Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has Ice Cream Sandwich, not much else

Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung on Monday announced its first Android tablet to be powered by Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) will be the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2.

Though it's called the Galaxy Tab 2, it's actually the third of Samsung's 7" tablets. The first Galaxy Tab debuted in September 2010, and then just about a year later, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus was launched.

What's noteworthy about the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) besides the fact that it's Samsung's first Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) tablet, is that it actually appears to have specs that are only marginally better than the first generation Galaxy Tab from 2010.

The first 7" Galaxy Tab had a 1.0 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 Samsung "Hummingbird" processor, a 3.2 megapixel rear-facing camera and a 1.3 megapixel forward-facing chat camera. It offered HSDPA or EV-DO rev A 3G connectivity and shipped with Android 2.2 (Froyo).

Then, the 7.0+ was equipped with a slightly more powerful 1.2GHz dual core processor, a 3 megapixel rear-facing camera and 2 megapixel forward-facing camera, 16GB of built-in storage, HSPA+ connectivity, and Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).

Now, the Galaxy Tab 2 appears to have scaled back just a bit in the power department and has a 1GHz dual-core processor, 3 megapixel rear-facing camera and, VGA forward-facing camera, 21mbps HSPA+ connectivity, and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The arrival of Apple's iPad 3 later this year is likely to presage an overall refresh to Samsung's Galaxy Tab line. It will be interesting to see how the specs improve across the full Galaxy Tab line, and if they are as minor as the ones made in the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0).

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) will first launch in the UK, and will be launched in global market beginning in March. A price was not announced for the device today.