New Samsung Tablet Image Leaked

A new Android tablet from Samsung has leaked onto the Internet, and it shows that the competition for the dwindling tablet market is still happening. The image appeared on the @onleaks Twitter account on Sunday, with the label that it’s Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2, with a measured display of 9.7 inches.

Another tweet from the France-based leaker says that the new tablet was inspired by the Galaxy S6 smartphone, which is currently the device that seems poised to help the company reclaim its title as a top mobile maker. The image—if it’s the real deal—seems to reinforce that, with its metal body to give it a premium feel and look.

Interestingly, the tablet space is heating up, but not in the Android realm. Microsoft’s recent announcement of the Surface 3 is, for all intents and purposes, a full Windows PC despite its underwhelming processor. Because Windows 10 will run on PCs, tablets, and phones, it’s likely that the Surface 3 (which is priced like an iPad) will make a big splash this year among folks looking to get a lot of bang for not a lot of buck.

Apple, meanwhile, is rumored to have an iPad Pro in the works—an interesting inversion of Microsoft’s tablet-like Surface 3. The iPad Pro, from what we’ve heard, will inch closer to Macbook territory in terms of performance and size, but it’ll still retain the iPad’s guts and iOS-based identity. And that’s even more interesting in light of the new Macbook’s tablet-like processor…

All of this is to say: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 is going to have its work cut out for it if it wants to compete with the high performance, (relatively) low cost tablet offerings. Presumably, the device that’s in the image runs Android. Since Samsung provides multi-window multitasking on its smartphones, chances are good it’ll bring that feature to its tablet, too. Even still, the onus is on Samsung to add in some must-have features to help it stand out in what’s becoming a more impressive tablet crowd.

[Sources: @onleaks, 9to5Google]