The tablet market maybe shrinking rapidly, but vendors continue to bring new products to the market in hopes of a turnaround sooner rather than later. Samsung is the largest vendor of Android tablets in the world, and new images of an upcoming tablet from the company has now been leaked online. The device is expected to come with the new and improved S Pen, and if latest rumors are anything to go by, it should only be a matter of time before Samsung makes it official. According to reports, the upcoming Samsung slate will be a new version of the mid-range Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016) that was released earlier this year. The upcoming tablet promises to be a reworked version of basically the same device with the S Pen stylus in tow.
While the hardware specs of the device in question are yet to be revealed fully, reports indicate that it is likely to ship with almost identical hardware to that of the Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016). If that indeed turns out to be the case, expect the upcoming tablet to be powered by the Exynos 7870 chip that comes with an integrated 1.6GHz octa-core CPU. The device, in that case, should also have 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a 7,300 mAh battery. There should also be an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing cam for selfies and video chats. It isn’t immediately known, however, whether the upcoming tablet will come with Android Marshmallow or Android Nougat pre-installed.
As mentioned already, if the rumors do hold up, the only change we’re likely to see in the upcoming tablet is in the form of the S Pen stylus, which will apparently come with the same enhanced functionalities as the one that’s been shipping with the all-new Galaxy Note 7. That includes new Air Command shortcuts, such as Translate, Glance and Magnify. The number of shortcuts have been increased to six instead of five, and a number of shortcuts from the Note 5 have been gotten rid of. The only two options that have survived the chop includes Smart Select and Smart Write. The S Pen stylus can also be used for the Screen-Off Memo feature, which allows users to take notes on the device even with the screen switched off. There’s no word at the moment about the ETA or the price of the upcoming tablet, but it shouldn’t be too long now before Samsung makes it official.
