Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 launched

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has been announced ahead of MWC 2012, with the Korean firm rebooting the chassis of its first tablet.

The new tablet features a 7-inch screen to cater for the smaller tablet lover, but more importantly is running on Ice Cream Sandwich (or Android 4.0) and may well be the first from the company to bring the next generation platform.

The rest of the technical specs are less exciting: we're looking at a 1GHz dual core processor running under the hood, with a 3MP camera on the rear.

Samsung has overlaid the Ice Cream Sandwich platform with its own TouchWiz UI too, and video calling will be supported through a VGA front-facing sensor.

Fuzzless front
The screen might not be too shabby it seems, as while it's 'only' LCD (rather than the fancy-pants Super AMOLED offerings from the Korean firm) the resolution of 1024x600 should be enough to keep users complaining of fuzzy displays.

Other key specs that don't seem to have moved things on much in a year and a half include: 1GB of RAM and the choice of up to 32GB internal memory.

Intriguingly, Samsung is referring to the device as the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) in its press materials, so it seems likely we'll be getting larger variants of the same device in the same way as the Motorola Xoom 2 has been offered.

Thomas Richter, Samsung's director of portfolio management, told TechRadar: "Since 2010 we have been bringing the Galaxy Tab range. In 2012, we believe that people want to experience more on the go."

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 UK release date has been set for March, so expect to see our full review up any time soon.

First impressions

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 may not be the sleekest tablet we've ever laid eyes on, but it packs the latest version of Android, known as Ice Cream Sandwich. Its specs are perfectly respectable, if a tad uninspiring. We look forward to giving it the full review treatment soon.

Design
Outwardly, the Tab 2 won't take your breath away. It has the sort of unremarkable stylings you could easily walk past, but it's perfectly respectable. The front of the device is dominated by the screen with a thick, black bezel. The grey back peeks around the edge slightly at the top and bottom, which will Samsung will be hoping keeps Apple's lawyers at bay.

Around the back of the tablet you'll find a big expanse of grey, which is about as interesting to look at as a concrete paving slab. The subtle Samsung branding makes it look a little smarter, so you could pull it out in the boardroom without being fired for gross misconduct. I haven't had chance to have a proper squeeze and poke yet, but Samsung has a generally decent record for good build quality on its products so we're expecting this new boy to be pretty good.

With a screen size of 7-inches, the Galaxy Tab 2 is considerably more hand-friendly than its bigger brother the Tab 10.1, which means you'll have a much easier time of carrying it around everywhere. On the other hand, if you want to kick back with a good movie or intend to do loads of web browsing on your sofa, you might find you benefit from a bigger screen.

That screen has a resolution of 1,024x600 pixels, which is pretty good for a device of this size. I haven't had a proper eyes-on yet, but if it offers the same super-vivid experience I've had on the Galaxy S2 and Galaxy Note, I'll be very pleased.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
The Tab 2 is to be the first tablet from Samsung that ships with the latest version of Android, known to its mates as Ice Cream Sandwich. It's likely the other slates in the Galaxy range will be given updates, but it's heartwarming to see a new product with the newest software as standard.

Ice Cream Sandwich is Google's latest OS, and aims to create a unified experience across smart phones and tablets. It promises to be faster and adds new features like face unlocking. I've found the face unlock feature on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus to be rather hit and miss. It's a fun novelty, but it's too easily fooled for it to be a secure safety feature.

Samsung has re-written its hilariously named TouchWiz interface for ICS too, so expect large social-networking hubs on the home screens, as well as the ebook, music and video hubs you'll find on other Samsung devices. While some of Samsung's tweaks can be quite handy, we often find it goes a bit overboard with adding extra software. If you take the time to strip out what you don't need, you'll likely see a speed increase.

Specs
Under that plain grey hood is a 1GHz dual-core processor, teamed up with 1GB of RAM. Compared to quad-core monsters such as the Asus Transformer Prime, that's not much to brag about, but it should be plenty of juice to keep a 7-inch slate ticking over.

I haven't had a chance to run my usual barrage of benchmarks on it, but with the performance tweaks of Ice Cream Sandwich, I'm hoping for a nippy experience all round.

A dual-core 1GHz chip currently provides enough power to chomp through most tasks you're likely throw at it. We'll soon start to see extremely demanding 3D games and apps though, designed to take advantage of the super-charged processors of the tablet elite, so how this little fella stacks up against them remains to be seen.

In terms of storage, the Tab 2 will be offered in 8, 16 and 32GB varieties, but it also supports microSD cards up to 32GB, so you could always opt for the cheaper version, chuck a high-capacity card inside and spend the money you've saved on sweets and puppies.

On the back of the tablet you'll find a 3-megapixel camera. Cameras on tablets aren't usually anything to write home about so we're not expecting much, but it will probably be just about good enough to get a shot of your mate passed out with pizza on his face so you can share it to Twitter. There's a front-facing 640x480-pixel camera too, for video calling.

Outlook
The Galaxy Tab 2 looks set to be a worthy update to the original Galaxy Tab. I'm chuffed it ships with the latest version of Android, and although isn't specced as heavily as some tablets, we're hoping it offers enough juice for all the mad stuff I want it to do. Stay tuned for a full review soon.