Gizmo lovers get ready to embrace the newest tablet on the block, which is being touted as the iPad killer - Samsung's Galaxy Tab S.
Samsung took the wraps off its much-rumored Galaxy Tab S on Thursday, June 12, at an event in New York. The company is also publicizing the Galaxy Tab S as its "thinnest and lightest tablet to date."
"The tablet is becoming a popular personal viewing device for enjoying content, which makes the quality of the display a critical feature," revealed JK Shin, CEO and President of IT & Mobile Division, Samsung Electronics. "With the launch of the Galaxy Tab S, Samsung is setting the industry bar higher for the entire mobile industry. It will provide consumers with a visual and entertainment experience that brings colors to life, beautifully packaged in a sleek and ultra-portable mobile device."
The high-end Galaxy Tab S will come in two sizes - 8.4 inches and 10.5 inches - pitting it directly against arch rival Apple's iPad Mini 2 and iPad Air. Interestingly, both the variants of the Galaxy Tab S pack the same features under the hood.
The USP of the tablet is its screen as Samsung has deployed its Super AMOLED display that is synonymous with its Galaxy S5 smartphone, a first for any tablet from the company. Both the 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch models of the Galaxy Tab S will pack in a WQXGA Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a pixel density of 359 ppi.
While the iPad's Retina Display is a force to be reckoned with, the Apple tablet loses out in the resolution battle. When compared to the Galaxy Tab S, the iPad Air has a screen resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, with a pixel density of just 264 ppi. Moreover, Samsung claims that the WQXGA Super AMOLED screen gives 90 percent more Adobe RGB color coverage and the 100,000:1 contrast ratio enables more life-like images.
If that wasn't enough to entice consumers, the Galaxy Tab S also has an Adaptive Display, which basically makes sure that the user gets the "best visual experience anywhere, anytime by intelligently adjusting gamma, saturation, and sharpness based on the application being viewed, the color temperature of the viewing environment and ambient lighting."
In this day and age of fast-changing technology, consumers are hankering for sleeker and lighter devices and the Samsung tablet delivers on this count too. The 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch Galaxy Tab S Wi-Fi models weigh 294gms and 465gm, respectively. By contrast, the Wi-Fi versions of the 7.9-inch iPad Mini 2 is 314 gms and the 9.7-inch iPad Air weighs 469 gms, making the Samsung offerings lighter even though they are marginally bigger. The Galaxy Tab is not only lighter, but also thinner. The Samsung tablet is 6.6 mm thick when compared to the iPad Air, which is 7.5 mm thick.
Another feature that often makes or breaks the deal for many consumers is the camera quality. Samsung's tablet has a better front-facing camera when compared to the iPad. The Galaxy Tab S' secondary camera is 2.1 megapixels vis-à-vis the iPad's 1.2-megapixel FaceTime camera. So, if you're looking to video chat or Skype, then the Samsung offering would be your go-to tablet. The 8-megapixel primary camera on the Galaxy Tab S too trumps the 5-megapixel iSight camera offered by the iPad.
However, when it comes to storage capacity, the iPad may have a slight edge as it is also available in 64GB and 128GB options along with the 16GB and 32GB variants. The Galaxy Tab S, on the other hand, will be available in 16GB and 32GB options. However, the Samsung tablet has an expandable memory option unlike Apple's tablet, which evens out the scales.
The battery life of the Galaxy Tab S is not known, so it is difficult to compare it with the iPad at this juncture. Even though the Exynos 5 Octa (1.9 GHz Quadcore + 1.3 GHz Quadcore) processor of the Galaxy Tab S sounds impressive on paper, the processor performance of the Samsung tablet against the iPad can be gauged only once benchmarks are run.
Price-wise, the Galaxy Tab S and the iPad Mini 2 and iPad Air are in the same bracket. The 16GB Wi-Fi versions of the Galaxy Tab S are priced at $399 (8.4 inches version) and $499 (10.5 inches version).
The Galaxy Tab S is expected to hit the shelves in early July and will be available in Dazzling White and Titanium Bronze hue. It will be interesting to see if the device can capture the market and outsell the iPads.
