Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 has a good price, with 7inch
monitor, sleek design and 3G/Wi-Fi support.
Galaxy
2 7.0 has a good price.
Samsung is one of the top leading
manufacturers in releasing 7inch tablets. Two years ago, the first Galaxy Tab
did make an impression on users by having ability of calling/talking. Recently,
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 has appeared with some improvements in operating system. Besides,
good price is also an upside for mid-class users.
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 uses dual-core processor
and 3G connectivity. The product is sold for $400. It owns 7inch-PLS display
plus 1,024x600 pixel resolution in a compact design dedicated to a lot of
travelling. The model also has dual-core chipset (1GHz), 1GB of RAM, 16GB
storage extendable to 64GB memory.
Tab 2 7.0 features front-facing VGA camera
and back 3MP camera. The model supports 3G/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity and
Android 4.0 operating system.
Part 1: Design
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 shares common design with
Tab 7 Plus, though this model only comes in grey color and 10.5mm thickness. The
device has plastic case yet thanks to its design and color, this phone feels
totally fit in palm as if it was made of metal.
The
sleek model is easily handled.
Thanks to light and compact design, it is
easy to handle the tablet with only one hand. However, due to back plastic-made
lid, users having hand sweat will find it difficult hold the device.
Despite
being made of plastic, the back lid feels as if it was made of metal.
Galaxy Tab 7.0 is more powerful than most
of 7inch tablets at present due to micro-SD card slot which can be extended up
to 64GB.
Slots
for memory card and SIM lie in the edge
In
the right edge are power button and volume keys, which comes handy in
horizontal handling
One
jack slot and one are on top
Thanks to the ability of calling/talking
like common phones, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0’s design becomes more useful when the
phone is hold vertically. The device has loudspeaker and microphone on short
bottom edge while internal speaker, front-facing camera, light sensor and 3.5mm
jack slot lie in the opposite side.
Placing
the device horizontally, users may cover the light sensor.
However, for this design, when the tablet
is placed horizontally, the light sensor may be covered, making the phone
automatically decrease brightness. Users can turn auto-lighting off to avoid
this issue.
Part 2: Screen, Interface and talk/call ability
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 uses a PLS screen plus
7inch size, like Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and 1,204x600 pixel resolution.
In practice, it was seen that Tab 2 7.0’s
monitor displays bright images in detail and brilliant colors. Viewing-angle of
Tab 2 7.0 is wider than that of Tab 7.0 Plus thus images were well displayed
without much color changed in different angles.
The
model displays well under sunlight and gives large viewing-angle.
When the device is used under sunlight, users
may adjust brightness manually, instead of auto-lighting, for better display.
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 runs on Android 4.0 OS
plus Touch Wiz UX interface, providing quick access to a sliding bar containing
apps for call/talk, message, mail…, from status bar. Upgrading operating system
accelerates the tablet while there will be not much change in the interface.
Status
bar gives quick access to apps.
On status bar, aside from buttons for Home,
Back and running apps, there are also capture button for camera. These buttons
are always shown in the screen’s bottom-right.
Virtual keyboard of Tab 2 7.0 cannot change
its color like Tab 7.0’s one. It still retains the black color of Android.
Galaxy Tab’s outstanding features are calling
and messaging, similar to common phones. Because of internal speakers and
integrated microphone, people can use the device as a phone without the help of
either Bluetooth earphones or inconvenient external speakers.
Tab
2 7.0 has familiar phone’s interface.
At present, only two tablets (belonging to
Samsung Galaxy Tabs series) having talk/call ability are Tab 2 7.0 and Tab 7
Plus. Call/talk and sms interface of Tab 2 7.0 is similar to that on Samsung’s
Android smartphones.
In our test, we saw that internal speaker
and anti-noise microphone of Tab 2 7.0 worked very well. Users didn’t have to place
their ears closely to internal speaker’s position for better sound.
Tab
2 7.0’s loudspeaker owns clear and big volume.
Tab 2 7.0’s audio system has two
loudspeakers placed in short bottom edge and delivers better sound than Tab 7
Plus’s one. Sound output was loud and clear though bass wasn’t detailed, which
was more suitable for movie-playing.
Part 3: Apps, performance and camera
Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 targets at students thus
Samsung integrated it with two specific apps, Alezza and 3anna Reader. Alezaa is
a book reader having more than 100 free titles, from comics to academic books
or reference, which are available in Samsung’s library.
Alezaa
is a purely app having more than 100 free book titles.
Beside these two apps specifically
integrated for Tab 2 7.0, the device has completely other apps from many
providers. These apps may come from either Samsung or external brand.
To manage accounts for social networks,
users have Social Hub app allowing for receiving new feeds from networks such
as Facebook, Twitter… at the same time.
Galaxy
Tab 2 7.0 scored 5289 points when tested.
Tab 2 7.0’s hardware was also considerably
upgraded with dual-core processor (1GHz), 1GB of RAM and 16GB storage. In
practical test, we saw that the device run smoothly when flipping pages,
zooming the screen in/out and surfing webs.
Due to Android 4.0 OS, Tab 2 7.0 operated
fluently with no lagging and this was more noticeable than that on previous
tablets running Honeycomb.
Though, PowerVR SGX540 GPU is not as
powerful as Mali-400MP, it is still better than ULP Nvidia GeForce of Tegra 3
chipset. In benchmark test, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0’s score wasn’t high but it was
ranked the best in the price range. Meanwhile, the model scored 5289 points
when tested.
With 4,000mAh battery, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 could
stand within 8 hours for playing HD videos. For daily use, such as talk/call,
message and web-browsing, runtime can reach nearly one day.
The main camera has 3MP resolution,
allowing for capturing photos and videos in fair quality. Though, having no LED
flash reduces the camera’s performance under low-lighting. To support
image-shooting, Samsung provides users with an image calibration tool after
each shot.
Last but not least, front-facing VGA camera
is not suitable for users requiring high resolution for video calls.
Image
captured by Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
