Samsung Ativ Tab flies into our office straight from the IFA floor, puts us in the Windows 8 RT driver’s seat

Samsung has been keen to point out its commitment to the Windows 8 platform recently and the freshly-announced Ativ Tab is the proof that it wasn’t just PR talk. What’s more, based on our first impressions of the slate, the company might become a major player in the Windows tablet game.

The Ativ Tab is built around a 10.1″ IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and 400-nits of brightness. It’s powered by a Snapdragon S4 APQ8060a chipset, featuring a 1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU and 2GB of RAM.

The Samsung Ativ Tabs weighs just 570 grams, which is a decent achievement for tablet of this size. Thanks to that and its 8.9mm slim waistline, the Ativ Tab handles quite nicely as far as 10″ slates go.

The Samsung ATIV Tab front, back and sides

In terms of connectivity, the Samsung Ativ Tab offers NFC, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, microHDMI and a full USB 2.0 port, as well as a microSD card slot. On the back, there’s a 5MP camera with LED flash, while a 1.9MP snapper at the front takes care of video-chatting.

Overall, the Ativ Tab looks very slick with a plastic back that resembles the hyperglaze material of the Galaxy S III. We like what Samsung has done this time better though, and the good impressions continue when you move to the front which contains only one button – the Windows key. Just like the Galaxy Note 10.1, the stereo speakers are situated at the front on either side of the display, which we find to be the best solution in terms of user experience.

Windows 8 is expected to be released at the end of October, but our experience with the Consumer Preview running on the Ativ Tab was positive. The new UI is quick and looks sharp, and the navigation is drastically different from previous Windows releases – even Windows Phone, despite the similar styling. You will most likely need some time to learn your way around the OS, but once you do you’ll really appreciate what Microsoft has done with the place.

Here’s our hands-on video of the Samsung ATIV Tab’s user interface.

So, how do you feel about the Samsung ATIV Tab now that you got to know it a little better? Our preview is already in the works, but if there’s anything particular that you need to know about the tablet now is a good time to post your questions.