Galaxy Tab A8: Samsung slyly unveils mid-range tablet with a UNISOC chipset, 10.5-inch screen, and more

Samsung has silently unveiled its low-cost Galaxy Tab A8 via a press release. Previous leaks told us quite a bit about its price, design and specifications, and most of the information contained in the said leaks turned out to be true. All things considered, the Galaxy Tab A8 is, at best, an incremental upgrade over 2020's Galaxy Tab A7.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 features a 10.4-inch TF LCD panel with a 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) resolution, 216 PPI pixel density and 16:10 aspect ratio. While it is a smidgen larger than its predecessor's 10.4-inch screen, it packs a tad fewer pixels per inch. We get an 8MP camera sensor at the back, and a 5MP module handles selfies and video calls. The latter is optimized for use in portrait mode, unlike the cameras on competing offerings like the Realme Pad. Video recording capabilities on both sensors are restricted to 1080p 30 FPS.

Samsung has neglected to mention which SoC lies under the Galaxy Tab A8's hood. The website merely states that it runs an "Octa-core 2GHz" chipset, but we know for a fact that it is a UNISOC Tiger T618. According to our benchmark database, it is somewhat of an upgrade over the Galaxy Tab A7's Qualcomm Snapdragon 662. One can configure it with up to 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, and the latter can be expanded up to 1TB via a micro SD card.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 draws power from a 7,040mAh battery that supports 15W fast charging. Other features include 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G LTE, and Samsung Knox. Biometric authentication is, for the most part, absent due to the lack of a fingerprint sensor, but Face Unlock is supported. The Galaxy Tab A8 runs Android 12 out of the box customized with One UI 4.0.

Samsung will sell the Galaxy Tab A8 in three colours: grey, silver, and pink gold. It will hit shelves in Europe by the end of December and the rest of the world sometime in January 2022. The company has neglected to mention its price, but we can expect it to bear the same sub-US$250 price tag for the entry-level variant.

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