core ones, the Tab S7 managed 971 and 2,984 respectively. Not too shabby.

As well as the Snapdragon 865 Plus, the Tab S7 seems to come with 8GB RAM, which we can add to Pigtoucoques‘ leaks of a 120Hz screen and either a 7,760mAh or 10,090mAh battery (the larger cell is for the 12.4in Plus model.) 

The 120Hz screen is especially interesting, and potentially of far more value than it was on the Samsung Galaxy S20 earlier this year. The reason? Apparently the Note 20’s S Pen is getting an upgrade to 9ms response times. Combine that with a 120Hz screen, and you should have a device that feels a lot nicer to doodle on.

We’re expecting to see the Galaxy Tab S7 and S7 Plus unveiled at the upcoming Samsung Unpacked event, due on August 5. But there’s a chance it could go earlier: last year, Samsung announced the Tab S7 a week ahead of Unpacked, presumably in order to give the Note 10 breathing space. It’s just possible Samsung will decide to do the same again with the Note 20.

Alan Martin
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