Samsung Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro review: Weatherproof tablet with replaceable battery

Highly stable and with numerous accessories. For those wanting to work with their tablet in bad weather, Samsung has the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro on offer. It comes with lots of unusual features, such as a removable battery or operation without a battery. Does the device also convince in our review?

Note: The manufacturer may use components from different suppliers including display panels, drives or memory sticks with similar specifications.

Samsung packs its tablet in a sturdy plastic case, the back of which can be removed. Behind it is the battery, which can be easily removed, as well as the microSD slot or SIM slot in the 5G model. The back cover is attached to the case at 28 points. You can open it without tools, but when closing you should make sure that all contact points audibly click into place to ensure that it is properly sealed.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro is IP68 certified, meaning that it is largely resistant to dust and water. It also complies with MIL-STD-810H. However, to be on the safe side, you should let the exposed USB-C port dry out after contact with water before using it.

The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 and slightly protruding edges. The edges are quite bulky for a conventional tablet, which is also due to the fact that the Tab Active4 Pro has physical buttons for menu control. Compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy Tab Active Pro, the current model has grown slightly and become a little heavier: 674 grams is significantly more than conventional tablets in this price range, such as the 449 grams of the Huawei MatePad Pro 11 2022.

Samsung’s robust tablet also comes with a protective case shell that provides the tablet with even more protection. The S Pen, which is also dust- and waterproof, is also stowed in this protective cover. The package weighs a total of 833 grams.

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The Samsung Galaxy Active4 Pro is available in two storage variants:

• 4 GB RAM / 64 GB mass storage: US$683.99
• 6 GB RAM / 128 GB mass storage: US$709.00

In addition, there is also the Enterprise Edition, which comes with 5G and is officially available at around US$1,000, but is already on offer at much more cheaper prices online. Our review device is the WiFi version with 64 GB of storage.

Like the predecessor, NFC is again on board and the WiFi version also has a tracking module. The USB-C port transfers data at up to 20 GBit/s and also functions as a display port, making it easy to connect the Galaxy tablet to monitors.

The microSD reader gives average performance in our tests with the Angelbird V60 reference card and achieves transfer rates that one would usually expect in mid range smartphones. So these do not exploit the potential of the fast microSD in any way.

Android 13 and Samsung’s OneUI 5 have served as the tablet’s operating system since December 2022. Samsung also preinstalls third-party apps such as Spotify or Netflix, which are unlikely to be of much use to business customers. Many of Samsung’s own apps are also preinstalled, some of which replicate the functions of Google apps. So if you want a clean system, you have to clean it up first.

At the time of review, the security patches were from November 2022 and therefore just up to date. Samsung promises five years of security updates and three OS upgrades; the tablet was delivered with Android 12, so new versions should be available up to Android 15.

In terms of Wi-Fi, the robust Samsung tablet with WiFi 6 is convincing. However, under testing with our Asus ROG Rapture AXE11000 reference router, the transfer rates were a little slow: between 750 – 780 Mbps is decent, but theMatePad Pro 11 shows that even higher speeds are possible. In addition, the data rates fluctuate quite strongly.

Reception strength is decent in our random sample test: We always had a good signal quality both close to the router and at a distance of 10 meters and through three walls. The Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro is also available with an additional 5G module on request.

The WiFi version of the Tab Active4 Pro also includes a tracking module that is able to connect to all major satellite networks. Indoors, we do not receive a signal, but outdoors, localization is accurate up to 4 meters after a very short time. The number of detected satellites is also very large, but SBAS is not used to improve accuracy.

In our practical test, a bike ride around the block, the Samsung tablet did very well: the tracked route only deviates in minor details from the actual route traveled and mostly stays on the streets, only very rarely passing through buildings. The tablet is thus very suitable as a navigation device.

Image Comparison

Choose a scene and navigate within the first image. One click changes the position on touchscreens. One click on the zoomed-in image opens the original in a new window. The first image shows the scaled photograph of the test device.

main camera flowerMain camera environmentmain camera Low Light

We tested the color reproduction of the main camera in our lab and found that most tones are reproduced too darkly. At 1 lux illuminance, hardly anything of the color chart can be recognized.

The camera does a little better when displaying the test chart; individual details are still recognizable at least. In full studio lighting, the image looks good at first glance, but if you look more closely, you can see that the autofocus has worked imprecisely and details are blurrily reproduced.

In addition to the charger and USB cable, the Samsung tablet also comes with the bulky protective cover, which itself includes storage for the dust- and waterproof S-Pen. The cover also fits well in the hand and is ribbed for extra grip. The S Pen can sometimes be a little difficult to remove from its slot, but it feels good to use and helps with tablet activities that require precision handling.

Although Samsung’s shop does not have any accessories for the tablet, photos show a keyboard cover and the PIN connections on the bottom also suggest the possibility of a charging station or docking station. These are probably intended for corporate customers and are therefore not sold directly.

Despite the tablet’s business origins, Samsung offers private customers a 24-month warranty in Germany. This may differ depending on your location, so be sure to check with your supplier before purchasing.

In business tablets, operation is a very important aspect: the conditions for a touchscreen are often not ideal or you work with protective clothing. The Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro is easy to operate even when the display is wet, and since you can adjust the sensitivity of the touchscreen, even gloves do not pose an issue.

The outdoor tablet has physical buttons for the most important functions so that you don’t have to hit any small menu buttons. Below the screen, there are three buttons for Android operation, i.e. the overview of the open apps, the home button and the back button.

