- Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS
- 10.1-inch Multitouch 720p HD Screen (1280 x 800)
- 16GB Internal Memory; microSD expansion up to 32GB
- Wireless N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n); Bluetooth 3.0,GPS Enabled with Latitude, Google Maps
- 1GHz Dual-Core Processor
BEST FEATURES: This tablet is great for everyday use for room to room or taking place to place as this tablet's size if perfect for reading emails, surfing the web, reading my Kindle books, and more! Although in my opinion, this exceptional Samsung Tablet does not fully replace a Laptop or Desktop, yet for quick browsing, checking emails, listening to music and reading eBooks, it is so much more portable and convenient than lugging around my 17.1" heavy laptop!
Please note that the NEWEST Adobe Flash Player NO LONGER SUPPORTS Android Devices in Android Tablets and Phone with ICS or higher! However, in the below discussion, if you ask me, I will give instructions on how you can install Adobe Flash Archive into this tablet as I did so in my Tab2. Note that I have the latest archived flash and I watch all kinds of videos on the internet even with Jelly Bean on this tablet! (There is so much info given in the below discussion about this and so much more).
MANY PROS OF THIS TABLET:
With my Archived flash installed, I watch Amazon videos and also other online videos and the picture is VIVID, CLEAR and plays wonderfully! What a difference this install has made in my Tab2, along with Jelly Bean of course! (Since the online videos are so great now, I watch them often).
Large and easy to read very CLEAR VIVID 10.1 inch screen. The colors are vivid and the text and videos, are stunning.
Internet (flash) Videos Since I installed archived flash, I watch internet videos just fine using Maxthon Browser (also used Foxfire and great). They take a few seconds to load, but they are very clear and sound is great. *The archived flash is NOT pre-installed on the tablet, but ask me in comments below this and I will send instructions.
Apps, internet and everything runs much fast and very smooth and super responsive.
Slot for an micro SD Card. I placed a 32g in mine for music, files etc. I have read that some have added a 64gb card and it works, but I still don't need one that size and have not tried it.
Battery life is pretty good if I get on and off the WiFi in a reasonable time. I usually get at least 8 10 hours using WiFi on and off. WiFi hogs the battery!
Music Player (stock) runs fine and it is very easy to place Playlists on it. Sound is loud enough without headphone, however, I listen to headphones for music, videos, etc. *This tablet has 2 "stereo" speakers and the sound is loud enough for listening while you are in the same room. (I was pleasantly suprised with how great the sound is).
Wonderful Kindle Android App and I downloaded several Kindle books with no problems. Kindle loads fast and this Tablet is a joy to read a book on either Kindle or any eBook or PDF booklet.
Installed Maxthon Browser and I like it better, it runs very fast with this tablet.
All apps I installed run great and fast with no problems.
The tablet feels like it is made well, however, to secure it better, I bought from Amazon a stand that I set it up in landscape mode and it has 3 positions. Keeps the tablet clean when I am not using it.
So I give this this 6 stars, but take off one total star because of the minor cons listed below.
Price Reasonable for mid range Tablet with lots of features, speed, etc.
VERY MINOR CONS OF THIS TABLET AND "FIXES":
Uses a propriety USB cable/charger, but I bought extra cable/chargers online to keep an extra.
No headset included (the new Galaxy Tabs DO NOT HAVE A HEADSET included. However, bought a Samsung headset on Amazon for the Galaxy Note and it fits this perfectly and has loud sound and very high quality (it was under 10 dollars). Also, eBay carries genuine Samsung 3.5 headsets as the generics are not that good of quality I have found).
Very small instruction "manual" provided with the tablet, however, I went to the Samsung site and downloaded the full manual and saved it in PDF on my laptop for reading anytime I need it. If you want the link for the manual, let you know in the comments and I will give it to you.
Bottom line: Would I buy this WiFi only model over again? Yes I certainly would!!! For me, this WiFi only is perfect for me because I am close to WiFi 99% of the time when I use this tablet, and for emergencies, I have data on my much wonderful Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 with 3g. So if you are looking for a superb Samsung 10.1 inch tablet and you have great access to WiFi, this is the one to buy. Note that there is quite a lot of information regarding how to do many things on this tablet that you will see in the comments below. And also, if you are to have any questions or comments, please ask me and I will be happy to answer.
