Samsung - Galaxy Tab a - 101 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 lot lose a lot of graphics ability, the punch of an OLED screen and advanced multi-driver speakers. Merely when yous take to spend £130 less, those feature dips don't seem quite so bad.

Gaming operation is the only major outcome here. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A ten.1 has much less graphics grunt than the cheaper Amazon Fire Hard disk drive x. You tin can still play any game you lot like, simply will have to downgrade the visuals to make them shine. Simply, the large victory against the Amazon tablet, this Samsung has access to many more than bang-up Android games.

Price & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.i (2019) was released in tardily 2019. Information technology'due south an update to the terminal tablet of the same name, from manner back in 2016, and costs £199 at launch. That'southward non quite half the price of Apple'due south cheapest iPad, just it'south not too far off and can be establish for a decent chunk lower than that recommended toll.

There'southward also a 4G LTE version. Information technology costs £249, which seems a fair upgrade cost. Both versions only have 32GB storage. You may want to factor in the cost of a microSD card as this corporeality of storage does not go too far these days.

Our review sample was provided past Carphone Warehouse and yous can find it directly from Samsung likewise equally Amazon, Currys and John Lewis.

In the US, the tablet costs $229 but you can also option up 64- and 128GB models if you lot want more than stroage. It's available at Amazon and Samsung.

Cheque out the best budget tablets we've tested.

Blueprint & Build

We've been waiting for the Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.ane (2019) for what feels like an eternity. Almost cheap 10in Samsung tablets have adequately poor, depression-res screens. The predecessor to this ane did non, just its design at present looks very dated. Samsung has addressed this issue in the new model.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) looks and feels great, particularly because its sub-£200 price. And that only seems more impressive when you look at the name on the back. Samsung is non known for offering course-leading design in its depression-end phones and tablets.

Its back is a low-flex sheet of aluminium, with an anodised texture end similar to an iPad's. Switching between the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.i and Amazon Burn Hard disk drive 10 there's no contest. The Samsung feels a lot fancier.

In that location is still an inch-plus piece of plastic at the top, on the dorsum. Samsung will tell y'all this is at that place for the antennas, as they tin can't transmit effectively through metallic. Still, information technology besides cuts down on the price of producing the casing.

The front buttons and large borders of older Samsung tablets accept also been zapped. You are left with maybe the best-looking entry-level 10in tablet bachelor. It also has a significantly smaller footprint than the Amazon Burn down HD x.

It'due south vii.7mm thick and weighs 460g. Holding it in one hand is fine, but two is notwithstanding better.

So is the Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.ane (2019) a design match for the level-upwards Milky way Tab S5e? No. Apply some finger pressure to the screen and you volition meet minor display ripples, and Samsung'southward mid-range and high-stop tablets are much thinner and lighter still. Merely at the price we are more satisfied.

Features

The low cost does hateful a few obvious features are left out of the Tab A. In that location's no fingerprint scanner or face unlock, for example. You have to make practice with no security, or utilise a traditional pin, password or swipe pattern. If your tablet will stay at dwelling, and away from the fingers of troublemaking kids and adults, this may not be a big issue.

You do non get the best speakers around either. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) has a unmarried speaker on the bottom.

Nosotros tested it out watching a couple of episodes of Netflix's The Sinner in the bath (simply recommended for bathing professionals as there's no water resistance here). The speaker has solid mid-range and likely enough volume to easily drown entry-level phones, but nosotros did miss the proper stereo effect of the Galaxy S5e's brilliant quad speakers. And, more pertinently, the Fire Hd 10's stereo speakers.

We were as well a piffling disappointed, if not surprised, to run across the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) only has 32GB storage. This simply isn't much when the Android OS eats a lot of information technology and games oft accept upwardly several gigabytes. And then it'southward a shame to come across the larger capacities only in the US.

Screen

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) has a 10.1in 1920 x 1200 pixel LCD screen. This is perhaps the most important element of the tablet, but does testify a few little toll compromises.

Let'southward start with the good parts. This screen is as sharp as yous could ask for at the cost, and colour does not seem at all undersaturated even though budget LCDs tend to exist less punchy than OLEDs. You'll find these OLED screens in the Galaxy Tab S5e and Galaxy Tab S6, and they provide seriously rich colour and contrast.

The screen size also makes streamed video and games a completely dissimilar experience to those of a phone, fifty-fifty a big i - then in that location's still a decent contempo to have a tablet every bit well as a smartphone.

Our Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) does not have the most consistent panel, though. The upper-correct part looks a niggling more than yellowy than the rest and when displaying a pure white screen you may run across a slightly luminance slope in the last few millimetres of a coupe of the sides.

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

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

We still class the Samsung Milky way Tab A ten.one (2019) as an excellent tablet for video streaming, and Netflix in particular. It has full Netflix Hard disk drive certification, meaning yous can stream at 1080p. This is less mutual than you lot might assume.

Specs & Operation

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) has a Samsung processor, the Exynos 7904. This has viii cores and scores a reasonable 3986 points in Geekbench 4.

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

You can become the Samsung Galaxy Tab A x.ane (2019) with either 2GB or 3GB RAM. Ours has 2GB (like all UK models, from what we can run into) and information technology causes some occasional interface lag. This might mean the keyboard takes half a second to a second to appear sometimes, a leap back to the home screen won't be instant and app switching will feel slightly slow.

