eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Samsung has introduced the Galaxy Tab S with the hope that it will be an enterprise favorite. The tablet is the “thinnest in the industry,” per Samsung, ships with Samsung’s Knox security system out of the box and is an absolute looker.
It will come in 8.4- and 10.5-inch versions, in white and in gold—a tweaked hue (called Titanium Bronze by Samsung) from what shipped on the Galaxy S5 smartphone and one unlikely to conjure images of Band-Aids.
Both models measure just 0.26 inches thin, making them so thin that Samsung had to put a small lip around the microUSB port—now the element that stands in the way of a paper-thin physique.
Both models also run Android 4.4 (KitKat) and 1.3GHz quad-core processors, and have Super AMOLED displays with resolutions of 2,560 by 1,600 pixels (the 8.4-inch model is 360 pixels per inch, while the 10.5-inch is 287 ppi). That’s 4 million pixels total—30 percent more than, ahem, the competition.
At a Samsung headquarters in New Jersey, the company showed off the Tab S in verticals where it expects it will most be at home—finance, retail and health care.
In finance, wealth advisers create value by spending time with clients. The Tab S is a presentation tool able to mirror its display onto a larger one, and able to access content from the cloud or a secure corporate server.
“In finance, security is the price of entry,” said John Finneran, vertical marketing senior manager, Finance, and part of Samsung’s Enterprise Business Division.
And, in a market where the players are accustomed to nice things, the Tab S—with its gorgeously bright and rich display, and super-thin and lightweight frame— is a prestige item.
The display is also more than a pretty face in health care. “The blues are bluer, the blacks are blacker,” said Jennifer Langan, Samsung’s director of product marketing.
When a physician is showing an expectant mother photos from her ultrasound, the added detail from the deeper blacks, and the richness of the display altogether, becomes meaningful.
The security Knox provides means the Tab S can be used in regulated industries and is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant, and its “sandbox” infrastructure means a physician can pull up secure records but also use the tablet to perform online searches.
In retail, equipping workers on the sales floor with a lightweight tablet (and if they’re using a device over the length of a shift, every ounce counts) can shorten wait times for shoppers and make a store incredibly more competitive. An employee can pull up details about what’s in the storeroom (instead of leaving a customer to check), potentially offer promotions, show off other items in a line that a customer may be interested in and positively influence the outcome of a sale.
The Tab S ships with Hancom Mobile Office, an application meant to complement Microsoft Office by offering more functionality on the go. (A salesperson, for example, can add a slide to a PowerPoint deck just before a meeting.) The tablets also have Samsung’s Mobile Print app, Samsung E-Meeting App for Collaboration, Remote PC capabilities and the ability to answer an incoming call from a Samsung smartphone.
WiFi-enabled models will arrive at the end of June, followed by 4G-enabled models later this year. Pricing has not yet been announced.
“It’s a great addition to the product portfolio,” Langan said. “It’ll elevate the customer experience and improve engagement while improving productivity.”