Reference Auto

Samsung seems to be going all out with myriad products – right from catering to the high-end category (with its latest Galaxy Tab 2 311) to getting into the mass market for handsets with the Rex series, which may take a backseat so far as competition with Nokia’s Asha series is concerned (at least initially).

The 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 311 has come into the country, and in e-Bay, it has been priced at Rs 13,900.

The Galaxy Tab 2 311 comes with similar specifications compared to its 3G counterpart, the Galaxy Tab 2 310. But this new handset does not come with 3G support. This is an impediment.

The 341 g-weighing tablet offers a 7-inch PLS TFT LCD display with a 1024x600 (WSVGA) resolution. The tablet has been pre-installed with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with a 3-megapixel rear and VGA front cameras.

A 3 MP camera for a tablet priced at Rs 14,000 may be unacceptable to many gizmo buffs.

The tablet is propelled by a 1 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB RAM and has 16 GB internal storage with expansion up to 32 GB via microSD.

It has a 4,000 mAh battery and connectivity types include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and USB 2.0. The Galaxy Tab 2 311 comes with a litany of pre-loaded educational content and users can download additional material from the Korean major’s My Education service.

This is a clear indication that Samsung is focusing on the mass student market with this tablet, but the price is a tad higher.

Samsung has in its stable the Galaxy Tab 2 310, which comes for Rs 19,500. The 3G variant of the tablet was priced at Rs 23,250 during launch.

This year, Samsung is expected to bring in the Galaxy Tab 3 series along with the Galaxy Note 8.0, which could be price around $300.

Samsung also recently rolled out the Rex series of smartphones for between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,500 in a bid to vie with Nokia’s Asha series (which come for between Rs 3,500 and Rs 8,500).

The Samsung Rex series handsets.

Samsung’s four Rex devices are: Rex 60 (Rs 4,280), Rex 70 (Rs 4,570), Rex 80 (Rs 5,270) and Rex 90 (Rs 6,490) and will hit the market in about seven days.



During the launch, Samsung vice-president Asim Warsi had said, “Feature phones bring in almost 70 per cent of our sales and offers a big opportunity to handset makers, especially in a market like India. We are eyeing users who are looking for social networking, games and surfing on the Internet on affordable phones.”

But how good will just four Rex devices be, especially after Nokia has revved up by rolling out 12 Asha handsets in a year and sold 16 million Asha smartphones in the last six months?

Rex handsets are dual SIM touchscreen devices and run on Java platform. The phones come pre-loaded with a litany of applications like Facebook, messengers like ChatON and GTalk and mobile browser Opera.

However, none of the phones support 3G and this is a big hindrance factor for its sales.

In order to see surging sales for its Rex series, Samsung must roll out more such models (like Nokia did with Asha) but the Galaxy Tab 2 311 is catering to the myriad products that high-end users seek but how good will it be without 3G support?