Samsung announces new rugged devices, bringing faster chips, bigger batteries, and more

Samsung has announced its latest set of rugged devices: the Galaxy XCover7 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro. This comes two years after the launch of the XCover6 Pro. Unlike the XCover6 Pro that shipped with the Snapdragon 778G, the new XCover7 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3.

That’s a shift from a 6nm to a 4nm process, so you’re looking at slightly better power efficiency and performance, though not a dramatic leap. The RAM and storage stay at 6GB and 128GB, but there’s still microSD support, up to 2TB.

Battery capacity sees a slight bump, from 4,050 mAh on the XCover6 Pro to 4,350 mAh. Like the last-gen model, the battery remains user-replaceable, which is something you don’t see often anymore. Samsung seems to know its audience here.

Audio quality gets some love this time. Samsung has added stereo speakers with anti-feedback noise suppression, which should reduce that irritating echo that tends to happen with push-to-talk apps. This might not matter to the average consumer, but for people in construction, security, or logistics, it’s the kind of thing that helps in noisy environments.

The screen is a 6.6-inch FHD+ TFT LCD with up to a 120Hz refresh rate, the same as the XCover6 Pro, but with the addition of Vision Booster for improved outdoor visibility. Touch sensitivity has also been tuned for gloved use, which, again, is a very field-friendly move.

As for durability, it still has IP68 water and dust resistance and MIL-STD-810H certification. Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ is here now, which should handle drops better than the Victus on the XCover6 Pro. Just like before, Samsung tested both the phone and the tablet to ensure they withstand cleaning with sanitizers.

Moving on, the Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro is also getting some solid upgrades. It ships with the same 7s Gen 3 chip as the XCover7 Pro, but RAM starts at 6GB and goes up to 8 GB. Storage options are either 128GB or 256GB, again expandable via microSD. The screen is still a 10.1-inch TFT panel, but brightness gets boosted to 600 nits from the Tab Active4 Pro’s 480 nits.

Samsung also added dual hot-swap battery support. That means you can remove a battery and slap in a fresh one without turning the tablet off. There's also a No Battery Mode for use in kiosks, cars, or any environment where the tablet stays plugged in full time. Between that and the 10,100mAh battery, it’s designed to last through long shifts or just sit in a truck all day without issue.

Connectivity-wise, both devices bring 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, and dual SIM support (physical and eSIM). The Tab Active5 Pro even throws in front-facing NFC, turning it into a portable POS system if needed.

Both devices support Samsung DeX, so you can dock them and get a desktop-style experience if you’re back at base. There’s also support for programmable keys, which is useful for things like barcode scanning or launching emergency alerts.

And as is the tradition for the latest Samsung devices, the company is putting some AI features into these too, like Object Eraser, Read Aloud, and Circle to Search with Google. Security is handled by Samsung Knox Vault and other layers like Real-time Kernel Protection, DEFEX, and the good old Warranty Bit to detect tampering. Here's a quick spec sheet comparing both devices:

The Galaxy XCover7 Pro and Tab Active5 Pro will be available starting this month.