Following numerous leaks, Samsung has just officially announced the Galaxy Tab S2, its new flagship and successor to last year’s Galaxy Tab S. For its second iteration, Samsung has further slimmed down the Galaxy Tab S2 to be handier, but it has also reduced the pixel resolution, which might disappoint a few of the fans of the first generation.
The Galaxy Tab S2 comes in an 8-inch, and iPad-like 9.7-inch variant, both of which employ a 4:3 aspect ratio 2048×1536 SAMOLED display, and will be available in LTE and Wi-Fi-only configurations. It features an Exynos 5433 Octa-core SoC, 3GB of RAM, 32 or 64GB of on-board storage, and an 8-megapixel rear camera, 2.1-megapixel front camera set-up with no flash. It will ship with Android 5.0.2 and features the same “touch-based” fingerprint sensor used in the Galaxy S6 and has support for microSD.
The 9.7-inch model tablet is powered by a 5,870mAh battery, while the 8.0-inch model draws its juice from a 4,000mAh battery.
Then there is the thinness factor. Both models are only 5.6 mm thin, versus the previous 6.6 mm. The 9.7-inch model weighs only 392 g (versus 467 g on last year’s 10.5) while the 8.0-inch version is 272 g (versus 298 g on the 8.4 last year).
The Galaxy Tab S2 will begin to hit stores next month. While no exact details have been provided, based on previous tablet releases we expect the LTE variant to release some weeks after the Wi-Fi model. Samsung’s press release declined to mention the exact cost of the device, however SamMobile is quoting the European prices as follows, presumably for the base-level 32GB configuration.
Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 Wi-Fi: €399 ($432)
Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 LTE: €469 ($508)
Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 Wi-Fi: €499 ($540)
Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 LTE: €569 ($616)
