LOS ANGELES, Feb 14 – In the lead-up to Mobile World Congress (MWC), Samsung has taken the wraps off a new 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2, its first tablet to feature Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.

The compact device (picture) features a 1GHz dual-core processor, a 7-inch WSVGA (1024x600p) display, a 3MP rear camera and a VGA front-facing camera. Samsung has also packed in its S Suggest app recommendation feature, its ChatON mobile communication service, a face recognition unlocking system, wireless content streaming with AllShare Play and access to more than 400,000 apps via Google’s Android Market.

“Two years ago, Samsung GALAXY Tab began to offer customers more possibilities on the go. Since then, Samsung has actively enhanced our tablet line-up with several tablets in different sizes,” said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics.

Samsung may not be hosting a press conference at this year’s MWC but the company is making sure it has some shiny new products to display on the showroom floor.

Companies including LG, HTC, Nokia, Huawei and Acer are rumoured to be planning big announcements at this year’s event. Expect to see high-powered quad-core smartphones and tablets, lots of devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, slimmer and smarter mobile devices, and claims of “world’s first...”

Samsung did not provide official prices for the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) tablet, however Samsung Hub reports that the WiFi version will be priced at around €349 (RM1,400) while the 3G version will sell for €429.

The Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) will launch in the UK first before becoming available in the global market in March. – AFP