With reference to the upcoming Galaxy S8 at this year's Mobile Wold Congress limited to a March 29 launch date confirmation, Samsung chose to put the focus on two new tablets, the Android-powered Galaxy Tab S3 and the Galaxy Book, which runs Windows 10.

Aiming to compete with the iPad Pro, the Tab S3 comes with a 9.7-inch HDR-ready Super AMOLED display running at 2,048 x 1,536 resolution. On the back is a 13 megapixel camera, while a 5 megapixel camera sits on the front, where a fingerprint sensor lives on the home button.

samsung tab s3 thumb
The new metal and glass-backed design is 6mm thick, and houses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (expandable up to 256GB with a microSD), built-in LTE, and a 6,000 mAh battery with Fast Charging support using the USB-C port. A new Note7-like S Pen stylus is also included.

The Galaxy Book was Samsung's other big announcement at MWC. The hybrid tablet-laptop, positioned as a Surface Pro competitor, comes in 10.6-inch and 12-inch versions, with 1,920 x 1,280 and 2,160 x 1,440 resolutions, respectively.

samsung galaxy book official render 1
The 10.6-inch size features a 2.6GHz Intel Core m3 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM, up to 128GB of storage, and has a 5 megapixel front-facing camera. The 12-inch Galaxy Book has a 3.1GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage, with a 13 megapixel camera on the back and a 5 megapixel one on the front.

Samsung has not yet announced any pricing information for the Tab S3 and Galaxy Book. Meanwhile, Apple is expected to launch new 12.9-inch iPads and a new flagship 10.5-inch model in March. The latter is said to have an edge-to-edge display on the same footprint as the current 9.7-inch iPad.

Top Rated Comments

Gorms Avatar
106 months ago
Huh, they've switched from 16:9 to 4:3 ratio to match the iPad. When did they start doing that? Good for them, 16:9 suuuuucks for tablets.

Apart from that, the Book shows how close Apple are to having the iPad be this mythical computer replacement as soon as they make the few productivity tweaks that it requires.

Did anyone see Steve Troughton Smith's Finder app demos on iPad over the weekend? Interesting to see a version of Finder app on iPad (also, seeing Finder using UIKit).
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KieranDotW Avatar
106 months ago
Apart from that, the Book shows how close Apple are to having the iPad be this mythical computer replacement as soon as they make the few productivity tweaks that it requires.
The difference is the Galaxy Book, like the Surface it competes against, runs Windows. No one wants a "laptop replacement" running a mobile OS.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KohPhiPhi Avatar
106 months ago
The difference is the Galaxy Book, like the Surface it competes against, runs Windows. No one wants a "laptop replacement" running a mobile OS.
I agree. If becoming a true "laptop replacement" is the actual goal as is has been touted by Apple's marketing machinery, then vainilla iOS simply is not enough.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
maflynn Avatar
106 months ago
With phone footprints on the increase the phablet market will merge at some point
I'd also say the high costs of phones is another factor, spending nearly a 1,000 dollars for a phone that does everything a tablet does, means there's less justification to a tablet imo.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Menneisyys2 Avatar
106 months ago
So this is off topic, but real quick, what eGPU solution are you using with your MBP?
Node + RX 480.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Dave245 Avatar
106 months ago
The global market for tablets is in decline, I'm not sure what I see will start to turn things around
I think the problem is that people don't upgrade their tablets as often, most iPad users keep them for years, my dad has my old iPad 3 and my mum has my iPad Air 2 (which i gave her when i upgraded to the iPad Pro).
I love Apple products and i hope they give me a reason to upgrade to the iPad Pro 2, i think that's what these companies need to do, give us a reason to upgrade, other than the usual processor updates.
[doublepost=1488196122][/doublepost]
The difference is the Galaxy Book, like the Surface it competes against, runs Windows. No one wants a "laptop replacement" running a mobile OS.
But this is the debate that's been going on with people for a few years now. Personally i think Apple need to add a few new features and keep tweaking it more towards Pro aspect, but i don't think that a full desktop OS is the answer. I'm against touchscreen Mac's and hybrid tablets, Apple has said the same thing over and over again, so don't expect them to suddenly make a hybrid.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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