Samsung Galaxy Tab A Specs, Features: $350 Tablet To Release With Android 6.0 Marshmallow In Time For Halloween

Samsung is still suffering the repercussions of the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, but nothing is stopping the South Korea tech giant from releasing its Galaxy Tab A in the United States in time for Halloween. Apple’s biggest rival is reportedly releasing its new tablet in the country this Friday, Oct. 28.

According to Engadget, Samsung is diverting the attention of the American market to its new tablet that comes with its famous S Pen stylus. In addition, compared to last year’s model, the Galaxy Tab A is packing a slightly larger display with higher definition.

The upcoming tablet has a 10.1-inch WUXGA display with 1920 x 1200 screen resolution. The big screen should complement the S Pen, which comes with support for writing, drawing and animating GIFs. There are also apps that would make the most of the S Pen and large screen combo, such as Samsung Notes that combines the functionality of Scrapbook, S Note and Action Memo in one place.

As per CNET, the Galaxy Tab A is powered by an Octa-core Exynos 7870 processor. It is also expected to house 3GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard memory. It is expected to come with a microSD card slot that can accommodate up to 256GB of expanded storage. Given its specs, the new tab is not as high-specced as the Galaxy Tab S2 or the Windows-running Galaxy TabPro S.

The Galaxy Tab A is reportedly arriving with a 7,300mAh battery that per Samsung is enough to fuel the device for up to 13 hours of video playback. Moreover, the device is coming in two color variants: black and white.

In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy Tab A has standard WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth 4.2 LE and USB 2.0. The device that is launching this week is a WiFi version only and there is no word yet if an LTE version is going to be available.

Finally, the Galaxy Tab A that is expected to retail for $349.99 is going to ship with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and not Android 7.0 Nougat. For consumers who want the latest Android OS, there is still no confirmation that the device is getting the Nougat treatment in the near future. However, the Verge is hoping that a Nougat update is in the cards for the new tablet.