There is a relatively freely assignable button at the top edge of the tablet, which is colored orange for better recognition. For example, the camera can be called up and photos taken using the volume rocker.

We also like the various input options via the water- and dustproof S-Pen: notes or drawings can be made on the screen, of course, but you can also hover the pen over text on a website, for example, which displays a translation of foreign languages. Objects can also be selected intelligently and much more. A button on the pen can be used to activate other commands, such as the camera shutter release.

Unfortunately, the tip protrudes only slightly from the pen’s very bulky housing, so you should take care not to hold it at an angle, otherwise the tablet fails to recognize inputs.

A fingerprint sensor for unlocking is also on board, which is integrated into the home button. With minimal delay and fairly good accuracy, it’s a good choice when time is of the essence. Face recognition is also possible, but not so secure as a purely software-based solution.

* … smaller is better

Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

We did not observe any PWM, so individuals who otherwise react to flickering screens with headaches or similar complaints should be able to work with the tablet. Response times are quite long, but this is only of particular relevance to gamers.

A color cast is visible to the naked eye in bright grayscale in our CalMAN measurements. But colors are displayed quite accurately overall.

Display Response Times

The screen does well outdoors, even if you have to contend with strong reflections on the display on very bright summer days. On cloudy days, the brightness is usually sufficient for displaying screen content clearly.

The display proves to be stable from all viewing angles and thus leaves no room for complaint.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5Gis an upper mid-range SoC, for which Samsung provides a significant performance upgrade in its robust tablet.

There is definitely enough power for system operation, and the tablet also performs more complex tasks at acceptable speeds.

The graphics performance is also significantly faster than in other outdoor tablets, but cannot keep up with high-end SoCs. But if you don’t intend on running any graphically complex apps, this shouldn’t be a problem.

The Samsung tablet is fast on average when surfing. Every now and then you have to wait for page content to load, and even pictures sometimes take a while when scrolling. Overall, there are many tablets that offer much faster surfing, but the Galaxy Tab Active4 Pro is fast enough for everyday use.

* … smaller is better

Thanks to UFS memory, the Tab Active4 Pro is much faster than its predecessor in terms of data transfer. It can’t keep up with the top-performing tablets, but loading times are significantly shorter than in some other tablets.

The Tab Active4 Pro is not exactly a typical gaming tablet. After all, it only has a 60 Hz screen. The SoC is sufficient for frame rates at the screen limit in Diablo Immortal, but in PUBG Mobile, only 30 fps is achieved at high settings and 40 fps at low settings. Framerates were measured with our GameBench tool.

Real gamers will probably have to look elsewhere, but occasional gamers who don’t place so much value on graphics splendor and responsiveness can also have fun on the Galaxy tablet, especially since inputs via the touchscreen and position sensor worked very reliably in all games tested.

There is plenty of space in the large tablet case for the waste heat of the mid-range SoC to dissipate, so no temperature problems arise under prolonged and very high load. At a maximum of 30.8 °C, the maximum temperature is barely noticeable and also very much limited to individual points on the case.

In the 3DMark stress tests, the tablet also has no problems maintaining its performance over 20 benchmark runs.

(+) The average temperature for the upper side under maximal load is 25.6 °C / 78 F, compared to the average of 30.3 °C / 87 F for the devices in the class Tablet.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 29.9 °C / 86 F, compared to the average of 34.3 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.3 to 53.2 °C for the class Tablet.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 30.8 °C / 87 F, compared to the average of 33.6 °C / 92 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 21 °C / 70 F, compared to the device average of 30.3 °C / 87 F.

Stereo speakers on the sides increase the tablet’s entertainment value in addition to good sound during video conferences. You can listen to pop music, but you should not necessarily max out the volume, as the sound becomes increasingly high-pitched. Overall, it is noticeable that bass and deep mids are lacking, although there would have been room for the corresponding sound modules.

The tablet has a 3.5 mm jack port for headphones as well as Bluetooth. Not so many codecs are available here, but at least aptX, LDAC, AAC, SBC and SSC are recognized.

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (84.2 dB)
Bass 100 – 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass – on average 20.4% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (12.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 – 2000 Hz
(+) | balanced mids – only 3.5% away from median
(±) | linearity of mids is average (8.4% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 – 16 kHz
(±) | higher highs – on average 5.5% higher than median
(±) | linearity of highs is average (9.9% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 – 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (19.4% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 57% of all tested devices in this class were better, 6% similar, 37% worse
» The best had a delta of 7%, average was 19%, worst was 50%
Compared to all devices tested
» 47% of all tested devices were better, 8% similar, 45% worse
» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 20%, worst was 65%

Huawei MatePad Pro 11 2022 audio analysis

(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (80.5 dB)
Bass 100 – 315 Hz
(±) | reduced bass – on average 14.6% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (8.4% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 – 2000 Hz
(+) | balanced mids – only 1.9% away from median
(+) | mids are linear (5.4% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 – 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs – only 2.4% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (5.1% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 – 16.000 Hz
(+) | overall sound is linear (10.4% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 6% of all tested devices in this class were better, 4% similar, 90% worse
» The best had a delta of 7%, average was 19%, worst was 50%
Compared to all devices tested
» 4% of all tested devices were better, 2% similar, 94% worse
» The best had a delta of 3%, average was 20%, worst was 65%