Samsung said they were going to tidy up their smartphone and tablet lineups this year, and if you live in the states, you’ve got two new tablets coming your way with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.9 and Galaxy Tab A 9.7. They won’t tear up the benchmark charts, but they also won’t break the bank.
The Galaxy Tab A lineup joins Samsung’s new naming game where the company aims to unify its product lines and make things simpler on the consumer. We’ve already seen the Galaxy J, Galaxy E, and Galaxy A series handsets, and now we’re getting two new slates with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7.
First up is the cheaper model, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 with its 8-inch 1,024 x 768 display. It has a quad-core 1.2GHz chip under the hood to go along with 1.5GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. The tablet has a 5MP/2MP dual camera combo, single speaker, and the 4,200mAh battery is rated at around 10-11 hours of usage. As for the OS, you’re looking at Android 5.0.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 has a large 9.7-inch display, but keeps the resolution, RAM, storage, and processor the same. Throw in a 5MP rear snapper, 2MP front-facing camera, dual speakers and a 6,000mAh battery, and you’ve just met the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7. There are LTE variants of both the 8-inch and 9.7-inch Galaxy Tab A with more storage and RAM, but we’ve yet to see US pricing on those models.
The Samsung Galaxy A series tablets are both up for pre-order from Samsung, and will hit the US on May 1st. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 is priced at $229, while the Galaxy Tab A 8.9 will set you back $299. A special edition of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.9 with an S-Pen will also be available for $349 on May 17.
What do you think about Samsung’s new tablets?