Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 announced: what you need to know

Major smartphone announcements like the LG G6 and HUAWEI P10 series are obviously the main talk of MWC right now, but let’s not forget there are plenty of cool mobile devices out there that go beyond just the phone. While its not quite as exciting as a Galaxy S8 announcement would be, here at MWC 2017 Samsung has taken the wraps off its long overdo Samsung Galaxy Tab S3.

So what’s new with the Galaxy Tab S series? Let’s jump right in and take a look.

On the design front, the new Galaxy Tab S3 looks and feels very much like a Samsung tablet. There’s the iconic physical keys up front with a built-in fingerprint scanner, as well as a glass-and-metal design, which is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Samsung in recent times. It’s worth noting that, in a break from the Tab series’ past, the S3 is only offered in one size at 9.7-inches. Considering the smaller tablet market has arguably been mostly absorbed by larger screen phones, we can’t say that we find this too surprising.

One curious decision with the Galaxy Tab S3 is the addition of an S Pen. In the past this has been reserved exclusively for Note devices, though Samsung recently changed things up by introducing pen support to its latest Chromebook. The Pen here does not have a built-in holster, however. It does offer 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and therefore it should be every bit as good as you’d find with a typical Note product.

As far as the software is concerned, it is worth mentioning that the Tab S3 is running Android 7.0 Nougat. Of course Samsung adds plenty of extras that help make its feature set that makes it geared towards productivity conscious users.

Turning to the specs, the Tab S3 packs a ton of power thanks to its Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor, backed by 4GB RAM. While a Snapdragon 821 would have been a nice touch, the actual differences between these two chips are honestly pretty negligible. Other core specs include a 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 AMOLED display, a 13MP main cam, 5MP front cam, 32GB storage, microSD support (up to 256GB), and a 6000 mAh battery with fast charging.

If you’re looking for a high-end tablet that also is great for drawing, note taking, and other creative pursuits, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is shaping up to be a pretty decent looking choice. Unfortunately we don’t have any real specifics when it comes to pricing or release at the moment, but we’ll be sure to update this page as soon as we learn more. Given past pricing, we think at $4oo to $550 asking price probably sounds about right, but again, that’s just a semi-educated guess at best.

What do you think of the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S3? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.