Don’t like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 price? There’s a cheap Galaxy Tab A 10.5 coming too

The new Galaxy Tab S4 10.5 is a compelling Android tablet, but because its price may be out of reach for a lot of people, Samsung also announced a cheaper version .

It’s the Samsung Galaxy Tab A, and it, too, comes with a 10.5-inch display, but has slightly less memory with 3GB of RAM and a slower chipset in the Snapdragon 450. 

Samsung promises that this cheap tablet is more than enough for “high-quality streaming features” at a “budget price”. Much like the flagship Galaxy Tab S4, the Tab A 10.5 will be running Android 8.1.

Where the device really stands out, though, is its 1920 x 1200 display, which means users will be able to consume their media on the go with a device that’ll presumably be pretty inexpensive.

While we don’t yet know how much the Tab A 10.5-inch will cost, it should be significantly cheaper than the flagship Tab S4, which is priced at $649.99 (£599, around AU$880).

High and low 

While most Android tablet manufacturers have abandoned Android tablets due to poor sales, Samsung is doubling down on them, announcing two tablets in one day to compete with the iPad in 2018. 

Samsung has been playing the tablet game for years now, but its new approach is interesting, with the Tab S4 featuring a desktop-like taskbar and optional keyboards – which makes it a more compelling device to work on. So, just like it’s interesting to stack the Galaxy Tab S4 vs the iPad Pro, we’re interested to see how this new tablet compares to the new 2018 iPad. For one thing, you shouldn’t expect S Pen or keyboard support, something cheap Apple’s tablet boasts.

The new 2018 iPad isn’t the only competition this budget Samsung tablet is going to have, either. The Microsoft Surface Go is coming out in a couple weeks, and looks to be comparable, as well. The battle of iOS vs Android vs Windows is about to begin.

We’ll know more about the pricing and the release date soon, so be sure to stay tuned. It’s going to be interesting to see where the Galaxy Tab A 10.5 carves out a niche in the market. 

Bill Thomas

Bill Thomas (Twitter) is TechRadar's computing editor. They are fat, queer and extremely online. Computers are the devil, but they just happen to be a satanist. If you need to know anything about computing components, PC gaming or the best laptop on the market, don't be afraid to drop them a line on Twitter or through email.