Samsung has announced a Windows 8 version of the Galaxy Tab 3, complete with the same plasticky design.
The ATIV Tab 3 shares a lot of similarities with its Android brother, including having the exact same design language, but it also has a lot of differences. Samsung has gone and given it an upgraded Intel Atom processor, 64GB of hard drive storage, S-Pen support and even a free copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student.
What’s odd about the inclusion of Office is that we have previously heard that Microsoft were only offering free copies to sub 10-inch tablets, and at 10.1 inches, the ATIV Tab 3 definitely does not qualify.
If you like the beautiful screen on the ATIV Q, then you won’t find the same on the ATIV Tab 3, as this screen has a much lower resolution of 1366×768, but we’ll forgive it as it is the thinnest Windows 8 tablet — at just 8.2mm thick. Being that thin you don’t expect it to weigh that much, and it doesn’t — coming in at just 550g.
As it’s running Windows 8 pro and not RT, the ATIV Tab 3 can run all the apps you throw at it — although we’ll test just which apps it doesn’t like when we review it later this year.
The rear of the ATIV Tab 3
The internals are what you would expect from a Windows 8 tablet, with 2GB RAM and an Intel ATOM Z2760.
Unlike other Windows 8 tablets though, you will only find a micro USB port, but you do get the inclusion of a MicroSD card slot and MicroHDMI-out.
Samsung hasn’t announced specific availability or pricing, but we should expect those later this year when it goes on sale.
