At over 3 times larger than the Galaxy Note 5, Samsung’s Galaxy View is a gigantic 18.6-inch tablet purposely built as the ultimate entertainment and consumption tablet. And why not, it’s also got a built-in kickstand and the sad news is that it’s permanently attached. The bottom of the kickstand also moves inward, which gives the device a slight incline when laid flat. There really is no “flat” with the Galaxy View, though; the kickstand is always sticking out somewhere, so it’s not the most convenient thing to transport away from home.
Don’t expect to walk around with this device from place to place to often but the grand vision here seems to be a giant 1080p screen that you carry from room to room — but rarely outside the house. The unfortunate thing is that all the great online video content like Netflix and Hulu do not work in many countries out of the USA. That’s the idea, anyway. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself whether you need a screen this massive over, say, an iPad Air 2 or Galaxy Tab S2.
The Power behind the enormous screen tablet
At 1080p, the HD display is expected not to be that bad since this is the sweet spot where most web videos and Android games currently max out in quality. But at 18-plus inches expect to definitely see pixels up close. You sure won’t confuse it with for a Quad HD or 4K panel. But according to Samsung the immersion created by its sheer size is on par with big-screen TVs. The display is powered by a 1.6GHz octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. There is a pair of 4-watt speakers that handle sound output. Samsung has also thrown in a microSD slot if you need more storage than what’s built-in which we think is a great thing.
The Galaxy View features a custom home screen that’s filled with video apps like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. Swipe to the next screen over and you get Samsung’s usual Android home screen. (The View also supports side-by-side apps and other Samsung features like SideSync.) The top left slot of that video grid is reserved for video apps from cable providers like Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and DirecTV (Again this is only for the American Market).
The Galaxy View tablet will cost about $600 for the Wi-Fi version with 32GB of internal storage. For a Wi-Fi only configuration, that’s a pretty hefty price for a 1080p tablet — regardless of screen size. The tablet will be available by 6th November.
