ebenzunlimited
Moderator
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a great tablet which is experiencing continued success in both the UK and global markets ? despite being originally banned in both Germany and Australia. It?s a top-of-the-range tablet that many Android owners turn to, although its younger brother ? the Galaxy Tab 8.9 ? is also becoming popular with tablet owners due to its more portable size. Surely, judging by this, the even more portable Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus should be even better. However, that may not prove to be the case. We?ve been hands on with the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus today and here is our review of it:
Design
The brushed metallic dark grey plastic backing, featured on a number of Samsung?s ?Galaxy? products, is again present on the Galaxy Tab 7.0. Despite looking cool, it can?t be ignored that this is plastic ? far inferior to the style and quality shown on Apple?s iPad, for example. Its three megapixel camera and flash on the back of the Tab 7.0 Plus are just about visible, but do take some pretty high quality photos ? nowhere near the standard set by the Transformer Prime from Asus ? but for a 7″ tablet, not too shabby. There is also a two megapixel front-facing camera, which again, isn?t that bad.
Physical buttons are limited to just power and a volume tab, with Honeycomb eliminating the need for capacitive touch buttons on the short side when compared to the older, original Galaxy Tab. The standard 3.5mm headphone jack is situated on the top right of the tablet when held portrait ? the way Samsung have designed it to be used ? and on the left hand side there is a microSD slot which allows for up to 32GB of storage. On the bottom of the Tab 7.0 Plus is two extremely small speakers, which if truth be told, aren?t very good. The sound quality is there, but they are far too quiet ? perhaps a clever attempt to get you to buy the official Samsung multimedia hub? I don?t know. Also featured on the bottom of the tablet is Samsung?s 30-pin connector for charging and docking.
Battery Life
One of the greater features of this tablet is its relatively high battery life, and it doesn?t sacrifice anything on performance to get it. If tests carried out on the tablet are to be believed, this is the speediest 7-inch tablet available ? making it faster than the original Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry PlayBook. The battery life lasts a little over 8 hours when based on slightly larger than typical use ? watching movies on loop with the wi-fi switched on. Realistically, this little tablet has about 10 hours of standard use in it, which almost puts it up there with the iPad 2.
Competition Comparison
We thought it would be a good idea to match this up with its competition. After all, comparing it with its older brothers (the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1) would be truly unfair ? they are great tablets at a larger size and a much bigger price bracket. For less than ?300, you?d also be able to pick up a BlackBerry PlayBook (albeit a price-reduced version) and also an Acer Iconia A100. So where does the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus stand up? First place, easily. It?s a good little tablet and is streaks ahead of similarly priced tablets. However, the much cheaper Kindle Fire is undeniably better, and half of the price.
Summary
This is, undeniably, a great little tablet for a cheap price. However, it is not going to win over the tablet world in the year of 2012. If this was released in 2010, or late 2011, it would have had some real impetus. The fact is, it wasn?t. For those on a tight budget, looking for a portable tablet, I would definitely recommend?the Archos 80 G9. Ahem, I mean, you couldn?t go too wrong with the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.
