A rugged Galaxy tablet for business types
Samsung's newest tablet seems built to last, with an anti-shock, water-resistant casing. Read on for everything you need to know.
Samsung's newest tablet is built to take a beating. The Galaxy Tab Active has been slathered in protective materials, in a bid to keep it alive even if you drop it, or spill your coffee all over its rugged form.
This newest addition to the Galaxy range is aimed squarely at professionals and enterprise types, which means that it's possible it will only be sold directly to businesses, rather than in shops. Nevertheless, it's an interesting product, so read on for all the facts.
Drop everything
The Active has an anti-shock covering, which Samsung says will enable it to survive a 1.2 metre drop with its protective cover on, while an IP67 certification means it's dust resistant, and won't give up the ghost if it comes into contact with a little bit of water.
If your job requires you to take a tablet into unfriendly, rugged environments, you'll also be interested to learn about the Tab Active's C-Pen. A relative of the Galaxy Note's S Pen, this stylus is installed in the top of the Active's rugged cover, and gives you an alternative way of getting the screen to work, if you're wearing heavy gloves, for instance.
As a business-focused gadget, Samsung's crammed the Active with security software, specifically its Knox service, which hosts your apps and documents securely, offering peace of mind to those worried about meddlesome hackers.
Standard innards
Beneath the rugged tweaks, the Active is a fairly standard Android tablet. It has a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, while its 8-inch display has a 1,280x800-pixel resolution.
It's powered by Android 4.4 KitKat, and packs a 3.1-megapixel rear camera that can also scan barcode. A 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera meanwhile should be ideal for selfies showing off your snappy new suits. There's 16GB of on-board storage, which you can beef up by way of a microSD card slot.
Outlook
The Active has definitely been put together with businesses in mind, but I wouldn't mind seeing a consumer version, as there currently aren't many options for those who want a rugged tablet for outdoor use. Samsung has a tendency to make plenty of variants of its products, so fingers crossed we see a version of the Tab Active that's aimed at everyday shoppers before too long.