Samsung has finally taken the formal wraps off its new consumer tablets, the Galaxy Tab S2. We’ve been told to expect a worldwide launch in August, in two sizes: 8-inch and 9.7-inch.
Beyond the sizes, there’s little to separate these two new tablets. Samsung claims the Galaxy Tab S2 will be just 5.6mm thin, weighing in at 265g for the 8″ model, and 389g for the 9.7″ variant. That extra weight in the 9.7″ model is undoubtedly taken up mostly by battery capacity, as it has a monster 5,870mAh battery, dwarfing the 4,000mAh battery in the 8″ tablet.
Besides this, both feature a Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2048×1536, Android 5.0 Lollipop, with an Octa-Core processor running at 4×1.9GHz and 4×1.3GHz. Both are accompanied by 3GB RAM, an 8MP rear camera and 2.1MP front camera. There’s an integrated fingerprint scanner to boot, and Samsung’s now signature multi-window app interface.
Of the launch, Samsung says:
The tablet also presents deeper contrast and more precise detail to provide a best-in-class reading experience with the Super AMOLED display delivering 94% of natural tones to show true-to-life colours (Adobe RGB colour standard). Users can now enjoy galleries of vividly detailed photos and effortlessly shop online while viewing the most accurate images on the Galaxy Tab S2.
In addition, the Galaxy Tab S2 continually offers its advanced screen technology to display bright and natural content for a more comfortable visual experience. Adaptive Display intelligently adjusts gamma, saturation, and sharpness based on the application, the color temperature of the viewing environment and ambient lighting. Also, Reading Mode modifies the screen’s brightness level to help users to read content for longer periods of time without straining their eyes.
The Galaxy Tab S2 will be available in Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi / LTE variants, with storage of 32 or 64GB. MicroSD support remains, allowing up to 128GB of extra storage.
We don’t have a local announcement for these devices yet, and we will be in touch with Samsung Australia to confirm local pricing and availability.
I’ve been waiting for the update to the smaller 8in tablet. I mainly use my tablet for watching videos on YouTube and AFL Live. To buy this would be a downgrade in display; the most important part of my tablet experience. The Tab S2 will display 16:9 video at a reduced size and lower resolution than my Tab S. At least Samsung have upgraded the internals with the Exynos 5433 from the Galaxy Note 4. But it’s not much of an upgrade compared to the sort of power Apple puts in the latest iPad. I can only guess that Samsung… Read more »