Express RAM also means the tablet can only "park" apps briefly before endmost them down. Open up the multi-tasking screen and information technology'll look as though all your contempo apps are still running. But endeavor to jump back into ane and the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) volition normally have to reload the app from scratch.

A lack of RAM as well tripped-up our testing using GFXBench. The tablet ran out of retentivity and simply stopped testing a agglomeration of times. 2GB RAM: it'south less than ideal these days.

Little $.25 of interface lag tend to carp us much more than in phones than tablets like this. It has non got on our nerves. However, we exercise wish the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.i (2019) had a more powerful graphics chipset.

It has a dual-cadre Mali-G71. This affair is piddly for a Full Hard disk drive 10in tablet that seems born to play games. Information technology's only effectually half as powerful as the Mali-G73 MP3 used in the cheaper Amazon Fire HD x.

The good news is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A x.1 (2019) tin still play any game you like. Nonetheless, performance won't e'er be perfect. To become ARK: Survival Evolved to run perfectly you need to downscale its dynamic resolution until if looks a scrap like someone's smeared the graphics with their thumb. And if y'all do max it out and swallow the imperfect frame rate, the game volition however but run at "Low" visuals, resulting in horrible object popular-in.

PUBG runs much better. You can't employ the highest graphics settings, but plow anti-aliasing on and information technology looks pretty good. There's still the odd distracting slow-down moment, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) can handle the game well. Y'all tin't run Fortnite, though, and may never be able to. It requires 4GB RAM according to Epic'southward installer app.

If the Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.1 (2019) had the stereo speakers and better processor of the Amazon Burn down HD ten we'd exist heading towards the perfect budget tablet. But what life is not brimming with small-scale disappointments?

At that place's piddling to complain about in the software, outside the little RAM-related hiccups. The tablet runs Android nine Pie and has Samsung'due south standard interface. It looks clean and cheerful, and lets y'all take control of your home screens far more than any Amazon tablet.

Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A x.1 (2019) has two cameras, one on each side. Our rear camera has an 8Mp sensor, the Samsung S5K4HA. Information technology'southward the aforementioned used for the ultra-wide camera of the Samsung Milky way A70.

For a inexpensive tablet this is non as well bad at all. Information technology flattens the low-res rear photographic camera of the Amazon Fire HD 10, and has autofocus. Nosotros take this for granted in phones, just is not always present in low-terminate tablets. Without autofocus, yous can't take shut-up photos. They'll simply be blurry.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.ane (2019)'southward camera app even lets you lot zoom into 2x, behaving as if in that location were an actual telephoto camera. This is possibly a footstep too far as the camera quality does not hold up to 2x zooming. But we would non exist surprised if some buyers apply and appreciate this feature.

Epitome quality is adequately poor by the standards of mobile tech, but flat-out skillful in this form. You can have genuinely usable images with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019) in good lighting - if you don't mind using a 10in tablet to accept photos.

The front camera has a lower-end 5Mp sensor that, once more, exceeds expectations for a sub-£200 tablet that otherwise focuses on pattern and display quality. Again it destroys the Fire HD 10 selfie camera. Yet, it tin't actually capture fine facial item similar many phones at the price, or cheaper.

Video capture is one obvious benefit of using these genuinely OK camera sensors. You tin shoot 1080p video with either. At this price nosotros'd grudgingly shrug and accept 720p. Nosotros don't recommend using the rear camera for video too often, though. None of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A x.i (2019)'due south video is stabilised, and will therefore look a mess every bit soon every bit you offset moving.

Battery Life

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

In our standardised in-business firm testing it lasted 8 hours 34 minutes. This is longer than the iPad x.2 managed, and a practiced event as this exam is a fiddling more demanding than very lite real-globe utilize.

To get a clearer look at the stamina in a more than recognisable context we streamed YouTube for just under three and a half hours to see how much the battery would driblet. The results were almost exactly in-line with Samsung'south claims. Information technology suggested the Galaxy Tab A x.1 will concluding effectually 12 hours 56 minutes when streaming video.

For the nearly role we used the tablet every bit nosotros would day-to-day: the odd binge, then it would exist left sitting doing nothing for a while. We didn't see whatsoever drastic dips here either, no picking it upwardly to find the battery drained to nil for no apparent reason.

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

Verdict

Samsung's update of its ultra-mainstream 10in budget tablet from 2016 is mostly a success. For under £200 you get a pleasant aluminium rear, a expert Full Hard disk drive screen and bully battery life.

We'd take a hit to the respectable (for a tablet) cameras in exchange for meliorate core specs, though. In that location's plenty raw CPU power to become around, just the GPU and RAM scrape past with the bare minimum. Y'all volition see some lag and not all games run perfectly.

Notwithstanding, Samsung'southward apply of relatively poor graphics hardware in its low-finish phones and tablets is nothing new. And while the Burn Hard disk drive 10 may handle some games ameliorate, it can't play nearly as many of them equally its app store is not a patch on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2019)'s Google Play.

Specs

Samsung Milky way Tab A 10.1 (2019): Specs

• Android nine.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 forepart camera with f/ii.2 lens
• USB-C
• 6150mAh battery
• Aluminium casing
• 245.2 x 149.4 ten seven.5mm
• 469g

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

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