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The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 was a decent buy a few years back but tablets have come on a long way since then, while smaller 7in models such as this have fallen slightly out of favour, with tastes moving to 8in and larger tablets. That said if you see one secondhand for very little, by which we mean about £50, it might still be worth picking up. We’re certainly more fond of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 than the newer Samsung Galaxy Tab Lite that we found sluggish and disappointing, even when taking into consideration its budget price.
Even in its day the Tab 2 was outdone by the then excellent Google Nexus 7. In terms of looks, there’s not much to tell the two apart. Both tablets are roughly the same size and weight. However, the Nexus 7 has a darker screen, so when it’s turned off it’s hard to tell where the screen ends and the bezel starts. Due to the Galaxy Tab 2’s lighter screen, the bezel stands out more, making the display look a little smaller. There are, however, both silver and white versions of the Tab 2, so you’ve got a bit more choice on looks.
Samsung has fitted the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 with a 1,024×600 Plane Line Switching (PLS) screen, which is the company’s alternative to the IPS technology in the Nexus 7’s 1,280×800 screen. We found the Galaxy Tab 2 display to be brighter, with purer whites and better contrast, but both tablets have excellent viewing angles. In contrast, we found that the Nexus 7’s screen is slightly less reflective, making it easier to read in most conditions.
In terms of resolution, the Nexus 7 wins hands down. The higher resolution packed into the smaller screen makes text and images look a lot sharper. Once you’re used to the Nexus 7, text on the Tab 2’s screen looks vaguely hazy.
PROCESSOR AND PERFORMANCE
Samsung has fitted a 1GHz TI OMAP 4430 dual-core processor, which compares poorly with the 1.2GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor in the Nexus 7. There’s no doubt the Nexus 7 is the faster tablet. Google’s tablet completed the the SunSpider JavaScript test in 1,676ms, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 took 2,278ms.
We also tried the graphically-intense Dead Trigger game on both tablets. While the Nexus 7 would let us play smoothly at Ultra High Detail levels, the Galaxy Tab 2 would only let us select High Detail and was a little jerkier, particularly when up-close and personal with a zombie.
Part of this difference can be explained by the tablets’ different operating systems. The Nexus 7 has received constant updates and can be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop, the latest version of Android, while the Galaxy Tab 2 has been stuck on the less-refined Android 4.0.
The Nexus definitely feels significantly smoother, particularly when scrolling through complicated web pages or a Google Play page full of apps. In the same situation the Galaxy Tab 2 feels rather jerky. It’s by no means a slow tablet, however, especially considering its budget price.
SAMSUNG’S ANDROID
We’re pleased to see that Samsung hasn’t changed Android much. It has added a screenshot button to the soft buttons bar, as well as a Mini Apps bar. Mini Apps are utilities that you can bring up in front of the main Android interface and include a calculator, music player and calendar, among others. They work quite well, but for us they don’t add anything over widgets or standard applications.
Samsung has also made minor changes to the mail and calendar apps. They’re mostly cosmetic, but S Planner, the calendar replacement, also lets you pinch-to-zoom to switch between day, week and month views. It’s a useful feature, even if the actual operation is a little jerky.
HARDWARE
The tablet has a 4,000mAh battery, which is only slightly less than the 4,325mAh battery of the Nexus 7. It lasted a respectable 8h 45m in our video playback test, although the Nexus 7 is clearly more efficient as it lasted 10h and 20m. Realistically both tablets will last you a day’s use, but the Nexus 7’s extra 90 minutes is useful.
Both Samsung and Google’s tablets are available in 8GB and 16GB Wi-Fi versions. There’s less need to buy the 16GB version of Samsung’s tablet, as a microSD card slot means you can add up to 32GB more storage; the Nexus 7 is not upgradeable.
While Google doesn’t have a 3G version of its tablet, Samsung does, which is brilliant news if you want data wherever you go and don’t want to mess around with personal Wi-Fi hotspots. Expect to pay around an extra £80 for the 3G versions over the equivalent Wi-Fi model.
The Tab 2 has a rear video camera for video and stills capture. It only has a 3-megapixel sensor and shots are adequate but far from inspiring. We found that fine detail was lost, while highlight clipping meant we lost all the detail in the sky in our tests shots. Video is recorded at 720p at 30fps. It’s smooth, but the picture is very noisy and there’s not a lot of detail in the picture.
Annoyingly, the default setting for the tablet is to connect over USB in MTP mode, which hid all the images and videos taken using the camera from Windows Explorer. Changing to PTP mode let us access everything, but a standard mass storage mode would have been better.
CONCLUSION
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is nearly two years old now, but its price has halved in that time. You can pick one up for a bargain price of £99, that’s £100 less than the Nexus 7. While its dual-core 1GHz processor isn’t especially fast the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 has an excellent screen and looks stylish. It runs Android 4.0, which is a little outdated now but still perfectly usable if you don’t have too many demanding requirements. There’s 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot to expand this further, which is a plus over the non-expandable storage capacity of the Google Nexus 7. The 4,000mAh battery lasted 8h 45m in our video playback test, which is pretty much a whole day so is pretty impressive all things considered.
Having said that, it has been blown away by recent launches in the budget tablet sector. Most obvious is the new Tesco Hudl2, which for £129 is a cracking device with everything you need, including a fast, modern processor, a surprisingly gorgeous screen and excellent build quality making it by far our favourite budget Android tablet. Do keep in mind it’s an 8in tablet if you are after a smaller device, the extra screen space is a real positive otherwise. If you are cash-constrained picking up a cheap, used Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 isn’t a terrible idea but we would much rather stretch to a new Hudl2 if you can. Tesco has long been promising an update to Android 5.0 is on the horizon as well, which is another feather in the Hudl2’s cap.
