Samsung Galaxy Tab
An employee holds up a Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab tablet computer (L) and an Apple iPad as he poses at a store in Seoul August 27, 2012. Reuters/Lee Jae-Won

Samsung is not coming to Barcelona empty-handed for the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017. It will not only show a 60-sec clip of the highly-anticipated Galaxy S8 handset, but will also reportedly show off its Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. If fresh reports are to be believed, the user manual of the device has been leaked. It has revealed that the tab will come with USB Type-C ports, fingerprint scanner embedded in Home button and more such details. Even though the tab is expected to come with an S Pen, the device won’t be included out-of-the-box.

According to Phone Arena, the S Pen in Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 will be available as an accessory. The device does not have storage space for the S Pen. As per the user manual, the tablet will come in two variants, LTE and wi-fi. One variant will have both while the other only wi-fi. The device will come with Android 7.0 Nougat pre-installed. The manual also reveals that users will be able to write memos on the screen even when the tablet is turned off. The Galaxy Tab S3 is also expected to support Air Command and other S Pen related features.

Individual words can be translated when users hover the S Pen over such words. The tab is widely-anticipated to feature a 9.6-inch AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1,536 x 2,048 pixels. It will also have 4:3 aspect ratio, as revealed by earlier reports. Other top specs anticipated are 32GB/128GB native storage, 4GB RAM, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and Adreno 530 GPU. According to Android Headlines, Samsung is aiming to market Galaxy Tab S3 as a direct competitor to Apple’s smaller iPad Pro and also Surface Pro 4.

If the user manual is correct, it definitely shows that Samsung will go hard at Apple and give it a run for its money. The Galaxy Tab S2 has been an overachiever, praised by fans and critics alike. It has its limitations but it’s a great device nonetheless. Expectations are thus high for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. Some reports have claimed earlier that the LTE and wi-fi model will have a price tag of US$500 (AU$650 approx). Another interesting point is how long the South Korean company will take to launch the device in the market.

Tab S2 took about three months to release after it was announced. Stay tuned on IBT AU for more updates on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3.

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