As an owner of a 5th gen iPad Pro 12.9, I really wanted to try this tablet out, as I'm a fan of OLED and the extra size was appealing to me. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I am not the biggest fan of Android either. So here's an honest opinion of this tablet.
First, let me say that this is one aspect where Android fans have been unable to compete with the larger iPad for several years now, but that changes with this tablet!
THE GOOD
* Size of the display
* Contrast ratio
* Free pen included
* Performance is very good
* Not directly controlled by Google
* Good Battery Life
* Dolby Atmos Support
* Speakers are great
* Gaming is Good
THE BAD
* Android's history of slowing down tech within 2 years
* WiFi stays connected, but tells me there is no internet
* Display isn't as bright as the iPad Pro 12.9
* Pen Docking Location isn't optimal
* Google has very little respect for privacy
* No Variable Refresh Rate
SCREEN
Obviously, looking at the display, the size of the screen and the contrast ratio are fantastic, there's very little more that needs to be said. The only disappointement is the lack of VRR technology as 120 Hz full time can create a drain on the battery and 60 Hz can create a weird scrolling affect for every day activities (this is something the iPad Pro has and does very well).
PERFORMANCE
The model I have is the 256 Gig with 12 Gigs of RAM and it performs very well without any real hitches as far as playing games, browsing the web, using apps, and the like. Watching movies is great and the aspect ratio of the screen really works well to complement the performance. Does it match the iPad for performance? No, but it really doesn't have to, as it really doesn't struggle anywhere either. Gaming gets a solid 60 FPS for the most part and day to day apps never slow down at all.
SOUND
The speakers are great and the addition of Dolby Atmos is great for movie watching. Music also comes through very clearly on the tablet and quite loud (I do not hear any benefit to the iPad Pro over these).
NETWORK CONNECTIVITY
This is honestly the most troubling aspect of the tablet... While the speed of the WiFi is great, the tablet occasionally decides that there's no path to the Internet, even though it shows that I'm connected to my WAP. This can be frustrating when you're watching a movie or video on YouTube and it just starts throttling. When you check the WiFi, you get the error message "Connected without Internet" and I think it might have something to do with the tablet's ability to work with mixed WPA2 / WPA3 autonegotiation that my router has built in.
PRODUCTIVITY
You get pretty much full access to Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint, and Teams if you have an Office 365 Subscription and the Dex desktop, makes the device much more like a desktop when paired with a bluetooth keyboard or Mouse. I could honestly see somebody using this as a laptop replacement for many of the tasks the average user does day to day. The biggest downside is that I could find no way to mirror the tablet to my PC monitor (maybe it is there, but I do not see it), but other than that it is a great mobile device.
HARDWARE
The iPad Pro is solid and thicker than the Samsung tablet, thanks to the extra layers required by the Mini-LED Display. The Samsung uses self illuminating pixels in the OLED Display, so it is considerably thinner than the iPad and while that's fantastic for use, I have flashbacks to the thinner, more pliable design of the 12.9" first gen iPad Pro and I could honestly see the Samsung Tablet bending as well, if you're not carefult.
Another piece of hardware is the S-Pen vs the Pencil. The S-Pen is included with the Galaxy Tablet, where Apple will charge you an extra $129 for the Pencil. However, the S-Pen build quality is nowhere near that of the Pencil and the flexibility of the Pencil for angled drawing and generally for art work is better than the S-Pen. With that said, the S-Pen is very functional and does the job well for day to day note taking, drawing, or touching up photos and such, so don't take this as a negative for the tablet.
STORAGE
I wanted to mention this, because the Galaxy Tablet has the ability to extend the storage with an SDCard and the iPad has no easy way to do this without an awkward dongling hanging from the Thunderbolt Port. So it is possible to offload files temporarily on the iPad, but the Galaxy can have a permanently attached 1 TB SDCard inserted right into the tablet and that's a big plus.
PORTS
Well, there's no easy way to say this... Samsung went with USB-C and that might be why the external display thing is such an issues, where Apple went with Thunderbolt 3 and there's no contest between the two as the TB3 port is simply much faster and more flexible, even though they have the same connection, the hardware is very different.
CHARGING
Unfortunately, the Samsung chargint (with the same MBP Charger, I use for all my devices) will take about 2 hours to charge up to full, the iPad Pro is less than an Hour easy and that makes this tablet less flexible when you're on a tight schedule and have to be somewhere with a low on battery.
OVERALL
If I were in the android camp and looking for a good alternative for the iPad Pro 12.9", this is the tablet I would turn to, as it checks enough of the boxes that you just don't need to worry about anything else. It is a solid device with good quality and I have very few complaints about its day to day use.