Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Review : Intro

Samsung has stretched its Tablet arsenal form 7 inches to 10.1 inches. Making it fit in every class ever in the Tablet market. Not to forget Galaxy Note fits in the tablet-smartphone crossover. They have displays with SLCD and AMOLED  technologies with resolution from WSVGA- 600 X 1024 to High Definition displays.Since it’s Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Review, we sould go back where the tablets started for Samsung.

Does anyone remember the older brother to this Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000, which was a hefty thick single core, AMOLED  display guy running on Android 2.2 or Froyo. Without it we would’nt be writing about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Review. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 has sent his bro to retirement, when it came with Android 3.2 Honeycomb and Dual cores.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus comes with Samsung’s very own Exynos Chipset, consisting of a dual core ARM A9 processor and Mali 400 GPU.As you are about to see, this SoC does quite well in the benchmarks, beating the NVIDIA Tegra2 competitors on almost every count.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Review : Key features

• 7.0″ 16M-color PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen of WSVGA resolution (1024 x 600 pixels)
• Weighs 345 g
• Exynos chipset: Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; Mali-400MP GPU
• Android 3.2 Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX UI
• Quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G with HSPA connectivity (HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps)
• Support for voice calls, texts and MMS
• 16/32 GB of built-in memory
• 3.2 MP autofocus camera, 2048×1536 pixels, LED flash, geotagging
• 2.0 MP front-facing camera; native video calls
• 720p HD video recording @ 30 fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Direct, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• HDMI TV-out (adapter required), USB host (adapter required)
• microSD card slot
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Adobe Flash 11 support
• GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
• 1080p DivX/XviD/MKV video support with subtitles
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor; three-axis Gyroscope sensor
• Polaris office document editor preinstalled
• Infrared port, Peel Smart Remote app preloaded
• 4000 mAh Li-Po rechargeable battery

Main disadvantages

• Smallest screen with the lowest resolution in the Samsung tablet lineup
• Has a non-replaceable battery
• Uses a proprietary 30-pin connector port for charging and connectivity
• One of the lowest capacity batteries in the range

A little more on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

This 7″ tablet comes in the Compact tablet review  with Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus making it a good show. Samsung has tried to make the Samsung Galaxy tab 7.0 plus for the Budget concious people out there.Plus that it sticks with the screen resolution of its predecessor. It’s worth noting though that the 7.0 Plus has the improved PLS variety of TFT displays. The device competes with the HTC Flyer and Blackberry Playbook and scores well. On the hand, one can go for a the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 which offers the same Exynos chipset but with Super AMOLED and a better battery and gorgeous slim profile.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Review : Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus looks like the boxy Blackberry Playbook. Its 2mm thinner then its old counterpart, the p1000.Unlike its bigger siblings though – the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 – the 7.0 Plus is designed with portrait use in mind. The earpiece is on top where it belongs, while the charging port is on a short side, right under the Samsung logo. Of course, four-way screen rotation lets you use the tablet however you like, but portrait seems to be the default orientation.

Telephony is supported by the Smasung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus, that means you can talk over the phone easily. But please make sure, that no one is around you to make fun of you as you will look a fool holding a seven inch tab up your face. One up for the review.

The body is made up of white glossy plastic, with the back’s white cover doing very well to cover the smudges around. Black screen bezel, white back and a silver frame running along the sides – the styling of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is clean and simple.

The display is a PLS LCD with a resolution of 600X1024, which is not near to its other half the Samsung Galaxy 7.7, which has WXGA display with Super AMOLED. The lighting at outdoors is rather good then OK and we can use the tablet easily in the outside world bragging it to others. One down for the review, cause of the PLS Display rather then the AMOLED display which is used in the other phones.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is well built and feels strong but not heavy in hand. It’s easy to handle and that’s why people would go for a 7″ tablet in the first place. The 7.0 Plus is a welcome upgrade over the original Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Honeycomb 3.2 software is a good enough motivation but the bump in processing power is not to be underestimated either. Serious credits to Samsung, this is a major stuff for the review. For one, the 7.0 Plus won’t feel out of depth around dual core competitors but Samsung’s own Exynos SoC gives its media credentials a serious boost.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Review : Battery life

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus battery life is concerning. It offers you only 6 hrs of battery backup which is quite less then the other Tablets around. With ther rest averaging of more then 8 hours like the Motorola Xoom, Apple iPad 2 etc.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Review : User Interface

Continuing with the review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.The userface is the TouchWizUX in Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus which is very similar to that of the Samsung S2. The major changes on the original Honeycomb interface are very less. The only addition is the back Display key which is not available on the original home display. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 offers you 5 home screens as that in Honeycomb and the same App drawer Horizontal Mechanism.\

The notification area has the connectivity toggles that we’ve come to know from the smartphone edition of TouchWiz til now. They offer more functionality than the stock Honeycomb settings – including GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth controls – which saves you the extra effort of entering the extended settings menu in white. The rest of the toggles are Notifications, Sound, Auto-rotation and Flight mode like in the Bigger Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

We ran the traditional Android benchmarks on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus (Exynos, dual-core Cortex-A9 1.2GHz, Mali-400MP GPU). Obviously, processing power is the last thing to worry about in this tablet. It can easily match, and even beat, most of the current crop of droid flagships (smartphones and tablets). You can rest assured you’ll be getting all the performance you need. There are only two gadgets proven to outdo the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus in some tests: Samsung’s own Galaxy Nexus (TI OMAP 4460, dual-core Cortex-A9 1.2GHz, PowerVR SGX540 GPU, Android Ice Cream Sandwich) and the Galaxy Note (Exynos, dual-core Cortex-A9 1.4GHz, Mali-400MP GPU, Android Gingerbread). We should probably put the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 in there too but not before we’ve seen and tested a market-ready unit and they were good.

Web browser is sweet in Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and supports Google Chrome Bookmarks and Favourite imports. Flash support is enabled as usual in all the Tablet Reviews.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus : Wrap

All in all the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus provides a good tabbing experience for new users, but its no match to those with better displays and of the same class like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. Gaming and Browsing is fun on the Tab. But a larger screen makes it even better for the consumer out there. When it comes to the pricing it really stands out from the rest . Priced between $300 to $400 in different markets its really cheap. But, 6 hours battery, is that all you really need. This wraps our Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Review.