How does Samsung’s new tab square up to the Nexus 7?
The Google Nexus 7 is seen as the Jesus tablet of the Android world and it is true that it is gaining lots of attention from the mass media, consumers and those in the market for an affordable tablet with a good screen and decent specifications. There is, however, an alternative.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 follows a fairy long line of Android tablet efforts from Samsung, most of which I haven’t enjoyed at all or considered to be too expensive, but this one surprised me a lot.
Comparing the specs against the Google Nexus 7 does not help the Tab 2 because the Nexus 7 has a higher resolution screen, faster processor and slighter stronger battery. The Tab 2 has a microSD slot and that’s about the only hardware advantage, but it is an important one. You can buy a 32GB expansion card for under £30 these days and that will give you 40GB in total compared to 16GB on the Nexus 7. Think about this for a moment- when you go on holiday you can have all of your in-flight and hotel room movies, thousands of songs and as many magazines as you like. On the Nexus 7, you have to think a little about what you are installing. This is huge in terms of practicality, especially abroad, and will make a difference. Will a faster processor, higher resolution screen and slightly larger battery make the same difference? No, because the battery, screen and general performance have proved to be more than adequate on the Tab 2 in my experience.
This is not a budget tablet in any sense of the word, just like the Nexus 7 isn’t, and it is way better than the original Tab in almost every way. I have not had any slow-downs, it feels good in the hand and the battery easily copes with what I throw at it. The screen plays back movies as well as my iPad 2 and tablets like the Tab 2 highlight the true benefits of the 7″ form factor when it comes to portability and day to day usage.
This is the tablet that nobody is talking about, but if I was given a choice tomorrow, the Tab 2 would be the one for me. It has no significant failings at all and shines a new light on the world of Android in the tablet form. Jelly Bean would be nice to see and hopefully that will come in the future, but I liked this tablet so much I bought one for myself and have not looked back since.
About Shaun McGill
How could they possibly talk about?
Samsung has proven over and over again that it can build good hardware but when it comes to software they just topple over…
I pre-ordered a N7 weeks ago but I did consider samsung’s offer. Why would I buy into something not even knowing if they will support Android 4.1 or 4.2?
And even if they do support… it will take MONTHS for them to convert the beautiful work Google (and the community) has done to the android interface into that thing called Touchwiz….
I totally regret purchasing a SGS2 over the GNex seeing how I rarely use more than 10GB of storage space anyway…. I will not make this mistake twice… Lucky for me there is CM9. I feel bad for others who don’t have/know of this option….
I think that while memory is an important factor in which device you want, only a few will be worried about how much video they can store on a device. For most, tablets are a complimentary device to a desktop and content will be changed frequently between devices.
Yea memory wouldn’t be a huge consideration for me. A microSD slot is nice to have, but I don’t need to store too much in terms of video and music.
Root + stickmount = external storage.
Not a solution for everyone I admit…
If we are worrying about limited space, just speak with any of your friends that have a 16GB iPad for some tips on how to deal with this ‘limitation’.
Does it support watsapp application?
Yes it does