“The Galaxy Tab S5e promises an impressive battery life, thanks to 7,040mAh cell and power-efficient Snapdragon 670 SoC”

If there’s one smartphone brand that has been really active in India’s phone market this year, that has to be Samsung. From launching a budget-centric M series to refreshing its A series, and of course, launching the Galaxy S10 lineup soon after their global unveiling – the Korean giant has had its hands full. Yet, I feel that the company should be launching its recently-announced Galaxy Tab S5e slate in the subcontinent soon. Yes, that’s how impressed I’m with the tablet, which I got a chance to check out at MWC Barcelona last week.

Just like the evolution of smartphones, tablets have come a long way from their bulky and thick form factors. In fact, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e is among the lightest slates in its size with its 400g weight. It’s also really slim and has a 5.5mm waistline… which is even slimmer than many smartphones. The device follows the brand’s design philosophy on phones with a similar button and port placement. Both the volume rocker and power toggle are placed on the right spine along with the SIM slot. The bottom is home to the charging socket, whereas the left edge features connectors to attach the keyboard dock.

Even though the slate has modern aesthetics, it’s not entirely bezel-less. The device bears a 10.5-inch display with a resolution of 1,600 x 2,560 pixels, but the screen-to-body ratio stands at 81.6 percent. I’d have certainly liked to see slimmer bezels, which would have made the slate compact. Having said that, the Super AMOLED screen is incredibly sharp and reproduces good colours too.

Inside the metallic body of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e ticks the Snapdragon 670 chipset, which has been paired with up to 6GB RAM. For storage, the slate offers 64GB / 128GB memory onboard, which can be topped up further by up to 512GB with the use of a microSD card.

For imaging, the device ships with a 13-megapixel shooter with an aperture of f/2.0 on the rear, and an 8MP f/2.0 camera for selfies and video calling. For multimedia lovers, Samsung has packed four speakers on the Tab S5e.

On the software side of things, the Galaxy Tab S5e runs Android 9.0 Pie-based One UI. We’ve already praised Samsung’s new interface, and the experience remains the same on the slate. The entire package runs on a 7.040mAh battery, which is claimed to offer 14.5 hours of backup. The device also comes with 18W fast charging support.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e has been priced at $399 (roughly Rs 28,000). Sadly, there’s no confirmation as to when it’ll be landing in India. But considering that the brand launches most of its offerings in the country sooner than later, we can expect that to be the base with its latest slate too. If priced similarly to its international pricing, the Tab S5e could be a good option in the affordable segment.