Samsung's New ATIV Tablets: TAB 3 is the Thinnest, Q the Most Interesting

On Thursday, Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled a new lineup of tablets to add to their gadget offerings. Both are Windows 8 tablets, both incredibly thin, and one of them is Samsung's latest entry in the category of electronics that are increasingly closing the gap between portable computers and mobile computing.

The two new tablets are entries into the "ATIV" series by Samsung ("ATIV" is "VITA," meaning "life" backwards - read into that what you will). Samsung has a new tablet called the ATIV Tab 3, which is as thin as many smartphones and the thinnest Windows 8 tablet, according to the company, and the ATIV Q, which is a convertible tablet/laptop, and its out to challenge competitors in both markets.

ATIV TAB 3

The ATIV Tab 3 is incredibly thin and pretty light. At only 8.2 millimeters thick, the tablet sports a 10.1-inch screen (compared to, for example, the iPad's 9.4 mm thickness with a 9.7-inch screen).  It's also lightweight, coming in at 1.21 pounds compared to the iPad's 1.46 pounds. It doesn't have a retina screen though, or anything close to it, with only a maximum resolution of 1366 x 786.

Still, the ATIV Tab 3's screen-size to portability ratio is pretty high, and having an average of 10 hours of battery life (according to Samsung) should help put this Windows 8 tablet in the running with any other. It's got a dual-core Intel Atom processor running at 1.8GHz and has flash storage of 64GB, with a microSD card port. It also has a micro HDMI port and a USB 2.0 port, and a 720p HD camera.

Samsung isn't releasing any pricing information, but based on these specs, it seems like the gleaming white Tab 3 should be reasonably priced for a Windows 8 tablet in order to succeed, and because it's Windows 8 and has slightly better power and processing specs, expect this Tab 3 to become the more utilitarian cousin of the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch.

ATIV Q

The ATIV Q is where Samsung's new offering gets more exciting. I've written before that, as tablets increasingly overtake portable computers (i.e., laptops) - and they're expected to surpass laptops by the end of this year - and as we continue to demand more capabilities out of our tablets, it only makes sense that the two different ways of computing on-the-go will eventually merge. That's already happening, and the ATIV Q is another attempt to make it work.

The ATIV Q is one of the new convertible tablets that runs two operating systems - Windows 8 and Android. It's got a screen that's hinged and folds up and around (and back down again), to suit whatever you need the ATIV Q to do.

It can be a laptop, a laptop with a raised screen, a little movie-watching screen with stand, a tablet with a full QWERTY keyboard, or a regular-looking tablet with a touchscreen and stylus input.

Another stand-out feature of the ATIV Q is the display. The ATIV Q has a huge (for tablets) 13.3-inch screen, and it doesn't skimp on the resolution. In fact, it surpasses current iPad Retina screens, offering next-generation QHD+ display at a resolution of 3200 x 1800. That's 275 pixels per inch on a 13.3-inch display, compared to the iPad Retina's 2048 x 1536, 264 pixels per inch on a 9.7-inch display or the MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina display that goes to 2560 x 1600, 227 pixels per inch. Basically, if you like high-resolution laptops and tablets, the ATIV Q has you covered on both fronts in one.

As a tablet, the ATIV Q will run Android Jellybean 4.2.2, and both operating systems are designed to share folders and files with each other. At 2.8 pounds, the ATIV Q will feel a little heavy for a tablet, but light for a high-resolution laptop. Same thing with its dimensions - a little thick for a tablet, and thin for laptops in its class. This is to be expected, because the ATIV Q is meeting both in the middle.

Other specs include a 128GB SSD storage drive, an Intel HD Graphics 4400 chip, 4GB DDR3 low voltage RAM, a 720p HD camera, and it's all powered by an Intel Core i5 processor. Samsung hasn't released the clock speed on the processor, but we do know it's one of the new energy-sipping Haswell chips, and Samsung says that will allow this convertible tab with a beast of a screen to run for up to 9 hours.

Samsung has not hinted at the price of the ATIV Q yet, but considering its Haswell processor and ridiculously high-resolution display (and the fact that it's two devices in one), the price will probably reflect its next-generation multi-tasking appeal.

Competition

However, the ATIV Q isn't the only game in town when it comes to laptop/tablet fusers, as Asus announced its Transformer Book Trio hybrid weeks ago. Besides its lower-resolution 11.6-inch display, Asus's Windows 8/Android combo sports beefier specs, which they doubled for their hybrid device. The Transformer Book Trio has an Intel Core i7 (higher grade Haswell) processor with a 750GB hard drive for the PC side, while the Android tablet (the screen is simply detachable) has 64GB flash storage and a 2.0GHz ARM processor of its own.

This is an interesting time, and we'll have to see in the coming months what configurations of the PC/Tablet hybrid truly prove to be useful, portable, and cheap enough to become popular. Of course, this all hinges on whether Microsoft can get its Windows 8 act together.