Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Review. Think there are a lot of Android tablets to choose from? Heck, just deciding between Samsung's many Galaxy Tab tablets is enough to drive the average shopper bonkers. Among Samsung's 3 current 7 inch Android tablets, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 stands out as the most affordable. It sells for $249 for the 8 gig model, and it competes directly with the Kindle Fire and Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet. While the Kindle and Nook are absolutely awesome if your primary use for a tablet is the consumption of those companies' media (particularly the Kindle since you get books, Amazon Prime videos and their large app store), the Samsung is a great 7 inch starter tablet for those who want Android to be all that it can.


This is a full Android 4.0.3 Android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with access to the Google Play Store for apps, and it has dual cameras and a GPS with GLONASS. It looks much like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus that came out last November, but it loses the faux brushed metal back in favor of smooth gray plastic. It's light at 0.76 lbs. and slim with comfortably curved sides. Controls and ports are easy to use and the tablet has a microSD card slot to expand storage (you'll need it with only 4.6 gigs of available internal storage).

Like the $399 Galaxy Tab 7 Plus, the tablet has a 1024 x 600 PLS display with good brightness and plenty of color saturation. It's not a step up from the original Galaxy Tab's display, unlike the more expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 with its 1280 x 800 Super AMOLED display. The display has good contrast for eBook reading and viewing angles are good (certainly much better than the budget oriented Acer Iconia Tab A100). The accelerometer on our tablet is overzealous and changes orientation with the slightest twist of the wrist. Annoying.

Performance and Horsepower

What do you lose for the budget price? The tablet runs on a 1GHz dual core TI OMAP CPU that's slower than more expensive tablets clocked at 1.2 to 1.4GHz and as noted, internal storage is spare. The tablet feels responsive in use, but Adobe Flash Player controls can be a little balky and some demanding 3D games hiccup and pause for a second every once in a while. It uses PowerVR SGX 540 graphics.

The tablet handles 1080p MPEG4 high profile video playback well. The display isn't quite 720p, but 1080p is useful if you pick up Samsung's accessory HDMI adapter. The small speakers on the bottom (when held in portrait mode) have decent volume though they're not wildly full.