Samsung’s 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab A hasn’t been on the market for long but the South Korean tech giant decided it’s already time for a refresh. More specifically, Samsung finally confirmed numerous rumors and officially announced a new edition of its 10.1-inch tablet which will come bundled with an S Pen and also feature slightly beefier specs. The version that was announced is actually better than initial reports had previously suggested as Samsung revealed that its latest tablet will be powered by 3GB of RAM instead of 2GB.
Other than that, the remaining Galaxy Tab A specs aren’t that surprising but this still seems like a solid tablet. The device boasts a 10.1-inch display with a resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels, is powered by Samsung’s very own Exynos 7870 system-on-chip, and features 16GB of internal storage in addition to a microSD card slot. The tablet is powered by a powerful 7,300 mAh battery which allegedly allows for up to 13 hours of video playback time. While it ships with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, it’s expected that Samsung will be upgrading this device to Android 7.0 Nougat in the near future. One minor difference between the upcoming edition of the Galaxy Tab A and the one that was announced back in May is the weight. While the original weighed 525 grams, this refresh is slightly heavier at 553 grams. Last but not least, the new iteration of this mid-range tablet also ships with a pre-installed Samsung Notes app which originally debuted on the Galaxy Note 7. This is significant because Samsung Notes boasts full S Pen support.
The refreshed version of Samsung Galaxy Tab A is hitting the US market on Friday, October 28th, and will retail for $349.99. Just like its predecessor, the tablet will be available in Black and White colors. While more skeptical observers will say that Samsung is now bundling its S Pen stylus due to the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco which resulted in millions of styluses left without a purpose, that probably isn’t the case given how we’ve been hearing rumors of this bundle as early as August. All in all, while the Galaxy Tab A isn’t a world-beater, it’s a solid option for anyone who’s on the lookout for an affordable, general purpose tablet.