Review on Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0" (2019) SM-P200 WiFi Black 32GB International Version – Shop Now! by Joe Michels

General impressions. I really like this tablet (Wi-Fi only with S Pen) and have had it for three weeks now. I also bought (and returned) an iPad Mini with an Apple Pencil, so I have something to compare. I'm glad I sent the iPad back as I like the Samsung better. Tactile impressions. It feels more comfortable in hand than the iPad because the iPad has a cold, slippery body with hard edges, while the Samsung has a very nice, grippy, smooth surface that's much more comfortable to hold for long periods of time. (especially when held with one hand). When I bought it, I found that there was a very thin, uneven, invisible bead of glue between the screen and the edge of the case. Although you couldn't see it, you could feel its roughness. I just thoughtlessly ran my fingernail up and down the edges of the screen for the first few days, and eventually the edges were smooth. Indeed, this device is comfortable to hold in the hands. As I said, it's much more convenient than on the iPad. The touchscreen is smooth and pleasant. There are no problems. Pen. I use Xodo's PDF markup pen all the time (which I also use with Zoo for Zotero) so this was an extremely important feature for me. The S Pen is quiet, much better than the Apple Pencil's loud touch (making the Apple Pencil unusable when others are sleeping in the room). Space to dock the stylus in the tablet itself means that (1) I don't lose it as easily as the very expensive Apple Pencil, (2) the whole package is smaller since using the iPad requires a larger case or something similar. to keep my pencil safe, and (3) it's always there when I need it. I'd like the compartment to be at the top instead of the bottom: when I'm working on a document I'll instead hold the tablet upside down and drop the S Pen into the slot without pushing it all the way in - nice. from a practical holder. The sound isn't great, kind of muffled even with the only speaker uncovered, but I almost never use the speaker anyway and that's fine when I need it. I really appreciate the headphone jack. I use my Apple wired headphones with the device and they work great. Speed. Everything seems to be going smoothly and quickly. Applications can be made without delay. Obviously the extra 1GB of RAM in the S Pen versions of this tablet makes a big difference! I'm constantly switching between applications, so this is important to me. I will say that the iPad Mini is a real speed demon (insanely fast - faster than my Core i5 laptop!), but despite that I haven't had any speed issues with this Samsung tablet either. The only thing I sometimes (not always) notice is that the scrolling isn't smooth at times. But the same stylus + tablet setup with an iPad Mini costs over $500 with shipping and tax and $240 with shipping and tax. One has to ask oneself whether this is really that important. Advertisement. The screen is bright and sharp. More importantly for me, font size rendering is great in all the apps I've used so far. This was a big problem I had with the iPad Mini. Although both tablets have very high resolutions, some apps on the iPad Mini rendered the text so small that it was unreadable (e.g. the Today's Edition sidebar in the Wall Street Journal app). The same applications on this Samsung give comfortable and readable text throughout. From time to time I watch TV on my tablet and the apps allow me to resize and crop the video to fill the entire screen. I wish it had better palm rejection - since the bezels on the sides are so narrow, my palm sometimes rests on the screen, making scrolling or using the stylus an issue. This is more of an issue with everyday stylus use than normal touch interaction. Battery. So far, so good. So far I've charged it every other day and even turned on a feature that only lets you charge it up to 85% to save battery life. I keep the brightness pretty low, not for battery life but because too much light hurts my eyes. cameras. The cameras look great - much better than I expected. Saturation and clarity look exceptional. The front camera is too wide for my taste. Not very flattering for Zoom calls, but oh well. That works great. Face Unlock is way better than I expected. Operating system and latest thoughts on Android updates. My device was updated to Android 10 a few days after receiving it. I turned on the gesture feature and after getting used to it, I don't go back to the bottom bar. Now the animation seems smoother and more responsive. In general, the device works faster. I am happy with the update. Unfortunately, I'm very skeptical that Samsung will ever update it to Android 11, and I refuse to use Android devices that don't get security updates, so I don't know how long I can keep it. I hope Samsung does the right thing and releases updates for a few more years. Android 11 would be great, but at the very least they should provide regular security updates. To be honest, what frustrates me most in the Android ecosystem is Android manufacturers' lack of concern for security updates, which is why I bought an iPhone instead of an Android phone last time. My child's iPhone 5s is still getting security updates (there was another one a few weeks ago) and the manufacture date is 2014! Android device manufacturers need to take consumer protection seriously. If Samsung doesn't release security updates for this device for at least a few years, I will never buy another Samsung or Android device in my life. I understand that Samsung recently promised 3 years of support for *new* devices, but that's no reason for me to be happy: it's rather a sad confirmation of how weak the commitment to this customer safety ecosystem is. Samsung is required to provide security updates for *all* devices, including this one, for 5 years, even if they don't provide OS updates for 5 years. I have up to 6 years of security updates from iPhone 5s. Well, let's see what happens. Based on my past experience, I'm not holding my breath. But so far this device fully meets my needs.