Samsung’s newest tablet is the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 3, an offering that fits squarely into the “phablet” category. It makes calls on cellular networks and fits into a pocket or purse; at 0.39 inches the tablet is even thinner than the 7-inch version of the Galaxy Tab 2.
The Galaxy Tab 3 will connect to 3G networks, good news for carriers who are seeing increased customer interest in connected tablets. Tablets that can double as phones are tailor-made for AT&T and Verizon Wireless’s data sharing plans, which allow families to connect up to ten devices on one account. The 3G version of the Galaxy Tab 3 won’t be available until June; Samsung says a Wi-Fi model of the tablet is coming in May. The company has not disclosed pricing for either model.
Unlike Apple, which focuses marketing efforts on one device at a time, Samsung launches multiple products at once and markets them to different target audiences. Its Note line of stylus-enabled tablets is targeted at people who want to bring their own devices to work and then take them home for personal use. The Galaxy Tab devices are marketed more as entertainment, web surfing and communication tools.
The Tab 3 may be the first of several new Samsung tablets coming this year. According to sammobile.com, a website devoted to news about Samsung, the company has four more tablets in the works, including a Nexus 11 tablet to be launched with Google. The report says the Nexus 11 would feature an 11-inch thin-film transistor display, and would be the world’s first tablet powered by an octa-core processor. The Galaxy S4 smartphone uses an octa-core processor, which preserves battery life by using four cores for video and four for less demanding tasks like processing text.
A 1.2GHz dual-core processor powers the Galaxy Tab 3. It runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and has a 3 megapixel camera on the rear and a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. The tablet supports 1080p full HD video at 30 frames per second. It has a 4,000 mAh battery and comes with 8GB or 16GB of internal memory, plus 1GB of RAM. On board apps include Google Maps and Google Now. (Google Now is a predictive search engine that responds to voice. Despite its similarity to Siri, Apple this week launched a version of Google Now in its app store.)
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