Samsung has been pouring us with devices one after the other. And it is not just smartphones, but also a wide range of tablets. So we got our hands on the Galaxy Tab 620. You must be wondering which one is that. Well, it is also known as the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, so it is a new 7-incher. (Not to be confused with Galaxy Tab 7.7)
Honeycomb, dual-core processor, Wi-Fi, 3G, it has it all. The tablet looks and feels great too and is a proper upgrade for Samsung’s first even Galaxy Tab.
SPECIFICATIONS:
- 7 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen (1024 x 600 pixels resolution)
- Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, with Mali-400 GPU
- 1GB of RAM
- Android 3.2 Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX UI
- Quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G with HSPA connectivity
- 16/32 GB of built-in memory
- 3.2 MP rear camera with LED flash and 2.0 MP front-facing camera
- 720p HD video recording @ 30 fps
- Wi-Fi 802.11 with DLNA
- Bluetooth v3.0
- HDMI TV-out (adapter required)
- microSD card slot
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- 4000 mAh battery
BODY AND DESIGN
The tablet is pretty thin, and is actually lightweight. We got the white-back version which has a smooth glossy feel to it. The screen is pretty bright and you can view it even in the harshest sun and has the front 2MP camera right on top of it. On the right of the tablet there are your volume and power keys and also a small Infra-red port, on the left there are two slots, one for your SIM and one for your microSD card.
The top just hosts the 3.5mm audio jack while at the bottom there are two speakers, and the charging port. Now the interesting bit here is that Samsung doesn’t put the traditional USB port, rather it has an Apple like proprietary 30-pin connector which is a little frustrating if you tend to lose your charger or data cable because then you will have to run to Samsung for replacement.
The back is pretty smooth with the 3.2MP camera and a small LED flash. There are also some product details written on the back, kind of remind us of those Apple products.
ANDROID AND UI
The tablet runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb and has Samsung’s TouchWiz UX UI which is its special UI for tablets. The UI is pretty much simple like every Android tablet, with five homescreens and a number of widgets to fill them up.
The tablet runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb and has Samsung’s TouchWiz UX UI which is its special UI for tablets. The UI is pretty much simple like every Android tablet, with five homescreens and a number of widgets to fill them up.
The OS with the UI is pretty stable and didn’t freeze or lag when we used it. The bottom bar where you have the Honeycomb buttons, there is an extra button there that lets you take a screenshot by just hitting it. Also there is a pretty handy drawer at the bottom which holds shortcuts of 5 apps and by default has your Task Manager, Calendar, World Clock, Pen Memo and Calculator.
The keyboard is pretty comfortable and provides sound and vibration feedback which is a delight. Rest is pretty much in Honeycomb flavour.
MULTIMEDIA AND MORE
The Galaxy Tab 620 is a fun device if you love your media. It has dual cameras with pretty decent resolutions, a good music player with 5.1 channel support, a video player with supporting codecs, dual-speakers and a 3.5mm audio jack. The tablet also offers HDMI out via a connector which can attach to it charging/data port.
There is also an infra-red port. Now of course IR-ports have been things of the past, but Samsung has added this so that you can use the tablet as a universal remote for home theatre systems and more. Pretty neat.
You will be thoroughly satisfied with the tablet’s ability to entertain you.
BROWSER AND CONNECTIVITY
The tablet gives you various connectivity options like 3G HSPA, Quad-band GPRS/EDGE, and Wi-Fi. However the unit that we got wasn’t able to detect any SIM card, so we couldn’t have fun with 3G connections. Other than that we really miss a USB port here, and you need to have the proprietary cable to transfer data or to charge the battery. There is also DLNA sharing which you can use to stream media wirelessly onto a DLNA enabled device.
The browser is pretty much same as all Honeycomb tablets have. You can have tabs, bookmarks, save links and everything else. The browser loads pages smoothly and pinch zooming is pretty smooth as well thanks to the inbuilt GPU.
CONCLUSIONFor a 7 inch tablet it offers you a great set of features. It is a perfect multimedia companion and offers a number of connectivity options as well.
The only thing that bugged us was the lack of USB and the presence of the 30-pin port. Other than that there wasn’t anything much that we disliked.
The tablet is priced at Rs. 25,000 and it seems a decent price tag considering the brand value. There are of course cheaper tablets available in the 7 inch segment with similar features, but if you want to go for a trusted brand, then this is the perfect device for you.