Without much fanfare, Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Tab S2, its flagship tablet that replaces its current Galaxy Tab S. In the face of declining tablet sales, Samsung still thinks there’s still a market for premium tablets and the new one now comes with a 4:3 display aspect ratio that’s similar to the iPad Air and iPad mini series.
For starters, it will come in 2 sizes, 8.0″ and 9.7″ inches, which is similar to what its Galaxy Tab A has to offer. The display on both models are using Super AMOLED with a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels. While that’s the same as what iPad Retina Displays have to offer, it is lower than the current Galaxy Tab S which gives a higher Quad HD 2600×1600 pixels resolution.
In terms of design, this is Samsung’s thinnest and lightest tablets at only 5.6mm thick and it weighs from just 265 grams for the 8.0″ WiFi only model. It gets a premium metal frame around the sides like its current flagship smart phones and the home button also features a one touch fingerprint scanner. Under the hood, it gets an Exynos 5433 Octa-Core processor (Quad 1.9GHz + Quad 1.3GHz) that’s mated with 3GB of RAM. Storage wise, you get either 32GB of 64GB on-board and thankfully it still gets a microSD slot supporting up to 128GB.
For imaging, it gets a 8MP AF main camera and a front facing 2.1MP unit which is isn’t much to shout about. Battery wise, the 9.7″ is juiced up with a 5,870mAh capacity unit while the 8.0″ version gets 4,000mAh. As comparison, the previous model had a larger battery at 7,900mAh (Tab S 10.5) and 4,900mAh (Tab S 8.4).
Out of the box, it runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop and both sizes will be offered in both WiFi only and 4G LTE variants depending on selected markets. There’s no S-Pen, so if you fancy to scribble something on the go, the Galaxy Tab A is your only choice at the moment. If we can summarise, the Galaxy Tab S2 offers better specs and materials but it sacrifices on display and battery.
In terms of price, the Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 is listed at 399 Euro (about RM1,643) for WiFi and 469 Euro (about RM1,931) for LTE, while the larger 9.7″ version is going for 499 Euro (about RM2,055) for WiFi and 569 Euro (about RM2,343) for LTE. Both models are expected to go on sale globally starting next month in August. As usual, it comes with a variety accessories including a keyboard that hooks on with matching colours.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.0
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 9.7
