Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 Review

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A is a real alternate to an iPad, with a astute and colorful screen and a design very close to that of £400 tablets. All in all, it ‘s the best budget Android pad around if you do n’t like the restrictive border on of the Amazon Fire HD 10 .

Pros

Great price
Solid, sharp screen
Looks and feels a lot like a more expensive tablet
Good battery life

Cons

Limited storage
Limited graphics power
Some minor system lag

Key Specifications

Review Price: £149
10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 LCD screen
Samsung Exynos 7904 CPU
2GB RAM
Android 9 with One UI
32GB storage
8/5MP cameras
Metal casing
USB-C charging
6150mAh battery

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A is the most important tablet Samsung has released in ages for deal-hunting buyers. It’s far cheaper than the cheapest iPad, unlike the great Galaxy Tab S5e, but it still has a sharp screen.

Reading: Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 Review

After what feels like years of shelves filled with pixellated “ HD Ready ” budget tablets, there ’ s finally something to recommend alternatively of the Amazon Fire HD 10 .
But is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A well ? It has a smaller footprint, alloy rear, better cameras and, most significant of all, full access to Google Play and the Google app suite. The Fire HD 10 doesn ’ triiodothyronine have that .
exponent is the alone major problem here. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A ’ s graphics chipset is fairly weak. As is so often the case, big gambling fans should consider an iPad rather. But at this price it only grazes this bargain pad ’ s invoke .

Design – The best-looking tablet you’ll find at the price

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A is the best-looking tablet you ’ ll rule at the price from one of the big names in technical school. There are two versions, an 8-incher and this 10.1-inch interpretation .
It has a mostly-aluminium back, for a feel not besides dissimilar to an iPad. There ’ s an inch-deep strip of credit card at the top that cheapens the design a little, but at this price I barely don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate wish. Plastic is used here to aid the radio antenna ’ transmittance, and it about surely makes the Samsung Galaxy Tab A importantly cheaper to produce .
Fancy phones and tablets use little 2mm strips of fictile to do the same job .
Samsung has besides brought the design into the present by trimming down the screen door borders significantly since the last version of this tablet, released in 2016. The borders are even thinner than a 10.2-inch iPad 7 ’ second, and its footprint smaller. When the thickness is besides a super-slim 7.5mm, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A ’ randomness blueprint is veridical 5-star stuff for a budget tablet .
It has a 3.5mm earphone mariner excessively, unlike the Tab S5e and Tab S6 .
All the right choices have been made here, and I have not missed some of the obvious miss parts. There ’ mho no fingerprint scanner, which is no huge loss in a pad. Some may disagree. There is no water system resistance either, as expected .
storage and loudspeaker quality are the parts that do feel the price squeeze a fiddling more keenly. You get 32GB storage, so may well want to buy a microSD menu. There ’ mho space for one in the Samsung Galaxy Tab A, sadly you don ’ metric ton seem to be able to integrate it with system memory .
Its speakers aren ’ thyroxine close up to the bright stereo set of the Tab S5e ’ s either. You get a pair, arranged on the bottom. They have reasonable bulk for such a cheap tablet, but you don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate get that all-important stereophonic consequence when holding the Samsung Galaxy Tab A out in battlefront of you to watch a movie or YouTube video .

Screen – An excellent screen for the price

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A has a 10.1-inch 1920 ten 1200 pixel riddle, one whose shape is a little longer than an iPad ’ sulfur .
Size aside, expose technical school is the big difference between this tablet and the higher-end Samsungs. You get LCD here, not the OLED style of which Samsung is so fond. This kind of screen has a backlight, which means the black parts of an image won ’ t look absolutely black if you watch a movie in a dark room. The consistency of the brightness international relations and security network ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate at the grade of a very high-end LCD screen door either. however, most will entirely notice this on an all-white or all-black screen .
The Samsung Galaxy Tab A even has an excellent screen at the price, though. It ’ randomness sharp, enough bright adequate for indoors use and colour is not obviously weak or undersaturated .
much like the formative depart on the back, you can point out issues with this screen door. But, again, for the price it is hard to fault. It besides beats the Amazon Fire HD 10 in one respect. Smaller borders mean you get more riddle inches per feather edge of pad. The two displays are otherwise pretty like, though .

Software – Very familiar

software is where we see the most important difference between the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Amazon Fire HD 10, its star rival. Both are based on Android, but here you get the lapp interface used in Samsung phones, not the more restrictive ground-up rework of Android Amazon uses .
Google apps are the biggest deviation, and Google Play the most important. It gives the Samsung Galaxy Tab A access to good about every app and game on Android, compatibility exceptions away. The range on the Fire ’ s Amazon Appstore is much more limited .
This, more than the fancier design, is possibly the main reason to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab A rather of an Amazon pad.

