Today we’ll be reviewing the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. This is a relatively powerful tablet from Samsung and not only does it have a ton of awesome features o nit and similar stuff, but it is also one of those rare tablets with support for voice communication, SMS and MMS ( something which is pretty rare among current tablets ).
This device is also known worldwide under many names, however, for the sake of keeping it short I will only refer to it in this review as you see it named in the title. Other names of the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus are : Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0N Plus and Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus N ( these names are only valid for the German market, else they are recognized and accepted worldwide as you see it named in the title ).
The Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is also quite loaded with features and hardware, and if I already said this, know that it is worth repeating considering that it has quite a low price. While some people may comment on the fact that it also has its flaws, know that for a value of around 310 euros or 350 dollars, you can rarely get better than this. Plus, it IS a tablet with voice communication, and that usually adds quite a bit to the price. You may find it for another price in shops, but at least now you have an estimate to which you can equal this price to make sure you aren’t getting ripped off so badly ( you WILL get ripped off anyway, but why not try to lose less and gain more ? ).
SUMMARY
This device has a lot of good points, but a lot of bad ones too. Sure, its flaws aren’t big enough for it to be classified as a “bad tablet” or as a “waste of money”, but it still has more than a few minor flaws that will attract attention. Even so, the manufacturers tend to make up for it by lowering the price of this device. That may or may not make up for it, considering that you’re always buying from a middle man, which is a shop or a provider. The price I just said will only apply if you purchase it directly from the manufacturer.
The screen of this device is a pretty good one, the memory is the same, the hardware is also good, the audio output is pretty clear, the size is the optimal size for a tablet ( in my opinion, although most may differ ), the camera is decent, the battery is good and the tab is packed with a ton of features.
What may be considered a bad point is the software of this device, as it does not have the latest version of the Android OS. Granted, that version wasn’t so widespread when it came out, it did not even receive an update when it was possible. Still, it is a pretty good OS for a tablet. Even so, some people always complained that v4.0 did not improve v3.2 with much. It was different than v2.3, but not such a big deal for v3.2. That may be, but in the meantime, let us begin with the review per say.
GENERAL
As I already mentioned, since this tablet can support voice, SMS and MMS communication, it is only logical that it is equipped with GSM networks. Those networks are : 2G ones ( GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800 and GSM 1900 ) and 3G ones ( HSDPA 900, HSDPA 1900 and HSDPA 2100 ). Also, this tablet was announced in September 2011 and it came out a month later in October 2011. That being said, since this is not a 2012 tab we cannot criticize it or judge it by standards of today.
BODY
As I already said a while back, I believe that the size of this tablet is the optimal one. Then again, I think that the optimal tablet has a 7.0 inch screen. While some people may differ with me or have a problem with that, I still see no point whatsoever in making a device as big as a Laptop if you can give it the exact amount of strength in a smaller, more compressed package. Still, that being said, the size of this tablet is approximately : 193.7 x122.4 x 9.2 mm in length and 345 grams in weight.
DISPLAY
The Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus has a PLS LCD Capacitive Touchscreen with 16 million colors. One of the main advantages of this PLS screen ( or Super PLS, but often only named PLS ) over IPS, according to Samsung ( the creator of this type of screen ), are : 100% improvement in viewing angle, 10% improvement in brightness, 15% improvement in production cost and increased image quality.
The screen of this device, as I already said, is a 7.0 inch screen that can house a resolution of approximately 600 x 1024 pixels. While some people may claim that a 7.0 inch screen tablet is too small, I stick to my beliefs in saying that it is just perfect that way. The pixel density of this device isn’t one of its greatest parts. We’re talking of a pixel density of around 170 ppi, which isn’t all that bad in hindsight, but it is pretty noticeable for a screen this big. Sure, it would have been acceptable for a phone with a 4.3 inch screen, but you can see it experience some unpleasant effects on this large screen.
This tablet also has Multitouch on it, however, it’s not the advanced type that can support more than two simultaneous fingers on it ( granted, I never understood why you’d need so may fingers at once ). The Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus also has the TouchWiz UX UI on it, should you choose to activate it ( or leave it on, since most of them come with the UI activated ). Unfortunately however, this tab has no screen protection whatsoever on it, so you’ll have to pretty careful with its handling.
SOUND
Normally I wouldn’t discuss alert types, or speakers or audio jacks for phones, but since this is a tablet, it’s pretty rare to see one with communication support and those have Alerts on them as well. This one has all of them : vibration, MP3 and WAV ringtones. Also, in case you were wondering whether or not it has any sound enhancement on it, be it software-based or hardware-based, look no further. While it may have no software-based sound enhancement on it, it does have a pair of Stereo Speakers instead of the default Loudspeaker. The audio jack isn’t worth discussing, as they are always the same on all devices.
