Samsung may have announced two new Galaxy Pro tablets at CES just a week or so ago, but it’s got more to reveal. Today, the world’s largest handset maker unveiled the Galaxy Tab 3 Lite, which will likely be its most affordable tablet to date. The Tab 3 Lite follows the same design cues that most Galaxy Tabs have since the Galaxy Note 8.0 from a year ago, but has the specs of a very cheap, likely sub-$180 tablet. It will be offered globally.
The new Tab has a 7-inch 1024 x 768 pixel screen, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 2-megapixel rear camera, 8GB of internal file storage, and 3600mAh battery, and runs on Google’s Android 4.2 operating system (with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface overlaid). This means it’s about as powerful as an expensive, $500+ 7-inch tablet you may have bought 2-3 years ago. No price was given, but we imagine it will cost much less than $200, and is likely headed for the budget section of a Best Buy, Target, or Walmart near you.
Besides pricing, we also don’t know just how sluggish this machine will be. It’s a risky bet purchasing any tablet cheaper than the $230 Nexus 7, and we typically don’t recommend devices with less than a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, but we will reserve judgement until we see how well Samsung has modified its user interface to work on a relatively meager tablet, from a power perspective.
If it does work well, this could be the cheap tablet to get. No word yet on an official U.S. release date.
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