Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 Review: Bright Screen & Decent Battery

Samsung released a new budget tablet, called Galaxy Tab A 8.0 earlier in the year. Currently, the brand has not revealed the pricing and availability of this tablet in the Indian market.

The tablet has a sufficiently powerful configuration to use, HD display and not outstanding basic design. In return, the company still confidently advertises some special features such as dual speaker clusters that support Dolby Atmos surround sound and 5,100mAh battery for long usage.

As positioned in the budget segment, we obviously cannot require much from the device. But, whether it is as good as what the brand promised, or suitable for anyone, let's find out!

Entertainment

For fans of movies or music with little money, they can consider the Tab A 8.0. The device's display only uses 8-inch IPS LCD panel with HD+ resolution but has high brightness, beautiful colors and good contrast. The protective glass layer is very clear, not as opaque as many cheap devices in the same price segment. The experience of watching movies on the device has nothing to complain about.

The Galaxy Tab A 8.0 has 32GB internal storage, of which about 20GB is available to store data. If you only watch movies online on the app, it doesn't matter, but if you want to save multiple movies to watch when traveling, you should buy more memory cards. The tablet supports up to 512GB memory card slot so it is more comfortable and flexible in this department.

The sound quality from the 3.5mm headphone port has nothing to discuss. However, you will have to purchase the headset separately because it is not included in the device's package. The quality of external speakers is average because Samsung does not integrate dual speakers to create a more balanced sound space. When Dolby Atmos is on, the volume and width of the sound are greatly enhanced,, but still in favor of high, large openings that are prone to be shrilling and jarring.

The device has a large volume dual speaker, but it is all at the bottom, not creating a good experience like its predecessors.

Fortunately, Samsung does not remove the traditional 3.5mm headphone port.

Gaming experience

Snapdragon 429 chipset and Adreno 504 GPU support quite well for common needs like Facebook, surfing the web or running entertainment applications. However, 2GB RAM capacity makes the experience sometimes stagnant and laggy when running multiple applications at the same time.

Surfing the web and social networks on the device is very pleasant because of a big screen, thin edges, and a light weight of nearly 350g.

Several games like Temple Run, or Plants vs Zombies, the Tab A 8.0 handles very well, and stably with almost no lag. The frame rate is always stable at about 30fps even when there are multiple game characters appearing at the same time.

The tablet only fits for playing light games.

With heavy 3D graphics games like Asphalt 9, Modern Combat 5, the new Tab A 8.0 will not be able to run them due to the low frame rate. However, for an entry-level tablet, it is understandable.

Regarding the AnTuTu and GeekBench scores, the tablet didn't perform impressively. The scores are always at a low average level, as expected for its price range.

Battery

With the configuration as above and a 5,100mAh battery, it is clear that the usage time of the tablet must be good. You can bring the Galaxy Tab A 8.0 with you for 2 - 3 days for one charge with normal use demand and only turning on Wifi, 4G when needed. If users use it more or play games continuously with high brightness (> 70%), the new tablet will run out of battery in 1 day.

Included in the box is the charger with a fairly low output of only 5V/1.55A. So the time to fully charge the battery of the tablet can be up to 4-5 hours depending on conditions. This is actually not a weakness because you can plug in the charger overnight and bring it in the next morning for convenience. And you should bring the charger anytime and anywhere.

Camera

This can be considered a weakness of the Tab A 8 8.0. Of course, even high-end tablets don't get the camera attention, how can we expect anything from a budget tablet?

Image quality from the 8MP main camera is only "visible". The color is not vivid, the dynamic contrast band is poor, and the bokeh mode is not impressive either. Meanwhile, the 2MP front camera is enough to use. The selfie output is obviously not as good as the high-end devices, but it still meets the video call needs of most users today.

In addition, the tablet has a built-in voice speaker, microphone and message and calling features like a real smartphone. The SIM slot of the device supports 2 nanoSIM, and works well with 4G connectivity, which is suitable for current user tastes.

Samsung’s OneUI interface based on Android 9 Oreo still performs well on the Tab A. The operations are smooth, and many essential features are much nicer than the older versions.

So who is Galaxy Tab A 8.0 for?

With good display quality, long battery life and sufficient configuration, it is clear that Galaxy Tab A 8.0 is intended for users like students who have little money and parents who want to buy it for reading newspapers, watching movies and for their children.

Some other images of Galaxy Tab A 8.0: