Samsung's Galaxy Tab Active is an 8-inch, ruggedized, waterproof tablet
Amid a flurry of news about washing machines and massive, bendable televisions, Samsung unveiled a new tablet this morning at its IFA 2014 press briefing in Berlin: an 8-inch, ruggedized tablet named Galaxy Tab Active. "Ruggedized" doesn't mean much without water-resistance, and this tablet delivers on that as well. It's aimed at enterprise -- and presumably also people who like bringing their tablets into the wilderness -- and comes loaded with Samsung's Knox security program as a result.
The Galaxy Tab Active boasts 10 hours of power from a detachable, 4,450mAh battery, and a UI designed for tough work-- the kind of stuff that keeps your fingers off the screen. It's also got a variant of Samsung's S Pen in the C Pen, a tougher version of the standard stylus included with various Galaxy devices. The 8-inch screen is a WXGA LCD, and it's all powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1.5GB of LPDDR3 RAM.
Samsung claims the device can withstand a 1.2-meter (4-foot) drop solely with its protective coating, and the Active gets much tougher when wrapped in a custom protective cover. A 3.1MP camera sits out back, intended for business functions rather than dazzling images: barcode scanning is a touted use case, for example. There's also a 1.2MP camera for business selfies (our words, not Samsung's), which you can store either on the 16GB of internal storage or via MicroSD (up to 64GB).
We're not seeing a price or availability listed, but we're going to bug Samsung for all that right now. If you are picking up what Samsung's putting down, here are your purchase options:
"The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active will come in a variety of connectivity options: Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi and LTE available in 16GB + MicroSD (up to 64GB). The device is available in Titanium Green and it comes with the Protective Cover and the C-Pen."
