All Sections

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 tips, tricks and best hidden features

Get started with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S3 tablet with our tips and tricks guide, which highlights some of the best features you may have missed.

Just treated yourself to Samsung’s shiny new Galaxy Tab S3? Want to make sure you get the most from this premium iPad Pro competitor, which can convert into a makeshift laptop thanks to its optional keyboard cover? Here’s a few of our tips and tricks for getting started with Samsung’s tab.

Get creative with Samsung Notes

One of the best parts of the Galaxy Tab S3 is of course that S Pen stylus. We recommend downloading some art applications from Google Play to make the most of it, but Samsung has provided a solid app for testing your creative skills.

The Samsung Notes app is an intuitive, flexible way of creating multi-layered documents. You can combine text, graphics and your own scribblings, quickly and easily. If you prefer to scribble notes rather than type them out, Samsung Notes is the perfect solution too.

Just tap the Text button near the top of the screen to open a new text box and hover your S Pen’s tip over the screen. A small blue bubble will pop up with a T inside. Tap that to open the handwriting box, then scribble away. If you make any mistakes (or the smart handwriting recognition bot does), just draw a line through the offending words to remove.

Quickly jump into your creative apps and tools

Hold your S Pen’s tip near the screen at any time and Samsung’s Air Command icon will appear at the side of the display. Just tap this to open up a menu filled with shortcuts to your creative apps. This includes quick options for creating a new note and plenty more besides.

To edit the Air Command menu, head to the settings and then tap Advanced Features > S Pen > Air Command. In here you can change the app shortcuts and even disable the feature.

How to write a memo when the Tab S3 is hibernating

Need to jot down an urgent note? Just pick up your Tab S3 and the stylus, then hold down the button on the S Pen’s side and touch the tip to the screen. You’ll jump into a new note without having to unlock the tablet.

Manage your resources

If you find yourself running low on storage space, we recommend plugging a microSD memory card into the Tab S3. However, if that’s not really an option and you need some emergency space, head to the settings menu followed by Device Maintenance.

In here you can see how much you have free, by tapping ‘Storage’ at the bottom of the screen. There’s a handy ‘Clean now’ option which deletes all of the junk files clogging up your tablet – these pile up quickly, so this should free up a fair bit of space.

Read next: How to transfer music to your tablet

Get gaming with Game Launcher

Game Launcher is a great way of grouping all of your games together, so they’re all neat and tidy. However, the reasons for using Game Launcher go far beyond this simple cleanliness.

For one, you get a nifty performance mode on the main Game Launcher screen, before loading a game. This devotes more processing power to your gaming exploits, if you want to play something that’s rather demanding on the Tab S3.

You can also silence notifications when playing games; great news if you don’t want any distractions. Just tap the tiny orange icon that appears in the corner of the display when you start a game, then hit the ‘no alerts during game’ option.

You can enable or disable the Game Launcher feature at any time in the tablet’s settings menu. Just head to the Advanced Features option and then tap into Games.

Read next: Best free Android games to download in 2017

Multi-task with two apps at once

Android offers a handy split-screen feature, which can be used to run a pair of apps side-by-side. Definitely a good way to make the most of the Tab S3’s massive panel.

Tap the recent apps button beneath the screen and a list of open apps will pop onto the screen. From here, tap the split-screen icon on the first app you wish to use – this looks like two boxes, stacked one on top of the other.

At this point, the display splits in half. In the top half, your chosen app will pop up. In the bottom half, you’ll see a scrollable list of other apps running in the background. Simply tap your second choice and it will fill the bottom half of the panel, so you can use both at the same time. Sublime.

Can’t see the app you wish to open in that bottom scrollable list? All you need to do is tap the ‘More Apps’ option at the top. From here, select the second app you wish to use in split-screen mode.

You can resize both windows at any time by holding your finger on the central division and dragging it up or down the screen. To exit split-screen mode, drag that divide to the very bottom of the display.

Read next: Best apps for streaming live and catchup TV to your tablet

Need more help with your Samsung Galaxy Tab S3?

If you head to the settings menu and tap User Manual near the bottom, you’ll be taken to Samsung’s online instruction manual. This can tell you almost everything you need to know about your new tablet. Enjoy!

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *