Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Education Launched
by Brett Howse on May 16, 2014 2:00 AM EST
Samsung has announced a new tablet aimed at the education market. The Galaxy Tab 4 Education is a 10.1” WXGA (1280x800) device built with a ruggedized chassis and designed to work with Google Play for Education.
Samsung is hoping that the tablet features and price appeal to those doing purchasing for school divisions. The Android 4.4 device is equipped with a 1.2 GHz quad core processor (actual model number unknown), 1.5 GB of memory, and 16 GB of storage. Battery life from the 6800 mAH battery is rated at 10 hours for the 1.08 lb tablet.
Also included is a microSD card slot for an additional 64 GB of storage, 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless, NFC and a HDMI port. Samsung also includes its customizations on Android including Multi Window.
The specifications are decidedly low end by any modern definition, but the goal of this device isn’t ultimate performance, but a rugged durable device with a price a school district can afford.
The tablet will be compatible with a future upgrade of Samsung School – an interactive classroom management solution – and for an additional $30 per device, the Google Apps for Education web console can be used to manage the device.
The device is available as of today for $369.99 through Samsung distribution and channel partners.
| 10" Education Tablets | ||||||
| Galaxy Tab 4 Education | Asus Transformer Pad (Education) | iPad w/Retina | ||||
| Dimensions |
H: 9.58" (243 mm) W: 6.94" (176 mm) D: 0.31" (7.9 mm) |
H: 10.13" (257 mm) W: 7.02" (178 mm) D: 0.39" (9.9 mm) |
H: 9.5" (241.2 mm) W: 7.31" (186 mm) D: 0.37" (9.4 mm) |
|||
| Weight | 1.08 lbs (490g) | 1.19 lbs (550g) | 1.46lbs (662g) | |||
| CPU | Quad Core Quallcomm (1.2 GHz) | Intel Bay Trail-T Z3740 (1.33 GHz) | Dual Core A6X (1.4 GHz) | |||
| GPU | N/A | Intel HD Graphics | PowerVR SGX 554MP4 | |||
| RAM | 1.5 GB LPDDR3 | 1 GB LPDDR3 | 1 GB LPDDR2 | |||
| Storage | 16 GB + 64 GB microSD | 16 GB + 64 GB microSD | 16 GB | |||
| Display Size and Resolution | 10.1" 1280x800 | 10.1" 1280x800 | 9.7" 2048x1536 | |||
| Battery | 6800 mAh | N/A | 11,560 mAh | |||
| Price | $369 + $30 for Management Console | $269 + $30 for Management Console, optional keyboard dock $60 | $399 | |||
There is definitely some stiff competition in this space, with the Asus Transformer Pad education version coming in at a far lower cost, but without the ruggedized build. Apple's iPad is also very successful in the K-12 education market.
Update: Samsung has confirmed to us that it's a Qualcomm SoC, but wouldn't disclose the exact part. This means it is likely a Cortex A7 CPU, but the rest of the details are unknown.
Source: Samsung
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dylan522p - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
Holy hell that is so overpriced.FITCamaro - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
You're paying for the more rugged packaging and extra software.FITCamaro - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
Let me also add that I hope none of these sell. Teach kids the old fashioned way. With paper and pen. It worked just fine for the rest of us. I support electronic text books but think parents should have to pay for the device to use them themselves. Tax payers aren't here to provide kids with the latest and greatest way to read a book.designerfx - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
This is silly and irrelevant. Modern technology exists and there is no reason not to leverage it.Ruggedizing is important considering kids tend to trash the heck out of hardware.
FITCamaro - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
There is a reason. It's expensive. And taxpayers are broke. We have more important things to worry about than making sure kids can use tablets instead of books. It's unnecessary for the education process.And when I was a kid (I'm 31 btw), if you trashed a book, that meant you just permanently bought it. How about there be consequences to kids trashing stuff rather than taxpayers footing the bill for it.
jamdev12 - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
You know, I've had this debate as well, but I have to say there plusses and minuses for both. The feedback loop created with an electronic device is by all means much faster than pen and paper, though I will say that based on studies done with kids in the developed world, kids from Finland do alot better than our kids here and they don't use electronic devices in the classroom. Of course they do have other things going for them, like teachers who are treaded decently (not saying all teachers deserve this, there are some bad ones in the system that should be thrown out). In the end there are positives and negatives to both.hpglow - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
Have you bought a textbook? They are damn expensive. My college books were ususally $80 to $130 a peice. I can't imagine K-12 are any less expensive. If a school could eliminate a book or two or save $10 to $20 per book that a tablet could pay for itself after a couple years. Assuming the kids didn't trash them.There is no reason to assume that kids parents wouldn't be responsible for a broken tablet. This, however is a big sticking point of a tab... durability. No matter how well they ruggidize them a book is pretty damn durable when it comes to being slammed around. The next issue is that there are distractions avalible on a tablet. I would hope the software would be designed to mitigate this but who know these are schools.
SunLord - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
Normally I'd agree with you but Books are very expensive and most school districts keep reusing outdated books or have made it so you aren't allowed to take a book out of the class room. So students are no longer assigned books they can take home and they can only read them in the classroom because its to expensive to replace them.If every student has a tablet the school can buy an eBook license to cover every student in a grade and then they only have to worry about a student braking a tablet vs ruining an out a print book that's super expensive to replace. The cost of eBook might be a concern but I have a feeling Google has worked out price deals so books are well below what a print version would cost plus updates and revisions are easily fixed so they don't need to re-buy 1000 books just to get the newest updated info.
The only place that will have issues will be the backwater shit holes pushing creationism and young earth which I doubt will make it into the Google play bookstore
loki1725 - Sunday, May 18, 2014 - link
Sadly it doesn't work this way. eBooks cost school districs FAR more money than paper text books. When a district buys a set of paper based books, they anticipate that set last ~10 years. When you buy a license of an eBook, that license isn't transferable from one year to the next. It's assigned to a student, and when that student moves on, the license moves on with them. That means a district has the buy every book, for every student, every year. A 10X increase of paper books. This is the primary reason why schools, even schools that heavily invest in technology, still use paper based books.It's sad, and stupid that the publishing model works this way but there isn't a lot of effort to change it in the K-12 space yet. College is getting some traction with free/low cost eBooks but that's a much more competitive market.
lifeblood - Monday, May 19, 2014 - link
"Teach kids the old fashioned way."And how would that be, with books and a whiteboard? Or with a chalkboard? Or with figures drawn in the dirt with sticks? Can we whip kids with switches like in the old days?
New doesn’t necessarily mean better, but neither does it mean worse. A tablet can enable new, more efficient methods of learning. The real trick is to figure out what works best for what you’re trying to teach. Some subjects can be improved with technology, other things can’t. If it can be demonstrated how tablets enhance learning, then bring them on.