Bixby’s been on a bunch of phones and several appliances. Until now, however, Samsung’s smart assistant has been largely MIA on the company’s tablets. Of course, I’ve never pretended to have the faintest idea of the company’s strategy here.
Anyway, just ahead of MWC and its own Unpacked (S10) event, the company just dropped a bunch of info about the Tab S5e, its first slate to sport Bixby 2.0. A key part of the feature’s arrival is Samsung’s plan to make its mobile products a centerpiece of its smart home play.
As the company notes, “Tab S5e offers a smarter and more convenient way to interact with your device, and serves as an ideal hub to control your connected home devices. Switch on your TV and your lights at the same time with Quick Command, which allows you to customize several actions under one command—making voice control of your home environment even quicker, simpler and more tailored to you.”
There are, as noted, a number of appliances that support Bixby, though it’s largely limited to Samsung’s own. That’s a pretty severe limitation at the moment, when compared to the likes of Alexa, Siri and Google Home, of course.
The new tablet also features a bulked-up battery rated at 14.5 hours, a 10.5-inch sAMOLED display and up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It will be available in Q2, starting at $400.
