TheEverythingNow: iPad's biggest threat has arrived: Meet the Samsung Galaxy Tab S

Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Tab S (10.5) and Galaxy Tab S (8.4) yesterday. The Android tablets sport Super AMOLED screens worth WQXGA resolution (2,560 x 1,600 pixels) resulting in insanely high pixel densities (well at least for a tablet). The 10.5" Galaxy Tab S, rocks 288 ppi, while the 8.4" Galaxy Tab S 8.4 one cranks it up to 359 ppi.

These Super AMOLED panels offer excellent contrast and saturated colours, but also come with the added benefit of being extra slim. The Galaxy Tab S tablets are a meagre 6.6mm thick (just 0.2mm short of the Xperia Z2 Tablet) and quite light. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.5 Wi-Fi tips the scale at 465 grams and 467 grams for the LTE version and the Galaxy Tab 8.4 is just 294 grams and 298 grams for the LTE version.

Speaking about Wifi and LTE versions, Samsung will offer the tablets with two chipset varieties. The LTE Tab S will pack a Snapdragon 800 (a 2.3GHz quad-core Krait 400 CPU), and the Wi-Fi Tab S will go with Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa chipset (a quad 1.3GHz Cortex-A7 and quad 1.9GHz Cortex-A15 paired with an ARM Mali-T628). Both variants of the Tab S will arrive with 3GB of RAM. Samsung will offer the Tab S with 16GB or 32GB flavors with a microSD card slot on board supporting up to 128GB cards. Battery size for both tablets are pretty good (especially considering their thickness) the 10.5" features a 7,900mAh Li-Ion battery while the 8.4" has a 4,900mAh Li-Ion battery.

Following Apple's TouchID, Samsung introduced a fingerprint scanner in their 2014 flagship, the Galaxy S5. Now, Samsung improved the fingerprint scanner on the Tab S and combined it with Android Tablet's multi-user feature. Now, you can have upto 8 user accounts on the Tab S and just by swiping your finger on the home button, it will open you account. This is something Apple and others can learn from Samsung.

For all those who are into tablet photography, Samsung has equipped both tablets sport 8MP cameras with LED flash and made them capable of recording 1080p video. And for selfies and videochatting (which we guess is the main use of a camera on a tablet), both the Tab S' have 2.1MP front-facing snappers. Just like their smartphone counterparts, the Galaxy Tab S family also sports a number of sensors - IR blaster on the side and a fingerprint scanner in the Home button are the main stars here.

The design of the slate is something which we are really sceptical about, but again the question is to be answered by the consumer, weather he likes Samsung's faux leather and faux metal design philosophy or not. The slates. like the Galaxy S5, have a dimpled plastic back with a faux leather look.

The slates will boot Android 4.4 KitKat with Samsung's Magazine UX with Samsung extras like Multi Window, S Voice and a collection of proprietary apps.

Pre-orders for the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and Galaxy Tab S 8.4 start today, but actual shipments are expected to start on in July. Prices start at $399 (approx. Rs. 23812) for the Galaxy Tab 8.4 and $499 (approx. Rs. 29780) for the Galaxy Tab S 10.5.

Is this the Android-touting iPad Air we have all been waiting for? Or is this another Samsung slate which will fade away in the rigorous competition by Apple, Asus and others? What do you think? Did Samsung do it right this time?