{"id":7552,"date":"2012-01-09T11:56:15","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T17:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=7552"},"modified":"2012-01-13T15:23:28","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T21:23:28","slug":"techcitement-review-samsung-galaxy-tab-7-0-plus-strikes-a-good-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/hardware\/tablet\/techcitement-review-samsung-galaxy-tab-7-0-plus-strikes-a-good-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Techcitement Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Strikes A Good Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samsung has gotten a lot of attention this year for its iPad challenger, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but a lot of people forget about the company\u2019s first foray into the Android tablet world, the simple Galaxy Tab. With a 7 inch screen and running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and carrying the Android Market, the original Tab was the one decent offering in 2010, a year full of cheap, low-end tablets running Froyo and little else. Now, Samsung has updated its little upstart into the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and the results are impressive. The new Tab runs the tablet-oriented Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and carries slightly beefier specs than its big brother, the Tab 10.1 (the dual-core 1gHz Tegra 2 processor has been bumped up to a 1.2 gHz dual-core Exynos). All told, it makes for an impressive package.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look and Feel<\/strong>
\nThe 7.0 Plus fits right in with the rest of Samsung\u2019s never-ending parade of Honeycomb tablets. Same black bezel and grey back, in a handy little package designed for wide-screen video. It\u2019s extremely light, even compared to 7-inch competitors like the Amazon Kindle Fire. The 7.0 Plus weighs in at just 345g to the Kindle\u2019s 413g. Compared to most tablets, it feels so small and light that it takes a moment to realize just how thick it is. Not exactly a fatty at 9.96mm, it tops the much larger Tab 10.1 by over 1mm.<\/p>\n

\n

The 7.0 Plus maintains the solid build quality I\u2019ve come to expect from premier Samsung devices. The light weight doesn\u2019t leave the impression of cheap construction, just tiny size. And I do mean tiny. This is the only tablet I\u2019ve ever used where I felt like I could operate it one-handed (though admittedly this feat involved a bit of a balancing act).<\/p>\n

I was a bit surprised by the layout of much of the external hardware. The Tab 10.1 was clearly designed for landscape operation. In contrast, the 7.0 Plus feels like the designers couldn\u2019t figure out which way you should hold it. The speakers are both on the bottom in portrait mode, and the device is small enough that I could see that being convenient for most uses while listening to music. Video is far better in landscape mode, and that means your stereo sound is all coming from your right (assuming you aren\u2019t covering them completely with your right hand). The IR blaster has to be used in landscape mode, and the volume controls feel backwards in landscape mode, with the volume up button on the left, causing the animation to move right. These are small complaints, and were easy to adapt to, but they came as a surprise after seeing the 10.1.<\/p>\n

Getting Started<\/strong>
\nSince I first looked at the Tab 10.1, Samsung has brought a version of TouchWiz to Honeycomb. Thankfully it\u2019s a lot less intrusive than the phone version. You do get the power control widget in the notification area, now scrollable and expanded to seven icons (why couldn\u2019t that be on the Stratosphere?), as well as a button to bring up a dock with some basic utilities, like the calculator and calendar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What’s To Like<\/strong>
\nDespite some recent studies on the problems with the 7-inch form factor, I have to say I love this size. I never had any trouble even on a rooted Nook Color, and the lighter weight and smaller bezel of the Tab 7.0 Plus made it a simple pleasure to use. And the fact that the 7.0 Plus fits in a coat pocket means it fits into my work-flow far better than its larger sibling ever did. This is the first tablet I\u2019ve found myself comfortable using on a constant basis, easily filling roles that I would otherwise turn to a smartphone for. That experience didn\u2019t disappoint on quality, either. The 7.0 Plus boasts an impressive 1024×600 resolution screen. Sound quality was excellent, if a bit one-sided while watching landscape videos. Battery life was easily enough to make it through a full day\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n

The best part about the 7.0 Plus though has to be performance. This is one of the smoothest-running devices it\u2019s ever been my pleasure to handle. With the exception of the usual slow transition between portrait and landscape views (which Android can\u2019t seem to shake even on the Galaxy Nexus for some reason), this device operates with no lag, stuttering, or slow-downs. In the few weeks I had the opportunity to test it, not one app that I would consider stable elsewhere gave me a force-close or error of any kind.<\/p>\n

Samsung included the microSD card slot that I missed in the larger model, on top of the solid 16 GB of internal storage. I\u2019d actually have been more forgiving of the absence on the smaller device, given the space constraints, but Samsung managed to find room this time.
\n
\nWhat’s Not To Like<\/strong>
\nTouchWiz once again makes an appearance in this section. I love that power widget, but combined with a screen brightness slider and a settings button taking up a full row (seriously, Samsung, you have to stop making small buttons into notifications) you actually have to scroll to see more than one notification when holding the device in landscape.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The notification area, or lack thereof.<\/p><\/div>\n

More importantly, the rear camera was a big disappointment. While the front camera delivers fairly impressive video chat, the rear camera at only 3 megapixels is just not up to par with most smartphone cameras. That bothered me a lot less on the Tab 10.1, but the 7.0 Plus is small enough that I actually don\u2019t feel stupid holding it up as a camera, and it would be nice if it were actually worth using as one.<\/p>\n

Untested<\/strong>
\nThis part was a bit disappointing, actually. Samsung included an IR blaster and the Peel universal remote app in the 7.0 Plus, which I was really looking forward to testing in its own right. Unfortunately, my TV isn\u2019t on Peel\u2019s list of supported devices, and there doesn\u2019t appear to be any way to manually configure it. The app will help you send an email to Peel requesting that your model be added, and then you just have to hope they follow through. If the Peel remote is a big selling point for you, make sure your devices are supported.<\/p>\n

The Wrap-up<\/strong>
\nThe Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus represents, more than anything else, a compromise solution. It doesn\u2019t provide the HD quality entertainment of most 10-inch tablets like the Tab 10.1, but you get quality that\u2019s nearly as good and performance that\u2019s actually a bit better. This is no bargain basement deal like the Kindle Fire or a $99 HP Touchpad, but at $399, it\u2019s a pretty good discount compared to its larger competitors. If you\u2019re looking for a great balance between price, performance, and portability, you can\u2019t go wrong with this one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Samsung has gotten a lot of attention this year for its iPad challenger, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but a lot of people forget about the company\u2019s first foray into the Android tablet world, the simple Galaxy Tab. With a 7 inch screen and running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and carrying the Android Market, the original Tab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,31,1085,12],"tags":[34,560,2021,201,61,1930],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7552"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7552"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7586,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7552\/revisions\/7586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}