Samsung officially details the Samsung Galaxy Tab

One of the most poorly kept secrets in recent memory, Samsung officially announced the Samsung Galaxy Tab on Thursday in Berlin at the 2010 IFA electronics show. In fact, it was such a badly kept secret that the announcement was really just a confirmation of what was already known.

Samsung's 7" tablet, obviously aimed at Apple's iPad, will run Android 2.2 (Froyo). While it will have a smaller screen than the 9.7" iPad, its significantly lower weight will address one of the complaints against the iPad. The Galaxy Tab will weight 0.8 pounds while the iPad weights 1.5 pounds without 3G and 1.6 pounds with it. Size-wise, the Galaxy Tab will be 7.48 x 4.74 x .47 in.

Much like Samsung's million-shipping Galaxy S smartphones, which its name reveals to be a play off of the Galaxy Tab, is probably headed to all major U.S. wireless carriers; it's already been leaked that it is definitely heading for Verizon.

Additional technical specifications about the device include the fact that unlike its smaller Galaxy S brethren, it's not going to have a Super AMOLED screen. Instead the Galaxy Tab will sport a 1024 x 600 TFT-LCD screen. Also, unlike the iPad, it will be a phone. Don't expect to be holding it up to your ear, though: the Samsung Galaxy Tab will be speakerphone only, although it will also support wired and wireless headsets.

In addition, the device will have 802.11n wi-fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM, 32 GB of microSD expansion and front- and rear-facing cameras (1.3 and 3.0 megapixel, respectively). It will also sport a gyroscope, accelerometer, and geo-magnetic sensor.

Samsung was pretty clear of its expectations about the device. W.P. Wong, head of Samsung Mobile's product planning team said, "Honestly, I don't see anything [about the Galaxy Tab] that is weaker than the iPad."

The cameras (the current iPad has none, though it is expected that the next version will have at least one camera) and the fact that it is a phone, unlike the iPad, support Samsung's claims. It also is the first tablet to support DivX, as DivX itself announced in its own press release. With Froyo installed, the Samsung Galaxy Tab will support Adobe Flash 10.1, too. It will also be upgradeable to Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) but the first versions will not be upgradeable to the following version (Honeycomb).

Hong noted why: "Since we emphasized portability and mobility, our determination was to apply smartphone platform instead of tablet platform. Honeycomb will be implemented in our next-generation tablet, not this device, because that [Honeycomb] is specifically optimized for a different type of tablet. This emphasizes mobility."

Samsung did not note pricing. They also did not reveal exact dates, although they said that the device would ship in late September or early October in Europe and by year's end in the U.S.

This story was first posted as "Samsung Galaxy Tab officially launched at IFA 2010" at HULIQ.com. by the same author.