The 8 inch form factor was made popular by Apple Inc with their iPad mini, which came with a 7.9 inch screen. The form became popular because the user could hold it in one hand and at the same time not lose out on much screen real estate. Let us go ahead and see what Samsung have to offer with this new tablet.
Camera And Internal Storage
The Tab 3 10.1 did disappoint with only a 3.15 MP rear shooter. The Tab 3 8 inch however does better with a 5MP read shooter paired while the front camera remains the same at 1.3MP, which should prove to be good enough for video calls and a casual self portrait or two. We saw that the Tab 3 10.1 inch comes with an option of either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. The Tab 3 8 inch however comes with only a single offering, which has 16GB of in built storage. This should be OK for users as Samsung does a wise job of including a microSD card slot on their devices, so users can expand the memory as and when needed.
Processor And Battery
The Samsung Tab 3 8 inch again comes with a dual core processor like the Tab 3 10.1 inch, but however the processor is clocked at 1.5GHz and not 1.6GHz like in the case of the latter. Don’t expect over the top performance by this processor, it should be on par with other dual core processors. A lot would also depend on the architecture, which hasn’t been made public as of yet. We would like to see this processor being based on the Cortex A15 platform. There’s a rather small battery of 4450mAh included in this device, but again, the display is not very big so consumption won’t be too high. We can expect the battery to last about 5-6 hours of screen-on time, again a lot would depend on software optimization by Samsung.
Display Size And Type
As mentioned before, the Tab 3 8 Inch comes with an 8 Inch display which should make the tablet more portable for users on the move. The resolution of this 8 inch panel is 1280x720p, which again is not the best but should prove to be good enough. This means that the tablet will have better pixel densities than the 10.1 inch offers. The 720p HD panel should be good for people looking to browse the net on the tablet, as well as those looking for multimedia. However, the Tab 3 10.1 inch will be better overall for multimedia because of the aspect ratio it comes with (16:9).
Key Specs
Conclusion
The Tab 3 8 inch looks like a better option when compared to the Tab 3 10.1 inch because of the mobility factor, and the better pixel density it offers. We would hope Samsung prices the tablet well so that it can challenge domestic manufacturers. The tablet checks almost all boxes for a good 2013 tablet, the only gripe is that the processor could have been better. The 5MP main camera should prove good enough for most users, and honestly, we don’t think that a tablet needs more than 5MP rear because you anyway wouldn’t use it for important photography. Let us wait for Samsung’s verdict on the price tag.
