Samsung Galaxy Tab Active Pro Is A Rugged Android Tablet With Waterproof S Pen
Samsung has a new Android P tablet, and if you're clumsy – or working on a job site – this may be the MIL-SPEC touchscreen slab for you. Announced at SDC 2019 this morning, the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active Pro follows on from 2018's Tab Active2, with MIL-STD-810G and IP68 standard resilience to things like excess pressure, extremes of temperature, drops, and submersion in water.
On the front there's a 10.1-inch, 1920 x 1200 display, that works with Samsung's S Pen. That's been made waterproof too, for those days you have to jot down notes in the rain.
Inside, there's a Qualcomm SDM670 chipset, with 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage. Samsung adds a microSD slot to that, for up to 512GB cards. Connectivity includes not only WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0+LE, but a welcome 4G LTE Cat.11 WLAN radio option for getting online outside of WiFi coverage and without draining your phone battery from tethering.
There's a fingerprint sensor for security, NFC and GPS, while ports include USB 3.1 Type-C. The IP68 water- and dust-proof S Pen can be used on a wet display, and the Galaxy Tab Active Pro touchscreen will also recognize gloved fingers. A 13-megapixel autofocus camera is on the back, and an 8-megapixel camera on the front.
Samsung says that the 7,600 mAh battery is good for up to fifteen hours. If that's not enough, unlike most recent tablets it's user-swappable: you can pop off the back panel and then drop in a charged replacement so as to keep on working. Pogo pins support charging docks as well as accessories.
In addition to Android P, there's also DeX for the first time on a Samsung ruggedized tablet. It'll operate in two modes: first, Dual Mode will allow a large external monitor to be plugged in, while Standalone Mode allows a keyboard to be used with the Tab Active Pro as a laptop replacement. A programmable button can be customized to launch an app of the user's choice.
Citrix Workspace support is onboard, and unsurprisingly the tablet is Samsung Knox certified too. Samsung will have a range of professional-grade vehicle mounts, straps for one-handed operation, and multi-charging cradles too.
As you might expect, at $599.99 the Galaxy Tab Active Pro does carry a premium price-tag reflecting both its ruggedization and its business focus. Sales of the WiFi version kick off from today, while the LTE model will follow on from November 15.