Samsung Unveils The Galaxy Tab S

With Samsung's introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S at an event in New York Thursday, partners say the company has delivered a product to rival the iPad Air.

’Samsung has been doing a really good job with their tablet lineup,’ said Glenn Pepo, CEO of 2k Networks, a Samsung partner based in Harrisburg, Pa. ’This new one is going to give the Apple iPad Air a run for its money.’

[Related: Samsung: Going With Tizen Over Android In New Samsung Z ]

Samsung's latest tablet is thinner, lighter and faster than anything else in the lineup of Galaxy Tabs.

The most eye-opening feature of the device is its Super AMOLED display. The Galaxy Tab S comes in two models, one with an 8.4-inch display and the other with a 10.5-inch display. But it's the tablet's 2,560 x 1,600 resolution with 288 ppi that has partners the most impressed.

’We’re excited about it. We’re really excited about it,’ said Pepo. ’We believe it’s comparable to the iPad Air. It’s thin, light and performance-based. The display is super-duper resolution. It comes down to performance, battery life and weight. Those are probably the three biggest things. It gives us an alternative to the iPad, with a comparable feature set.’

The tablet itself weighs in at 294 grams in the 8.4-inch model and 465 grams in the 10.5-inch model, both measuring 6.6m. Both Tab S models come packed with a Exynos 5 Octa 1.9GHz quad-core and 1.3GHz quad-core processor or a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 2.3GHz quad-core processor.

’The tablet is becoming a popular personal viewing device for enjoying content, which makes the quality of the display a critical feature,’ said JK Shin, president and CEO of Samsung's IT & Mobile Division, in a release. ’With the launch of the Galaxy Tab S, Samsung is setting the industry bar higher for the entire mobile industry. It will provide consumers with a visual and entertainment experience that brings colors to life, beautifully packaged in a sleek and ultra-portable mobile device.’

Both tablets also run on the latest version of Android Kit Kat and include 3 GB of RAM. The tablets also come with either 16 GB or 32 GB of storage space, and there is a microSD card slot allowing for up to 128 GB of space.

The 8.4-inch model starts at $399 and the 10.4-inch model starts at $499. The battery life for both models is about 11 hours and features an ’ultra-power saving mode.’

’I think Samsung is an innovator,’ said Pepo. ’This new generation of tablets will have external ports, which the iPad Air doesn’t have. The iPad has its place, but the Samsung tablet is a more business-friendly device since it is lighter, and performance-based."

’Samsung is a very smart company,’ said Steven Kantorowitz, president of CelPro Associates, a solution provider based in New York. ’They produce very good products. Their main competition is the iPad, so whatever they foresee the iPad becoming is what they want to become now. Apple has a good product right now; it’s very hard to compete with them.’

The Galaxy Tab S comes with a fingerprint scanner and both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.

PUBLISHED JUNE 12, 2014