Samsung makes the Galaxy Tab S4 official

Samsung has just announced the newest member of its premium Galaxy Tab S family – the aptly named Galaxy Tab S4 – to the world. The Tab S4 has been launched in a somewhat unusual fashion, with a YouTube video published just now.

With the official site now live at samsung.com, we can see some more details.

The Tab S4 is a 10.5-inch tablet, with reduced bezels around the screen making for an immersive experience for the user. It’s a Samsung Super AMOLED screen, so it’s going to look pretty gorgeous and runs at 2560×1600 – 287 PPI. It’s a 16:10 screen, so it’s a little wider and more comfortable than a “widescreen” device without sacrificing too much screen to the dreaded “black bars” when watching a movie.

The reduced bezel on the front of the device comes at the cost of a fingerprint scanner – the Tab S4 doesn’t have one. Instead, it has Samsung’s iris scanning tech, so you’ll be able to unlock the tablet with a look instead of a touch.

Inside, standard models will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with 4GB of RAM. This might differ locally, where we’ve seen Exynos powered devices for a few years now. There’ll be either 64GB or 256GB of storage depending on the model you choose.

On the back of the tablet there’s a 13MP f/1.9 camera with 1.12um pixels and a 76-degree field of view. Samsung’s camera tech has impressed in the last few years, and while this is no Galaxy S9 we expect it to still remain capable.

On the front, near the iris scanner, there’s an 8MP camera with similar specs.

The audio performance of the tablet looks pretty special, with Samsung’s AKG logo emblazoned on the rear of the tablet – there’s 4 speakers in total on the device and they’re broadly arranged near the corner of each device. The tablet is Dolby Atmos certified.

There’s a charging dock (which connects via pogo pins on the side of the tablet), and a number of accessories like the Book Cover which clips around the tablet and gives you a keyboard with which to work.

Samsung’s Desktop Experience, DeX, also makes its tablet debut on the Tab S4 – you’ll be able to get the tablet to provide “desktop functionality” when plugged into it, just like the last couple of Galaxy S devices.

For the Tab S4, DeX isn’t a dock but a USB adapter. Presumably you can thus use DeX while the tablet is in a case or dock.

While running DeX, you can continue to use the Android UI on the tablet while DeX runs the show on the big screen, or you can use the Tab S4 as a digitiser input (with an included S Pen) or touch keyboard.

Finally, the Tab S4 is compatible with Samsung’s S Pen – although it doesn’t look like the Tab S4’s S Pen is the new model that’s expected to debut with the Note 9 in a little over a week. The Tab S4 has features like screen-off notes we’ve seen in previous years’ Galaxy Note devices.

Samsung is listing Black and Grey as the official colours on the Galaxy Tab S4 website.They may not be the most exciting colours on the planet, but with the all-screen design on the front of the tablet you can understand why Samsung’s focus is elsewhere.

In the US market, the tablet will launch at a somewhat eye-watering US$650 on August 10 (that’ll give everyone something to do after the Galaxy Note 9 launch the day before).

Obviously given the hour (the reveal happened at 1am local time), we’re not expecting to get local pricing and availability just yet – but we’ve approached Samsung’s Australian representatives and will update when we have information.