Samsung continues to be one of the only companies cranking out premium Android tablets year after year… and 2019 is no different. The company has just unveiled a new tablet with a 10.5 inch, 2560 x 1600 pixel AMOLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor, and a starting price of $400 for a model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
It’s called the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e, and it should be available in the US, Germany and other select markets starting in the second quarter of 2019.
Update: Samsung says the Galaxy Tab S5e will be available starting Aprils 6th.
Measuring just 5.5mm (0.22 inches) thick, the Galaxy Tab S5e is Samsung’s thinnest Android tablet to date. But it still has a reasonably large battery: Samsung says you should get up to 14.5 hours of run time from the tablet’s 7,040 mAh battery.
The tablet also supports fast charging, so it won’t take long to top up the battery when it does come time to recharge.
The Galaxy Tab S5e weighs 400 grams (14.1 ounces) and measures 245mm x 160mm x 5.5mm (9.6″ x 6.3″ x 0.22″) and has a screen-to-body ratio of 81.8 percent which isn’t particularly remarkable by modern smartphone standards, but which is pretty decent for a tablet.
Other features include quad speakers with Dolby Atmos audio support, a 13MP rear camera and 8MP front camera, a USB 3.1 Type-C port and Pogo pins for connection optional covers, keyboards, or docks.
The tablet supports 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0, has a fingerprint sensor, and a microSD card reader.
Samsung will offer at least two configurations, one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage another with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Both are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 670 chip, which is an octa-core processor with two 2.0 GHz CPU cores and six 1.7 GHz cores.
The tablet will ship with Android 9.0 Pie software.
While $400 would probably be a decent price for a smartphone with those specs, that’s still kind of a lot of money for an Android tablet. Samsung and Huawei are pretty much the only companies continuing to offer Android tablets that sell for more than $300.
Sure, these tablets have better displays, faster processors, and other premium features to help set them apart from budget devices like Amazon’s Fire tablet lineup or the latest entry-level devices from companies like Lenovo or Acer. But if you’re looking to spend $400 on a tablet, you could also be looking at an Apple iPad or Microsoft Surface Go.
One thing Samsung’s tablets do have going for them are support for the company’s DeX software that gives Android a desktop-style user interface when you connect a keyboard. But that keyboard is sold separately, so you’ll need to factor in the extra cost when considering whether you’d rather use a desktop-like version of Android… or a full-fledged desktop operating system like Windows (which is what you’d get if you opted for a Surface Go).
“premium Android tablets”
“a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor”
🤔
Thats fairly typical of tablets. A $400 tablet will never have the same SOC as a $1000 smartphone.
The problem with Android is updates. And for all the features Samsung puts into these tabs long term updates have never been a thing for them. I’d like a larger screen than this personally. 12″+, please. However even with all the current software issues still being worked out I’d probably be interested in this IF it came running Chrome OS rather than Android.
Give me this in a 12.something inch screen with garaged stylus and 8GB RAM – running Chrome OS – and I’d happily pay a bit more. A dock which used the pogo pins for charging and a handful of typical outputs and I’d pay for that too.
I agree. Samsung should be working on these kinds of products running Chrome OS.
I agree, I bought several cheap Android tablets and each went worse after an update. Then I bit and bought an iPad Pro 9.7 with 128GB and it is providing excellent value. I dont ask for much, silky smooth UI interactions without lag. Read a book without it lagging on the page turns. And stutter free video from say Netflix.Has held up to all the above while still receiving updates and staying rock steady.
Kindle Fire tablets get updates for at least a couple of years and more importantly the updates don’t seem to impair the device. The 10 is much better than the cheaper ones.
Too late. I was looking for a 10″ Android tablet that was considerably better than the Amazon Fire tablets. There was very little to choose from. I ended up going with the Huawei M5. It is a very nice tablet but I would have at least liked to compare it to the Samsung.