Hope this review has helped you out and thank you for reading it.
Buy Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1-Inch, Wi-Fi) Now
When buying this tablet, keep this in mind; this is brand new but still old. Brand new in that it comes with the newest operating system factory installed and Samsung changed some of the specs to put a #2 next to the tablet name. This is old based on the fact that Samsung scraped a few design features off the original tablet to sell this one at a cheaper price tag. As of the first week of this tablet's release i have yet to find any downloadable software that would enable me to play movies on it(besides Google's play store of course). At this point tablets of this size are meant for entertainment; do not see how this is going to entertain someone when the only way to view videos is by already having them in the acceptable format or buying the them again from Google's store.You cannot currently download the application HBO-go, Hulu+ is still not supported, and Amazon's streaming is still unsupported (all due at the moment to the flash support). So until they come up with the patch work to support streaming i wouldn't buy this tablet.
Yes, you can view websites. Music sounds great. YouTube is cool to watch clips of people doing strange things while eating your breakfast. Its nice to review my photos on a lightweight screen while sitting in bed.
This tablet will be AMAZING for the price point that it is when they fix the support issues. I would have thought this to been taken care of before the release date.
**Update** (June 24, 2012)
For the most part this tablet has been updated and can do exactly what you want it to. Hulu+ now works. Streaming Amazon.com's movies is great. HBO-go is still a no go. Accessories are getting better for the most part. Software overall has been updated to work out the kinks and I WOULD TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS TABLET for someone that does not want to go the Ipad route.
***Update 2*** (November 4, 2012)
This tablet has been going strong battery life is still what it was when i bought it on the release date. The app store now carries the HBO GO app so my game of thrones addiction will continue whenever I'm not at home. Video viewing programs continue to come out on the store as well, adding to your viewing experience with this tablet.
Read Best Reviews of Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1-Inch, Wi-Fi) Here
My mom bought last year's 8.9 model last week and I fell in love with it, so I bought the new 10.1 tab 2. This is my 4th day with it and I absolutely love it. I've been wanting a tablet for over a year(I love tech toys) and finally couldn't take messing around with one that wasn't mine so I had to buy one. I have a 17" laptop that only gets 1.5 hrs on a charge and wanted something smaller that I could do easy internet stuff like twitter, facebook, surfing, and listening to internet radio, podcasts, and music that was smaller and more mobile then my ginormous laptop. While shopping around I essentially looked at mid-priced android tablets, mostly because of my angst toward apple thanks to the awfulness of itunes software.The other tablet that really caught my eye was the Asus Transformer TF300. You can do an easy google search to see where the transformer shines where the galaxy doesn't and vice versa. Ultimately storage space wasn't a huge deal for me and I really have no need for an hdmi out. What won me over the transformer is the display of the galaxy and it is night and day difference for me. Since browsing the internet is 90% of what I'll use a tablet for a great display, where samsung truly shines, was worth more to me then a better speced out transformer. For anyone looking to buy a new 10.1" tablet definitely give the transformer a look. I also would suggest looking at the Motorola Xoom.
Pros:
size, probably one of the smaller 10.1" mid level tablets
display is bright and crisp, text is very easy to read even when I have screen brightness all the way turned down
infrared sensor that can be used to control your home entertainment center (a very nice option if you don't have a cool awesome logitech harmony remote)
battery life has been great also among the top of the midlevel tablets(do a google search)
Cons:
long battery charge time, not a big deal as I'm mostly going to recharge at night
no stock hdmi out
the wtf so tiny charging cord, I mean really who wants a short charging cord? Makes no sense to me
no standard usb port, instead they have an applelike proprietary port
feels like for the price there should be some kind of hdmi out and 32 gb of hard drive space instead of 16
Because of the last con I can't give this tablet 5 stars, instead it gets 4.
Want Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1-Inch, Wi-Fi) Discount?
