Samsung introduces new Galaxy Tab tablets

Last week in London, the tech giant announced two new Windows 8 slates: the ATIV Q and the ATIV Tab 3. Only four months earlier at Mobile Sphere Congress in Barcelona, Samsung has introduced one more model, the Galaxy Note 8 tablet. And today, Samsung said that it was bringing out three new Galaxy Tab 3 tablets in 7 inch, 8 inch and 10.1 inch screen dimensions. The 7 inch device will run going on the Android 4.2 operating system, while the latter devices run on Android 4.1 operating system.

The latest machines start incoming in the U.S. on July 7, with Samsung starting to accept pre orders Wednesday. The Tab 3 models come in white or a hue Samsung describes as gold brown. Prices are $199, $299 and $399, respectively.

While Samsung appears have a model in its portfolio that would theoretically appeal to any given tablet consumer, it also risks confusing consumers. Which is it now, a Galaxy Tablet, Galaxy Note 8 and ATIV? Or is it perhaps the Galaxy Note II "phablet" that depending on your viewpoint is either a small tablet or oversized smartphone?

Samsung is insistent this latest Tablet 3 trio as a less expensive alternative to the Note 8, with a user edge that ought to be familiar and serve as a complement to folks who have bought the company's current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S 4.

Samsung cites research from Forrester stating that 49% of U.S.A. clients who own both a mobile phone and tablet pc prefer the tablet as their primary device to go online. And data from the same assessment further indicates that across 25 types of tablet applications there is no single dominant use of tablets by users.

The survey goes on to say that a distinctive user is more well defined by their lack of uniformity as evidenced by the fact that they engage in a widely varied mix of five to six different application types in a given month with only games topping the 50% threshold for all tablet users.

The tablets are Wi-Fi only, but customers do get one year of Boingo hotspot service gratis, along with three months of free Hulu Plus service and two years of free DropBox Service with up to 50 GB storage space.

Each Tab 3 has a dual core processor and extendable memory (through microSD), with the 7-inch tab starting you off with 8GB of storage and the two larger models with 16 GB.

Tab 3's are less healthy than their premium Android sibling, the $399 Galaxy Note 8, which would appeal more to people who tend to use their tablets for creative hobbies. For instance, Galaxy Note 8 users can exploit Samsung's so called S Pen for drawing, scrawl notes and taking advantage of other tricks.

Indeed, the existence of the digital pen is one way to distinguish a Note 8 from a Tab 3 without consulting a scorecard.