Think the iPad Air 2 is thin? Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S2 tablets are just 5.6mm thick

By Andy Boxall July 20, 2015

Samsung doesn’t think tablets need to be thick and heavy, so it has produced the Galaxy Tab S2 range, two new Android tablets that measure only 5.6mm thick. One has a 9.7-inch screen and the other an 8-inch display, and they weigh 389 grams and 265 grams respectively. For comparison, the iPad Air 2 weighs 437 grams and measures 6.1mm thick.

Just because they’re thin and light, doesn’t mean they’re made of low quality plastic — these have metal frames. There is a hardware home button below the display, which also houses a fingerprint sensor. Regardless of the screen size you choose, the resolution is 2048 x 1536 and the panel is Super AMOLED, which Samsung says will “deliver 94-percent of natural skin tones to show true-to-life colors.” It also says the screen is optimized for reading books and magazines.

Both tablets use an octa-core Exynos processor — a combo package of a 1.9GHz quad-core chip and a second, 1.3GHz quad-core chip — and have 3GB of RAM each, plus there’s 32GB of internal storage space, and a MicroSD card slot for adding another 128GB. There’s a Wi-Fi version, plus the option of choosing a Tab S2 with an LTE modem inside. Even the camera setup is the same, with an 8-megapixel camera on the rear, and a 2.1-megapixel video call camera on the front.

The main difference is found not just in the screen size, but also in the battery. The bigger 9.7-inch Tab S2 has a 5870mAh cell, while the 8-inch version has a 4000mAh battery. Samsung hasn’t quoted standby times, but they may not vary drastically, as the differing power requirements of those two screen sizes may even things out. Finally, Android 5.0 is installed, along with various tweaks including split-screen multi-tasking, a pop-up app window, and Microsoft’s OneDrive and Office Solutions packages.

Samsung will release the Galaxy Tab S2 tablets globally starting in August, and will also sell accessories including a cover with a built-in keyboard and trackpad. However, the prices and exact launch dates haven’t been confirmed.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Senior Mobile Writer

Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

Mobile

Apple’s new iPad Pro now has the same M2 chip as the latest MacBook Pro

The M2 iPad Pro.

The 2022 iPad Pro has finally been announced and, after months of speculation, seems to be a solid step up from last year's version thanks to the M2 chipset that it boasts — the same found in the redesigned MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The shared DNA between the 2022 iPad Pro and MacBook Pro makes a lot of sense following Apple's announcement earlier this year that iPadOS 16 would push to make the line between Apple tablets and laptops thinner than ever before.

To achieve this, the 2022 iPad Pro comes with the highly anticipated OS upgrade installed right out of the box. While there are still plenty of differences between iPadOS and MacOS, the new Stage Manager app is meant to make multitasking on iPads just as simple as on MacBooks. With the M2 SoC (system on chip), switching between tasks and apps should feel smoother than on previous iPad generations. That said, Stage Manager will run on older iPads despite their lack of the M2 chipset, Apple has announced.

Mobile

The Galaxy Tab S8 has renewed my faith in Android tablets

A Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is held up on top of a desk.

Three weeks ago, I shut down my trusty Microsoft Surface 2-in-1 to embark on a daring experiment – using an Android tablet as my primary computing device. More specifically, I mean using the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 as my sole work machine. It might sound outlandish, but to my surprise, I came out with a mostly positive experience.

Yes, there were a few frustrations, but the Galaxy Tab S8 gave me numerous reasons to believe that Android tablets are not the lost cause that many out there think. The Android tablet experience is surprisingly strong in 2022, and I hope things continue to improve in the years to come. Here's how and why I stuck with the Galaxy Tab S8 for weeks without losing my sanity.
Where the Galaxy Tab S8 shines

Mobile

The 5 Galaxy Tab S8 productivity features I can’t live without

A Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 is held up on top of a desk.

Android tablets receive a lot of flak — less for their hardware and more due to the half-baked software that Google keeps paying attention to on and off. Over the years, Samsung has tried to get an edge in the Android tablet game via a handful of features offered by its in-house One UI skin on its Galaxy Tab tablets. The Galaxy Tab S8 is Samsung’s latest attempt to take on the mighty iPad.

It would be futile here to argue how iPadOS 16 has again widened the gulf between the tablet experience you get on an Android device versus an iPad. But that doesn’t mean Android tablets are a lost cause. On the contrary, the Galaxy Tab S8 offers a handful of neat features that transform it into a productivity powerhouse. Here are a few that I find to be particularly intuitive and rewarding.
The mighty Edge Panel
The Edge Panel is one of the best features on Samsung phones, but it truly shines with the extended screen real estate provided by a tablet. Android doesn’t offer an app dock at the bottom the way iPads do, but the Edge Panel more than makes up for it. With a single swipe, you can pull up a list of your most frequently used apps neatly arranged in a vertical bar. But that’s only half the picture.