The decision to purchase the Samsung Tablet became final last week because of how it felt to handle the Samsung Galaxy Note. I loved how the Samsung Galaxy Note felt both in the hands and of course my eyes. It wasn't too bulky to carry around and since I had a little side bag from Umbro was able to carry anything that was around the 7" range. It was then that I felt the urge to try out something a little larger and yet not too bulky as that of the Apple iPad 3 thus leaving me with the choices of Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7", Samsung Galaxy tab 7.7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 plus. All of these Samsung Tablet models are capable of making voice calls and can run on the GSM networks here in the Philippines, which I found to be an awesome plus over the Apple iPad 3. I also found that most of the price ranges of these Samsung Tabs to be quite reasonable. The choice then had to be made and I went for the cheapest but yet latest Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7". I chose this not only because of the price tag (the none voice call version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" was a lot cheaper at 12K) but also because it carried the Android Ice Cream Sandwich and was a candidate to receive the upcoming Android Jelly Bean Software update.
I got the dark silver chrome finish instead of the white for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 because my HTC One X was already the white one and I just wanted something different and less high maintenance in terms of cleaning up. The interface of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 was pretty much stock Android 4.0 with very little Samsung influence on the layout. The amount of bloat ware was pretty standard but much less compared to that of the Samsung Galaxy Note. I got the 16GB version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, but it also comes in 8GB/16GB/32GB variants and can be expanded even further because of the micro SD card Slot. One thing I noticed though is that you can't save the applications on the external SD. The External SD can be used for files such as Music, Documents, Photos and Videos. The usable memory is 11.87GB for the 16GB version so I am thankful that I can simply transfer the rest of my files to the external memory.
Using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" for the first time felt really good as the interface was very easy to use. WIth Android Ice Cream Sandwich as the OS I didn't encounter any glitches or lag as was the complaints of those using the former Samsung Galaxy Tab models on the Honeycomb 3.2(though with the OTA updates rolling out for the older tab versions am sure you'll feel like Ice Cream Sandwich is a breath of fresh air). The screen of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is very vibrant, considering that it only uses PLS LCD screen instead of the Super AMOLED screen that most Samsung Smartphones and Older versions of the Samsung Galaxy Tabs were using, but to bring down the cost I presume this was one of the sacrifices but one that doesn't matter much to me as like I mentioned was still quite vibrant. The difference would be in the way the black and whites would be on the screen where the blacks aren't so black and the white aren't so white.
Setting it up to sync with my Macbook Air 11" was a piece of cake but you'd need to download the Kies software to enable this functionality. It is through Kies that one can transfer the files over to the Samsung Tab 2. You can connect through cable Connection or through Wifi. Data Transfer is quite seamless and pretty straightforward, simply choose which storage space you want to sync data on and you are good to go. Kies allows you to transfer any file type to and from your device and PC.
I loved how the Samsung Galaxy TAB 2 would auto orient itself into any angle making reading articles quite easy, but you can lock the auto rotate option if you prefer that it stays into one viewing orientation in the settings menu.
Gaming was quite enjoyable on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 mainly because of the 7" screen. The games that I have downloaded were the ones you can see here in my site and they all run pretty well. The only games that I couldn't download were the ones that were built of Tegra 3 devices only. All other games ran pretty smoothly with minor hiccups in some of the more Frame Rate Hogging Games but still quite playable nonetheless.
Email setup was also quite easy. One simply had to input your email address and passwords and you should be good to go. Reading emails was just as pleasurable as how one would read an email in an Apple iPad. Typing on the keyboard though takes a bit of practice because the keys are bit smaller since they had to fit the full digital keyboard on the screen. I found it easier to type out my message on the vertical orientation as it was similar to typing on a smartphone that way. You can download swype keyboards to make typing even more simpler. You can also purchase the keyboard attachments which are widely available on the internet and mobile phone company accessories shops in most malls.
Camera wise the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" isn't something great as it lacks auto-focus, and is 3MP on the rear and only VGA for skype calling. The previous versions had a 2MP for skype calling but again this latest version had to be down played a bit so that it can capture the 7" tablet market to compete with the upcoming models of Kindle Fire and Nexus 7. Admittedly, camera isn't all that bad and simply does the job. I downloaded an application called Camera360 Ultimate and of course Instagram which helped improve the picture quality quite satisfactorily, but is still miles away from my HTC One X's 8MP Camera which I now use as a replacement for my digital camera.
Overall, I am pretty happy with how the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" is performing and I honestly love it a lot. If asked if it is worth the price? I would say absolutely. There are very little out there in the international market that can compete with this tablet for the price range that it offers. It may not be able to compete in terms of bench marks with the Apple iPad 3 but in terms of User Experience (UX) its pretty smooth and should run even more smoothly once the Android Jelly Bean updates for the tablets roll out sometime this year.
Till Next Time...
Metz
Special Note: I have to say internationally cause there is a local philippine company called CDR King that has released their tablet versions called CDR King FastPad running the stock android version of 4.0 and is rivaling that of the international models including samsung in terms of performance but more on that once I get my hands on their 7" and 10" units for review.
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