Samsung Galaxy Tab A7: Affordable Android but a lackluster screen By Engadget

Few companies are even making budget android tablets anymore. Amazon's fire series is the best known in the space and its sub.200 devices are great for kids to play on, but Amazon's fire OS might not be good enough for those who live in Google's ecosystem, which is why affordable tablets from companies like Samsung might entice some of these shoppers. The 230 Galaxy Tab, a7 runs android 10 on a 10-inch screen and has a sturdy. Yet lightweight frame. Samsung says this thing was made to entertain. So, if you're looking for a budget-friendly device for watching movies or playing games, this might be up your alley.

Unlike recent Samsung tablets, like the Galaxy Tab, six light or the s7 and s7 plus, which cost hundreds more, the tab, a7 looks pretty bland. The dark, gray metal frame of my review unit lacks the shine and sleek lines of its more expensive, stable mates, which is understandable. Given the lower price. That said, you can opt for snazzier color options like silver or gold, which might make things more interesting. The tab a7 has a more premium build than Amazon's plastic tablets too, and the tabs display bezels are half the size of the fire HDS to be fair, though the fire HD 10 starts at just 150 dollars with ads, and it's 165 without headphone jack holdouts will be glad to find one on the tab.

A7's impressively thin edge along with a micro, SD card slot power and volume buttons, there's also an USB port at the bottom, but sadly it charges at USB 2.0 speeds more on that in a bit. There's no fingerprint sensor here: you'll have to rely on the 5 megapixel front camera for face unlock as the only biometric login option. There's also an 8 megapixel sensor on the back. If you really want to shoot slightly sharper pictures with your tablet. Frankly, despite weighing just 1.05 pounds, the tab a7 feels surprisingly premium and sturdy for the price. One of the biggest trade-offs here is the 2000 by 1200 lcd Samsung's made a name for itself with its gorgeous AMOLED panels on flagship devices like the galaxy s and node phones and the tab s7 series.

So it was surprising to see such a lackluster screen this time around if the brightness is set to 50 or lower the viewing angles become considerably narrower. It was strange to see images fade in and out when I tilted the tablet back and forth it felt like. I was back in 2015. Crank the brightness past 50 and things get a bit better. I could see the leaves on trees in the background of the good place and the vibrant sets on Blackpink's music video for how you like that popped.

When I was watching darker scenes like Netflix's haunted, though the a7 screen was so dim. All I saw was my face staring back at me, max brightness, improved visibility, but some clips were still hard to see in sunlight. Just like the display the a7 squad. Speakers are underwhelming, which I expected for the price. Songs like the weekend's blinding lights sounded hollow and tinny.

The speakers were good enough for me to hear birds tripping in the background, while ted Benson talked in an episode of the good place, though another trade-off to expect when you buy a cheaper tablet, is a slower processor. The tab a7 uses a snapdragon 662 chipsets with 3 gigs of ram, and it was noticeably slower than other higher end tablets. I've tested searching for an app will result in a 1 or 2-second delay, and I often had to wait a beat after tapping a tile in the open apps page before it would expand. Apps also often took a bit longer to launch than I'm used to, although once they started, they generally ran smoothly. I kept up on election results and my Instagram feed on the tablet and the delays I encountered were mostly related to switching between apps thanks to a 7040 William hour battery.

The tab a7 is a long, lasting machine. It clocked 11 hours and 35 minutes on our video rundown test, which means plenty of episodes of your favorite TV show or a decent avengers binge before you need to plug it back in the bad news because it uses USB 2.0 speeds. The tab a7 takes forever to charge back up. I only saw an increase of a few percent after plugging it back in an outlet for 30 minutes or so since the tab a7 is currently on sale for 155 dollars. It's actually a serious competitor to the Amazon.

Kindle Fire hd10, which starts at 150. Samsung's tablet, has the advantage of offering google's play, store and android 10, along with some nifty software, like the company's own notes app with the tab a7. You can also connect your Samsung phone or TV to get your notifications on the tablet or stream your content to the big screen. It also has a generally nicer build than the Amazon tablet at this price. There aren't many other android tablets to compare against TCL's 10 inch, tab max costs, 249 euros and offers similar features, but isn't available in the US.

Yet, if you're willing to spend a bit more, especially if you're, considering paying in installments, consider the 350 tab, s6 lite, it's faster, has a much better screen and comes with a useful s. Pen, the tab a7 is a straightforward device. It's a basic, no-frills android tablet if you can get it on sale. This is a solid purchase at its retail price of 230 dollars. Samsung's budget tablet is about 80 dollars more than the fire HD 10, but doesn't offer much more than the convenience of easier access to google apps.

Those who want something cheap and want to google's drive, Gmail and chrome built in will find the tab a7 satisfactory, but if you can afford it plenty of better slightly more expensive tablets await for more reviews on affordable premium high-end tablets, as well as laptops, smartwatches and smartphones make sure you subscribe to Engadget and as always, thank you for watching you.

Source : Engadget