Samsung Galaxy Tab A: Productivity tablet that’s nothing much else

It’s been a while since Samsung last launched a tablet. With their Galaxy Note series of phablets doing rather well it’s a wonder that they are still interested in producing a similar product the tablet segment.

The latest member of the family is none other than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A; a new range of tablets that supports telephony features with the productivity of an S Pen. Generally the tablet looks like one geared towards users looking for productivity with a little bit of entertainment thrown into the mix, considering the specs are decent enough to get some gaming in or hash out your daily report if you aren’t the sort to drag your laptop about. 

But how does the tablet actually measure up, especially when there are cheaper tablets that are capable better, like its direct competitor the Xiaomi Mi Pad? Let’s find out.

The Galaxy Tab A comes in 2 sizes – a compact 8 incher or a full sized 9.7 inch unit. For this review, we’re given the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 in dark grey. As far as the looks go, the tablet is very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 in terms of sharing the same material design and feel. However the Tab A is mostly built out of plastic with a rounded metal rim on the face of the device, it does a decent job in looking premium at the very least. The Tab A isn’t the thinnest or the lightest though with the tablet being 7.5mm thick at its thinnest point and weighing in at about 338g, it’s rather substantial.

The tablet is priced at RM 1,299 which is hardly cheap with all the sub RM 1,000 tablets there are running around in the market; with the roughly similar Mi Pad retailing for just RM 799 though it cannot make phone calls nor does it come with a versatile pen.

For those who want a tablet that can make phone calls there are other alternatives out there like the ASUS fonePad series or maybe even the Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact if you have the cash, although you are still going to look silly when you have a big tablet stuck to your face. But it looks like Malaysians and people around the Asian region seem to really dig it despite it looking rather inconvenient.

[nextpage title=”Hardware and Specification”]

Under the hood, the Galaxy Tab A has a quad core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor, 2GB RAM as well as 16GB storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via the microSD slot. The camera combo here is a 5 megapixel rear snapper combined with a 2 megapixel front camera. The device also gets Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box.

As far as the screen is concerned you are getting an 8 inch 1024 x 768 resolution TFT screen sporting a 4:3 aspect ratio. While the aspect ratio is a good one for viewing and reading websites and other read-intensive material, the resolution is strangely on the low side considering there are more affordable tablets that are sporting Full HD resolution.

The 16GB of storage that the device comes with also has a good 6GB eaten up by internal apps and bloatware that comes pre-installed on a lot of Samsung’s devices, leaving you with just about 10GB to spare. But you do get Microsoft Office preinstalled which comes with Word, Excel and Powerpoint so you can get your decks done on the fly.

The rear of the tablet cannot be opened but its home to a large 4,200mAh battery which is likely responsible for the tablets heavier weight, with the microSD and SIM slots accessible on the right side. As mentioned earlier you will be getting the S Pen along with the Tab A with its own storage slot on the upper right of the device. The front of the device has the usual physical home button accompanied by the menu and back button but these aren’t backlit so that’s a minus point.

Like many of Samsung’s Tab devices the volume and power buttons are located on the right side of the Tab A, but the audio jack has been shifted next to the microUSB charging port at the bottom. You will also find the unit’s one speaker here which we feel is pretty well placed. Unlike the vast majority of smartphones and tablets which have rear facing speakers, the Tab A has it facing downwards instead so it is not only blasting sound towards you it will not be muffled if you place it flat on the table.

Speaking of the S Pen, this is probably the biggest stick out feature of the Tab A as it allows the tablet to perform a lot of the things the Galaxy Note 4 can do. The S Pen will give you the ability to doodle on pages, large scale drag and drop functions as well as get a bit of drawing in with the preloaded ArtRage art program if you feel the mood for it. The pen itself is pretty much the same as what you get on the Note, complete with right click capabilities and pressure sensitivity.

[nextpage title=”Camera and Battery Life”]

The 5 megapixel rear camera is nothing to scream about, being the baseline lowest you will find on most devices at this point of time. We did take a few pictures with it but the camera is simply decent and nothing much else. The front camera also features the necessary basic beautification features should you want to take some selfies with the Tab A.

As far as the battery is concerned, the tablet does quite decently. The battery lasted a good 12 and a half hours on a single charge with our usual websurfing habits, a bit of gaming and a dose of YouTube. Bear in mind that for the most part people tend to spend a lot less time glued on their tablets than on their phones so your mileage might may vary.  Still, 12 hours still isn’t incredibly groundbreaking but for the size of the battery you are getting it’s mostly expected.

[nextpage title=”Display and Performance”]

The screen on the other hand is a major deal breaker for us. Given its size it would have benefited more from a full HD screen but instead was a 1024 x 768 resolution display that could be one of the lowest res displays you would find on a tablet today. Even the Galaxy Note 8.0 launched in 2013 had a display pushing 1280 x 800. Considering the vast majority of tablets (and smartphones) feature full HD displays and even sharper AMOLED or IPS tech behind them, it’s a very odd choice for Samsung. The screen is however very nice and bright even when outside, which mitigates the glossy reflective display.

Like we mentioned earlier the 4:3 aspect ratio is good for reading but text doesn’t always appear as sharp as they should be and images sometimes come out a bit pixelated as well. This could be a big or minor annoyance depending on how bothered you are by it but personally we would have preferred something better.

In terms of performance, the device is just average. We tested the Tab A with both Antutu and Geekbench, with the former producing a score of 21848 and the latter producing a single core score of 469 and 1415 for the multi core score. Considering the Tab A is just packing a Snapdragon 410 processor it doesn’t make the performance particularly groundbreaking but we didn’t find the tablet to lag or slow down during use even with multiple programs running simultaneously.

[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]

Overall we feel that the Samsung Galaxy Tab A is an average tablet at best and is more than a bit overpriced given the screen resolution. The pre-loaded software is still a nice bonus if you are looking for productivity apps and there isn’t a replacement for the S Pen in terms of functionality.

So if you are looking for a high performance tablet then the Mi Pad is still the way to go but if you still wish to make calls then one of the ASUS fonepads might be a better bet for the cheaper price. But if you really need the S Pen and aren’t willing to throw in some extra cash for one of the Galaxy Note devices, then the Galaxy Tab A would be your best bet.