The software is likely to seem more familiar excessively, with a layout similar to any number of Android phones and tablets. There are standard home screens and a page-based apps menu. While there are some preinstalled apps, the have is completely different to Amazon ’ south, which tries to ram Amazon services down your throat. It gets old if you don ’ thyroxine even subscribe to Prime .
The boastfully “ but ” is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A ’ s central processing unit. It has an Exynos 7904 CPU with Mali-G71 MP2 GPU and 2GB RAM. This team barely scrapes by in every respect. There ’ s the occasional bit of system stave, apps take a little while to load and you can intelligibly see the limit of the graphics power when you play some higher-end games .
In casual games you may see some stave when the screen fills with objects. Demanding 3D titles will much only run smoothly if you lower the graphics setting a moment. This normally means lower resolutions, basic textures, worse withdraw distance, or a shuffle of these .
Want more context ? Minecraft runs just finely unless you increase the draw distance, which reduces the frame pace a little excessively a lot for comfort. PUBG runs well at the “ Balanced ” setting. You can besides use “ HD ”, but there are regular, distracting frame rate dips. You can ’ t prevail Fortnite at all. It ’ s not supported, and probably will never be as 4GB RAM is listed as the minimal specification. Asphalt 9 plays surprisingly well with no alterations to graphics, probable down to Gameloft ’ s apt scale of the game to run on fair about any hardware. It calm looks fab .
This is not a bad bet on tablet. You can play about all of Android ’ s best high-profile games precisely ticket, but those who comment less than smooth ensnare rates may want to think about spending more. Amazon ’ s Fire HD 10 has a much more potent CPU and GPU, but I don ’ thyroxine think it ’ s the arrant solution as you can ’ t install anywhere near as many identify titles. The more cranky among you can try side-loading, but this introduces security issues and often fair won ’ t influence .

Camera – Surprisingly solid

Given the basic core spectacles, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A has amazingly solid cameras for a cheap tablet. There ’ s a flash-free 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel one up front man .
These are army for the liberation of rwanda better than the Amazon Fire HD 10 ’ randomness cameras, and the buttocks one can take amazingly solid images. As always, most of you will be better off using your phone, but better cameras are still a benefit for apps and games that use the cameras .
The rear camera has autofocus excessively, far from a given in a bum pill. Autofocus lets you take close-up shots .
Selfies predictably look quite cushy in indoors lighting, and aren ’ metric ton big in any conditions. But both of these cameras are honestly importantly better than I expected. I wouldn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate call them “ good ”, though, as they are decelerate to use. The television camera app takes a long time to load up and the app feels a little laggy .
I ’ five hundred craft what meagre skills these cameras have for some more repositing or a better GPU in a pulse. But I do have to acknowledge that not everyone uses a tablet as I do. I have no indigence for tablet cameras, others seem to love them .

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A can shoot 1080p television with either camera, and the extra fidelity is a good feature if you want a tablet for video chew the fat .

Battery life – USB-C and good endurance

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A has a 6250mAh battery, and uses a USB-C connection to charge. Samsung says the barrage will last up to 13 hours, and that claim is fairly close to my experience .
When streaming television from YouTube for three hours, the drop in battery is consistent with battery life of just under 13 hours. We ’ rhenium well within the fortunate zone for tablets, and it seems to outlast both my 2018 iPad 9.7 and the Amazon Fire HD 10. There are zero stamen worries here, and it will concluding for a generous handful of hours of processor-stressing games besides .
Charging speed is besides quicker than the Amazon Fire HD 10 ’ mho .

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab A?

finical techies are the entirely people who should be put off the Galaxy Tab A compromises. It doesn ’ t have the most knock-down GPU, the repositing is restrict and this finical recapitulation sample doesn ’ t have a 100 % consistent screen, but it is otherwise a stellar bargain .
Those who are put off by the shortcomings already have another obvious choice to hand, besides, the Samsung Galaxy S5e. I ’ ve been waiting for an up-to-date pad to go neck and neck with the Amazon Fire image for what feels like everlastingly, and Samsung has finally made it .
The Samsung Galaxy Tab A is a real option to an iPad for basics, with a crisp and colorful screen and a design very conclude to that of £400 tablets. All in all, it ’ s the best budget Android pill around if you don ’ thyroxine like the restrictive approach of the Amazon Fire HD 10.