Samsung Galaxy Tab S2: 5 Things Buyers Should Know

Numerous leaks over the summer have shown that Samsung is working on several new high-end Android tablets to surpass Apple’s iPad lineup, and today they were officially announced. Samsung this morning clarified Two new “class-leading” Galaxy Tab S2 tablets that are ultra thin and light, targeting the iPad and iPad Mini directly.

Over the last month we’ve seen a few different leaks making fun of these tablets, but today they went official and we now have all the details. Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S2 is thinner, lighter, more powerful, has an enhanced fingerprint scanner like the Galaxy S6 and promises to deliver the best Android tablet experience ever.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab lineup can be a bit confusing with all the different options, names and sizes, but the company’s latest Galaxy Tab S2 looks like the best Android tablet released so far in all of 2015 and is coming early next month. Below is everything buyers need to know.

In June of last year, Samsung introduced the all-new Samsung Galaxy Tab S, a premium Android tablet with high-end features that the company hopes can rival the Nexus 7, iPad and everything else in the competition. The 8.4-inch Galaxy Tab S was our favorite tablet to date, and now two more tablets are coming soon that are definitely worth considering.

In 2015, Samsung’s brand new Galaxy Tab S2 takes a completely different approach to Android tablets. Just like the iPad and Google’s new Nexus 9, these tablets no longer have a tall, thin design known as the 16:9 aspect ratio, and instead aren’t as tall as the iPad and are instead slightly wider. Now that both tabs have been announced, here’s everything you need to know.

Galaxy Tab S2 Design

The new Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 is significantly different from Samsung’s previous tablets, and this is due to the demand to change things up, not to mention following Google’s lead. They’ve ditched the tall and thin 16:9 aspect ratio, which is only good for watching videos, and switched these new tablets to the 4:3 aspect ratio, which isn’t as tall as before and is slightly wider. This makes them similar to print media, perfect for web browsing, reading, and everything else.

As you can see from the image above, the shape looks more like Nexus 9 and iPad rather than traditional Android tablets. While users won’t have a lot of screen space to watch movies, everything else will benefit from the change.

That’s not all. Samsung claims the new Tab S2 has a class-leading design and is the thinnest and lightest tablet in this size category and class. These tablets are very thin, only 5.6 mm thin (i.e. 0.2 inches) and extremely light. Thinner, lighter and more powerful than the iPad Air or Mini.

Just like last year’s Galaxy Tab S, these new tablets come in Black or White plastic but are wrapped in a lightweight and durable aluminum frame that protects the edges. Along with the new design and completely redesigned powerful features, the Galaxy Tab S2 now uses the same accurate and easy-to-use fingerprint sensor on the home button found on the Galaxy S6 and upcoming Galaxy Note 5. The original S had a fingerprint. sensor, but it wasn’t very easy to use and wasn’t as good as Apple’s TouchID. It will run with Android M later this year and will be used for device unlocking, PayPal purchases, signing in to your Samsung account and much more for added security and peace of mind.

Galaxy Tab S2 Display

With the move to the shorter 4:3 aspect ratio, both of these tablets now have a slightly different screen size and resolution. They still have Samsung’s impressive S-AMOLED display and have lifelike colors, but have suffered a slight drop in resolution. They no longer have a 2560 x 1600 Quad-HD display, but still come with a 2048 x 1536 resolution.

The Galaxy Tab S2 comes in an iPad-like 9.7-inch size alongside an 8-inch variant. Last year they were 8.4 and 10.5 inches, respectively.

The slightly smaller screen, according to Samsung, will still offer true colors, crisp text and one of the best viewing experiences of any tablet on the market. Here’s what Samsung has to say.

The tablet also offers deeper contrast and finer details to provide a best-in-class reading experience, with a Super AMOLED display that delivers 94% natural tones to show lifelike colors (Adobe RGB color standard). Users can now enjoy vibrantly detailed photo galleries and effortlessly shop online while viewing the most accurate images on the Galaxy Tab S2.

In addition, Galaxy Tab S2 constantly offers advanced display technology to display bright and natural content for a more comfortable visual experience. The Adaptive Display intelligently adjusts gamma, saturation and sharpness based on the application, the color temperature of the viewing environment and the ambient lighting. Also, Reading Mode changes the brightness level of the screen to help users read content longer without straining their eyes.”

The screen is a little smaller and has some drop in resolution, but it will still remain one of the best displays available for Android users. I personally welcome change, but everyone has different wants or needs.

Galaxy Tab S2 Features

Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S2 comes with enough horsepower to make them one of the best tablets on the market and will compete with every other tablet available today. They have integrated the same powerful internal components as the Galaxy S6, which means users can expect smooth fast performance, excellent multitasking with multi-window mode, having two apps open at the same time, and much more. Here are the hard numbers for those wondering.

As you can see from the impressive list of details above, these new tablets are incredibly thin and only 5.6mm thick. They’re also the lightest tablets in any size category involved, as they’re lighter than the iPad Mini 3 and the new Air. That’s 265g for the 8-inch model and 389g for the 9.7-inch model.

Samsung has kept the same aluminum design, added a better fingerprint scanner and added the powerful 8-core Samsung Exynos processor.

Galaxy Tab S2 Price

Today, Samsung finally unveiled these tablets, which are expected to launch in June, just like last year, but there were no details about the price or release date with the announcement.

That said, last year Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S lineup matched the iPad Mini and iPad Air in terms of pricing, while offering more features aside from a micro SD slot to expand storage.

The WiFi Galaxy Tab S 8.40-inch was $399, and Samsung offered the 10.5-inch Tab S for $499. Same entry-level pricing as the iPad. We expect the same $399 and $499 price points for the WiFi models this year, but that only gets you 32GB of RAM instead of 16GB. Then the price should increase if buyers choose a 4G LTE model. However, carriers will likely bundle them into a new 2-year contract for $199, as AT&T and Verizon did last year.

Galaxy Tab S2 Release Date

In 2014, the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5-inch tablets were both announced in June and launched three weeks later in mid-July. Today, Samsung has confirmed that the new Galaxy Tab S2 will be available “around the world from August”, which means we can expect the same similar version.

Expect the brand new and improved Galaxy Tab S2 to go on sale in mid-August at the prices mentioned above, or even earlier. We’ll update as soon as Samsung announces official pricing and actual release dates.