T-Mobile’s announced plans to release two new Android tablets, its own SpringBoard and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 – yup, the one that’s caused all the trouble in Australia and Europe.
Both boast 4G networking capability and are based on Honeycomb, or Android 3.2, and are promised ‘in time for the holidays’.
“Our customers expect the ability to access and share content on the go at 4G speeds, so we’ve created a 4G tablet portfolio of 7-, 9- and 10-inch tablets with their busy, highly mobile lives in mind,” says Jeremy Korst, vice president of mobile broadband and emerging devices.
“The T-Mobile SpringBoard with Google and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 are the perfect evolution of T-Mobile’s tablet portfolio, providing consumers with the right choice of tablet to easily look up a recipe at the grocery store, update social media sites on the bus or stream movies and music in the back seat of the car.”
The SpringBoard has a 7-inch HD multi-touch display, and is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core mobile processor. There are several preloaded entertainment applications, including Blockbuster on Demand, Netflix and T-Mobile TV.
It’s equipped with a five-megapixel rear-facing camera and video recorder with 720p for HD video capture, as well as a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. An SD card slot accommodates up to 32GB of expandable memory.
The 4G-capable Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs 1.24 pounds and features a 10.1-inch HD touchscreen display. It comes with preinstalled content and applications including T-Mobile TV, Qello, Samsung Media Hub, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD demo, SIM City Deluxe demo, Blio eReader and Zinio.
It’s based on a 1 GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, and offers full Adobe Flash Player support.
Despite the announcement, though, there’s a strong chance that the device won’t actually make it to the shelves any time soon. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the subject of a particularly acrimonious patent dispute with Apple, which has already seen sales of the device banned in Germany and Australia.
And T-Mobile’s announcement comes just days before a court hearing at which Apple is expected to ask for an injunction preventing sales of the device in the US. Santa may let a few people down this year.
