Samsung slate picture leaked

Posted on 4 Jun 2010 at 10:21

An early image of Samsung's up-coming iPad-style slate device has been released - and quickly retracted - by the company's South African division.

The image - which appears to have been uploaded by Samsung South Africa to the company's Twitpic stream by mistake, before being captured by Liliputing - has since been removed, but was up long enough to reveal some initial details about Samsung's answer to the iPad.

The most obvious is its size: compared to the smartphone next to it, the slate - thought to be due for release under the name Samsung Galaxy Tab or sPad - features a screen size of around seven inches, making it somewhat smaller than Apple's iPad - although there's no clear way to guess a the resolution of the display from the image posted.

The device appears to be running a customised version of Google's Android, complete with Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz interface, which is, frankly, terrible. It would mean that updates to the OS are unlikely to be rolled out because the proprietary UI would also need updating and Samsung hasn't been particularly good at rolling out OS updates on its handsets in the past.

With that said, it's possible that it is actually a modified build of Samsung's own mobile operating system, bada, complete with its TouchWiz UI, but Samsung has gone quiet after removing the image from its Twitpic stream.

The Korea Herald has it that this will be the first of three Samsung slate-style devices, with an expected launch date in August and to be followed by an 8in device and a 10in device by December.

Anyone curious as to the capabilities of the Galaxy Tab will just have to wait and see what transpires.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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