We’ve heard rumors of a Galaxy Tab 3 Lite recently, and now we are getting some rumors about its specs, too, although they’re nothing to write home about, unless this tablet will cost something like $99, which given Samsung’s recent chase after increased profits, seems very unlikely.
The Galaxy Tab 3 Lite tablet will come with a Cortex A9 processor (possibly quad-core, although dual-core is also very likely), running at 1.2 Ghz per core, and a 1024×600 resolution display. The specs so far look much like the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, but it’s supposed to cost about 20 percent less. So it seems Samsung is merely repackaging an old tablet under a new name, and reducing its price by 20 percent, which is actually less of a discount than what one year old (by the time the new one launches) devices are supposed to get (prices drop by about 30 percent per year). Samsung is looking to actually make more profit on this repackaged version than on the original one.
Since Galaxy S4 sales didn’t go as well as they thought they would this year, which could also be a reason for why they might want to launch the Galaxy S5 earlier next year, Samsung seems to be looking for more and more excuses for how to increase the profit on their devices. The ironic thing is that this strategy is also pretty unlikely to succeed. Other than some initial boost in sales for being presented as a “new” product, I doubt it will do very well, since Samsung will need to create whole new marketing campaigns for it to educate people about what a “Galaxy Tab 3 Lite” actually is.
I think we’re going to see decent Android tablets being sold for $99 within a year or a year and a half, but at the same time I still expect to see at least an HD resolution on these tablets, considering even the Moto G with its 4.7″ screen can have that resolution, but these 7″ tablets still aren’t taking advantage of it. The HD resolution should be the minimum resolution for tablets, even more so than for phones, because the screens are much larger, so the pixel density is much lower.
If this Galaxy Tab 3 Lite would’ve had at least an HD screen, I think it would’ve been a much nicer offer at $135 (in spring 2014, which is around the time Asus is going to release their next-gen inexpensive tablets, too, which should actually have an HD resolution).