Samsung's Galaxy Tab S2 was officially announced back in July, with the tablet set to be released in the United States early next month.
Before the official announcement, there were many rumors that swirled around the device that is the successor to Samsung's Galaxy Tab S.
With just about a year between the release of the two tablets, what did Samsung do for the Galaxy Tab S2 to improve upon the Galaxy Tab S?
Smaller, slimmer and lighter
The Galaxy Tab S2, similarly to the Galaxy Tab S, will be offered in two sizes. While the Galaxy Tab S came in 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch models, the Galaxy Tab S2 will come in smaller 8-inch and 9.7-inch models.
The Galaxy Tab S2 has a width of only 5.6 millimeters, with Samsung claiming that the tablet is the slimmest one in the market today. In comparison, the Galaxy Tab S has width of 6.6 millimeters.
The newer tablets are also lighter compared to their predecessors, with the 8-inch Galaxy Tab S2 weighing 265 grams and the 9.7-inch version weighing 389 grams, compared to the 8.4-inch Galaxy Tab that weighs 294 grams and the 10.5-inch version that weighs 465 grams.
Different display
Both tablets feature a Super AMOLED display, with the display of the Galaxy Tab S actually featuring a few more pixels at 2,560 x 1,600 resolution compared to the 2,048 x 1,536 resolution of the Galaxy Tab S2.
However, the aspect ratio has changed between the two tablets, with the Galaxy Tab S2 featuring a 4:3 aspect ratio that moves away from the usual 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios usually found in Android-powered tablets.
This means that despite the drop in resolution, the display of the Galaxy Tab S2 is wider in portrait mode. However, there will be a wider black bar on the top and bottom of the tablet when watching programs in landscape mode compared to the Galaxy Tab S.
Missing flash
Both tablets feature an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 2.1MP front-facing camera. However, the camera flash feature that was found in the Galaxy Tab S was removed for the Galaxy Tab S2.
Maintained performance
Both the Galaxy Tab S2 and Galaxy Tab S pack octa-core CPUs with four cores clocking in at 1.9GHz and the other four cores clocking in at 1.3GHz with 3GB of RAM. However, the Galaxy Tab S2 features Samsung's own Exynos 5433 processor, switching from the Qualcomm processor found in the predecessor.
Lower battery capacities
The battery capacity of the Galaxy Tab S was 4,900 mAh for the 8.4-inch model and 7,900 mAh for the 10.5-inch model. These numbers drastically go down for the Galaxy Tab S2, as the 8-inch model will only have a battery capacity of 4,000 mAh and the 9.7-inch model will only have a capacity of 5,870 mAh.
Verdict
Not much have changed in between the Galaxy Tab S and the Galaxy Tab S2. In fact, in some aspects, the predecessor was actually better than the newer tablet.
According to Android Authority, Samsung may have aligned the Galaxy Tab S2 too close to rival Apple's iPad instead of focusing on upgrades to the specifications of the Galaxy Tab S.
