Leak suggests Samsung is going after the Surface Pro with an impressive tablet PC
Samsung's TabPro S did a good job modeling itself off the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and iPad Pro, but it was no Surface Pro killer.
With no Surface Pro 5 available (yet), Samsung might get its chance to leap ahead of the competition, assuming leaked product details from The Leaker turn out to be the real deal.
Samsung's reportedly planning to announce a successor to the TabPro S in a few weeks at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the report claims.
The so-called Windows 10-powered TabPro S2 looks like it'll keep the design aesthetic of the TabPro S, meaning it'll be thin and light, but overhaul the internals. And from the looks of it, some models will run Windows 10 Home and Windows 10 Pro, and some will have 4G LTE:
At least one of the carriers that will support LTE could be Verizon:
Purported specs include a 12-inch Super AMOLED Quad HD display (2,160 x 1,440), seventh-generation "Kaby Lake" 3.1GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, Intel HD Graphics 620, 128GB of SSD storage, and a 5,070 mAh battery. All that translates to a serious workhorse machine -- this isn't some lightweight tablet for playing Tetris.
The tablet is also said to have a 5-megapixel front-facing camera and a 13-megapixel rear camera with 4K video recording. One feature we hope the front camera will support is Windows Hello facial log-in. This was one feature Mashable chief correspondent Lance Ulanoff said he wished the original TabPro S had.
For ports, the leak suggests there will be two USB 3.0 Type-C as well as a microSD card slot for storage expansion.
The market for tablet-laptop hybrids has heated up quite a bit since last year. Every PC maker seems to have a Surface clone and Apple's still trying to position the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement.
The Surface Pro 4 remains the pioneer and poster child for the product category, but that doesn't mean there's no room for Samsung.
Though Samsung usually uses Mobile World Congress to introduce a new flagship Galaxy S-series phone, the company won't be doing so this year. With no S8 to drool over, Samsung will have to show off something else; the TabPro S2 and the Tab Pro 3 could what we see in a few weeks.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
