Samsung has announced the new Galaxy Tab S6, bringing a range of new features to its leading productivity tablet.
There are big changes to the S Pen on the Tab S6, with a range of new gestures supported and called S Pen Air actions, thanks to its Bluetooth connection to the tablet.Samsungsays that you’ll be able to control video and photo functions while the tablet is not in your hands.
The S Pen will also charge wirelessly, giving you 10 hours of use from a single charge, connecting magnetically to the rear of the tablet to inductively charge.
The Galaxy Tab S6 itself has a 10.5-inch 2560 x 1600 pixel AMOLED display which sounds a lot like previous versions of this tablet and again has Dolby Atmos and AKG-tuned quad speakers, so it should be great for immersive entertainment. A new addition is an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner in the display for ease of unlocking, just likeSamsung’s phones.
There’s still a leaning towards productivity, with the S Pen able to work with Samsung Notes to convert handwriting into text automatically - with support for Microsoft Word as an export format. There’s also support for Samsung DeX as we’ve seen previously on such devices, meaning you can convert this into a desktop-like working environment, with apps in windows for added convenience.
We’ve found DeX to be apowerful tool previously, great for those wanting to side-step some of the limitations of Android Pie as a working environment.
Around the rear there’s a dual camera arrangement, with an ultra-wide lens for the first time. Whether you’ll use it or not is a different matter.
Samsung says you’ll get 15 hours of video playback from the 7040mAh battery, while the whole thing is powered by a 7nm octo-core processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 - although Samsung says there may be some regional variation here. There are options for 6/8GB RAM and 128/256GB storage with support for microSD storage expansion, as well as an LTE option.
It’s said to cost $649 in the US and the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 is going to be available in late August. The keyboard cover will be sold separately.
