When a company makes its flagship smartphone water- and dust-resistant, you can assume it is getting serious about bringing those features to more of its devices. Samsung, perhaps confident after adding ruggedness to the Galaxy S5 and releasing an even more toughened up variant in the Galaxy S5 Active, seems to be working on making its tablets rugged as well. The Korean manufacturer has applied for the “Samsung Galaxy Tab4 Active” trademark in Norway, which suggests that a rugged IP-certified version of the company's latest budget tablet lineup could be on the cards.
Rugged tablets aren't new – Sony has a couple of Xperia Z tablets with IP55/57 rating in its lineup, but the Galaxy Tab4 would be the first rugged tablet for Samsung if it makes it to market, possibly with an industrial tank-like design like the Galaxy S4/S5 Active. Of course, when you consider the fact that you're less likely to drop your tablet in the toilet (unless you often do it, in which case we won't judge) or use it as brazenly as a phone, a ruggedized tablet doesn't exactly make that much sense, but it would still be better to have the feature than to rue it later when your tablet hits the pavement or finds itself under water.
Would you buy a tablet because of its water- or dust-resistance, or do you think it's a feature that's more useful on a phone?
