Samsung Galaxy Tab S2: company launches new, iPad-sized tablet

With two screen sizes and a thin body, Samsung is hoping to take on Apple with a tablet ‘perfectly optimized for reading’

Samsung has launched the Galaxy Tab S2 — a new, thin and light tablet that Samsung hopes can beat the iPad.

The S2 comes in two sizes — either a 9.7-inch or 8.0-inch screen — which are slightly different to its predecessor, the Tab S. That screen is Super AMOLED, and inside the body is a fingerprint scanner, a fairly large battery, and either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage.

The tablet is 5.6mm thin and either 389g or 265g, depending on the screen size. Samsung says that the tablet is the world’s thinnest and lightest metal tablet of its size.

Like the iPad, both of the screens have a 4:3 screen ratio. That is the same shape as the iPad’s screen, and has been criticised for meaning that widescreen TV and films inevitably have to be shown with black bars at the top and bottom.

Samsung didn’t mention video in its release for the new tablet, instead saying that the “Super AMOLED display [is] perfectly optimized for reading and viewing any type of digital content”. The screen works by “recreating the same viewing experience of browsing through traditional print media”, the company said.