Samsung’s New Galaxy Tab S6 Is the Company’s Latest iPad Pro Competitor

Samsung is back again with a new Galaxy Tab. Just days before the launch of the upcoming Note 10, the phone maker is revealing the new Galaxy Tab S6 this week.

Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S6 is the company’s newest iPad Pro competitor, and it has a lot going for it. Samsung is even going for a creative focus here, targetting the device towards designers, artists, etc.

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The device, powered by a Snapdragon 855 processor, comes with a number of new features that we probably won’t see on iPads anytime soon. One of that includes DeX, which now lets you use the Tab S6 with a PC-like experience. Samsung has also made a number of improvements to the hardware to work better with DeX — like the new trackpad on the $179 keyboard. The new keyboard also comes with a dedicated key for DeX, so you can easily launch it whenever you want. It also now includes a holder for the stylers, a free-angle stand, and other new function keys.

Talking about the S Pen, it attaches to the back of the Tab S6 which is probably going to be really clumsy. It does charge wirelessly and now includes new gestures called S Pen Air actions that let you do things like take selfies, control media playback, control PowerPoint presentations, etc. These features will likely also come with the Note 10’s S Pen.

And yes, the camera has been upgraded, too. It’s Samsung’s first dual camera with Ultra Wide camera on a tablet that provides a 123-degree field of view. It also comes with some new software features that allow for better quality pictures, though nothing too major. If you like taking pictures on your tablet, you will probably love these upgrades.

Another notable change to the Tab S6 includes an in-display fingerprint scanner on the 10.5-inch Super AMOLED display of the device. As usual, Samsung is including sound by AKG, with quad speakers surrounding the device with Dolby Atmos support. Samsung is also giving away three months of free Spotify Premium and four months of YouTube Premium for free with the device, too.

Galaxy Tab S6 comes in Mountain Gray, Cloud Blue and Rose Blush colors, it will be available later this month. Starting at $649 for the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, you will be able to pre-order the device on August 23. The 8GB RAM variant with 256GB of storage comes at $729. Samsung also plans on releasing an LTE model later in the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yilbQbIm7UU

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Conversation 8 comments

  • glenn8878

    31 July, 2019 - 12:50 pm

    <p>Is this running Android or a fork? It looks promising, but unclear about how it works and how to save files. Maybe use it for YouTube.</p>

    • illuminated

      31 July, 2019 - 3:00 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#446357">In reply to glenn8878:</a></em></blockquote><p>Spend $649 just to watch youtube? For over 600 I would expect something better than that. </p>

  • Jorge Garcia

    31 July, 2019 - 7:46 pm

    <p>Finally! <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Samsung is the ONLY tech company that is slowly getting it. For so many tasks (and people), Android IS the better choice to ChomeOS (despite ChromeOS clumsily supporting Android apps). The touch/track pad is a very necessary thing and its absence has always been a dealbeaker to me. ARM is also very key to allowing it to behave more like an overgrown mobile phone that happens to do laptop tasks when called upon to do so (which is exactly what most normal people want and need). Now, someone ELSE (Acer, Asus, HP) just needs to make a $400 version of Samsung's design, ideally with the darn headphone jack in place!&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Imagine that you feel sorry for your grandmother who is pecking away at her small device and wish to buy her a comfortable laptop (one with a touch/track pad). Do you buy her a windows machine? NO WAY ON EARTH. She will always need support and it will always need to be plugged into the wall. What about a ChromeBook? NO SIREEE. ChromeOS works differently than any other device she has ever used and it has DUPLICATE apps just waiting to confuse the heck out of her. An iPad? Sure, if you are rich and don't mind being seeing your Grandma sucked into the Apple screwniverse. Also, iPads have no pointer or trackpad support. Right now, the only two options for people like me who want an android laptop are either 1. Paying Samsung a king's ransom for this device, or 2. giving $100-150 to "RCA" and getting a VERY junky machine that barely performs. Companies are missing a huge opportunity to make a $300-$400 sweet-spot laptop for the masses!</span></p>

    • jrickel96

      04 August, 2019 - 1:23 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#446595">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>There's no sweet spot for Android tablets. They are just not good, no matter how hard anyone tries. The ecosystem is terrible. Just like ChromeOS has a weak ecosystem. ChromeOS and Android tablets are huge failures if we look at how few people use either.</p><p><br></p><p>The only good tablet is the iPad and it improves with iPadOS. The Surface is also good, though I consider it less of a tablet. </p><p><br></p><p>Reality is there are so few apps optimized for tablet on Android so most thing you use are essentially enlarged phone apps. I've tried using some of the better Android tablets and the experience is horrible. Same goes for using ChromeOS – just a bad experience. </p><p><br></p><p>This will sell very few units overall. They'll sell it for a few years, but the volume will hardly be anything worth writing home about.</p><p><br></p><p>Reality is that the Android tablet market is close to dead. Most Android tablets sold are super low end. The most popular use FireOS anymore. You can see it if you ever look to target tablets in the Google Play Console when you load in apps. </p><p><br></p><p>Android's future is only on smartphones. ChromeOS will probably be gone in 2-3 years – they already are seeing declines in school sales and the return rate for Chromebooks remains the highest in the industry.</p><p><br></p>

      • Jorge Garcia

        04 August, 2019 - 2:49 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#447301">In reply to jrickel96:</a></em></blockquote><p>It's a failure, but because no one has hit the sweet spot yet. Samsung could if they wanted to, but there is probably too little money to be made on a cheap Android laptop that could basically replace a Windows PC for many people. Also, who ever said the apps need to be optimized? I hear every nerd on earth repeat that mantra. Normal people just need it to execute. Word, Excel, PPT are optimized "enough" on DeX, as are the web browser, the email client and the media playback apps. What else are normal people going to need besides those? Pretty much any other app can be run in smaller windows on the desktop. In the absolute worst of cases, it will only appear in a phone-shaped window. Boo hoo. For many, many, apps that normal people use, that is just fine because the alternative is having that same app (probably social or messaging) open on their phone next to their laptop anyway. But the real bottom line is, regardless of its warts, Android is open source (enough) and ChromeOS isn't. So, regardless of Samsung's developments in the "higher end" (which I agree is a rather absurd market for Android to play in) China and India will eventually turn Android into a workable OS that runs "well enough" on a desktop or laptop and will become a reasonable replacement for Windows for a healthy swath of basic computer users (which is most people). And the reason they will do so be the massive existing library of APK's floating around the world already that can be sideloaded and pirated. Every day some company chips away at the problem…like <a href="http://www.miipc.com/&quot; target="_blank">http://www.miipc.com/</a></p&gt;

        • Chris_Kez

          Premium Member
          14 August, 2019 - 4:53 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#447303">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>"China and India will eventually turn Android into a workable OS that runs "well enough" on a desktop or laptop and will become a reasonable replacement for Windows…&nbsp;"</p><p>If this were going to happen it would have already happened. </p>

          • Jorge Garcia

            21 August, 2019 - 7:31 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#449318">In reply to Chris_Kez:</a></em></blockquote><p>I disagree. I think that it is/was still too inconvenient to do so, but I am certain that projects are underway to replace Windows on consumer desktops and laptops. Android apps, limiting and inappropriate as they may be, are floating all over the web and get the "job done" for so many people. Whatever replaces Windows in the "rest" of the world will certainly be capable of executing APK's in one way or another. The Chinese do not like to reinvent the wheel, just look at their "borrowed" space program.</p>

  • Pbike908

    31 July, 2019 - 8:13 pm

    <p>$650 for an Android tablet? This is for Fandroid koolaid drinkers only….But hey, to each their own…</p>

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