Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 LTE, analysis and opinion

With a Huawei that is somewhat out of the game in the most basic range and that, it seems, is focusing on higher-end tablets, Samsung is the only company that continues to stand up to Apple in practically all lines of devices.

Tablets remain a very strong market and Samsung launched a few weeks ago its bet to compete against the most basic iPad, the ninth generation that we analyzed recently.

Samsung’s bet is the Galaxy Tab A8, a renewed model with a large 10.5″ screen that has a great configuration to consume content and of which we tell you our opinion in this analysis.

Sections of the analysis of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 LTE:

Very good feeling in the hands with a screen to devour series and YouTube

We are going to start with the design because it is one of the most important points of this device. Gone are the Samsung tablets that were made of plastic with a glossy finish and, now, even the cheapest models have mid-high-end designs.

An example is the Galaxy Tab A7 -analysis-, but also this Tab A8 which has an aluminum unibody body and weighs about 508 grams.

It is quite comfortable in the hands thanks to both the weight and its contained dimensions, taking into account its screen, and for a thickness of less than 7 millimeters.

In fact, we have headphone jack and if the tablet were just slightly, almost negligibly, smaller, I think there would be no room for this component.

Since we are with connectivity, we have USB-C and a slot that allows us to expand the storage with microSD cards, as well as insert a SIM.

This is a very good point in favor because, basically, we will be able to go outside perfectly and use the tablet as if it were a mobile phone, without relying on Wi-Fi.

If we put the tablet horizontally, we have two speakers on each side and, the truth is, it is one of the tablets that offers the best sound both in its price range and among those that are somewhat above.

It is compatible at the system level with Dolby Atmos and when we find a content that is well mastered, the truth is that the sound experience is very good.

The back has a very clean design and the fingerprints are moderately marked on our gray model.

It’s also available in gray and rose gold (which is more pink than anything else), so we’re guessing those two colors will have less fingerprints.

The only thing that breaks the aesthetics of the rear is the 8 megapixel camera which we will talk about later.

But hey, let’s go to the front because here is the other great protagonist of the tablet. The screen is TFT and no, it is not the best panel on the market or in its price range both for maximum brightness and viewing angles, but I think it has a good calibration to consume content.

We have measured the brightness with our tools and we have 516.2 lux on average with a deviation of 15.5 lux.

Indoors there is no problem, of course, but as soon as we are next to a window or outside, a little more brightness is missing and, in addition, the brightness sensor is not as fast and precise as I would like.

The refresh is 60 Hz and it is a screen, as I say, very basic, but the truth is that it has given me very good feelings these days watching series on different platforms and, above all, consuming YouTube videos.

On the part of the software, we do not have different color profiles or image adjustments available beyond some accessibility options (highlight buttons, eliminate animations, correct colors for different types of color blindness or increase contrast, among other options), being the only possible screen settings dark mode and view saver that limits blue light.

But hey, having said that, the truth is that I think the contrast is adequate for a good experience when watching videos. The screen responds well to touches, I’ve played without a problem and the gesture navigation is also precise.

oh! And something that I really like is that it has a double tap on the screen to activate it.

A strange decision by Samsung that conditions the day to day

But let’s go inside, since there are several things to tell here, some not as positive as those we have said about the screen and the design.

First of all, the tablet works fine. It is not the fastest on the market, far from it, but gesture navigation is smooth, within games it remains at a good level and in the applications I have not had any problem.

However, it’s a bit slow opening those apps, working with heavy files such as a photo to be edited in Photoshop Express and, in addition, multitasking does not sit well with it.

Here the blame is shared between the processor, RAM and storage, which we often forget, but is one of those responsible for a device running smoothly.

The SoC is the Unisoc Tiger T618, a Chinese system on a chip that is built on 12-nanometer lithography. This can already give us a clue about its efficiency at all levels. It has two Cortex A75 cores at 2 GHz and another six A55, also at 2 GHz and the GPU is the Malo G52 MP2.

