The Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 5 is built around a rugged chassis designed to withstand tough conditions, carrying a full IP68 rating that certifies waterproof protection to a depth of 1.5 meters. Its physical dimensions measure 213.8 mm wide by 126.8 mm tall and 10.1 mm thick, with a total weight of 433 g, giving it a reasonably compact and manageable form factor for a hardened device. A stylus is included in the box, though it does not support tilt sensitivity. The tablet does not feature a detachable or backlit keyboard.
The tablet features an 8-inch IPS LCD touchscreen with a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 283 ppi, delivering a reasonably sharp image for its screen size. A 120 Hz refresh rate ensures smoother motion during scrolling and on-screen interactions, while branded damage-resistant glass adds a layer of protection to the panel. The display does not support HDR10 or HDR10+, and it is not an e-paper or sapphire glass screen.
The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G system-on-chip, built on a 6 nm process with an octa-core CPU configuration running at up to 2.4 GHz via its turbo clock, alongside a TDP of 5W. It is paired with 8 GB of RAM operating at 3200 MHz across two memory channels, supporting a maximum memory bandwidth of 25.6 GB/s and a maximum expandable memory amount of 16 GB, with 256 GB of internal storage and an external memory slot for further expansion. The Adreno 660 GPU clocks at 490 MHz, features 4 execution units and 384 shading units, and supports DirectX 12, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2. The chipset employs big.LITTLE and HMP technologies, integrates LTE, and includes TrustZone and NX bit security features, while ECC memory is not supported. Benchmark results include a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 2841, a single-core score of 1017, a PassMark score of 5553, and a single-thread PassMark score of 2070. The tablet runs Android 14 and supports 64-bit processing with an L2 cache of 2 MB.
The main camera offers a 13 MP CMOS sensor with an f/1.9 aperture and is capable of recording 4K video at 30 fps, supported by a single LED flash and a video light for low-light shooting. It includes touch autofocus, continuous autofocus during video recording, and a range of manual controls covering ISO, focus, exposure, and white balance, though manual shutter speed, optical zoom, slow-motion recording, timelapse, burst mode, panorama, and optical image stabilization are not available. The sensor is not back-illuminated, and the flash is a single-tone LED rather than dual-tone or RGB. On the front, a 5 MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture handles video calls and self-portraits, though it does not have its own flash.
The audio setup on this tablet includes a 3.5 mm headphone jack, making it straightforward to connect wired headsets or earphones. It does not feature stereo speakers, so audio output is limited to a single speaker, and there is no built-in radio tuner.
The tablet is equipped with a 5050 mAh rechargeable battery that is also user-removable, a practical feature for field use where swapping out a depleted pack may be necessary. A battery level indicator is present to keep users informed of remaining charge. Neither fast charging nor wireless charging is supported, so the device relies on standard wired charging only.
Wireless connectivity covers Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, and a cellular module with 5G support, while the device accommodates two SIM cards and reaches download speeds of up to 3700 Mbits/s and upload speeds of up to 1600 Mbits/s. Physical connections are handled via a USB Type-C port running USB 2.0, though HDMI output and Ethernet are not available. Sensors include a gyroscope, accelerometer, compass, and GPS for position tracking, while biometric options such as a fingerprint scanner, iris scanner, and 3D facial recognition are absent. On the software side, the tablet supports split screen, Picture-in-Picture, dark mode, dynamic and manual theme customization, widgets, media picker, full-page screenshots, customizable notifications, voice commands, offline voice recognition, and the ability to play games while they download. Privacy features include location privacy options, camera and microphone access controls, clipboard warnings, and app tracking blocking, though cross-site tracking blocking, Mail Privacy Protection, and Wi-Fi password sharing are not present. The device also supports multi-user operation, a child lock, battery health check, on-device machine learning, and sharing intents, but does not offer Quick Start, app offloading, focus modes, a built-in projector, or an infrared sensor, and it does not receive direct OS updates from the vendor.
The tablet uses DDR5 memory, the fifth generation of double data rate RAM technology.
