The speakers were still good enough for me to hear birds chirping in the background while Ted Danson recited dialog in an episode of The Good Place.

Songs like What You Waiting For by R.Tee and Anda as well as The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights sounded hollow and tinny. Just like the display, the A7’s quad-speakers are underwhelming, which I expected for the price. Max brightness improved visibility, but some clips were still hard to see in sunlight. When I was watching darker scenes like Netflix’s Haunted, though, the A7’s screen was so dim that all I saw was my face staring back at me. I could see the leaves on trees in the background of The Good Place, while the vibrant sets on Blackpink’s music video for How You Like That simply popped. It was strange to see images fade in and out when I tilted the tablet back and forth - I felt like I was back in 2015.Ĭrank the brightness past 50 percent, and things get a bit better.

If the brightness is set to 50 percent or lower, the viewing angles become considerably narrower. Samsung’s made a name for itself with its gorgeous AMOLED panels on flagship devices like the Galaxy S and Note phones and the Tab S7 series, so it was surprising to see such a lackluster screen this time around. One of the biggest trade-offs here is the 2,000 x 1,200 LCD display. Frankly, despite weighing just 1.05 pounds, the Tab A7 feels surprisingly premium and sturdy for the price. There’s also an 8-megapixel sensor on the back if you really want to shoot slightly sharper pictures with your tablet. (More on that in a bit.) There’s no fingerprint sensor here you’ll have to rely on the 5-megapixel front camera for face unlock as the only biometric login option.

There’s also a USB-C port at the bottom, but sadly it charges at USB 2.0 speeds. Headphone jack hold-outs will be glad to find one on the Tab A7’s impressively thin edge, along with a microSD card slot, power and volume buttons. To be fair, though, the Fire HD 10 starts at just $150 (that’s with ads it’s $165 without).

The Tab A7 has a more premium build than Amazon’s plastic tablets, too, and the Tab’s display bezels are half the size of the Fire HD’s. That said, you can opt for snazzier color options like silver and gold, which might make things more interesting. My review unit’s dark gray metal frame lacks the shine and sleek lines of its more expensive stablemates, which is understandable given the lower price. Unlike recent Samsung tablets like the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite or the S7 and S7+, which cost hundreds more, the Tab A7 looks pretty bland.

Samsung galaxy tab a7 2020