It is not a leading processor + GPU, far from it, and it is something that the performance tests show if we compare them with the 2020 Galaxy Tab A7 with the Snapdragon 662, a SoC:

We always say that synthetic tests are not everything, but here we have hardware from 2020 against one from 2021 and software that is still Android with Samsung’s customization layer.

OneUI is not a layer that consumes, precisely, few resources and the 3 or 4 GB of RAM that we can have in this tablet I think are not enough, as well as the processor itself and the memory speed.

Samsung does not provide us with the type of memory we have, but I would say that, due to the general speed in each of the sections, I would say that it is eMMC.

It is not the fastest memory and, although we have a faster sequential write than in the Tab A7 2020, in the other sections it is behind.

This translates into what has already been said: multitasking that isn’t as efficient as it should be and some applications that take longer than necessary to open.

For a basic user, it is not a problem, but if you are going to put a little more ‘cane’ into the tablet, you will miss a little more speed.

However, What have I been using the Tab A8 for? Mainly to check email, organize my agenda with Notion and watch videos both on YouTube (a lot) and VOD applications.

Obviously, I have also used it to navigate and the experience with the screen is very good, but if you want it to play, you should know that, although you will not be able to play the most demanding titles at full graphic quality, they are usually quite stable .

What’s more, can also be used for some office automation by connecting a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. I have also been using it for some meetings and events these days thanks to the front camera.

It is a 5 megapixel sensor that, well, complies, without more. On the back we have an 8 megapixel sensor that I still don’t understand why it’s there and honestly I’d like to start seeing tablets that do without the basic rear camera and go for better front cameras.

By the way, with the front camera we have facial unlocking by photo. And it is that, it is the only biometric unlocking method, since we do not have a capacitive sensor.

7,040 mAh that will give us for several days without having to look for a plug

With the battery we return to the good path of the screen and the design thanks to a 7,040 mAh ‘battery’. Yes, there are tablets of this size that have a higher capacity, but the truth is that considering the 6.9 mm thickness, the battery capacity seems very good to me.

When we talk about a mobile, it is easy for us to tell you “well, I have for X hours of screen and, with my use, I have for a day, one and a half or two of use”. With a tablet things change, since it depends a lot on the use of each one.

What I can say is that I have had between 8 and 10 hours of screen and that I am without charging it for about four days, depending on the use.

It is true that I see a lot of video on it and that those days the battery lasts much longer than when I use games in the test session, since it is something that, with those 12 nanometers of the Tiger, drains the battery.

In the synthetic test with the brightness at 100% we get 5 hours and 29 minutes of battery life. In the end, we have a moderate brightness and a very large screen and we have only done the test because we do it all the time, but it is not a real situation.

And, about charging, we have to say that Samsung is still skimping on its chargers. The tablet supports 15W charging, but the included charger is 7.8 W and, honestly, it takes a long time to fill those 7,040 mAh.

Specifically, for a 50% charge it takes 2 hours and 4 minutes and for 100% we have to wait 6 hours and 16 minutes. It’s too long and at least Samsung should include the 15W charger to take advantage of the tablet’s charging power.

An ideal ‘home’ tablet for entertainment and browsing

We have reached the end of the analysis of the Galaxy Tab A8 LTE and what I have found these weeks of use has been a basic tablet that, in a ‘home’ use, it can contribute a lot.

It weighs relatively little, has a spectacularly thin thickness and has a headphone jack for when we can’t use the speakers. If we don’t use headphones and opt for speakers, they behave great in all kinds of content or music.

And the screen is also suitable for use inside the house. It has a brightness suitable for indoors and, although its LTE connection encourages us to take it on a trip, the truth is that the maximum brightness and how slow the automatic brightness sensor works, denotes that we are facing a cheap tablet.

That is also clear when we start asking the Tab A8 for some chicha, since its Unisoc processor is not up to the task in tasks such as multitasking and we have some delays when navigating through the menus. Memory is also something that has not excited me because of its low speed.

But well, having said that, I think that as a tablet to be at home and to be taken by several members of the family, for students or, simply, for video consumption, It is a very good option for 275 euros it costs.