Samsung has just announced a new, affordable tablet, the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite has gone on sale in the last few days. In doing so, Samsung has beaten Apple, which is expected to launch new iPads soon but there’s no official word yet (read this for the latest on when I think the iPad Pro will go on sale).
The new Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite has not only beat the iPad in terms of arrival date, but for its price, too. It costs £349 in the U.K. which is less than the 9th-generation iPad (£369), and a lot less than the 10th-generation model (£499).
There’s no U.S. price as it hasn’t been released Stateside yet, but it may match the price of the last model, from 2022, which was $429.99. That model is still on sale in the U.S. from Samsung, though currently reduced by $130, to $299.99.
Samsung Galaxy phone users can realize extra benefits, such as copying and pasting easily from tablet to phone, and Notes that stay in sync between devices.
The new model has a 10.4-inch display, which is bigger than the 9th-gen iPad, smaller than the pricier 10th-gen. Both are LCD screens. The display is compatible with Samsung’s stylus, the S Pen, which snaps magnetically to the edge of the tablet. And, it’s worth saying, the S Pen is included in the price, whereas Apple sells the Apple Pencil separately.
It has 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and an 8-megapixel rear camera backed up by a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The RAM is not overly generous, but may be enough in everyday use.
The storage is the same as on both of the iPads, and the microSD card slot is something the iPad can’t match. But the front camera on each iPad is higher-resolution at 12 megapixels, while the 9th-gen iPad has an 8-megapixel rear camera, while the 10th-gen iPad has a 12-megapixel rear snapper.
The processor has been updated since the last iteration of the tablet, but it’s not clear exactly which one it is: Samsung describes it as CPU with 2.4GHz and 2GHz speeds—spread across two quad cores, it seems. This seems to match the specs of the Samsung Exynos 1280 chip.
The colors are pretty cool, Oxford Gray, Chiffon Pink and Mint, and has a metallic finish case.
So, should you snap up the Samsung galaxy Tab S6 Lite (in the U.K. at least) or wait for the new iPads? Well, we still don’t know when the iPads will go on sale though it’s likely to be early May. And it’s probably going to be the priciest iPads, the iPad Pro and possibly the iPad Air which will be released. If you’re after something cheaper, the Samsung could be a good choice, especially if you have a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
