For a long time, Samsung’s cunning designers have been enthusiastically circling the iPhone and releasing the Galaxy S, and unleashing their creativity in the design of tablets. But now they have an iPad in their hands.
Among manufacturers of alternative tablets, Samsung has always stood out positively, which is not surprising. It was she who first released a competitor to the iPad, and at the same time formed the market for 7-inch tablets. It was she who offered some of the most technically functional and advanced models among Android tablets, and often they differed favorably in design. Recall at least the revolutionary for its time Galaxy Tab 7.7 with thin bezels and a unique AMOLED display.
Its successor, the Galaxy Tab S, was no less interesting and stood out from the iPad in several ways: thin, light, plus the best tablet display on the market with a 16:10 aspect ratio. That is, with weight and dimensions comparable to the iPad mini, while watching a video, it gave out as much usable display space as a full-sized 9.7-inch iPad. For content consumption, in principle, I still consider this model to be the best, especially for mobile video.
But now it’s time to update the tablet line of flagships again and Samsung introduced Galaxy Tab S2, which in terms of appearance is almost a copy of the iPad. Same shapes, same 4:3 display aspect ratio, although thinner and lighter. About why I personally treat the new product with a great deal of irony, we’ll talk a little later, but for now let’s take a look at the technical characteristics of the device.
Iron
There are two models in the line: 8 inch and 9.7 inch. Both use a Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2048×1536 pixels (similar to that of the iPad mini 2Gen+ iPad 3Gen+) and are identical in terms of filling, differing only in size: 134.8 × 198.6 × 5.6 mm, 265 g (272 g for the LTE version) and 169 × 237.3 × 5.6 mm, 389 g (392 g for the LTE version). The minimum thickness of 5.6 mm (against 6.1 mm for the record holder iPad Air 2 and 7.5 mm for the iPad mini) and weight, of course, are impressive. The same iPad mini of the latest generation weighs from 331 g, and iPad Air 2 – from 437 g. The rest of the filling is quite traditional for Samsung flagships and does not differ too much from the previous Tab S model, except that the processors are made using a more energy efficient, which compensates for not the most capacious device batteries (4000 and 5870 mAh, respectively).
So, the new products have a proprietary 8-core Exynos processor (the model is not specified) with 4 productive cores with a frequency of 1.9 GHz and four economical 1.3 GHz ones. The number crusher is supplemented with 3 GB of RAM, 32 or 64 GB of flash memory and a slot for microSD cards with a capacity of up to 128 GB. Powerful Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with MIMO support, Bluetooth 4.1 BLE and GPS/GLONASS is available on all models, but LTE is an option. For photos, there is an 8-megapixel camera on the back, and for selfies, there is a 2.1-megapixel camera on the front. Gadgets running Android 5.0 operating system with a proprietary TouchWiz shell work. The release is promised in August this year, but the price is not yet known. [SamsungTomorrow]
Like an iPad
I’m sure that many even the biggest Android lovers will recognize the superiority of the iPad in the tablet market. It is expressed not so much in technical capabilities (although in them too), but in software. Robot still has problems with the quality of tablet software, but the iPad has no such problems. Games, specialized applications for music, drawing, working with documents, encyclopedias, children’s tutorials – all this is available in a huge amount and in excellent quality on iOS. On Android, the range is an order of magnitude poorer and worse in quality. I don’t think there is anything to prove here. Indeed, among the readers there are many people who use an Android smartphone in conjunction with the iPad. This is the best proof that in the telephone area, iOS and Android already have parity, and for a long time, but in the tablet area it is still there.
The only thing that Android tablets could stand out with is their unusual form factor and technical features. Plus the price, of course. But we’re talking about flagships, so here Samsung has only one option – it needs to be different from the iPad in order to attract a buyer. Here is the first Tab S and attracted with its non-standard format with an 8.3-inch display, when you get an almost full-sized tablet, but with the dimensions of a 7-inch. An ideal gadget for video on the go, which is facilitated by a chic AMOLED display. In the case of the Galaxy Tab S2, we get a copy of the iPad, albeit thinner, lighter, but with Android on board. In this case, it doesn’t make much of a difference whether you’re watching a video on a 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 4 or an 8-inch Galaxy Tab S2 – the effective screen size of a widescreen movie will be about the same.
Although, the novelty will obviously find its buyer, nevertheless, the quality of the display should be at its best. But it’s a pity that Samsung abandoned the widescreen display in the Tab S line, losing one of the advantages over the iPad. On the other hand, it is quite possible that someone dreamed of just such a Glalaxy Tab S – an AMOLED display, but with an aspect ratio of 4: 3, plus the freedom of Android.
Write about your impressions of the novelty in the comments – do you see the point in replacing the Tab S with a new generation, or are you ready to abandon the iPad in favor of the Galaxy Tab S2?
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For a long time, Samsung’s cunning designers have been enthusiastically circling the iPhone and releasing the Galaxy S, and unleashing their creativity in the design of tablets. But now they have an iPad in their hands. Among manufacturers of alternative tablets, Samsung has always stood out positively, which is not surprising. It was she who first released a competitor to the iPad, and at the same time formed the market for 7-inch tablets. She was the one who offered…
Roman Yuriev
@bigbeastus
Meticulous blogger, gadget addict, bald and bearded fitness trainer. I am fond of technology, sports and nutrition.
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