Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 review: The Professional

Synthetic benchmarks and performance

Unlike the rest of the Pro series, the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is powered the Snapdragon 800 chipset whatever the edition - Wi-Fi-only, 3G or LTE.

The Snapdragon 800 platform means you will be getting four Krait 400 cores at 2.3GHz and Adreno 330 graphics. The RAM you'll have at your disposal is 2GB - it should be enough for almost everything you throw at the slate. Still, a Galaxy Note 3-matching 3GB of RAM would probably have been more appropriate for such a powerhouse.

Until we see the new generation of Krait 450 and Cortex A5x cores arrives, the Krait 400 processor remains the most powerful on the market in terms of both per-core and total power. BenchmarkPi, Linpack and GeekBench 3 scores prove the Krait 400 dominance.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  99
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  100
• Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
  115
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  116
• LG G Pad 8.3
  131
• Transformer Pad TF701T
  137
• LG Optimus G Pro
  147
• Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
  211
• Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
  324
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  351
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
  470
• Samsung Galaxy 3 7.0
  483
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Plus
  488

Linpack

Higher is better

• LG G Flex
  1102
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  1081
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  1054
• LG G2
  1054
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  1034
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  1010
• Sony Xperia Z1
  1004
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  791
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  788
• HTC One
  646
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  413
• LG Nexus 5
  393
• HTC One mini
  320

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  2937
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  2867
• Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
  2743
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  2706
• Transformer Pad TF701T
  2665
• LG G Pad 8.3
  1950
• HTC One Max
  1899
• HTC Butterfly
  1257

The Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 comes with a display resolution higher than 1080p and while it didn't show on AnTuTu 4 test, it surely did affected its Quadrant score.

AnTuTu 4

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  34016
• Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
  33198
• Transformer Pad TF701T
  32991
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  32796
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  31109
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  24716
• LG G Pad 8.3
  24440
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
  24236
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  20216
• LG Optimus G Pro
  20056
• HTC Butterfly
  19513
• Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
  19131
• Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
  17159
• Google Nexus 10
  12695
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
  9070

Quadrant

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  21618
• LG G Flex
  20521
• Sony Xperia Z1
  20388
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  20052
• LG G2
  19815
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  18177
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  16769
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  12446
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  12376
• HTC One
  11746
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
  11404
• LG Nexus 5
  8844
• Oppo N1
  8099
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  7153
• HTC One mini
  6048

So, how well can the Adreno 330 GPU handle the 1600x2560 pixel screen? Let's find out. First we ran the familiar GFX Benchmark's offscreen tests, which are about raw power and not real-life performance. Naturally the Adreno 330 did great and occupied the top of the charts.

GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  26
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  26
• Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (Exynos)
  25
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  22
• Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
  22
• Transformer Pad TF701T
  21
• Samsung Galaxy S4
  17.1
• Apple iPad 4
  16.8
• Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
  15
• LG G Pad 8.3
  15
• Google Nexus 10
  13.9
• Sony Xperia Z
  13.5
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  13
• Sony Xperia ZL
  12.8
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
  7.0
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
  4.0

GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  9.7
• Sony Xperia Z1 Compact
  9
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  8.9
• LG Nexus 5
  8.5
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  5.6
• Galaxy Note 10.1 (Exynos)
  5.6
• Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (Exynos)
  5.6

The more important benchmarks for the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 are those running onscreen, since they will show the slate's real-life performance. Quite expectedly, because of the higher resolution screen, it delivered a lower frame rate than S800-powered 1080p flagships on the demanding T-Rex and Manhattan graphic tests. Its performance noticeably fell on the Epic Citadel as well. The Adreno 330 will still manage playable framerates on the majority of the games in the Play Store, but we suspect there will be few hiccups on the heaviest titles.

GFXBench 2.7 T-Rex (on-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  27
• LG Nexus 5
  24
• Apple iPad Air
  21
• Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (Exynos)
  17
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  17
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  14
• Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
  14

GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan (on-screen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  9.9
• LG Nexus 5
  9.5
• Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (Exynos)
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  5.0
• Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 (Exynos)
  4.7
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  2.9
• Galaxy Note 10.1 (Exynos)
  2.8

Epic Citadel (Ultra quality)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z1
  54.9
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  54.9
• LG G2
  51
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  48.5
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  37.2
• HTC One
  35.6
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  33.2
• HTC Butterfly
  29.6
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  27.6

Finally, we put the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 through the SunSpider and BrowserMark benchmarks to test its JavaScript and overall browsing performance. The higher resolution wasn't of a burden here and it did as great as all other S800 devices.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Apple iPad Air
  373
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  531
• Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
  569
• Transformer Pad TF701T
  606
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  651
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1011
• Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
  1150
• LG G Pad 8.3
  1190
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
  1233
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
  1366
• Google Nexus 7
  1703
• new Apple iPad
  1722
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
  1891
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
  1953
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
  1992
• Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
  2253
• Huawei MediaPad
  2490

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

• Apple iPad Air
  3659
• Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition
  3138
• Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Exynos)
  3096
• Transformer Pad TF701T
  3005
• Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4
  2933
• LG G Pad 8.3
  2664
• Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
  2386
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
  2363
• HTC One
  2262
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
  2228
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  2170
• LG Optimus G Pro
  1801
• Oppo Find 5
  1797
• Google Nexus 10
  1773
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0
  1612
• HTC Butterfly
  1475

It is obvious the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 is a powerhouse, but even the mighty Adreno 330 sometimes struggles when faced with so many pixels. The day to day performance will be as great as you could hope for, but some gamers might be less than perfectly happy.

Something we noticed - the 2GB RAM will fill up rather quickly once you start using Multi Window extensively and may run out. Samsung did great optimizing the feature and we've never experienced actual freezing or an app crash, but we saw the RAM bar full quite a few times. Reducing the number Magazine widgets helps freeing more RAM, though.

So, the Tab Pro 8.4 is a snappy device and will deliver great performance. The Snapdragon 800 chipset powering the slate is put under more pressure than on the 1080p flagship, but it still passed the test with flying colors.