Rumors about Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S7, may be all over the internet, but handsets are not the only Android devices that Samsung manufactures. The company is one of the largest vendors of Android-powered tablets as well, and while its Galaxy Tab S lineup of devices happens to be the flagship range, the Tab E range represents a comparatively more pocket-friendly lineup of devices from the company that was first introduced last year. While rumors about the 2016 edition of Samsung’s upcoming mid-range tablet have done the rounds of the internet for the past couple of months, the devices have not been made official thus far by the South Korean consumer electronics company. Now, however, an 8-inch tablet, dubbed the Galaxy Tab E 8.0, seems to have been listed in Taiwan, meaning Samsung’s latest mid-range tablet is finally ready for primetime.
We had already read last month about the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certifying an 8-inch Samsung tablet with the model number SM-T377V. While there’s no word as to whether this tablet now listed in Taiwan is that very device in some form or another, it could very well be the case. As for the tablet itself, it features an 8-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) TFT display, and is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor of unspecified make. Some reports, however, seem to be speculating that the SoC might be Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 410, but there’s no official confirmation about that at this stage. The Tab E 8.0 also comes with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage with support for a microSD card of up to 128 GB in capacity. The device carries a 5,000 mAh battery, and is pre-loaded with Android 5.0.1 Lollipop with Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz interface laid on top.
As for the cameras, the tablet sports a 5-megapixel shooter on the rear and a 2-megapixel unit on the front for selfies and video calls. The Taiwanese version of the tablet comes with 4G LTE connectivity (FDD-LTE 700/900/1800/2600MHz, TDD-LTE 2600MHz), along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS/A, GLONASS and a MicroUSB 2.0 port for charging and data syncing. The tablet also comes with a lot of Microsoft integration, seeing as it has pre-loaded MS Office for Android, and there’s also 100 GB of cloud storage from Microsoft OneDrive that is being offered by Samsung to everybody who buys the device. Coming to the pricing, the Galaxy Tab E 8.0 is listed at NT$8,990 ($268), and is expected to be made available for purchase in the country by the end of this month.