Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Lite just leaked — and it could beat iPad Air with 5G

(Prototype credit: Henry T. Casey)

The Samsung Milky way Tab S7 was a hit with us when we reviewed it terminal year. With a superbly abrupt screen and peak tier design, we described it as the best iPad Pro competitor all the same.

Now it looks like Samsung is planning on giving the tablet the Lite handling. Sammobile has uncovered evidence that the company is working on a new mid-range tablet it suspects will eventually appear on shelves labelled either Milky way Tab S7 Low-cal or Milky way Tab S8e, in a nod to the cut-back Galaxy S10e smartphone.

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According to the site's sources, the Tab S7 Lite (or whatsoever it ends up being called) will arrive in three possible configurations: Wi-Fi, LTE and 5G, with the model numbers SM-T730, SM-T735 and SM-T736B/SM-T736N.

Sammoblie goes on to cite more unspecified evidence that Samsung might also plan on making a version of the tablet with the Plus or XL designation, presumably with both a larger battery and more than screen real estate, every bit seen on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus.

That'due south all the details provided, but if by grade is annihilation to become by, nosotros shouldn't accept as well long to expect to observe out more than. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Light emerged in April 2020, so it wouldn't be wholly surprising if the cutback version of the S7 appeared this spring.

Speaking of the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, the tablet may offering some clues into how Samsung plans on making the Galaxy Tab S7 Lite that bit more affordable. The answers are everything you lot'd expect: internally, Samsung went from using a Snapdragon 855 SoC to its ain Exynos 9611 chip, and cutting the RAM from viii/6GB to 4GB.

The screen was pared back from a 2,560 ten 1,600 AMOLED brandish to a 2,000 x ane,200 LCD console, the camera megapixel counts were dropped on the front and back, and the in-screen fingerprint reader was nowhere to be seen.

There was also no first-party keyboard cover for it, and no DeX support, damaging its productivity credentials. Still, the Tab S6 did go along the bundled S Pen, which is quite a big bargain when compared to its iPad rivals, where an Apple tree Pencil must always be bought separately.

Of course, but because this is the road Samsung has taken with its 'Lite' tablets in the past, doesn't mean information technology will be the same this fourth dimension around. And possibly a Plus or XL model of the Tab S7 Lite means there volition be a bit of option over merely how cut-back things volition exist. We'll take to wait and run across as more than details emerge over the next few months.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing almost tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are plant all over the web and in the occasional magazine besides. When not weighing upwards the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games excess. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.