Samsung Galaxy Tab a 101 16gb Tablet Review

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) is themuch cheaper alternative to the excellent Galaxy Tab S5e and Apple's iPad range.

In the downgrade you lose a lot of graphics power, the punch of an OLED screen and advanced multi-driver speakers. But when y'all accept to spend £130 less, those characteristic dips don't seem quite so bad.

Gaming operation is the merely major outcome here. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 has much less graphics grunt than the cheaper Amazon Fire Hd ten. Y'all can nonetheless play any game you like, just will have to downgrade the visuals to make them smooth. Only, the big victory confronting the Amazon tablet, this Samsung has access to many more great Android games.

Cost & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A x.1 (2019) was released in late 2019. It's an update to the last tablet of the same proper noun, from way back in 2016, and costs £199 at launch. That's non quite half the price of Apple's cheapest iPad, but it'due south not too far off and can be institute for a decent chunk lower than that recommended toll.

At that place's also a 4G LTE version. It costs £249, which seems a fair upgrade cost. Both versions simply have 32GB storage. Y'all may want to factor in the cost of a microSD carte du jour as this corporeality of storage does not go too far these days.

Our review sample was provided by Carphone Warehouse and you can notice it straight from Samsung as well as Amazon, Currys and John Lewis.

In the United states, the tablet costs $229 but y'all can besides pick up 64- and 128GB models if you want more stroage. It's bachelor at Amazon and Samsung.

Check out the best budget tablets we've tested.

Design & Build

We've been waiting for the Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.1 (2019) for what feels like an eternity. Most inexpensive 10in Samsung tablets have fairly poor, depression-res screens. The predecessor to this one did non, but its design now looks very dated. Samsung has addressed this upshot in the new model.

The Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.ane (2019) looks and feels great, especially considering its sub-£200 cost. And that only seems more impressive when you look at the proper name on the back. Samsung is not known for offering class-leading blueprint in its low-finish phones and tablets.

Its dorsum is a depression-flex sail of aluminium, with an anodised texture finish similar to an iPad's. Switching between the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 and Amazon Burn HD 10 there'southward no contest. The Samsung feels a lot fancier.

At that place is still an inch-plus piece of plastic at the superlative, on the back. Samsung volition tell you this is there for the antennas, as they can't transmit effectively through metal. However, it too cuts down on the cost of producing the casing.

The front buttons and big borders of older Samsung tablets take also been zapped. You are left with perhaps the best-looking entry-level 10in tablet available. Information technology besides has a significantly smaller footprint than the Amazon Burn Hard disk x.

It's 7.7mm thick and weighs 460g. Belongings information technology in one paw is fine, but two is yet better.

So is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) a design friction match for the level-upwards Galaxy Tab S5e? No. Apply some finger pressure to the screen and you will run across minor brandish ripples, and Samsung's mid-range and high-end tablets are much thinner and lighter still. But at the cost we are more than satisfied.

Features

The low price does mean a few obvious features are left out of the Tab A. There'southward no fingerprint scanner or face up unlock, for example. You have to make do with no security, or utilise a traditional pin, password or swipe pattern. If your tablet will stay at home, and away from the fingers of troublemaking kids and adults, this may not exist a big issue.

You do non get the all-time speakers around either. The Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.i (2019) has a unmarried speaker on the bottom.

We tested information technology out watching a couple of episodes of Netflix's The Sinner in the bath (only recommended for bathing professionals every bit in that location's no h2o resistance hither). The speaker has solid mid-range and probable plenty volume to hands drown entry-level phones, but nosotros did miss the proper stereo upshot of the Galaxy S5e'southward vivid quad speakers. And, more than pertinently, the Burn down Hard disk drive 10's stereo speakers.

Nosotros were also a little disappointed, if not surprised, to see the Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.1 (2019) but has 32GB storage. This just isn't much when the Android OS eats a lot of it and games oft take up several gigabytes. So information technology's a shame to run across the larger capacities merely in the U.s.a..

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) has a ten.1in 1920 10 1200 pixel LCD screen. This is mayhap the most of import element of the tablet, but does testify a few petty toll compromises.

Permit's start with the proficient parts. This screen is as abrupt as you could inquire for at the cost, and color does non seem at all undersaturated fifty-fifty though budget LCDs tend to be less punchy than OLEDs. Yous'll find these OLED screens in the Galaxy Tab S5e and Galaxy Tab S6, and they provide seriously rich color and contrast.

The screen size likewise makes streamed video and games a completely different experience to those of a telephone, even a large one - then there's still a decent recent to have a tablet as well as a smartphone.

Our Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) does not take the most consequent console, though. The upper-right part looks a little more yellowy than the rest and when displaying a pure white screen you may see a slightly luminance gradient in the final few millimetres of a coupe of the sides.

Nosotros can't really find any of these problems exterior of a near all-white display, though.

Contrast is the role we miss most from the Galaxy Tab S5e. Blacks are not perfect, which makes dark scenes in movies and Television less assuming-looking in a low-lit room.

We still class the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.i (2019) as an excellent tablet for video streaming, and Netflix in particular. Information technology has full Netflix HD certification, meaning y'all can stream at 1080p. This is less common than you lot might presume.

Specs & Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) has a Samsung processor, the Exynos 7904. This has 8 cores and scores a reasonable 3986 points in Geekbench iv.

Raw CPU power is not the problem, though. The weaknesses are all to practise with RAM and the GPU role of the chipset.

You can get the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) with either 2GB or 3GB RAM. Ours has 2GB (like all Uk models, from what we can run across) and information technology causes some occasional interface lag. This might mean the keyboard takes half a second to a second to appear sometimes, a spring back to the domicile screen won't be instant and app switching will experience slightly slow.

