Tech giant announce slimmer, smaller tablet

fuad lawal

July 20, 2015 9:16 AM

Samsung has revealed its new 8-inch and 9.7-inch Galaxy Tab S2 models, and it has changed direction considerably over last year.

Samsung has announced the Galaxy Tab S2, a new tablet that comes in 9.7-inch and 8.0-inch variants, set to launch in global markets in August. The new devices come in a particularly light and thin metal frame — they're only 5.6 milimeters in thickness and weigh just 389 grams for the 9.7-inch model, and 265 grams for the 8.0-inch. Both variants have Super AMOLED displays at 2048x1536 resolutions, and Quad 1.9GHz and Quad 1.3GHz octacore processors. A microSD slot allows buyers to bump onboard storage space up to 128GB on both devices.

This time around Samsung has done away with the larger 10.5-inch variant introduced by its last Galaxy Tab release. The new model is iPad-sized, and shares the same 4:3 screen orientation as Apple's tablet — as Sammobile devices, Samsung is avoiding mentioning video specifically in its release materials for the Tab S2, touting instead the device's suitability for reading "digital content, including e-books, magazines, webpages and newsfeeds."

The new Tab S2 appears to have patched the biggest problem with the last model — its weak processor — while keeping the same special Super AMOLED display that made the original Tab worth a look. That, plus the new metal construction mean the Tab S2 could be a tablet contender when it launches at some point next month.

fuad lawal