Samsung today announced launch dates and prices for its Galaxy Tab 3
line of tablets, including the first Intel-powered Android tablet
available in the United States.
The Intel tablet, which is the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch, will start at
$399. The smaller, 8-inch Galaxy Tab 3, which will use a Samsung
Exynos processor, will start at $299, while the budget, 7-inch Galaxy
Tab 3 with a Marvell processor will cost $199.
All three tablets will go on pre-sale on June 25 with actual sales
starting July 7, Samsung said. The models sold in the U.S. will be
Wi-Fi-only, with no cellular capability.
The Galaxy Tab 3s, which were announced globally between April 29 and
June 3, take many styling cues from the Galaxy S 4 smartphones. The
7-inch and 8-inch models, especially, look like expanded Galaxy S 4
devices. They all come in white or gold-brown, with a physical home
button below the screen, just like the Galaxy S 4 has.
The specs here vary a lot. The 7-inch, $199 model has a 1.2-GHz
dual-core Marvell processor, a 1,024-by-600 screen and Android 4.1.
There's a 3-megapixel camera on the back and a 1.3-megapixel camera on
the front. The device comes with only 8GB of storage, although there's
also a memory card slot. This is a basic tablet that competes with
gadgets like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the Kobo Arc. Its screen is
lower-resolution than either of those, but Samsung throws in some
exclusive content and features, such as three months of Hulu Plus and
two years of a 50GB Dropbox account.
Still, though, Samsung will have to rely on its name and build quality
to fend off lower-priced competitors like the Asus Memo Pad HD 7 and
Coby MID7065.
The 8-inch model steps up to Android 4.2 and uses a more mainstream
1.5-GHz Samsung Exynos dual-core processor. This unit has a
1,280-by-800 screen, a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel
front camera, along with 16GB of storage (of which only 11.26GB is
available, Samsung points out.) It's also only 7.4mm thick. At $299,
it's competing with Apple's $329 iPad mini and Amazon's $269 Kindle
Fire HD 8.9 (as well as some upcoming Toshiba tablets), offering a
more standard Android alternative.
It's the 10.1-inch tablet I'm most intrigued by, because of that Intel
processor. The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 uses a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom Z2560
"Clover Trail+" processor, and it'll be the first Intel Android device
released in the U.S. While we've seen Intel-based smartphones appear
in other countries, none of them have come here because of Intel's
lack of LTE support; with this Wi-Fi-only tablet, that isn't a
problem.
According to Intel, its processor will offer battery life advantages
over competing choices, while maintaining fast performance and
application compatibility. We'll have to see. The Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is
only 7.9mm thick and packs a relatively healthy 6,800mAh battery, and
battery consumption will also be kept down by using a somewhat
disappointly low-res 1,280-by-800 screen.
Other stats include a 3-megapixel main camera, 1.3-megapixel front
camera, Android 4.2, 16GB of memory and a memory card slot.
Other than the Intel play, I'm a little underwhelmed here. At a $399
price point, it's obvious that the Tab 3 10.1 isn't going up against
flagships like the Asus Transformer Infinity or the latest iPad, but
I'm also concerned about the upcoming Asus Memo Pad FHD 10, which has
the same Intel chip and a higher-resolution screen at a potentially
lower price.
Samsung is doing its best to enhance the Galaxy Tab 3 experience with
exclusive software, of course. All the Tabs will have an IR blaster
with Samsung's WatchOn software, which functions as both a live TV
guide and a way to search streaming shows. They'll also support Group
Play, which lets several Samsung devices act as multiple speakers for
the same music or videos, as well as Wi-Fi Direct file transfer. (They
won't support S Beam, as they lack NFC.) A Samsung Apps showcase will
foreground apps designed for the tablets, which is especially
important on the 10.1-inch device because many Google Play apps aren't
optimized for that screen size.
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