8-inch variant of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 appears on import listings, being tested in India
The Galaxy Tab S 2 8.0 (SM-T715) will feature an 8-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 and as aspect ration of 4:3. It will be thinner than the Apple iPad Air at just 5.4mm, and will feature an octa-core Exynos 5433 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, 8-megapixel primary camera, 2.1-megapixel secondary camera, LTE Cat. 6, and a 3,850 mAh battery. This tablet, and its 9.7-inch sibling, the Galaxy Tab S 2 9.7 (SM-T810), will run Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box and have metal bodies, just like the recent mid-range and high-end smartphones from Samsung.
If those specs are true, this tablet is worth waiting for. Sure, the camera could have had more megapixels. But I hope they’ve at least improved it over their past ones. Prior cameras were just garbage and unworthy of Samsung.
Personally, I still drool a bit whenever I see Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 8.4. The screen is gorgeous and I don’t mind the plastic shell. It’s thin and light and really feels like a product of the 21st century. (The heavy metal body of the Dell Venue 8 7000 seems very 20th century.) Having that in a 4:3 package would be fantastic.
Of course, with Samsung, there’s always a question of price.
Previously here:
Leaks: Samsung’s New Tablets
Rumor: New Samsung Tablets To Be 4:3 Screens
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
Beautiful specs…
The bad will be the price, as per Samsung tradition…
Yes, likely a premium over an iPad Mini. But the Mini doesn’t have a 32GB model. It jumps from 16GB to 64GBs.
http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini-3/specs/
In view of 4:3, Android 5 (better for PDFs than Android 4.4) and thinness, the tablets seem worth considering buying, but these questions let me hesitate: Is is worth waiting for some Surface Minis (maybe 8″ and – hopefully – 10″, 3:2, Atom Cherry Trail, Windows 10)? Is it worth waiting for a Samsung Note tablet with 4:3 IPS and digitizer? Is the Exynos 5433 fast enough to make TouchWIZ fluent? Which crapware remains despite Samsung’s promose to reduce the amount of crapware? Which impact does the AMOLED display have on the battery when mainly using white background for the displayed contents? Are the display’s mirroring and brightness good enough for outdoor use? Which reliable range does the WLAN have? Is the tablet too thin for sufficient battery duration and a stable device? How long should we wait until, typical for Samsung, the initial price will have dropped significantly? Oh, and when will the tablets be available at all?
Good questions. The Surface Mini rumor is back in play, but I don’t think I want a Windows tablet. But we’ll see what Windows 10 is like. And there are always Core-M tablets, but they seem expensive, even for China.
Note the current discount of the Samsung Tab S 8.4 down to $300 for the 16GB version (http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/04/08/deal-alert-samsung-temporarily-knocks-100-off-of-the-galaxy-tab-s-8-4-and-10-5-amazon-beats-them-by-up-to-20)
For comparison, the Mi Pad, whose price decreased a bit recently, costs $270 on the Chinese reseller iBuygou.
I think the MiPad is off my Possible Buy List altogether.
Yes, I know. Very tempting but I expect the upcoming 4:3 high-end tablet will be better. I’d rather wait.