Samsung adds Galaxy Tab 3 to ever-growing Android line-up

Android Jelly Bean device to ship with same display and battery as predecessor.

Samsung has announced its third generation Galaxy Tab tablet, which packs minor hardware upgrades and the latest Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The Galaxy Tab 3 packs the same display as its predecessor in the form of the 7in WSVGA with a 1024 x 600 resolution. However, the firm has shaved off 0.5mm from the chassis and dropped 40g of weight.

Samsung upgraded the chip form a 1GHz dual-core to a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, which the firm claims will provide faster application and internet performance.

The firm has also stuck with 1GB of RAM and the choice of 8/16GB of internal memory, but the microSD slot has been boosted to now accept storage cards up to 64GB in size.

Connectivity will include WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz), WiFi Channel Bonding, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 3.0 as well as a USB 2 port.

Samsung has also included a 3-megapixel rear camera and upgraded the front-facing camera to 1.3-megapixels.

Battery life is expected to be the same as the Galaxy Tab 2 (around the six hour mark) because Samsung has included the same 4,000mAh pack inside the third generation.

Samsung will ship the Wi-Fi edition of the Galaxy Tab 3 in May and a 3G model will follow in June. There is no word on pricing at present.

Khidr Suleman is the Technical Editor at IT Pro, a role he has fulfilled since March 2012. He is responsible for the reviews section on the site  - so get in touch if you have a product you think might be of interest to the business world. He also covers the hardware and operating systems beats. Prior to joining IT Pro, Khidr worked as a reporter at Incisive Media. He studied law at the University of Reading and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism and Online Writing at PMA Training.