I tried Samsung's Android answer to the iPad Pro - here's what it's like

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S3

Business Insider/Jeff Dunn

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3.

I like Android. I think it looks good, I like how Google's apps are the default, and I like being able to screw with the whole thing whenever I get bored. When it's done right, and when it's actually updated, Android is every bit as charming as iOS, and miles more flexible.

On phones, that is.

Android's quirks and charms work on smaller screens, because that's where it's most popular, so that's where its myriad developers have lent their focus. When you put Android on a tablet, things get sloppier in ways iOS doesn't. When you try to use that tablet like a laptop, things feel undercooked. You can use a mouse and keyboard and run two apps side-by-side, but too often Android still looks and feels like it's explicitly designed for phones. Because, really, it is.

Google knows this. It's spent the last few months slowly making its other operating system, Chrome OS, play nicer with touchscreens. It's moving Android apps there, building more and more desktop-style features into them, and generally putting Android's tablet-friendly bits onto the platform that's already designed for big screens, so it can be that "2-in-1" OS Android isn't.

And yet, as all this goes down, Samsung is rolling out the Galaxy Tab S3, a brand new, high-end Android tablet. It costs a hefty $600, and tries to justify that price by doing laptop things. It's even got its own keyboard case, which throws another $130 onto the cost.

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