Hasta La Gadget!

Well, well, well, what have we here? It’s yet another beautiful tablet from the folks at Samsung. We’ve got our hands on the Samsung ATIV Tab running Windows 8 on a low-power ARM processor (aka Windows RT) and it looks and feels fantastic — and familiar. Yep, if you’ve ever seen or played with a Samsung Galaxy Tab, you’ll know what you’re in for, a solid and beautiful tablet with a brushed aluminum back. The screen is extremely vivid, and yeah, we had to turn it down to get some decent shots of the thing.

The big tell, however, is the new square Windows button on the bottom bezel. Yep, this thing is rocking Windows RT, in all of its glory. The other big tip off: there’s no stylus on the slate. You’re going to be using you finger to navigate through the operating system — sorry S Pen fans. The tablet is extremely zippy, as well — and no question why — the device is rocking a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor on top of 2GB of memory. Obviously the tablet is best suited to the tile UI, though you can swap between that and the older familiar one by clicking the right tile.

We’ll get you more information as it become available — in the meantime, please enjoy the following image gallery.

Continue reading Samsung Windows RT ATIV Tab hands-on (video)

Filed under: Tablets

Samsung Windows RT ATIV Tab hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sorry Nokia, consider your thunder stolen. It hasn’t yet made an appearance at Samsung’s big IFA press conference inside the Berlin Tempodrom, but Samsung’s first Windows Phone 8 device has just been made official thanks to a post on Microsoft’s Windows Phone Blog.

That device in question is the ATIV (Ah-TEEV, not EYY-tiv) S, a rather handsome new handset that sports a (sadly unspecified) 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 1.9-megapixel front-facing counterpart to boot.

Update (5:02PM ET): Neither Samsung nor Microsoft dug into what kind of processor the ATIV S has under the hood, but Qualcomm confirmed to PC Magazine that it’s an MSM8260A. That’s the same chipset seen in the U.S. variants of the HTC One X and Galaxy S III so the ATIV won’t leave you wanting for horsepower, but it means LTE is definitely off the table.

The spec sheet may not be the most riveting you’ll ever see — Windows Phone has never really required bleeding edge hardware — but the move puts the pressure on Nokia to unveil something tremendous next week.

The ATIV S features a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display swathed in Gorilla Glass, which may make it a bit of a handful (its size puts it right up there in Galaxy S III territory) — but there’s little question that Samsung knows how to make a big device feel smaller than it actually is. The fact that the ATIV S squeezes all that into a brushed aluminum 8.7mm thick chassis (the Galaxy S III is only just a hair thinner at 8.6mm) certainly doesn’t hurt. What really lends the ATIV some star power is that it’s the world’s first Windows Phone 8 device, though it may be a while before the rest of us get to see how well the software complements the hardware.

Users will be able to pick up a 16 or 32GB model at some point in the near future — no one has mentioned availability yet — but they can rest easy knowing that at long last they’ll be able to throw a microSD card into their Windows Phone.

Remember those Ativ Tab and Ativ S trademarks we saw just a couple of days ago? They may well be more than just Samsung’s daydreams. As long as details at The Verge prove true, the devices attached to those names represent a two-pronged revival of Samsung’s Windows-based mobile strategy. We’re most interested in the Ativ S: thanks in part to Windows Phone 8’s multi-core support, it’s effectively a Galaxy S III for the Microsoft crowd with a similar 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, a 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front shooter. Swinging attention to the Ativ Tab shows what’s likely to be a commonplace list of features for a Windows RT slate. Outside of the 10.1-inch screen, it’s sporting its own 1.5GHz dual-core chip and 1.9-megapixel front camera as well as a 5-megapixel rear sensor, HDMI video out and USB. We’re still missing a slew of details, such as storage and launch dates, although we might not have to wait long at all to know — if the claims are correct, one or both of the Ativ models may show their faces at Samsung’s IFA 2012 events.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

Samsung Ativ Tab and Ativ S details leak, hint at a Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 power duo originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Everyone knows that Samsung is making a big Windows 8 push at IFA, but there’s new signs emerging that it might shake up its naming scheme in the process. We now know through SamMobile that Samsung has quietly snapped up a pair of trademarks with the Ativ badge that would let its branding venture beyond the Galaxy. Ativ Tab is the most conspicuous: unless Samsung is planning a shakeup of its Android slates, there’s a distinct chance we’re looking at the future name for one or more Windows 8 tablets. Ativ S is slightly more nebulous, although that very familiar oversized S raises the possibility of a high-end Windows Phone 8 smartphone like the Odyssey. Whether or not Samsung wields these trademarks later this week, or at all in the near future, is still up in the air — it may be holding on to names as a precaution rather than previewing a course of action. If the Ativ label makes its way into stores, though, it may give Samsung a much catchier (if not entirely intuitive) name for its Windows devices than Series 5 Hybrid PC.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets

Samsung trademarks Ativ Tab and Ativ S names, may give a peek into its Windows (Phone) 8 world originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 22:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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