Samsung has followed through with last week's promise to make its pair of Galaxy Tab A tablets available soon.
Customers looking for a good mid-range tablet to buy can now pick up either of the Galaxy Tab A devices Samsung has recently unveiled for the U.S. market. The tablets can be purchased online via Samsung's website or through Amazon, Best Buy, Office Depot, and other online and physical outlets.
The Galaxy Tab A tablets come in two variants, one that features a 9.7-inch display and a smaller one with an 8-inch display. Users won't be overly impressed with either one of them, but keep in mind these mid-range tablets also come with mid-range prices for people who don't have more money to shell out for the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 or iPad 2, which both start at $499.
The bigger tablet will set buyers back $299, while the smaller one costs $229, which are prices anyone would hardly balk at for a Samsung device. Buyers can also opt to get an S-Pen with the 9.7-inch version for an additional $50, putting the device's price at $349. The Galaxy Tab A is available in three colors: white, titanium, and smoky blue.
Under the hood, both sport a quad-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm APQ 8016 processor and 1.5 GB of RAM. Both tablets have only 16 GB of built-in disk space, but Samsung included a microSD card slot for expanding the memory up to 128 GB, a feature that the Korean electronics manufacturer has done away with in its high-end smartphones in an effort to slim down their design.
The bigger Galaxy Tab A has a 6,000 mAh battery to account for the bigger display, and the smaller one has a 4,200 mAh, enabling both tablets to run up to 11 hours of mixed use, according to Samsung.
However, the display isn't something anyone would gush over, as both devices do not even go full high-definition with the 1,024 x 768 resolution, although each tablet comes with a more user-friendly aspect ratio of 4:3, the same aspect ratio seen on the iPads. The camera is middling to low-end, with both tablets carrying a 5-megapixel rear shooter and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Feature-wise, this duo has plenty of what the rest of the Galaxy Tab series of tablets offers. Productivity and multi-tasking continue to be a priority, with Samsung's Multi Window, Microsoft's Office for Android app and 100 GB of cloud storage on OneDrive included in both tablets out of the box. In a statement announcing the device, Samsung America senior vice president of mobile computing Gary Riding said the Galaxy Tab A are all about improving connectivity at lower prices.
"This latest addition includes some of the features of the Samsung Galaxy Tab series, while streamlining connectivity," he said. "The tablet will let users connect to everything that matters, from family members, friends, and colleagues, to work and entertainment content, as well as other smart Samsung devices."
