We may be about to experience the “phablet” effect, but this time in tablets, rather than phones. According to new leaks, Samsung is going to unveil not one, but two 12.2″ tablets with a 2560×1600 resolution. For people who thought that 10.1″ tablets are a little too crammed, especially if you want to use them with a keyboard accessory and as some sort of a hybrid laptop, this should be very exciting news. One of the tablets is supposedly a Galaxy Note Pro, which means it will have a Samsung S-Pen, and allow artists and designers to express themselves on a larger canvas.
The difference between the tablets should be about the same as it has always been between Samsung’s Note tablets and regular tablets. The Note tablets will feature an S-pen, have a suite of S-pen optimized apps and user interface elements, while also costing a little more. The regular tablet should cost less, and come without any of the S-pen apps.
I’m sure these tablets aren’t for everyone. In fact most people will probably prefer an 8″ tablet these days, because most of what they do involves reading ebooks (for which 8″ is just about optimal screen real estate/weight/size wise), browsing the web, playing some games and watching a movie in bed. For all of that, 8″ seems the right size.
However, if you want to use your tablet for doing some work, too, and to pair it with a keyboard case/accessory, then you should be better off with a 12.2″ tablet even more so than with a 10.1″ one. I know from the netbook days that 10″ screens and similar sized keyboards felt too crammed, and the screen isn’t that big for work either. A size like 12.2″ seems more appropriate for that. If you’re an artist or a student, you might also prefer the larger screen for easier drawing, note-taking, or writing equations on it.
Samsung is already a dominant tablet maker, but it’s smart of them to keep exploring different tablet sizes, just like they did with smartphones (and won “big” with phones like Galaxy Note and Galaxy Mega for mid-range). These two new tablets might not be part of the series of tablets that Samsung has prepared for CES 2014, but they may be announced at MWC or sometime this spring.