Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 – a simple refresh to its predecessor Tab 2 [Review]

Samsung has come up with a wide array of tablets and smartphones. The company is in competition with itself to produce product satisfying all the variants in size and features available in the market. The latest addition to the product line from Samsung is the Galaxy Tab 3. This tablet is available in two versions: Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 and Galaxy Tab 10.1. While taking into consideration 10.1, its lightweight and has a compact design. The gadget certainly looks more stylish but bores a simpler aesthetic look when compared to its predecessors in the Galaxy range of tablets. Even though the device is rather huge, it feels comfortable in the hands.

Design wise, Tab 3 is sleek with thin bezels and has a clean cohesive structure. However, the tablet has enhanced its looks but fails on upgraded specifications when compared to Tab 2 10.1. The user would feel that the components in this tablet have been changed rather than being upgraded.

The menu and back buttons are over sensitive, so one has to be extra careful while using it as the buttons can easily be activated. From the build perspective, this tablet is larger in size but has a simpler design than any previous Galaxy Tab 10.1 model. Its predecessor – Tab 2 10.1 was looked bulky because of the speakers in the front. In this tablet, the speakers have been shifted to the sides. The Home, Menu and back buttons have been placed on a slightly raised panel. The design choice is good, but there are functionality issues. The latest addition of Home button offers quick access to the home screen and a view of all open apps. While using the tablet, one would find it inconvenient to use the navigation array’ hit-box as the alignment of the box merges with the place where the hand would occupy the space while holding the tablet.

The Power/sleep button, volume jar, microSD expansion slot and IR blaster are placed at the top of the device. Back of the device follows the arch-typical look of any Galaxy device. The tablet runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI skin over it. It includes Smart Stay feature which turns the tablet to sleep mode when the user is not looking at the device. The gadget hosts a 1.6 GHz dual core Atom Z2560 CPU, 1 GB RAM and 16 GB or 32 GB of internal memory with a microSD card slot that supports up to 64 GB of expansion. The response of the tablets slows down during multi tasking.

Overall, Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is a finely designed, cute and sleek tablet. There are no functional marvels in the tablet, when compared to its predecessor.

Our rating on Samsung GALAXY Tab 3 – 2.5/5stars

The review is written by experts at Reliance Digital.