Express RAM also means the tablet can only "park" apps briefly before closing them downwardly. Open up the multi-tasking screen and it'll look as though all your recent apps are even so running. Simply try to jump back into one and the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.i (2019) will usually have to reload the app from scratch.

A lack of RAM also tripped-upwardly our testing using GFXBench. The tablet ran out of memory and simply stopped testing a agglomeration of times. 2GB RAM: information technology's less than ideal these days.

Little bits of interface lag tend to bother us much more in phones than tablets like this. Information technology has not got on our nerves. However, we do wish the Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.1 (2019) had a more powerful graphics chipset.

It has a dual-core Mali-G71. This matter is piddly for a Full HD 10in tablet that seems born to play games. Information technology's merely around half as powerful equally the Republic of mali-G73 MP3 used in the cheaper Amazon Fire Hd 10.

The good news is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A ten.1 (2019) can still play whatever game you similar. However, performance won't always exist perfect. To get ARK: Survival Evolved to run perfectly you need to downscale its dynamic resolution until if looks a bit like someone's smeared the graphics with their thumb. And if you lot practice max information technology out and swallow the imperfect frame rate, the game will still simply run at "Depression" visuals, resulting in horrible object pop-in.

PUBG runs much better. You can't use the highest graphics settings, but plow anti-aliasing on and it looks pretty proficient. There'southward still the odd distracting deadening-down moment, just the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) tin can handle the game well. Y'all can't run Fortnite, though, and may never exist able to. It requires 4GB RAM according to Ballsy'south installer app.

If the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.one (2019) had the stereo speakers and better processor of the Amazon Fire Hard disk drive 10 we'd be heading towards the perfect budget tablet. But what life is not brimming with small disappointments?

There's niggling to complain near in the software, outside the little RAM-related hiccups. The tablet runs Android nine Pie and has Samsung's standard interface. It looks clean and cheerful, and lets yous accept control of your home screens far more any Amazon tablet.

Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) has two cameras, one on each side. Our rear camera has an 8Mp sensor, the Samsung S5K4HA. It's the same used for the ultra-wide camera of the Samsung Galaxy A70.

For a cheap tablet this is not too bad at all. It flattens the depression-res rear camera of the Amazon Fire HD 10, and has autofocus. We take this for granted in phones, but is not ever present in low-end tablets. Without autofocus, you can't take close-up photos. They'll simply exist blurry.

The Samsung Milky way Tab A x.1 (2019)'southward camera app even lets you zoom into 2x, behaving as if there were an actual telephoto camera. This is perhaps a step too far as the photographic camera quality does not hold upward to 2x zooming. But nosotros would not exist surprised if some buyers utilise and appreciate this feature.

Image quality is fairly poor by the standards of mobile tech, only flat-out practiced in this class. You lot can take genuinely usable images with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A x.1 (2019) in good lighting - if you don't mind using a 10in tablet to take photos.

The forepart camera has a lower-finish 5Mp sensor that, once more, exceeds expectations for a sub-£200 tablet that otherwise focuses on design and display quality. Again information technology destroys the Fire Hard disk drive 10 selfie camera. However, information technology tin can't really capture fine facial detail similar many phones at the price, or cheaper.

Video capture is ane obvious do good of using these genuinely OK camera sensors. You can shoot 1080p video with either. At this toll we'd grudgingly shrug and accept 720p. We don't recommend using the rear photographic camera for video too often, though. None of the Samsung Milky way Tab A x.1 (2019)'s video is stabilised, and will therefore look a mess as presently every bit you start moving.

Battery Life

The Tab A has a 6150mAh battery, smaller than the 2016 version's 7300mAh battery. However, Samsung still says it volition last 13 hours, which sounds good by whatever tablet standard.

In our standardised in-firm testing it lasted viii hours 34 minutes. This is longer than the iPad x.2 managed, and a proficient result as this test is a little more enervating than very light real-earth use.

To get a clearer look at the stamina in a more than recognisable context nosotros streamed YouTube for just nether three and a half hours to see how much the battery would drib. The results were almost exactly in-line with Samsung's claims. It suggested the Milky way Tab A 10.1 will last around 12 hours 56 minutes when streaming video.

For the most function we used the tablet as we would twenty-four hour period-to-24-hour interval: the odd binge, then it would be left sitting doing nothing for a while. We didn't run across any drastic dips here either, no picking information technology up to find the battery drained to naught for no credible reason.

This is a reminder that while you may take to pay the large bucks for the best cameras and processors, gold-standard bombardment life tin can be found cheap.

Verdict

Samsung's update of its ultra-mainstream 10in budget tablet from 2016 is generally a success. For nether £200 you get a pleasant aluminium rear, a proficient Full HD screen and cracking battery life.

We'd accept a striking to the respectable (for a tablet) cameras in commutation for better core specs, though. There'south plenty raw CPU power to go effectually, but the GPU and RAM scrape by with the blank minimum. You will come across some lag and not all games run perfectly.

Notwithstanding, Samsung's utilize of relatively poor graphics hardware in its depression-end phones and tablets is zippo new. And while the Burn Hard disk drive 10 may handle some games better, it can't play virtually every bit many of them as its app store is not a patch on the Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.1 (2019)'south Google Play.

Specs

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019): Specs

• Android 9.0
• 10.1in 1920 x 1200 pixel LCD screen
• Exynos 7904 octa-core CPU
• 2GB RAM
• 32GB storage
• 8MP rear camera with f/2 lens
• 5MP front camera with f/2.2 lens
• USB-C
• 6150mAh battery
• Aluminium casing
• 245.2 x 149.four 10 7.5mm
• 469g

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Source: https://www.techadvisor.com/review/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-2019-3779667/

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