Samsung's newest mid-range tablet comes with a rugged design

UPDATE: The Galaxy Tab Active 3 is now official, and unsurprisingly, all the information revealed ahead of the slate's announcement has proven accurate. Marketed as a "productivity powerhouse", this bad boy comes with DeX support, IP68 water and dust resistance, military-grade certification for the "most extreme" work environments, as well as a "powerful" Exynos 9810 processor under the muscular hood, paired with 4 gigs of memory, 128 gigs of storage space, and a fast-charging 5,050mAh battery.

Unfortunately, Samsung is staying completely mum on the mid-range tablet's pricing and availability details, merely promising to release this thing in "select markets including but not limited to Europe and Asia starting today." Our original story follows below.

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This is an entirely different kettle of fish from all the above-mentioned tablets, mind you, aiming to cater primarily to business professionals and enterprises rather than everyday consumers. In other words, the upcoming Galaxy Tab Active 3, whose name was revealed by regulatory documents a couple of weeks ago, has a rugged design and a set of pre-installed field-ready tools going for it instead of your conventionally impressive specs and features.

Of course, specifications are still important when talking about a gadget that needs to handle difficult work environments and juggle multiple business tasks at once, and according to SamMobile, this undoubtedly muscular bad boy will not be a pushover from that standpoint either.

As the name suggests, the Galaxy Tab Active 3 is set to follow in the footsteps of the ancient Tab Active 2, but at the same time, it's definitely worth pointing out that Samsung released a Galaxy Tab Active Pro model as well just a year or so ago.

If SamMobile's inside information is to be trusted (which is almost always the case), the Galaxy Tab Active 3 will share its 8-inch screen size with the Tab Active 2 while borrowing the 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution from the 10.1-inch Tab Active Pro and thus upping the pixel density ante. Interestingly, the next-gen rugged tablet will not share a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor with 2019's Galaxy Tab Active Pro, opting instead for an in-house high-end Exynos 9810 chipset... from 2018.

That's right, this slate will pack the same SoC as the Galaxy S9 handset, which might not be as bad as it sounds if Samsung nails the price point. Not in combination with a decent 4 gigs of RAM and up to 128 gigs of internal storage space, as well as a reasonably large 5,050mAh battery improving on the 4,450mAh cell capacity of the Tab Active 2 and optional LTE connectivity.

Speaking of options, you will reportedly be able to buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 3 alongside a productivity-enhancing S Pen if you so choose, with the slate's middling spec sheet set to be completed by pre-loaded Android 10 software, a 13MP rear-facing camera, 5MP selfie shooter, and Bluetooth 5.0 support. Undoubtedly built to withstand extreme temperatures and vibration in addition to shocks, drops, dust, and water immersion, the tablet is also expected to retain its forerunners' handy trio of physical buttons below its 8-inch display.

If the $680 MSRP of the unlocked 4G LTE-enabled Galaxy Tab Active Pro with a 10.1-inch screen is any indication, we can probably expect the Tab Active 3 to cost a little more than 500 bucks in a similar configuration.