Finally?Ice Cream Sandwich has arrived. The 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 will be the first tablet?from the manufacturer to ship with Google's latest Android 4.0 mobile operating system right out of the box. Despite the progressive moniker, hardware-wise, the Galaxy Tab 2 is actually a minor step back from Samsung's last 7-inch tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus ($399, 3.5 stars), making concessions in processor speed. Instead of more powerful components and design improvements, Samsung focused on a well-tuned software experience and an affordable price?just $249.99 (list) for 8GB. The result is a very solid tablet that really shows off the latest Android OS, and is competitive on price with the Amazon Kindle Fire ($199, 4 stars) and the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet ($249, 4 stars), and half the price of the class-leading new Apple iPad ($499, 4.5 stars). If you want Ice Cream Sandwich on a small tablet right now, the Galaxy Tab 2 is your best bet.
Physical Design, Features, and Connectivity
Samsung makes some of the best-looking Android tablets you can buy, and the Galaxy Tab 2 is no exception, with its sturdy yet slim build. It's nearly identical to the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, measuring 7.6 by 4.8 by 0.41 inches?(HWD) and 12.13 ounces. The Galaxy Tab 2.0 is thinner and lighter than the Kindle Fire, which measures 7.5 by 4.7 by .45 inches (HWD) and 14.6 ounces, and the Galaxy Tab 2.0's nicely tapered edges only add to the effect. ?
The Galaxy Tab 2 is still a well-built, all-plastic gray slab. Power and Volume buttons, as well as an IR-port, line the right side of tablet, while a microSD card slot (which accepts cards up to 32GB) can be found behind a plastic flap on the left side. A 3.5mm headphone jack sits on top, with Samsung's proprietary docking port on the bottom for charging and syncing with the included cable. The Galaxy Tab 2 retains the 1,024-by-600-pixel TFT LCD of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. That's fairly standard fare for 7-inch tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire, but not quite as good as the 1280-by-800-pixel display found on the T-Mobile Springboard 4G ($429, 3.5 stars).
Samsung downgraded the cameras on the Galaxy Tab 2, with a VGA front-facing and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera with no LED flash. The original Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus features a 2-megapixel front-facing and 3-megapixel rear-facing camera with an LED flash. The Galaxy Tab 2 is an 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi only tablet, with Bluetooth 3.0 and DLNA connectivity. The IR emitter lets you use the tablet as a remote control for a variety of media devices.
Performance and Software
The Galaxy Tab 2 is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor, which is a step back from the dual-core 1.2GHz processor of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. Given the less-powerful CPU, it was no surprise that the Galaxy Tab 2 benchmarked significantly slower than the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. But with Ice Cream Sandwich onboard, the Galaxy Tab 2 felt just as snappy and responsive. The Galaxy Tab 2 packs a 4,000mAh battery and turned in a respectable 5 hours, 48 minutes of continuous video playback. That's less than the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, which turned in 6 hours, 33 minutes, but more than the Kindle Fire's 4 hours, 55 minutes. ?
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich works great on the Galaxy Tab 2, with very smooth animations, responsive app performance, and rock-solid stability, at least during the review period. For a more in-depth look at all of the new features, check out our full Ice Cream Sandwich review.
As with nearly all Samsung devices, Android is heavily skinned with Samsung's signature TouchWiz UI. It comes with the typical array of custom widgets, as well as the useful Quick Action bar, which offers up easy access to the alarm, calculator, e-mail, music player, calendar, task manager, and world clock mini apps. These run seamlessly on top of regular open apps, making for simple multitasking. Samsung also included its various hubs (Media, Reader, Game, and Video), but there are better third-party alternatives like the Amazon Kindle app or Netflix?both of which are also pre-installed. Despite Samsung's heavy OS customizations, everything was extremely snappy and responsive in my tests, proving that you don't need the latest quad-core chip to run the latest version of Android.
Alas, some of the same problems facing older Android 3.2 "Honeycomb" tablets still remain here. There are still few tablet-specific Android apps, and they're not easy to find in Google Play (formerly Android Market). Hopefully, developers will start to write apps for Ice Cream Sandwich, which handles phone and tablet screen differences far better than any previous Android iteration. For now, Apple remains the app king with more than 200,000 third-party iPad-specific programs.
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