Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 and 5.0

Available now
16th February 2011

Not all tablets have to be huge.. after all, a decent smartphone can still give a good multimedia and internet experience, especially a top flight handset like the Samsung Galaxy S. So why not base a small tablet on an existing smartphone to keep the price down?

Samsung have done just that with the Samsung Galaxy S WiFi range, comprising of the Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 with a 4 inch display and 5 inch Galaxy S WiFi 5.0. The 4 inch version of this tablet is almost identical in every way to the Galaxy S smartphone (except for the phone), where the 5 inch version takes the same formula and scales it up.

These tablets run Android 2.2 (Froyo), have 800 x 480 pixel resolution displays, 1GHz processors and of course WiFi support. The camera has been downgraded slightly to 3.2 megapixels from 5 on both models plus a front facing VGA resolution video camera, but there doesn't seem to be a TV out port on these models unlike the smartphone.

Both devices still have GPS, even though that is of limited use in a tablet that can't roam too far from its wireless LAN. And because these run Android, then you can still run just about any Android application that doesn't need to use the phone. If you like, you could run a VOIP service such as Skype on the Galaxy S WiFi, so you can (sort of) make phone calls. Both handsets support 802.11 b, g and n WiFi connections.

The Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 measures 124 x 64 x 10mm and comes with a 1200mAh battery. The larger Galaxy S Wifi 5.0 measures 141 x 78 x 10mm and has a substantial 2500 mAh cell inside. Because of the larger battery, we'd suggest going for the 5 inch version if you can.

Video playback includes support for MPEG4, DivX, XviD, WMV and H.264 720p HD video, plus MP3, WMA9, Ogg, Flac and AAC audio. Internal memory is reported to be 8, 16 or 32GB (the latter it seems only on the 4" model) plus a microSD slot that can take another 32GB. There's an FM radio too, and there is of course a YouTube player available for Android as well.

Samsung say that the 4.0 should be available in the first half of 2011, and we are guessing that the 5.0 might follow shortly afterwards. There's no word at all on pricing, but Samsung say these should be a "reasonable price".  Competitors charge around €400 to €500 for a 5 inch tablet, with 4 inch tablets starting at about €200 or so. It's worth noting that Samsung already have an Android-based media player, the Samsung Galaxy Player 50 retailing for about £160 or €190, so our guess is that the Galaxy S WiFi 4.0 will be closer to the €300 mark.. still €100 cheaper than the equivalent smartphone.