Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 – Best Tablet In Its Price Range

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 – Best Tablet In Its Price Range A customer review5.0 out of 5 stars This tablet is the best in the price range, May 8,2012By Greg "Greg" (Virginia)Ok, the title of my review might be a little extreme but I stick by it. Anyoneconsidering a Nook or Kindle should give this tablet a long, hard look. For an entrylevel, low cost tablet it has a lot of features the purpose built readers leave out. Notthe least of which is this tablet is not tied to Barnes & Noble or Amazon. With thisSamsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet you can get content from anywhere you want. Also,the Samsung has a GPS, front and rear cameras and a memory card slot. I believethe Nook has a memory slot too but the Kindle does not. The Samsung also has anIR blaster for controlling your home theater.My only other Android device is my nearly 2 year old Motorola Droid X phoneand this tablet makes my phone feel very inadequate in almost every way. Thetablets screen is bright, crisp and clear and it is very responsive with little to no lag. Page 1 of 9

I believe that this screen has a higher pixel density than many of the 10" tablets asit is nearly the same resolution as the larger tablets in a smaller screen. I washolding out for a high res 10" tablet but decided to jump on this one because I wastired of waiting. I am not disappointed. It will be interesting to see if I end uppreferring the 7" tablet after I use it a while. It is very light, small and portable andthe screen real estate is really quite usable.Universal Remote:I just got my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet last night and setup my home theatereasily. I am disappointed with the interface of the supplied remote app though andwill look around for a better version. But at least the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tabletprovides the ability to do it. To be fair though, I did not spend a lot of time with itso it may be better than I think.Kindle Reader:The Kindle reader app is very nice as the text is sharp and it turns pages veryquickly. I think anyone coming from an e-ink based reader will enjoy using thistablet as a reader as well. My wife has the e-ink Kindle and has often wanted aback lit reader instead of using a book light. This screen will not be as readableoutdoors though but I think most of my and my wifes reading is indoors so there isalways a trade off.Streaming Music:I have not tried other media yet other than Pandora radio. You do get a little hiccupin the audio if you are surfing data intensive apps like Google Maps while you arestreaming music. This may be the result of my pitiful DSL connection at homethough. Will have to try it on a faster broadband connection sometime to see.Maps:Google Maps looks great on this device. Fortunately this tablet has a GPS chip solocation based services/mapping are possible. It is a great size for mapping andonce I get a 4G phone with WiFi ability, I will try it out as a navigation device.Hopefully Samsung will come out with a car dock for this tablet. GoogleStreetview is very nice on this Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet as well. Page 2 of 9

Gmail:The Gmail app is extremely nice on this Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet. Even inportrait mode you get the folder list down the left side and your email in thecurrently selected folder displayed on the right. On my phone, you only get onefolder at a time.Google Reader:I use Google Reader as my RSS app and it is very fast on the tablet compared tomy phone. I go cross-eyed staring at my phone for very long but I can tell from mylimited use of the reader on the tablet that the tablet will be great. The reader isreally one of my most used apps and a big reason I wanted a tablet.Facebook:What can I say, Facebook is much nicer on a tablet than on the phone.Real Estate Apps:I am currently in the market to buy a house so I have the Realtor.com and Zillowapps. Both are much nicer on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet than on the phone.The photos on the Realtor app are much larger than what Zillow provides thoughwhich is odd. Photos on the phone are ok, but are hard to tell much about. With thetablet, the photos are much more usable.I may come back and add more to this review as I use the tablet more but in my 1evening with it so far I can tell that I am going to love this tablet.**Update 5/9/2012**I got a chance to play with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet some more and have afew more observations to add.YouTube:YouTube looks great on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2. It will seamlessly flip fromportrait to landscape without stopping the video. I personally think the YouTubeapp has a much better UI than the internet webpage. Page 3 of 9

Speakers:The speakers are on the bottom of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet when thetablet is in portrait position. You have to watch that you dont rest it on your lapwhen listening to something using the speakers. If you turn it to landscape position,you have to watch that you dont cover the lower speaker with your hand. I foundthat if you hold the tablet with your fingers and cup the corner with the speaker itactually helps project the sound to you. I dont know where else they could putspeakers as almost anywhere they are you will have to watch you dont cover themwhen you hold them so I wont complain about it.Games:What can I say, Angry Birds is awesome on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet.Words With Friends is nice as well. I havent tried other games yet but expect themto look much better than they do on a phone.7" vs. 10" tablet:I dont know what to think about the size yet. I was trying to hold out for a high res10" tablet that Samsung is rumored to be working on but got tired of waiting. I amreally enjoying the light, small form factor of this 7" tablet though. So now I amnot sure if I will want a 10" tablet or not. My brother has an iPad and that thing is abrick compared to this Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet.WiFi:I am a little worried about the people complaining about WiFi issues. So far minehas been working fine. It is indicating the same signal strength that my phone andlaptop show. Maybe the problem is a hit and miss but I hope if there is a realproblem it is something a software/firmware update can resolve. But so far I haveno complaints.Battery Life:I charged my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet overnight and took it off the charger inthe morning. I didnt use the tablet until I got home about 11 hours later. It was at98% charge so it only drained 2% in 11 hours of no use. I used it for nearly 3 hoursand it dropped to 66%. So 3 hours was about 1/3 of the battery life. That shouldtranslate to about 9 hours of battery life. I could turn the GPS off since it isnt Page 4 of 9

