Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 full review with video- is it worth the price?

Samsung galaxy tab 2 7.0 is a 7 inch dual core tablet running Android 4.0 ICS. Lets jump into full review below.

Design

This is a very neat looking device. It is rounded on the corners and is comfortable to hold in hand. At first it feels heavy in hand but as you start using the tab, it feels normal and the weight is not noticed that much. The back is plastic dark grey in colour. There is a camera on the top left side and in top centre the Samsung logo is present.

The border of the device extends from the side of the device to front on the top and bottom. This is titanium grey in colour and it feels nice and does not harm your hands. In front there is a black bezel present on all four sides of the screen. On top there is a 3.5mm jack with a microphone beside it and on bottom is the Samsung proprietary connector with a set of stereo speakers on its both sides. These speakers are covered by metal mesh and beside the right speaker there is a microphone present. On the right side of the tab 2 is the power button and volume rocker. On the left side SIM card and MicroSD card slot are present which are protected by a cover with labels on top of it. This is nice of Samsung because for new adaptors it is a point of convenience.

The build quality of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is strong and tough. It did not feel perky or shaky. However this is not that big device. If you feel like holding it in one hand and playing some casual games, it is a pleasant experience. If you have small hands holding the device in one hand will be a bit more tough than usual. Over complete device, you do not feel any sharp things to bother which is nice considering you will use it a lot of time to watch videos and movies.

Screen

A screen is the focus line for mobile or tablet computing device. There is a 7 inch screen present on the galaxy tab 2. This is a PLS LCD screen and the resolution is 1024x600. The screen is nowhere low in quality and the resolution also does not bother any. The colours are vibrant on this screen, the vividness is felt when you watch a movie or have very rich quality wallpaper set up as background. I did not like the default wallpaper that came preset on the galaxy tab 2 because it is light in colour and the text is not very viewable. This screen really looked nice when the wallpaper to phase beam live wallpaper. The contrast is above average but do not expect AMOLED. It also does not harm your eyes by oversaturation the, the colours are natural and tend to be real. The screen is crisp on normal used distance and the pixels cannot be distinguished. I have also shown a close up image of the screen and its distance counterpart. You can notice that when you use it at a normal distance, you do not feel any pixilation but when you go that further as the image is, you might feel it is pixelated. I don’t think anyone on any normal day would go that close. The screen only does not spoil the pleasure to use this device, but it only makes the whole experience better. Viewing angles are not the best but it is quiet good from sideways, colour does not blow away. If you want to use it for multiple user movie watching experience, it won’t disappoint.

Touch Sensitivity

The heart of the device (touch response) beats well. The Samsung galaxy tab 2 7.0 will definitely not disappoint you with touch screen performance. The sensitivity is amazing and the response time is equally good. This feels a device for its price. There are 10 Touch points on the device (the max i could test). The multi touch capability of the device is superior and top quality.

OS

The operating system on the galaxy tablet 2 is android 4.0 ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich), Android 4.0.3 to be specific. There is TouchWiz UI loaded on top of android and it does not slow down the experience in any way. There are no hardware buttons on the front. This tablet has four on screen buttons back, home, multitasking (open apps), screenshot on the bottom left on the screen. One inconvenient thing about android 4 on tablets is the application icon which is present on top right corner of the screen and for a new adaptor it is not easy to figure out. The setting and notifications can be opened from right bottom.  There is a brightness slider present where you can adjust brightness without going in to settings. Samsung has added some good things to UI including a photo and a video editor.

Photo editor lets you edit your photos, crop them and also add effects to them. This is a good default addition and you will like it. Video editor on other hand lets you create videos by mixing pictures and videos. You can add music, add pictures, add effects to your videos, add transitions etc. Moreover you will enjoy as you can create good personal videos or some nice edits or a walkthrough and upload it directly to YouTube.

TouchWiz UI

Samsung has added TouchWiz UI on top of android 4.0 ICS. The User interface has been optimised for end user and it makes the experience smoother and better. You can add widgets and shortcuts on homescreen in a selected space and not on the complete screen. This limitation has been brought about because of switching to landscape or portrait mode the widgets and shortcuts should be in the centre. There is a small arrow on the centre navigation bar which lets you open what is called “mini apps”. These Mini apps can be opened on any other application. If you are browsing or writing notes and you want to quickly play music or calculate something you can open a mini app. This mini app does not take up full window. You can do your work on these mini apps and then continue with your work by simply closing it. It enables different set of possibilities for multitasking. You can quickly select and play a song without losing your flow of work.

