[Mildly Interesting] Guy Buys A Galaxy Tab S 8.4 LTE For Verizon, Except That It's Not Supposed To Exist

Back in September, the four major US carriers started launching their own LTE variants of Samsung's flagship Galaxy Tab S line. While they all offer the 10.5-inch incarnation for sale, only AT&T brought the 8.4-inch variant to market. What was interesting about this was that Verizon also had an 8.4 model (SM-T707V) in the pipeline. It passed through the FCC, but for whatever reason, it was never launched.

Fast forward to December 1, XDA user docchaos found a non-corporate Verizon Wireless authorized retailer who was offering the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 LTE for $99 on contract if you bundled it with the purchase of a new phone. After jumping on the deal, he realized he had a unicorn. Officially, Verizon does not offer this device for sale and you'll find absolutely no mention of it on either Big Red's or Samsung's websites. While this whole situation is notable in itself, what will really make tech enthusiasts envious is that this vaporware Verizon model has a Snapdragon processor, where AT&T's is rocking an Exynos.

  

One interesting point about the software on the tablet is that it's pretty old. In Samsung's build code, NG7 would date to July of 2014, which is right around the time that the Wi-Fi versions launched. I would venture to say that unless these ever get sold by Verizon, or the carrier at least acknowledges it in some capacity, there will probably never be an official software update for it. Maybe if the owner is lucky, he'll be able to find a way to get a custom ROM on it.

How exactly the retailer managed to get these in stock, and whether or not Verizon plans to sell them in the future, remains a mystery. If these ever do become commonplace, though, it would probably be the more attractive one for tech enthusiasts as compared to the AT&T model because of the Snapdragon processor and support for both GSM and CDMA.

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Shawn De Cesari

Shawn is a web developer by day and XDA's resident archivist for Nexus and Google Play Edition device OTA updates by night. When not immersing himself in code or Android, he can be found hunting down antique signs, taking road trips, listening to music, or playing video games. His daily drivers are a Nexus 6 and an iPhone 6 Plus.

source: androidpolice