Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus launches next month

Samsung's big hardware upgrade to its first-ever tablet, the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, had a name as of the device's announcement late last month. And Samsung has now finally gotten around to announcing a release date and price for the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. According to the company, the upgraded version of the Galaxy Tab will start selling in the U.S. on November 13 for $399.99 – all of $100 less expensive than the starting price for tablets from Samsung's chief rival as of late, Apple (it's also much smaller than the iPad as well.)

So what are some of the big improvements arriving on this 7-inch tablet refresh? For starters, the 7.0 Plus is taking a leap from Android 2.2 to Android 3.2 – that's a move from the Froyo iteration of Google's operating system to Honeycomb. Samsung's still slapping its Touchwiz interface on top of Honeycomb, which includes new resizable widgets and a sticky "mini app" tray that can be pulled up from any screen on the device and used to load a variety of preset apps on the device.

As for the core components of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, expect to see a 1.2-Ghz dual-core processor combined with one gigabyte of RAM within Samsung's tablet. The device will be split into a 16-gigabyte or 32-gigabyte variant as far as its internal storage goes, although owners will be able to add up to 32 gigabytes of additional capacity as a result of the MicroSD card on the 7.0 Plus.

The screen on the 7.0 Plus, measuring seven inches across the diagonal (hence the name), will run at a 1024-by-600 resolution and support four-way rotation, thanks to the tablet's built-in gyroscope and accelerometer. You'll be able to hook up to the Web via a built-in Wireless-N connection, but the 7.0 Plus also supports cellular connectivity on an HSPA+21 or EDGE/GPRS network.

As for what's launching November 13, however, Samsung is just releasing the 16-gigabyte version of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (Wi-Fi only) to retailers nationwide – preorders begin on October 23. That leaves the fate of the 32-gigabyte version of the tablet, as well as carrier-supported tablets that tap into cellular connectivity, up in the air: Although these are expected to hit the market at some point in the future, Samsung has made no indication as to when consumers might be able to get their hands on the "fancier" versions of its big tablet refresh.

This article, written by David Murphy, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.