Samsung launches the Galaxy Tab Active for business and enterprise

Samsung’s been fighting for a share of the business and enterprise market for a while now, and its latest tablet offering – the Galaxy Tab Active – launched today with a number of business- and enterprise-focused features.

Samsung certainly intends the Galaxy Tab Active to be operated outside of just an office environment. Visually, the tablet takes its cues from the company’s “Active” devices, foregoing capacitive buttons on the tablet’s bezel in favour of actual buttons. There’s also a protective case providing an IP67 water/dust-proof rating and allowing it to withstand a drop of up to 1.2 metres.

We’re looking at an 8 inch 1280 x 800 (WXGA) TFT LCD screen, with 400-nit brightness designed to give minimal glare and reflection. It’s powered by an unspecified 1.2 GHz quad core processor, which we’re taking to mean “Exynos”, with 1.5GB of RAM.

There’s also a long-lasting battery, with up to 11 hours of battery life from a large 4450 mAh replaceable battery. While it’s not the largest battery we’ve seen, the fact that it can be replaced is a boon for businesses that can keep extra batteries on standby. There’s also Samsung’s ultra power saving mode, a feature we’ve seen evolve on its flagship smartphones in recent years.

Samsung’s also calling out the auto focus camera, saying it’s great for barcode scanning, along with the tablet’s NFC functionality. The tablet also features a “C Pen”, which seems to be a capacitive stylus allowing users to operate the tablet while wearing gloves.

Samsung’s own Knox 2.0 software comes pre-installed to help provide a robust, enterprise-grade security solution. This might also explain the choice of Android OS (KitKat, or Android 4.4), since Google made a big deal out of including many of Samsung’s Knox features in Android 5.0 around the same time as Samsung announced Knox 2.0. Whether the tablet will be updated to Android’s latest release remains open to question, but this is probably less important where the tablet is in business or enterprise service.

• Processor: 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor
• Display: 8-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) TFT LCD
• Memory: 1.5GB LPDDR3
• Storage: 16GB, MicroSD up to 64GB
• OS: Android 4.4 KitKat
• Camera: Rear 3.1MP autofocus with flash, Front 1.2MP
• Location: GPS, GLONASS
• Cellular: LTE 700/850/1800/2100/2600, 3G 850/900/2100, 2G 900/1800
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
• USB 2.0, BT 4.0 BLE, NFC
• Battery: 4,450mAh (User-replaceable)
• 126.2 x 213.1 x 9.75mm, 393 grams

There will be 2 variants of the Galaxy Tab Active, in either Wi-Fi (RRP $699) or 4G + WiFi (RRP $849). Samsung says some retailers will stock the device, though no list was officially given.

Do you have a space in your life or your business for the Galaxy Tab Active? Tell us in the comments!