Samsung announces Galaxy Tab 3 devices for Australia

Samsung has announced the Australian launch of its Galaxy Tab 3 range of Android tablets.

The company will offer three Galaxy Tab devices in 10.1in, 8in and 7in sizes.

The devices will retail for $249, $349, and $399, respectively, and will go on pre-sale in Australia from tomorrow.

The Galaxy Tab 3 products will initially be available as Wi-Fi only tablets and are priced as entry level products.

Samsung's vice president of telecommunications, Tyler McGee, says the Galaxy Tab 3 range offers consumers "great product choice" to support the growing demand for tablets in Australia.

"We recognise that tablets are becoming an essential device for a wide range of Australians, but perhaps most significant is the uptake and use among families."

"The Galaxy Tab 3 represents the next evolution of our highly successful Galaxy Tab 2 range, offering consumers more of what they have come to expect from the Galaxy brand, with an array of options in terms of size, local content and features."

The Galaxy Tab 3 devices have almost identical software and are only differentiated by screen sizes and a slight variation in technical specifications.

The Galaxy Tab 3 7-inch has a 1024x600 screen, is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, has 1GB of RAM and comes with 8GB of internal memory.

The Galaxy Tab 3 8-inch has 1280x800 screen, a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera. It has 16GB internal memory and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.

The larger Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 has the same resolution screen as the Galaxy Tab 3 8-inch but includes a faster 1.6GHz dual-core processor. However, it only has a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera.

All three models feature a microSD card slot for memory expansion and run the latest version of Google's Android operating system, Jelly Bean 4.2.

Samsung has confirmed the Galaxy Tab 3 range in Australia will come with 50GB of Dropbox cloud storage for two years, a one month free trial of Samsung's Music Hub music streaming service, a 14 day trial of Quickflix's movie and TV subscription streaming service, and a 60 Day Mobile Security Trial from Norton.

All three Galaxy Tab 3 models also come with a two year hardware warranty.

While the Galaxy Tab 3 range will initially be available as Wi-Fi only tablets, McGee confirmed that 4G models of the tablets will be released in Australia in the coming months.

"Yes there will be [4G devices], and they will be coming towards the end of Q3. I can't divulge carrier info yet."

"We won't bring anything other than 4G devices to the marketplace in tablets."

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 range will be available from Thursday, 18 July on pre-sale through Samsung's Experience Stores in Sydney and Melbourne.

Samsung says the devices will be available "soon" through major Samsung retail partners.