Samsung has launched two new tablet devices, Galaxy Tab A and Galaxy Tab E, in the Indian market at an event on Thursday, 18 June.
Talking about the new tablets, Samsung India Vice President (IT and Mobile) Asim Warsi said both the tablets will carry forward Samsung's legacy of smart media devices and that he is quite confident that the new Galaxy tabs will be quite popular among consumers.
Galaxy Tab A and E come in different sizes, resolution displays and network connectivities. But considering the users' preference in mind, both of them offer calling facility right on the tablets.
Here's our first impression:
Build and Design
Both Galaxy Tab A and Tab E offer a unibody design with polycarbonate matte finished rear and glass front. Tab A features a flat back with slightly curved metallic finished bezel, making it quite comfortable to hold.
Measures at 137.9x208.4x7.5mm, Tab A weighs 320g, hence it won't ache your wrist even if you hold the device for a long period of time. It houses a 5mp camera at the upper half of the rear and the Samsung logo has been placed just below it. The SIM and Micro SD card slot are on the right side. Samsung features two knob-like switches on the back for turning the display on or off, if you attach a flip cover on it. But that need to be purchased additionally.
Featuring almost similar design language with slightly tapered bezels, Tab E is much bigger than Tab A. Measuring 149.5x241.9x8.5mm, Tab E weighs 495g and feels bigger and heavier in hand.
Display
Galaxy Tab A boasts an 8-inch XGA TFT display with a resolution of 768x1,024, while the Tab E sports a bigger 9.6-inch, 800x1,200 WXGA TFT display. Tab A and Tab E offer 4:3 and 8:5 aspect ratio respectively.
Both the displays offer decent viewing angles with aptly balanced colour and contrast. They doesn't offer anything spectacular for the price, but you can write them off as well.
Specification
Galaxy Tab A packs a 64-bit 1.2GHz Snapdragon Quad-Core processor backed with 2GB RAM and 16GB built-in storage. On the other hand, Tab E come powered by a 1.3GHz Spreadtrum Quad-Core CPU, 1.5GB RAM with 8GB storage. Both the tablet comes with memory expandability up to 128GB through Micro SD card.
The specification sounds decent enough for the released price except the built-in storage, which is a tad let-down in our opinion. However, the manufacturer defends it by the amount of expandability it offers.
We used both the devices for half-an-hour and think they both can give justice to most of the graphic-heavy games, including multi-tasking between apps or browsing through multiple rush. Due to limited time, we haven't been able to play any games or run any benchmarks. So we request you to stay tuned for that till we get the device for review.
Operating System
While Galaxy Tab A runs on the latest Android 5.0.2 Lollipop operating system, Tab E comes powered by the dated Android Kitkat 4.4 operating system overlaid with Samsung's TouchWiz interface. Samsung has come a long way with its interface and made it quite intuitive to use.
Parental Control
Along with the necessary tools, Samsung features a parental control software on both the tablets. The mode gets activated by a user-given password. Once entered, the tablets will show only user-picked apps and files on the mode. For coming out of the mode, users need to put in the same password again.
Camera and Battery
Galaxy Tab A and Tab E both packs a 5mp rear and a 2mp front camera. The stock camera interface feels nice in use and easy to use. We clicked a few images through both the cameras and found them producing usable images.
Tab A is powered by a 4,200mAh battery, while Tab E packs a 5,000mAh battery.
Pricing and Availability
Galaxy Tab A is priced at Rs 20,500. Galaxy gifts worth Rs 30,000 are offered across genres such as Entertainment, eBooks, Lifestyle, Utility Apps with Galaxy Tab A in India.
Airtel will also be offering 2GB data free for two months on its 4G network to Tab A consumers.
Tab E is priced at Rs 16,900 and will be available exclusively on Flipkart.
Vodafone will be offering free 2GB of 3G data per month for two months for post-paid consumers and 1GB of 3G data free on purchase of 1GB by a prepaid consumer for two months.
Galaxy Tab A will be available in Smoky Titanium and White while Tab E will be available in Metallic Black and Pearl White.
Our Say
Both Samsung Galaxy Tab A and Galaxy Tab E offer great build quality and decent usability. The 3G (Tab E) and 4G supporting voice calling ability is definitely a handy feature and should be welcomed.
Our only concern is the storage amount that Samsung features in both the tablets. We wish Samsung will soon bring a 32GB edition (at least) of both the tablets.
