Samsung surprised us last year with their awesome flagship, the Galaxy Tab S. The Tab S had a lot of things going for it, including an absolutely gorgeous 8.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 is one of the best Android tablets on the market. It's incredibly thin and light, has useful multitasking features, and excels at media playback. But its high price and average battery life make the 8-inch Tab S2 a better buy, unless you really need that additional 1.7...

Great multitasking features; Premium build; Good camera

Pricey; Lots of bloatware; Average battery life in testing

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 ($499.99, 32GB) is one of the nicest Android tablets we've seen, with a gorgeous Super AMOLED display, a more refined body than its predecessor, and a powerful processor for excellent performance. Thanks to its large 9.7-inch screen, it's better suited for multitasking than its 8-inch counterpart, the Tab S2 8.0 ($299.99 at Amazon) . But it slightly trails the smaller tablet in overall performance, and commands a hefty $100 premium for less than two additional inches of screen. Design and Features The Tab S2 9.7 ($469.94 at Amazon)  is just about identical in design to its 8-inch sibling, only larger. It measures 9.34 by 6.65 by 0.22 inches (HWD) and weighs 13.7 ounces, a marked increase over the 7.8-by-5.3-by-0.22-inch, 9.3-ounce Tab S2 8.0. But for a larger tablet, it's even more svelte than the Apple iPad Air 2 ($445.00 at eBay) (9.4 by 6.6 by 0.24 inches and 15 ounces), which is pretty impressive. Like its smaller counterpart, the Tab S2 9.7 fe...

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 is a great Android tablet for multitasking, but you're paying a sizable premium over the smaller Tab S2 8.0.

Great multitasking features; Premium build; Good camera

Pricey; Lots of bloatware; Average battery life in testing

Samsung's update to its premium Android tablet line, the Galaxy Tab S2 is sleek, powerful and compelling - as long as you actually need a tablet update. Samsung has somewhat pulled back on its absolute tsunami of tablets of recent years; there was a time when that, taking LTE and straight Wi-Fi...

It has some stiff competition from Google's Nexus 9, but this is the most desirable Android tablet there is for under £500

Samsung hasn't just crafted a worthy successor to the Galaxy Tab S , but one of the best big-screen tablets out there. It's thin, light, gorgeous-looking and well-balanced, and while the screen has fewer pixels than its predecessor's it's still fantastic with a more practical aspect ratio.

Samsung has a stronghold over the smartphone space, but its grip on the tablet market isn't as tight. That market belongs to Apple, and making a tablet as good as the iPad is not enough for customers to be lured across to Samsung - the Tab S2 has to be better.

9.7-inch Super-AMOLED display; Thin and light form factor; Octa-core CPU; Refined finger scanner; Proficient 8-megapixel rear camera; Aluminium chassis

Lacking distinctive character; Build not as premium as Apple's iPad; Fewer hardware features; but still priced to compete against Apple's iPad

Samsung has made the decision to revise the camera on its latest Galaxy Tab. Although the main sensor still comes in at 8 megapixel, it lacks an LED flash this time around. In return, videos can now be recorded with up to 1440 lines, previously we saw 1080 lines. Elsewhere we've seen some changes.

Sharp and bright display with good color representation and excellent contrast; Expandable memory; Good battery life; High quality workmanship

Camera useful only under optimal conditions; Not the most recent Android version

When it comes to tablets, the current thinking seems to be "go big or go home," or at the very least, "come with a keyboard." The Galaxy Tab S2, on the other hand, seems like a careful perfection of the way tablets used to be - not a computer replacement, but a straightforward 8-inch or 9.7-inch tab...