Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 leak exposes a major weakness

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The Galaxy Tab S7 could be held back by slow charging speeds

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus will look like this
(Image credit: OnLeaks and Pigtou)

In general, it’s fair to say we’re pretty pleased with how the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 is shaping up. Leaked specs courtesy of Samsung pretty much confirmed everything we suspected about the upcoming tablet, but now another leaked spec could seriously jeopardize its hopes of being the ultimate iPad Pro rival.

Certification from China’s 3C authority, spotted by SamMobile, highlights a weak spot: 15W charging. While technically 15W goes under the ‘fast charging’ banner, this kind of speed was achieved half a decade ago, and now chargers can go upwards of 60W in power. 

It’s not like this technology is new to Samsung, either. The Galaxy S20 supports fast charging of up to 25W, while the Galaxy S20 Ultra goes up to 45W – and arguably it’s less important on a phone where battery sizes are significantly smaller. 

The S20 has a battery of 4,000mAh, while the Galaxy Tab S7 reportedly packs a 7,760mAh cell. The Tab S7 Plus allegedly has an even bigger 10,090mAh battery, so unless the larger model gets an upgrade in charging technology, the wait for your tablet to charge from empty to full might be painful.

The Tab S6 has the same limitations, and the general consensus is that it takes around two hours to charge from flat. That’s not too bad considering the tablet’s impressive stamina, but adding fast charging would have been a way for the Tab S7 to overshadow the iPad Pro.

It’s a pity that Samsung seems to be keeping the slow charging speeds on tablets when it’s quite open to speedier solutions on phones. But this does seem to be the only notable flaw with the Tab S7: the rest of the specs (and pictured design - courtesy of Pigtoucoques) look pretty darned good.

We’re expecting a speedy device, powered by the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus CPU and backed by 8GB RAM. The tablet recently leaked on to Geekbench, where it achieved a single-core score of 971 and a multi-core grade of 2,984 – a significant improvement on the Tab S6, which averages scores of around 720-750 and 2,300-2,500 respectively. 

The tablets are also set to inherit the S20’s 120Hz screen – an upgrade that should make the bundled S Pen even more enjoyable to use, assuming it gets the same 9ms boost that’s rumored with the Note 20. 

It’s reported that the only difference between the Tab S7 and S7 Plus versions will be down to the form factor: screen size and battery capacity. 

We’re expecting the Galaxy Tab S7 to be revealed very soon – an official Samsung Unpacked event is rumored to be exactly a month away, after all. That said, don’t be surprised if the Tab S7 launches early to give the company’s other big announcements some breathing room, just as the Tab S6 did last year. 

Alan Martin
Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. He also handles all the Wordle coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game for the last several years in an effort to keep his streak forever intact.