MEMORY
The internal storage space of this device is a bit variable as the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is available in two different versions : a 16 GB version and a 32 GB version ( there will surely be quite a large difference between the two ). In case neither one of those two satisfies your hunger for space, know that this tablet has a Micro SD card slot on it as well, but not a standard one. Instead, it has one just like the Galaxy S III has – one that can support cards of up to 64 GB. The RAM of this tablet is pretty good too – 1 GB. Keep in mind that this was the actual maximum when this tablet came out. The 2 GB devices came at least half an year after this one was announced.
DATA CONNECTION
The connectivity for this tablet is pretty peculiar. It is a bit cryptic if you expect me to say anything about the GPRS and EDGE, as I can’t say what Class they are or what speed they can both reach. What is pretty rare and worth mentioning is that the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus has an Infrared Port ( how much time has passed since I actually used one of these ). The Speed of this tablet is measured as following : HSDPA of up to 21 MB/s and HSUPA of up to 5.76 MB/s. The WLAN of this device is a Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Dual-Band and Wi-Fi hotspot. The Bluetooth of this device is a v3.0 one with A2DP and HS. This device also has a USB port v2.0 on it with USB Host support ( something even 10.1 inch tablets seem to lack – most of them, anyway ).
CAMERA
The camera of this tablet is a pretty weak one, however, I am not too bothered by this since I strongly believe that tablets shouldn’t really be equipped with cameras. I see no use in walking around with something as big as a notebook and photographing / recording with it. Still, the camera of this device is a 3.15 MP one that can photograph at 2048 x 1536 pixels resolutions and record in 720p HD at around 30 frames per second, apparently. How it can record in that quality is beyond me, but apparently it can. The features of this camera are : autofocus, LED flash, geo-tagging and smile detection. The Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus also has a Secondary 2.0 MP frontal camera, however, with so little features of its own, there’s little point in discussing it.
BATTERY LIFE
The battery of this device is a pretty huge one, and that’s a really good thing since it can insure a larger survival rate of your device. This tablet has a Standard Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery that can stay powered on for around 1000 hours of stand-by mode in both 2G and 3G and for up to 40 hours of talk-time in 2G and 20 hours of talk-time in 3G. As you can obviously see for yourself, the battery is strong enough to sustain life for your device for quite a long time. However, I can’t say I pretty much believe that the stand-by time is that much since I will most likely always have a background app or two that will aid in the consumption of battery.
HARDWARE
The hardware of this device, as I already mentioned, is a pretty good one, however, it is still far from great. Still, for the time in which it came out in, it’s more than powerful enough. This device has a Dual-Core 1.2 GHz CPU, an Exynos 4210 chipset and a Mali-400MP GPU. As you can pretty much tell for yourself, the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus can run pretty much any app and most of the games out there, however, if you truly want gaming, buy a console or a PC and do it the proper way, not with tablets and phones and such.
SOFTWARE
The OS of this tablet is probably one of its biggest flaws. As I already said, it doesn’t have the Android OS v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on it, and there’s no news of ever receiving an update to that versions. However, it has something which is very similar to that OS – Android OS v3.2 Honeycomb. While some people claim that there is little difference between Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich, I tend to agree with them. There is a drastic difference between Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich, but for tablets, this OS hasn’t really improved all that much. one can still cope to live without it.
FEATURES
As I said on a couple of occasions, the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is packed with features and capabilities. The sensors of this device are : Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity and Compass. The messaging on this tablet is done via : SMS ( with threaded view ), MMS, E-Mail, Push E-Mail, IM and RSS. The browser of this tablet uses HTML and also has Built-In support for Adobe Flash. Unfortunately, the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus has no radio on it, however, by simply downloading and installing a radio app, you have put a stop to that problem. The GPS of this tab has built-in support for A-GPS as well. Not to forget, this device has Java on it as well through a Java MIDP emulator. The only colors available for this device are : Black and White, and it looks absolutely stunning in both of them.
Here is a brief list of what the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus can do :
- TV Out
- SNS integration
- MP4/DivX/Xvid/H.264/H.263/WMV player
- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA/AC3/Flac player
- Organizer
- Image/video editor
- Quickoffice HD editor/viewer
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- Voice memo
- Predictive text input (Swype)
This concludes our little review of the Samsung P6200 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. If you feel that anything is lacking from this review feel free to leave your suggestions in the comment section below for things which should be added and I will be sure to take them into consideration when writing my future projects. In the meantime, I sincerely hope you had as much fun reading my little review as I had writing it.
