The bad: The screen doesn't look as pretty as other PLS
displays, and its camera performance is lacking compared to other tablets in
the line.
The bottom line: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 offers an
excellent value and a full Android 4.0 experience that no other tablet can
currently match for the price.
I guess we have Amazon to thank for proving that you don't
need a premium tablet to be successful. While Samsung tried competing on the
premium tablet front for the last year and will
continue to do so, it's finding this strategy to be more
difficult than anticipated.
With the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, the company is, thankfully,
learning from its mistakes and taking a price cue from Amazon by offering a
full-featured tablet for $250. The market isn't stagnant, though, so will
Samsung actually have time to capitalize before more powerful and still cheap
alternatives enter the fray?
Design
The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 sports a slightly altered design from the 7.0 Plus, but you'd be hard-pressed to notice those differences at first glance, unless of course you were as intimately familiar with the Plus as I am.
The shape and weight are about the same with some slight
dimensional differences. The new tablet's outer plastic shell spills a bit into
the bezel at the right and left sides and the power/sleep button and volume
rocker are more pronounced and feel slightly more responsive. Also, the IR
blaster is a bit larger than the one on the Plus.
Aside from that, they're pretty much physically identical.
The Tab 2 7.0 is fairly thin, although notTab
7.7-thin. It's also comfortable to hold with smooth, rounded corners.
Samsung identifies the color that covers the back of the tablet as
"titanium silver," which seems fitting enough.
The Tab 2 7.0 retains the 7.0 Plus' thin design.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
|
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
|
Amazon Kindle Fire
|
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
|
|
Weight in pounds
|
0.74
|
0.76
|
0.9
|
0.74
|
Width in inches (landscape)
|
7.6
|
7.6
|
7.4
|
7.75
|
Height in inches
|
4.8
|
4.8
|
4.75
|
2.25
|
Depth in inches
|
0.3
|
0.3
|
0.4
|
0.37
|
Side bezel width in inches (landscape)
|
0.76
|
0.74
|
0.78 (Power button side), 0.6 opposite side
|
0.68
|
The microSD card slot allows you to add an additional 32GB
of storage on top of the built-in 8GB. Samsung provides 50GB of free Dropbox
storage for a year on top of that. The door to the microSD slot is easier to
open now and doesn't get stuck as often as the Plus' did.
The 2-megapixel front camera from the Plus has been replaced
with a VGA one here, but the rear is still rated at 3-megapixel, albeit sans an
LED. Thankfully each camera is located in the upper left corner when holding
the tablet in landscape, thus allowing them to avoid unwanted fingers creeping
into the camera frame when taking a picture.
Equidistant from surrounding dual speakers on the right,
sits a dock connector and the left edge houses a headphone jack and microphone
pinhole. The ambient light sensor sits about an inch away from the front camera
on the bezel. However, the ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts the
tablet's brightness when auto brightness is turned on is calibrated too
sensitively. When typing, my hand would occasionally cover the sensor making
the screen darken. This was so consistent (and annoying) that I was forced to
turn off auto brightness on the tablet while I used it.
Sadly, as with most Samsung tablets, there's no HDMI port,
requiring you to purchase an adapter if you'd like to play video from your
tablet on your TV.
Software features
Possibly the biggest selling point (other than its price) of the Tab 2 7.0 is that it ships with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.3 to be precise) installed, making it the first Samsung tablet to do so.
Samsung's Touchwiz UI skin is of course included and comes
with custom Samsung apps like Music Hub, Media Hub, and Game Hub, a built in
screenshot app, and the Mini Apps tray located on the bottom of the screen.
Tapping it brings up a tray of apps consisting of a calculator, notes,
calendar, music player, and clock. However, the most useful of these is still
the task manager, which allows you to quickly kill any app running in the
background; this comes in handy when apps become otherwise unresponsive.
The basic look and design of ICS is retained, just with a
Touchwiz skin and a few extra shortcuts for quickly turning off Wi-Fi, GPS,
screen rotation, etc.
Peel's Smart Remote app
The IR blaster found on the Tabs 7.7 and 7.0 Plus makes its way to the Tab 2 7.0 and in conjunction with Peel's included Smart Remote app, helps turn your tablet into a remote control for your TV. Peel can take the place of your cable or satellite channel guide and display a list of shows currently playing locally on your cable or satellite provider's channels. Go to the currently playing tab and click on a show, and your TV switches to the appropriate channel. Peel does a great job of holding your hand initially through a step-by-step setup wizard. The setup only requires that you know your TV's manufacturer's name, your cable/satellite provider, and your ZIP code. Thankfully, Peel spares us from having to know any more detailed information; however, be aware that Smart Remote does not work with regular monitors and only TVs or monitor/TV combos.
Once it's set up, you can browse shows by category, mark
shows as favorites, or prevent shows you'd rather not see on the list from
showing up again. Thankfully, Smart Remote now syncs with over-the-air
listings, but its accuracy as to which shows and channels were available to me
left a bit to be desired.
Navigating the interface took some getting used to, but was
easy enough to pick up; however, I took issue with the method by which cable TV
screen menus are controlled by the interface. Peel went with a swipe interface
that requires you to flick the screen in one of four directions to highlight
different menus. While this method works and after some time could be gotten
used to, I would have much preferred more-direct directional controls.
