Samsung SM-P200/P205 (Tab A with S-Pen, 2019)

Oh where do I begin here. Firstly.....expecting higher then a 1200x800 res for a tablet in 2019 is not even remotely a "bigger numbers are better" scenario. Maybe if I was demanding 4K in an 8-inch frame, or super mega AMOELD........but 1200x800 is an old standard....and frankly those screens are ugly to look at. I've had the Samsung Note 10 2012 which had that same low res screen....for Web surfing, Video Watching, Comic Reading......it sucked because the screen quality was so low. The 2014 Note 10.1 was a night and day difference owed mostly to the screen quality improvement. I've also had the 1st gen Tab a 10inch, and played with the 8-inch tab A..... and I've had two of the Asus Note 8's......while 1200x800 is better on a 8-incher over 10incher......its still an ugly ass res. With Windows you might have scaling issues, but for Android thats a non-issue, and even then....all but the cheapest smartphones are rocking higher resolutions.

And Samsung hasn't made any official announcement about this tablet known....so debating the merits of whatever product line is may be apart of is kind of irrelevant until they do. But generally the Note/S-Pen devices were certainly not Budget devices. The Note Line itself sure as hell wasn't. The only Budget use of the S-pen was the 1st gen Tab A tablets 8 & 10 incher which had the ugly low res screens.....and everything S-pen after that in the Tab Line has been higher res & priced devices. And the added battery drain from a higher res....is frankly so minuscule at this point it shouldn't be an issue. That a was a worthwhile argument maybe like 5-6 years ago.....but expecting an 8 inch tablet in 2019 to at least have 1920x1200 is not by any means an unreasonable expectation.

And given the death of the 8-inch Windows market.....if Samsung were to release a 8-inch/Spen tablet....its only real competition would be the new iPad Mini....where for $400 you get 2048-by-1536. If Samsung foolishly releases a $300-ish priced 8-incher with a 1200x800 res.......I'm fairly confident it will be a very very poor seller.

 

So just to add to the rumor pile We heard from one of our component suppliers this morning that the forthcoming tab 5se will also come in an 8 inch size later this year. Of course no pen support though.

 

And we have confirmation!
This looks GOOD.
(Though it's completely ridiculous that in the FOUR YEARS since its predecessor's release, the RAM has gone from a measly 2 gigs...to a measly 3 gigs. Same for storage)

8 inches, S-Pen,1920x1200 (16/10), 3gb RAM, 32gb storage, Bluetooth 5.0, optional 4G LTE.
Mid-tier CPU which powered 2018's Galaxy A smartphones.

April release.

https://tabletmonkeys.com/samsung-g...019-sm-p200-205-pictures-and-specs-exclusive/

 

Thank god they upped the screen res.....quite perfectly with my suggestion from my last post.

Hopefully its cheap enough... $300-ish or under.....and hopefully they release the S-pen model in the USA. Ram I'm not too surprised with....3GB puts it on par with the iPad Mini.

Was kind of hoping they would have opted for 3/4 or 3/2 for the screen ratio....the more towards 16:10 or 16:9 you get....the less portrait benefit width you get.. making it harder to justify the getting the 8.0 device at all if you already have a 6.5-inch ish phone

Its got a pen silo....so plus for that.....and compared to the iPad Mini....the weight it comparable......325 Grams.....vs the iPad Mini 5's 300.5 grams.....so it weights a hair or two lighter.

But the Thickness I find a bit disappointing.

The Ipad Mini 5 is 6.1mm......the original Tab A 8.0 with S-pen.....was 7.5mm......so 8.9mm for the 2019 8.0 incher seems a tad thick. That actually makes it as thick as the Galaxy Book 10.6. And the Battery Capacity is the same as the original Tab A 8-incher...4200 mAh.

Still, I'm glad they're releasing this at all.

 

Shame it's 3gb of ram and their mid-range exynos cpu. At least they could have given it base 4gb of ram, specially with their skin.

 

From its specs...it seems more like a direct answer to the iPad Mini 5. I kind of wonder if Apple had instead iPad pro'd out the new Mini, would Samsung have been more ambitious with this?

 

Maybe? But, this seems to have been in the pipeline for a while, cause why else does this have their mid-range cpu vs the higher end Exynos modes used in Asian and certain European markets of the S10 or even the S9/Note 9 cpu.

 

I never said 1200x800 was perfect. It's acceptable on an 8" device though, despite the fairly obvious pixelation most people will see. It does also use less power, and not a minuscule amount less.
Ultimately, these are budget devices. Cuts need to be made somewhere, and if there are some benefits to those cuts, then all the better. It's really a case of not having more than you need.

Now, it turns out that your lucky in this case, as Samsung have decided to up the resolution. It's also no so much that it unnecessarily uses power (which I would argue the iPad Mini will do).

 

Looks beautiful. I'm in.

We've made it to the promised land.

 

Not so fast, mate. 8.9mm thickness is hardly anything to be excited about even though I've put in my order for one.

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