Samsung launches affordable Galaxy Tab 2 with 7-inch screen, Ice Cream Sandwich and AllShare Play service
Galaxy for the masses
Samsung today announced the Galaxy Tab 2, which is "the first addition to its 2012 tablet line up", according to the release put out by the South Korean manufacturer.
Shipping with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4), the 7-inch tablet is slightly bigger and thinner than the original Galaxy Tab, but there isn't much in it. The new model measures 193.7x122.4x10.5mm compared to the old model at 190.1x120.5x12mm, while the new model is 36 grams lighter at 344g.
Affordability is likely the primary objective here, due to newer tablets with the same sized screen moving towards a higher pixel resolution, as well as more powerful processing power.
Powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM that's backed up with a 4000mAh battery, the Galaxy Tab 2 will also benefit greatly from Google's latest operating system, which offers many improvements over Honeycomb.
This will be further enhanced by Samsung's own customisations as part of the TouchWiz user interface loaded on top.
Other new features include the first appearance of Samsung's new AllShare Play service, which allows users to stream content from PCs, other Samsung smart devices, and third-party cloud services. There's also a new Video Hub, offering over 1,000 films to buy or rent, that accompanies the many other hubs for music, e-books and games.
Starry-eyedThe Galaxy Tab 2 will be available in Wi-Fi only and 3G models, with the latter supporting HSPA+ for download speeds of up to 21Mbps. Storage options include 8, 16 and 32GB, plus a memory card slot for up to 32GB more. Pricing and availability is to be confirmed.
We'll likely see the Tab 2, plus a number of new tablets (and of course smartphones) from Samsung, at Mobile World Congress, which kicks off at the end of February.