Hi folks. My 2 cents and some. I own an iPad, the Samsung Galaxy 2 7.0 and an HTC Inspire with the SPB 3DShell on both android units so i do have a half way decent perspective on tablets and Androids in general. I did my homework and read all the specs on the Samsung 2 10.1.s I must say that I am disappointed at many of the reviews especially on Youtube. One of the best and most accurate review was from the AndroidAuthority guys. If I had listened to most of the others I probably not purchased this unit. Some of them should be ashamed of themselves for flat out lying. It is a spectacular deal for the money. The SG 2 7.0 with the same specs is not the same tablet with respect to the sharpness and brightness of the screen, performance,and even how some of the software presents. The "lag" between screens swipe with touchwiz as your home screens is probably by design to show "smoothness" as you go from screen to screen.If you have Go launcher or what I have, SPB 3dShell you won't have that slow transition. I installed SPB 3DShell and swiping is instantaneous. And I haven't even rooted my device...yet. I also installed go launcher along with some of their themes and it is as smooth as silk. You can switch between launchers if you wish to compare how they perform and decide which you like best. PS. Go launcher is free and so are most of its themes. I have watched movies on this thing and they are absolutely beautiful. Great detail, color and no lag or stuttering whatsoever. I mean movies like Avatar and Green Lantern! Surfing is joy with smooth pinching, scrolling and no problem with Adobe flash as far as I can tell. By the way just google Adobe Flash player and you can still get it even though adobe says they aren't supporting it going forward...at least for now.
It feels very good in your hand and I purchased the samsung slim hardcase and it is one handsome machine all dressed up. My apps fly on this thing however if you're a gamer who likes flight sims and anything really graphically intensive you'd probably need a faster processor. Asus, Acer or Toshiba come to mind. This is what Samsung intended it for, entertainment, surfing, business apps and some gaming and ebook reading. They have the Galaxy Note 10.1 with quadcore processor and 2 gigs of ram if you want the Galaxy and gaming experience for $100 bucks more.
I didn't get the above for various "review" reasons, Asus with screen popout problems, Acer with the hotspot problem and Toshiba with the so called light bleed problem. To be honest if I hadn't purchase the Samsung and ignored the lightbleed complaints and I would have bought the Toshiba. I might have prefered the better quality build of the Toshiba with Gorilla Glass and it's sleek design. And to add insult to injury, a company which shall go nameless is sell the Excite 10 for $30 less than the Samsung. Never the less, after looking at the Samsung display and seeing how clear and natural the colors were,along with very good performance, I am very pleased with my Samsung 2 10.1. I can see the better quality in some of the software as it presents along with a better screen than its 7 inch little brother. It aint an Amoled or retina display but if you haven't been using those it won't make much of a difference. The amoled displays can look a bit cartoony at times due to the color saturation but they are beautiful and good for reading. The retina is simply gorgeous. I just like the Android tablet experience better and Samsung does not disappoint. My next will be the new Galaxy Note and I will sell my 7in and my phone and just have the 2 along with the iPad. The iPad too has it's pluses and minuses. But the build quality on it is exceptional and the standard to which every other company compares to. PS.I am no Apple fan, just stating the facts. I use my androids far more that my apple thingy
I just wish folks were more truthful with their reviews so that we lowly consumers can make educated decisions when we buy technical items like tablets and phones. I am also a former director of IT for a large medical group and know a little something about how things should perform based on price/performance ratios. In this device you get a little more than what you pay for imo.
Why is a dual core processor able to compete with Tegra 3's in common usage like web surfing, switching between apps etc adn even best some of them? Stupid speed tests be hanged. Show real world experience. That's how most of us understand what the heck these techies are saying. And you don't hear of some of the above mentioned problems with the Samsung either. Just lies about lag, dull screen, "pore performance" yada, yada yada. I'm no Samsung loyalist either, but some of the touchwiz experience works for me and probably for most users who either have never experienced Android in its various forms or find vanilla Icecream Sandwich a bit too well...vanilla.
Touchwiz provides some bells and whistles and plenty of software right out of the box and you even get an office product "Polaris Office" that actually works well and easy to use.. with tutorial guides to boot! I still educate end users and believe you me, they want simple and stupid until they get the hang of things and then they can fly on their own. Most don't have the time to tinker either. Samsung 2 10.1 gives you the best of both worlds without breaking the bank. And if you don't want a big tab you can always get the Tab 2 7.0. Works like a charm and extremely convenient especially for reading and surfing on the go. The thing weighs practically nothing and you're carrying around power in your briefcase, bag or whatever that use to sit on your desk not 10 years ago. I know this wasn't the most technical review on the set but hey you can get those from well... youtube. Just be careful, there's alot of egos out there waiting to deceive. Get the Tab 2 10.1. I'd recommend it in a heart beat.