The settings menu has white background and black text as opposed to black background on stock ICS. There are also dock specific settings in the setting menu. The lock screen has been changed, when you touch your finger on the screen a circle appears. You need to swipe your finger towards the circle to unlock while in stock android 4.0 there was a unlock and camera shortcut present. It was nice to have that shortcut, but Samsung did not prefer it. You can customize it anytime with lock screen apps from the play store. Samsung has also removed the ability to swipe from apps screen to widget screen. You need to click on widgets option on top of screen which i feel is inconvenient every time you are in apps and want to get into widgets. 

Performance

This tablet is quiet a performer. The response to touch is very good, infact instant. I did not notice any lag while touches and swiping on the homescreen or the apps drawer. This is one area which it shines above. The experience is satisfactory and enjoyable. It is important part of the experience because users open apps, close apps, swipe screens and multitask for a lot of time. This tablet lets you 

do all that with ease. The dual core processor is powerful enough to handle everything you throw at it.

Game performance

The graphic processor on galaxy tab 2 is Power VR SXG 540. It is a dedicated and a power pack GPU. I have shown a game demo in the video review. I played the game while an application was downloading in the background, the performance did not lower because of the background process. The game was smooth and on screen controls responded well. Also the game looked really nice on a bigger screen.

Video performance

Video and movies are things you do almost regularly and on a device with a 7 inch screen size it has gotta be good. I tried playing a 1080P video clip and it played well. Moving to a specific time was quick and the video did not lag in the process.

I also loved how colours on this display are. It’s not overdone and a video feels natural. You will enjoy watching movies and videos on the Samsung galaxy tab 2 7.0.

 Storage

The galaxy tab 2 comes in 8/16/32 GB storage options. I had 16GB with me, although you have a microSD card slot and you can expand that storage. This tablet supports upto 32 GB of microSD card. I got 11.87 user available memory from the 16 GB stated on the specs but that is also good. Also there is USB OTG (on the go) present so you can watch a movie or open a file directly from the pendrive, but you will need a converting wire. 

Battery

The batter is standard 4000 mAH and it is enough to drive you throughout the day and more. I started the review at 55% and used it all the time and still there was 4% juice left.

Browsing

I will sum up this in one line. For this price, this is a beast for browsing.

Camera

There is a 3.15MP camera present on the back and VGA camera on the front.

Back camera

This is an average quality camera. You can snap casual photos, although if you zoom after taking a picture it might feel a bit noisy. There is a smile shot and panorama mode present. You can also adjust the exposure. There is also no flash present so night time pictures are not possible unless done with an external light source. There is no macro shot mode present, so it won’t take close up pictures crisp and well focused. The video shot from this camera is better than average and you can shoot in 720P HD. I am uploading some back camera photo samples below; you can take a look for yourself. 

Front Camera

Front facing camera is of VGA resolution. You can use it for video calling over carrier network or over skype. The video is of average quality but it is not a lot noisy and can be perfectly used for video calling.

Benchmarks

Quadrant – 2669

Antutu – 5404

Nenamark 2 – 25.4 fps

Browsermark – 78560

GPS

This has a GPS chip equipped with GLONAS. This is a very good chip and is good if you want to use this device for navigation purposes or in car navigation. Even indoors the GPS could receive satellite. This will give you the best GPS performance. You will have to download a navigation app from play store in order to use navigation.

Call quality & Reception

The reception of network signal is good, even in low network places it got good range and i was able to use the EDGE data on the network. The microphone catches your voice nicely and the sound of the earpiece is also crisp and clear. Having a 3G SIM facility on a tablet is already a plus and it’s even better when you get good experience and not poor signals.

Speaker

There are a set of stereo speakers present on the bottom of the device. The speakers are not too loud but clear and loud enough to be heard. Also sound quality while watching movies is good. I have one slight problem and that is when you hold the device in landscape mode, a speaker gets covered which reduces the volume by 20 to 30%.

Wi-Fi Performance

The Samsung galaxy tab 2 7.0 has b/g/n WiFi radios on board and also it is dual band. What that means is, there is one for receiving data and one for sending. This will help you get the full potential out of your WiFi.

Keyboard

You will require keyboard frequently because media consumption on this device is more. In portrait mode the keyboard is usable and good to type. The keys are placed spaciously and there is also a separate line for numbers which is a good addition. In landscape mode however this not very user friendly keyboard as you will have to stretch your thumb quiet a lot. I would suggest getting a thumb keyboard for greater typing capabilities.

Final verdict

Display: 9/10
Performance: 9/10
Reception: 8/10
Camera: 7/10
Design: 8/10
Battery: 9/10
Software: 10/10

It is a good first tablet.

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Video Review