If you're after a small, lightweight budget Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in could be ideal. At just 345g, it’s one of the lightest devices in its class, and the elegant curves of its metal-rimmed body fit effortlessly into the hand. All tablet reviews.
One disadvantage of all this svelteness is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in's grey plastic back cover is so smooth it can be hard to hold on to. You'll need a proper stand for hands-free use, since leaning it against something will invariably end in the Tab 2 sliding on to its back. Group test: What's the best Android tablet?
The 7in screen has a 1024x600 resolution, which looks sharp and offers great colours. Text is crisp and easily readable, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in tablet lacks the precision of the Blackberry Playbook 2.0's display.
Interacting with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in is a fluid experience, thanks to an accurate touchscreen and the inclusion of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Apps open quickly and you’re rarely left hanging while the dual-core 1GHz processor does its job.
The tablet's camera app utilises the 3Mp rear camera, with dedicated Panorama and Smile modes. Our test results varied, but were acceptable; the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in's stills tended to offer better colours than video.
With access to the Google Play store, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in has no shortage of apps to download. All the social media regulars are present, including Facebook, Twitter and Google+, as are the various movies you can stream for a modest fee. We recorded a 7-hour battery life when playing video.
Games ran very smoothly on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in. 3D action shooters showed no signs of stuttering, and driving sims, played nicely thanks to the light body and responsive accelerometers. The Kindle app turns the tablet into a decent e-book reader, while a BBC iPlayer app lets you catch up on TV - although we couldn’t find a way of streaming in HD, which was slightly disappointing.
Although it's more expensive than the BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0, a two-year warranty helps to justify the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in's premium. Hunt it down online and you could pay as little as £200.
Read our original Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7in review on the next page.
Comments
Ian said: The device seems to be technically a nice piece of kitbut its potential usefulness is seriously diminished because it comes with userinstruction manuals for the device and the pre-installed apps that are not worthyof the name and assumes that you will discover how to use it by trial anderror Moreover there are numerousproblems with the software and pre-installed apps It is suggested on the web page for the Tab2 that you useSamsung Kies to facilitate downloading updates and for example to transferyour Outlook contacts You have todownload it while the Tablet is connected to your PC but the Kies software seemsto create numerous system conflicts and disabled many functions in MS Outlookon my desktop PC For exampleit disables hotlinks in Outlook email messagesthat I have received it prevents Outlook deleting completed tasksIt seems that the problem may have arise partly becauseinstructions for downloading Kies are incomplete or thats the excuse thatSamsungs helpdesk proferred in response to my email enquiry withoutexplaining why they had not put clearer instructions on their web site in thefirst place However they also seemedto think that I could uninstall it but it had not downloaded into thePrograms folder on my PC so I could not do that Instead there were files distributed all overthe place A subsequent phone call toSamsungs helpdesk provoked the less than helpful information that the helpdeskstaff knew nothing about Kies but they did offer to get someone from the Kiesdesk to phone back within 48 hours Morethan a month later Im still waitingI bought the tablet because it would weigh a lot less thanthe laptop I had been carrying when travelling around the world onbusiness Apart from access to theInternet and Skype the only app for which I had a serious requirement was asuite of Office compatible programmes and Samsung have pre-installed PolarisOffice on the Tab2 The word processor lackskey functions such as a spell-checker and a delete button The spreadsheet can only be used by tappingon cells which are so small that mistakes inevitably occur It consistently refused to download a modestPowerPoint presentation 293 kb from the Cloud when I wanted to edit it If you do succeed in accessing a file in theCloud the manual doesnt tell you how to save revised files back to the Cloudfor transfer to your desktopApparently you may be able to email copies of your files but I haventyet discovered how My attempts toattach a file to an email have all failedThe other pre-loaded apps are for me a waste of scarcestorage space And they are installed inthe firmware and threaten dire consequences to the system if deleted Ive been using PCs since they first appeared more than 25years ago and I have not had a more frustrating time since I had to strugglewith MS Word version 1 which was less than user-friendly and came with amanual the size of an encyclopaedia volume written by geeks for geeks Samsung may be good at producing thehardware but the companys present expertise currently extends no further andwas clearly inadequate for this venture into mobile computing They really need to get their act togetherand think about their users needs and supporting them more effectively if theywant to succeed in this new market
Jenny Ligularian Harrington said: Anyone else got mysterious icon in system tray since update Circle with an i struch through inside
Nichan said: Groups-Schedule of Euro 2012 on your Samsung Galaxy Tab Get it nowskinforgadgetblogspotcom
David Tang said: If the exchange rate holds and VAT at 20 it should only cost 190 quid here Who wants to bet theyll try to fleece us by charging 250