2 February 2017 20:06
Samsung isn’t expected to use Mobile World Congress to launch its latest flagship smartphones, but that doesn’t mean the South Korean tech giant will be keeping quiet at the show.
In fact, it appears it will be doing quite the opposite with rumours speculating the company will unveil its latest iPad rival – the Galaxy Tab S3. Here is everything we know and have heard so far.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 was originally rumoured to launch at IFA 2016 but since nothing appeared, all eyes are now on Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona at the end of February.
Samsung has scheduled a press conference for Sunday 26 February and many reports suggest this is where the new iPad rival will debut. The show has been the platform for the company’s new flagship smartphones in recent years, but reports claim the S8 and S8 Plus will be unveiled at their own event in April instead this year leaving the stage clear for the Tab S3.
Samsung
There haven’t been any leaks surrounding the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3’s design as yet, but we’d expect it to follow in a similar path to its predecessor.
No doubt there will be some changes here and there, but expect a premium design with an all-metal body like the Apple iPad. The Galaxy Tab S2 featured lovely rounded corners, a slim build, rear camera lens in the centre at the top and a fingerprint sensor within the home button on the front of the device.
The invite for the Samsung’s MWC press conference seems to place an emphasis on the home button of a device, though it is not clear why at the moment. The Samsung Galaxy S8 is expected to lose the home button altogether, as well as slim down on the bezels surrounding the screen so hopefully the Tab S3 will take on board the latter even if it retains the home button.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is reported to be coming with a 9.7-inch display with a 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution. Sam Mobile has also claimed there will two versions of the device in terms of screen size, though it has not been detailed what size this will be.
The Galaxy Tab S2 offered a 9.7-inch display and an 8-inch display so the same is expected for the new device and we would also expect to see the Super AMOLED technology on board again.
According to a GFXBench report, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 will feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM. A Weibo report contradicts this however, suggesting the Tab S3 will feature Samsung’s own Exynos 7420 chipset, again with 4GB of RAM. Samsung used Exynos for the Tab S2 but it is not clear whether it will do the same for the new device.
The Weibo report also claims there will be Universal Flash Storage 2.0 on board the Galaxy Tab S3 for quicker file and app access, as well as a fingerprint scanner and USB Type-C. No rumours have indicated whether the 3.5mm headphone jack will remain but as the Galaxy S8 smartphone is expected to retain it, it is likely the tablet will do.
In terms of storage, rumours claim there will be 32GB internal memory on board the Tab S3 and there are also expected to be Wi-Fi and LTE versions of the device too.
The Tab S3 is also reported to be coming with a 12-megapixel rear camera, which will hopefully be the same as the camera offered on the S7 and S7 edge smartphones. This would provide great results for those wanting to take images with their tablet. Another report from Japanese news site Naver has also claimed the rear camera will be 12-megaixels, while the front camera is reported to be 5-megapixels.
According to the GFXBench report, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 will launch with Android 7.0 Nougat straight out of the box. The software will no doubt feature Samsung’s TouchWiz interface on top, and it will likely sport several new features compared to the Galaxy Tab S2.
What these features will be remains to be seen for now, but we’d expect the software to be more refined and some useful functions added.
Rumours are still a little thin on the ground in relation to what the Galaxy Tab S3 might look like, though we are starting to get a strong indication as to what hardware it might offer.
As with all succeeding devices, improvements in processing speed, battery life, design and performance are all expected so many of the rumoured specs don’t come as too much of a surprise.
Of course nothing is official as yet, but we expect to hear more rumours and see more leaks over the coming weeks. As always, we will update this feature as we do so keep checking back for the latest.
Posted by John_A
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