How I Create A Portable Editing Room with This New Tech from Samsung

No one ends up a freelance videographer by accident.

Anyone in the game will tell you it takes hard work, but it also takes a little ingenuity. Making a living as a pro behind the camera is 10 percent capturing content, 40 percent spending time in the editing room and 50 percent finding solutions to issues that can pop up on and off set. I have to be nimble, and am constantly keeping my eye out for technology that makes my life easier – the real secret is building a studio you can access on the go. It’s no joke, my whole life is usually with me in my back-pack biking around from shoot to shoot.

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This is why I was so excited to get my hands on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. I’d heard about its PC-like capabilities packed into a sleek and compact tablet and couldn’t wait to test it out. Here are some of the features that blew my mind.

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Like a portable monitor everywhere I go

One of the hardest parts of being on set is checking the tiny display screens on DSLR cameras to ensure that you captured the shot. This gets better with practice but when you’re working on major projects with big name clients, you don’t want to take any risks. When I incorporated the Galaxy Tab S4 into my set-up, I immediately took advantage of the fact that I could plug my professional camera into the tablet and view my images on its 10.5-inch display. It completely changed the game for me by allowing me to see the images blown up in real time, without the cumbersome hassle of setting up and carrying around a huge monitor. The vibrant Super AMOLED display made viewing pictures that much easier.

Editing is easier with the S Pen

Beyond acting as a second monitor, the included S Pen also enables more precise creative control when adding any edited flare on top of images. Because of its travel-friendly size, this enables me to quickly review the photos I’ve captured and easily make any immediate edits I’ve thought to make while on my commute from location to location – allowing me to maximize my entire day. I also decided to pair the tablet with the Samsung Book Cover Keyboard so that I can quickly fire off an email with preliminary images to clients – they’re shocked by how fast my turn-around is.

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DeX Mode enables PC-like capabilities

One of the most magical parts of the Galaxy Tab S4 happens when I’m back at home. Instead of transferring everything onto a PC, when I’m done on set for the day I can use an HDMI adaptor to plug the tablet directly into an even larger screen to complete painstaking editing work that I’d usually use a PC for. This saves me hours of transferring time and has really become an important part of my process.

Because of its sizable storage space (256GB and 64GB), its ability to edit on the go, as well as its PC-like capabilities with Samsung DeX, the Galaxy Tab S4 has basically made my bulky laptop obsolete – exactly the kind of innovation perfect for a freelancer who’s constantly on the go.