needed most of the time, I also saw a tip about having it turn the WiFi off when insleep mode and I have manually set the screen brightness to around 25% which isplenty bright indoors. Overall, I think it is going to have pretty decent battery life. Ishould get about 3 good evenings or a full day on a charge.**Update 5/21/2012**I have lived with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet for a couple weeks now andhave a few more observations.Screen Sharpness:I got to compare it with my brothers iPad 2 this weekend and the screen on theSamsung is much, much sharper than the iPad. In fact, my dads Nook was muchsharper than the iPad with the Samsung being sharper than the Nook. Thedifference was amazing.Browser Speed:I was completely happy with the browsing speed of the Samsung until I comparedit to the iPad. The iPad was much, much faster. Not sure why, but it is verynoticeable. I installed the beta version of Google Chrome and it appears to bebetter than the built in browser but still not as fast as the iPad. But like I said, I washappy until I found out there was better.Connection Issues:I have observed the connection problem some people are reporting. If you hold thebottom left corner, the reception does drop down. As soon as you left off, it goesup 1 bar. But I also found out that my router was not operating at full strength. Ihad the old standby Linksys WRT54G but recently upgraded to an ASUS RT16N.As soon as I did, I noticed my cell phone and laptop were not showing nearly asstrong reception as before.I am running Tomato on the router and discovered that you can turn up the signalstrength. By default, Tomato is dialed back. My nearest neighbor is a quarter mileaway so I dialed up to full strength. That upped my reception by 1 bar whencovered and uncovered. So now I have better signal strength, even when I coverthe antenna. I am not worried as I dont lose connection and it is showing a similar Page 5 of 9

signal strength as my phone and laptop.Overall, I love the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet. Click here to buy the Galaxy Tab 2 Click on the image above to buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2What Other Users Has To Say…5.0 out of 5 stars Truly an ipad at half price, May 21, 2012By N. green (Austin, Texas United States) Having tried a Kindel Fire, a new Ipad, and the Samsung Galaxy, I can honestly report that the Galaxy performs like a small Ipad, and the Kindel performs like a small fishing weight, without the ability to catch any fish. Slooooooow, so slow to do anything, I mean make a pot of coffee, go to the bathroom, come back still hasnt loaded Yahoo slow. The Galaxy loads pages on Wifi as fast as a home computer, the color and definition are stunning, it comes with a tiny instruction book because it is so intuitive it doesnt need much instruction. The Galaxy, at half the price of the Apple, and playing flash, it is the no-brainer choice for a pad on a budget. Page 6 of 9

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I was looking for...very impressed!, April 22, 2012By M. Jecha (Chicago, IL United States) Very impressed with Amazons delivery on a SUNDAY, at that! I pre-ordered and assumed Id get it on Monday or Tuesday with my Prime delivery, but was surprised at to see it at my door today! As for the tablet itself, so far it has been a breeze to use! Connected to my WiFi right away and it seems pretty speedy...of course I havent bogged it down with a bunch of junk yet. ;-) I logged in with my google account and before you know it, my apps were all synched over while it was charging. I didnt want a full size tablet, this is much more portable, yet big enough to be easier to read than my Samsung Infuse for browsing, games and Kindle books. Love it so far!5.0 out of 5 stars You dont know what your missing until you get one, May 11, 2012By T. J. Power "PowerCPA" (Breckenridge, Colorado United States) I admit I am a techno freak. Ive tried using a couple of other devices (Chromebook, iPad, etc.) before landing this device, and it blows the doors off all of them. This thing is just plain FUN to use, and it does everything and more than I want it to do. Being a heavy Google Apps user, and deep into cloud applications, the more I use it the more I find uses for it. Some of the apps I have installed include Citrix Receiver for login to my most used cloud app (Thomson Reuters SaaS), A1 Keyboard Plus, Chrome to Phone, File Manager HD, Flipboard (very cool), GrooveIP, Kayak, NOAA weather, Open Table, Play Music, Sports Tracker, Spotify, Spotimote, Xfinity TV, Zinio. Plus, lots and lots of games. Out of the 5gb of included storage, I still have 3gb left. Plus, I installed a 32gb microSD card, but Im not sure yet when Ill need it. My home screen shows me my Gmail account, Google Voice, Drive, and Calendar, plus six more of my most used apps. The only app that doesnt want to work for me is the Peel remote control, but Im working on getting that going, it would be great, if it worked. With GrooveIP I can use it to make outgoing calls over wifi. The 7" size makes it great to use while eating breakfast, or in bed or on the couch. It even fits in my pocket. Battery life is great, and the screen is more than enough for my needs. At times, it will bog down a little, but I find restarting it fixes that issue. The volume can be way louder than I need it to be. Screen brightness is best Page 7 of 9

left on manual, and it gets brighter than looking at the sun. The five home screens hold a lot of icons, and I have one I havent even started to fill yet. The widgets are useful, as well. I highly recommend this product, and the Amazon price and shipping are awesome. For $250, its the best deal out there. I love my Tab 2 7.0, and I feel sorry for my old Android phone now. It just pales in comparison. Click here to buy the Galaxy Tab 2Product Features and Technical DetailsProduct Features Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS 7-inch Multitouch Screen (1024 x 600) 8GB Internal Memory; microSD expansion up to 32GB Wireless N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n); Bluetooth 3.0 1GHz Dual-Core Processor; 1GB RAMProcessor, Memory, and Motherboard Hardware Platform: PC Processor: 1 GHz Number of Processors: 2 RAM: 1 GB RAM Type: DDR2 SDRAMHard Drive Size: 8 GBCases and Expandability Size (LWH): 4.8 inches, 0.41 inches, 7.6 inches Weight: 12.16 ouncesWireless Wireless Type: Bluetooth Page 8 of 9

Click here to buy the Galaxy Tab 2 Click on the image above to buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Page 9 of 9

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 – Best Tablet In Its Price Range

by marieannesummers on May 27, 2012

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 – Best Tablet In Its Price Range Document Transcript