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: 0:40 MinsWhen I first saw Samsung galaxy tab at Best Buy last summer, I absolutely loved it because of its vibrant color and huge contrast, which is the signature of Samsung products (I own Samsung LCD TV and Galaxy S2 cellphone). It really stood out from other Android tablets on display. However I balked at purchasing it due to its lacking of some of the functionality. So when the galaxy tab 2 came out, with 100 bucks less price tag, and an Android 4 OS, I had a big leap of faith that I pre-ordered it on Amazon and had my friend brought it to me from the U.S.
After playing it for a few days, I have to say I am very frustrated and disappointed. Owning a Samsung galaxy tab 2 is merely for the sake of having an android tablet, it doesn't live up to my expectation.
Let me start with some positives:
1. Latest Android ice cream sandwich OS. Although so far I haven't been able to take any benefit from it.
2. Option of expanding the capacity up to 32GB. This is the big difference from iPad. I plugged in a 32GB MicroSD and the tablet instantly had 48GB capacity in total.
3. The 400 dollar price tag is a much sweeter deal for a new release, even though hardware wise it didn't change much.
However, so far I found the negatives out weigh the positives:
1. The color is blueish and washed out, comparing to galaxy tab (remember that grand canyon screen saver!) or galaxy s2, it is a big disappointment for me. It no longer has the distinguish vibrant color that sets Samsung apart from any other Android tablets. And there is no where in the setting that I can tune the color. The only thing I can adjust is the brightness.
2. The response of the tap or swipe on the screen is not consistent. Sometimes it's sensitive, sometimes it is not and you really have to tap/swipe hard or multiple times before it responds.
3. The response time is slow. Especially when using Youtube, it takes a lot of time to render the video thumbnails.
4. There is a very annoying bug in Youtube. As shown in the video I attached. If you search an artist, all result videos come up, however after you play any of it and return to the result screen, none of the thumbnail responds! To add insult to the injury, Youtube is one of the 'systemware' pre-loaded by Samsung, and for some strange reason Youtube app was blocked on this tablet, i.e, you DO NOT see Youtube app in the play store, so you can't even update it.
5. Samsung makes its own skin on top of Android OS. Some widgets/apps are ok, for example, the S-Planner replaces the google calendar, but some very basic and useful default apps on galaxy s2 are missing, for example, 'clock'. Now if I want a stop watch or timer I need a separate app, because the pre-loaded 'Alarm' doesn't cut it.
6. Try editing an email is pain in the neck. The cursor doesn't appear where you tap, actually it almost doesn't respond at all. I had to download a different keyboard with cursor to move the cursor around.
7. The battery doesn't last long. It takes about 5 hours for a full charge, but when streaming video or radio, it goes down very fast, definitely not the 10 hours battery time Samsung claims it has.
8. The camera/video quality is bad, as mentioned by some other reviewers. For me I don't intend to use it for taking pictures or videos so it doesn't bother me that much.
9. The pre-loaded Polaris Office 4.0 is still probably in its infancy. I had some document from work that I wanted to read at my leisure time on this tablet, half of them wouldn't work, the Polaris office just crashes the moment it finishes loading the file of the following format: .pptx, and .docx. But this may not be problem of Samsung, but rather the limitation of Polaris Office.
10.For people who have Harmony remote please keep it. The function of 'smart remote' app is not even close. It probably works well for people who just have one or two devices in one room, and need only basic buttons.
People use tablet for different things. Some are very happy with this tablet because the apps/function they use happen to be flawless, but for me, due to the above reasons I can only say that I am disappointed at least.
REVIEW UPDATE JULY 10th. The tablet prompt for OS upgrade to 4.0.4 (jelly bean). After the upgrade the images on the tablet becomes sharper and more colorful, or as I say it, more Samsung like. So I highly recommend existing owners upgrade their Android OS to get better performance.
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