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Samsung races against rumors of an Apple 'iPad Pro' with two new 12-inch tablets

South Korean electronics giant Samsung on Monday fired a preemptive shot across the bow of Apple's widely-rumored, yet still unannounced, large-screened iPad with the new Galaxy Note Pro and Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2-inch slates.


Samsung's Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 with S Pen stylus

Both tablets sport identical 2560 x 1600 pixel "super clear" displays and share many of the same internal components, with Samsung tapping its own Exynos 5 Octa application processor in the 3G-enabled units and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 for the LTE-provisioned rigs. Each comes with 3 gigabytes of RAM and can be configured with either 32 or 64 gigabytes of built-in storage.

Along with the jumbo-sized display comes a dramatic increase in weight: both models tip the scales at nearly 1.7 pounds in their base configurations, a premium of more than half a pound over Samsung's smaller tablets.

Rather than adapting its TouchWiz user interface customizations for the larger screen real estate, Samsung has instead chosen to develop a new skin it calls Magazine UX, which features multiple tile-based home screens that appear to follow the paradigm established by Microsoft's Windows 8. Magazine UX runs atop version 4.4, or "Kit Kat," of Google's Android operating system and brings a variety of productivity features including the ability to run up to four apps concurrently and support for the company's S Pen stylus.

Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2
Samsung's Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2

Pricing for the hulking tablets has yet to be announced, but normally-reliable Samsung watchers SAMMobile.com have leaked the devices' European costs in a series of tweets. The Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 LTE variant is expected to fetch €849 ($1,158) at retail, with the Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 LTE model coming in at €749 ($1,021).

Samsung's announcement comes as rumors swirl around a potential "iPad Pro" that would feature a larger, 12- to 13-inch display. One analyst went so far as to predict that such a device, equipped with a hardware keyboard in a "clamshell" form factor, would disrupt the enterprise notebook market. even more so than Apple's 9.7-inch iPad has.



63 Comments

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kent909 15 Years · 730 comments

I just love the way companies chase these rumors. Especially the watch. I personally believe Apple is not going to do a watch and if they do a 12" tablet it will be a new product and not an iPad.

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rogifan 13 Years · 10667 comments

Obviously Samsung had this in development before the "iPad Pro" rumors started. But no doubt they're rushing it to market so they can claim "first!". The software UI looks like a ripoff of Flipboard, or even HTC's sense.

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kent909 15 Years · 730 comments

I just love the way companies chase these rumors. Especially the watch. I personally believe Apple is not going to do a watch and if they do a 12" tablet it will be a new product and not an iPad.

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tzeshan 14 Years · 2350 comments

I think Samsung released the iPad Pro rumor through its legions of hitters.

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bloggerblog 16 Years · 2523 comments

It's highly unlikely that Apple will bring out a larger iPad. I don't see the practical reason. Dunno we'll see...