As I learned with the Tab 7.0 Plus and 7.7, Smart Remote's
accuracy is very closely dictated by the information cable and satellite
providers choose to release. So, while the Smart Remote guide may indicate that
"Law and Order" is on right now on Channel 12, selecting it didn't
always take me to the appropriate channel. In addition, sometimes the channel
wasn't available to me or there was a different show on the channel at that
time.
While Peel's Smart Remote is still missing some features,
it's well-implemented overall; however, I'm still waiting for Hulu and Netflix
integration, and an actual search feature would be useful. Also, while I found
that the remote reliably functions from 10 to 20 feet away, performance is
definitely more reliable within 8 feet. Also, the tablet does not handle
obstructions like coffee tables as well as my normal remote does, requiring you
to be much more precise when aiming it.
Hardware features
The Tab 2 7.0 houses a 1GHz dual-core OMAP 4430 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and includes 8GB of storage. Tablet mainstays like 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth 3.0, and GPS are included as well as gyroscope, accelerometer, and digital compass support.
The two speakers on the bottom of the tablet deliver
typically "OK, I guess" tablet-quality sound, that gets a bit
staticky and distorted if you increase the volume too much.
Performance
The Tab 2 7.0 uses the same PLS-based panel tech the Plus does, running at a resolution of 1,024x600 pixels. I consider that resolution the "medium end" for a 7-inch screen, as some run as high as 1,280x800 pixels and look considerably sharper doing so. The Tab 2 7.0's screen clarity isn't bad, but it doesn't reach the pixel-dense heights of other 7-inchers, like the Thrive 7-inch.
The Tab 2 7.0 uses the same PLS-based panel tech the Plus does, running at a resolution of 1,024x600 pixels. I consider that resolution the "medium end" for a 7-inch screen, as some run as high as 1,280x800 pixels and look considerably sharper doing so. The Tab 2 7.0's screen clarity isn't bad, but it doesn't reach the pixel-dense heights of other 7-inchers, like the Thrive 7-inch.
Also, either there are different tiers of quality when it
comes to PLS panels, or Samsung really didn't devote much time or effort into
calibrating the Tab 2 7.0's color. Compared with the 7.0 Plus, the screen looks
noticeably greener and colors appear washed out.
Tested spec
|
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
|
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
|
Amazon Kindle Fire
|
||
Maximum brightness
|
110 cd/m2
|
214 cd/m2
|
424 cd/m2
|
||
Default brightness
|
51 cd/m2
|
0.17 cd/m2
|
147 cd/m2
|
||
Maximum black level
|
0.0049 cd/m2
|
0.17 cd/m2
|
0.45 cd/m2
|
||
Default black level
|
0.0049 cd/m2
|
0.04 cd/m2
|
0.15 cd/m2
|
||
Default contrast ratio
|
10,408:1
|
1,250:1
|
980:1
|
||
Maximum contrast ratio
|
22,449:1
|
1,258:1
|
963:1
|
When swiping through screens and navigating menus, the
screen matches the sensitivity of some the most responsive Android screens out
there, like the Transformer
Prime. Also, apps launch without delay and settings menu options appear
readily after tapping them.
Web and app download speeds matched most other Android
tablets when within 5 feet of our test router and even when up to 20 feet away
retains much of its strength. While scrolling through Web sites was smooth,
there was a noticeable degree of clipping as the processor attempts to keep up
with its Web site rendering duties. Nothing that broke the experience, but it
was definitely noticeable.
Thanks to its hardware scalability, I used Riptide GP as a
games performance benchmark. Depending on the speed of the tablet's CPU,
Riptide GP will deliver a noticeable increase or decrease in frame rate. Thanks
to its faster 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos 4210 CPU, the 7.0 Plus renders the game
with a high frame rate that looks to approach 60 frames per second. The Tab 2
7.0's TI OMAP 4430 CPU, in comparison, fails to come close to that performance.
It's not choppy and its pretty consistent, but it's just not as buttery smooth.
In 2D games like Angry Birds Space, we didn't notice any
performance difference aside from slightly slower load times on the Tab 2 7.0.
As mentioned, the Tab 2 7.0 includes a front-facing VGA
camera and a 3-megapixel back camera. Compared with the Plus, the difference
between images and video recorded on the front camera were quickly apparent. A
picture of my face taken with the VGA camera, for example, lacked many
embarrassing and detailed blemishes, while a similar pic from the Plus'
2-megapixel retained many of my facial "features" I'd rather people
not see.
The 3-megapixel back camera fared better, showing more
details, but the Tab 2 7.0's pics still looked washed out and lacked contrast.
While the 7.0 Plus's camera took a longer time to focus, it resulted in higher
quality pictures.
720p video playback from outside sources was smooth and
crisp; however, try as I might, 1080p video files would not play on the tablet,
though Samsung claims it's compatible with the format.
Our Tab 2 7.0's battery drained fairly quickly with normal
use over the course of several hours. Check back soon for CNET Labs official
battery results.
Conclusion
Though it gives up a few things to get there, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0's very competitive $250 does a great job of making you ignore those sacrifices. However, there may be tablets on the horizon that could shine a light on corners Samsung cut.
I'll prefer you to go for other choices too.
Thanks For Reading!
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