I'm comparing the iPad Air 2020 and Samsung Tab S7 (not the Tab S7+) because the price difference is not big.

Here's a table for your quick comparison.

Just to give you the bottom line up front, if you're not that big into drawing, the Samsung Tab S7 offers better value for money simply because it's cheaper and has better specifications. The latest price on Amazon US was $549 (after a $100 coupon) and for that price you get more storage, RAM and the S Pen included. The only edge that the iPad Air has is not the hardware but the huge variety of illustration and graphic design apps available from the Apple App Store.

But that's not to say that you can't get much drawing done of the Samsung Tab S7. Clip Studio Paint, an awesome illustration app, is now available on Samsung Galaxy tablets and that app is good enough that you won't need to use other drawing apps.

Both tablets look good. They are thin, lightweight for their size, and very portable.

Both screens look good. Colours are vibrant and screen is bright.

The Apple Pencil cost US $129 and is not included. So the total price of iPad Air 2020 and Apple Pencil is $728 whereas the Tab S7 is just US $549. The price savings with the Samsung tablet is significant.

Both displays are laminated so there's no gap between the pen tip and the line it creates.

I do find that the Apple Pencil is more sensitive when drawing with very light pressure. As long as the Apple Pencil tip touches the display, it can produce a line. You do need to press down slightly to get a line with the Samsung S Pen, but it's very easy to get used to. Certain drawing apps will also allow you to adjust the pressure sensitivity curve.

Both pens support tilt sensitivity as well and the Apple Pencil does it better in the sense that it's easier to get a wider range of stroke when you change the tilt gradually.

In terms of drawing performance, I would rank iPad Air slightly higher mostly because of the Apple Pencil better performance at low pressure and with tilt.

However, in terms of latency, Samsung Tab S7 uses a 120Hz display and the S Pen has been upgraded to the point even when drawing and writing fast, the gap is very minimal as the line tries to catch up with the pen tip. On the iPad Air, the animation of the line appearing can appear choppy, relatively speaking.

So each tablet and stylus combination has their own pros and cons.

Aspect ratio for Tab S7 is 16:10 which is wider than the iPad Air. It's more appropriate to use the Tab S7 in landscape compared to portrait orientation.

In vertical orientation, Tab S7's canvas area can be quite tight.

iPad Air's aspect ratio is close to 4:3 and is usable in both vertical and landscape orientation.

The main selling point of using the iPad Air, or of all iPads, for drawing is the huge variety of drawing and graphic design apps available from the App Store. This is one area where Android still has to catch up.

Here's a list of apps that I like from Apple App Store

• Procreate - User friendly, lots of features, well designed for tablets
• Clip Studio Paint - Same features as desktop
• Adobe Photoshop - As powerful as desktop Photoshop but with different UI
• Adobe Illustrator - Vector illustration and graphic design
• Vectonator - Vector illustration and graphic design
• Affinity Designer - Vector illustration and graphic design
• Affinity Photo - Photo editing
• Paintstorm - Geared towards traditional painting
• Concepts - Vector illustration app
• Adobe Lightroom - Photo editing

On Android there are

• Clip Studio Paint - Same features as desktop
• Concepts - Vector illustration app
• Krita - Same features as desktop
• Adobe Lightroom - Photo editing

There are other drawing Android apps like ArtFlow, Autodesk Sketchbook and ibisPaint X which are also not bad.

One area where Android apps is lacking is with graphic design apps. On the iPad, there's Affinity Designer and there's even Adobe Illustrator now. Say you want to create a thumbnail with text and photo for a Youtube video, it's kinda difficult to do that on Android. Maybe I'm wrong. In which case do recommend to me an Android app that can allow me to do what I can do with Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator.

While Android does not have that many drawing apps, it has Clip Studio Paint and sometimes if you have one good app, that's all that matters. It's not like you're going to use so many drawing apps even if they are available to you. People just use one or two drawing apps and stick with them. Clip Studio Paint is an excellent illustration app.

Things I like about Tab S7

Samsung Dex is the desktop version of Android. It gives you a taskbar, icons on the desktop, and ability to move windows around, resize them. I find Samsung Dex to be incredibly useful. Samsung Dex is best used when connected to an external display. I sometimes use it edit photos with Adobe Lightroom, upload the photos to my blog, and write my blog. You can do the same on iPad but the iPadOS file system does not make the job simple.

Samsung Dex is what makes Tab S7 behaves more like a computer than the iPad ever will be. When you connect iPad to external display, it just does a mirror so what's the point?

The other thing I like is the familiar file management system. There are some features missing from traditional Windows or MacOS file system but on a whole, the file system is very familiar. I can go on and on about the deficiency of the file system on iPad or iOS but I won't do that because it just makes me frustrated.

Let me give you one example. Recently I wanted to transfer some RAW photo files to Google Drive through the Files app. Transfer was successful but that RAW file (no on Google Drive) shown on Files app cannot be selected, and cannot be deleted. This inability to select certain files happens way too often, and sometimes there will not be any file extensions shown when I need the file extension to identify certain files. Files app and file management on iPad is very primitive.

If you're looking for a computer/laptop replacement and you don't need to use specific desktop software, Samsung Tab S7 is the better choice.

Also note that with certain apps on iPad, files are only saved within the apps. Eg. Procreate files are saved within Procreate. That means you're almost locked into the Apple ecosystem when you want to upgrade in the future.

Conclusion

From the artist/graphic designer perspective, the iPad Air is more versatile only because of the variety of illustration and graphic design apps available through the Apple App Store.

If you're not that big into drawing, I mean if you do occasional drawing, the Samsung Tab S7 offers good value for money. US $728 vs $549. That's $179 savings.

Clip Studio Paint is subscription based model on Android and cost US $25 per year. With the $179 savings, you can subscribe for 7 years. CSP does not lock you in because you can use CSP on iPad, Windows, Mac and Android.

Availability

These are links to the Samsung Tab S7 on Amazon:
Amazon US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP

And these are links to the iPad Air on Amazon:
Amazon US | CA | UK | DE | FR | ES | IT | JP

If you have intention to buy the tablet, considering using the affiliate links above to support my blog which helps me put more content similar to the review you just read.