Since the global trend has shifted towards baking large phablet-sized screens into traditional phones, the tablet market has been on a continuous downward spiral. But, Asus seems to be overlooking these facts and has decided to debut another tablet at the ongoing Computex trade show in Taipei.
Called the ZenPad 3S 8.0, this tablet carries the model number Z582KL and is only a minor upgrade over the previous-gen ZenPad 3.8 Z581KL model. It only brings along a specification boost, i.e faster processors, more memory and better software. The device still sports a 7.9-inch QuadHD screen with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels. It is powered by the Snapdragon 625 chipset, coupled with 4GB of RAM and two storage variants — 32GB and 64GB.
As for the optics, the ZenPad 3S brings along a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera for your selfie needs. The software has been upgraded to the latest flavor of Android– Nougat but has been skinned to run its own bloatware atop the vanilla offering. No official listing of the device is out yet, so we have no info on the availability and pricing of the device.
In addition to an unnecessary tablet release, Asus has made some meaningful additions to its laptop lineup. The Taiwanese hardware company has debuted the world’s thinnest laptop, ZenBook Flip S, which is just 10.9mm thin and packs the usual powerful internals and a 4K touchscreen. It has also emphasized on the abilities of its Tango-powered Zenfone AR, which will start shipping sometime in July in the U.S.
As market research from IDC shows, the fourth quarter shipments of the tablet market continued to mark the ninth (9th) consecutive quarter that tablet shipments have declined. The hardware manufacturers shipped 52.9 million tablets in the fourth quarter, which was a decline of 20.1 percent from the same quarter one year ago. Thus, the tablet market is growing stale but Asus still seems to be supporting its lineup with this fresh upgrade — for an unknown reason!
Source: GSMArena, Roland Quandt
