Latest Galaxy Tab A7 news
Introduction
Samsung continues to dominate the Android tablet market in 2020 and after launching the Galaxy Tab S7 flagship series in early August, the company followed up with a mid-range solution, namely the Galaxy Tab A7 (2020).
The latest budget-oriented tablet model is designed primarily for media consumption as it carries four speakers with Dolby Atmos and a large 10.4-inch display. Unlike other tablets in the Galaxy Tab S lineup, the Galaxy Tab A7 lacks an S Pen and accompanying productivity apps.
Design
The Galaxy Tab A7 (2020) has a metallic finish and was introduced in three color options including dark gray, silver, and gold. The display is surrounded by thicker bezels compared to the Galaxy Tab S7 and it carries a single main camera protruding out of the upper-right corner.
The front-facing camera contained within the display bezel is centered. The tablet has a USB-C flanked by two speakers, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom. The other two speakers can be found on the top edge. The tablet measures 157.4 x 247.6 x 7mm and weighs 476 grams.
Specifications
Samsung's new mid-range tablet is driven by the Snapdragon 662 processor from Qualcomm, comprising four Cortex-A73 performance CPU cores operating at 2.0GHz and four power-efficient Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.8GHz.
The processor works alongside 3GB of RAM and storage options include 32GB and 64GB. The tablet has a microSD card slot capable of reading cards of up to 1TB of storage. The internal components are powered by a 7,040mAh battery but it lacks any form of fast charging.
Display
The Galaxy Tab A7 has a display very similar to that of the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. It's a 10.4-inch LCD with a resolution of 2000 by 1000. The display is fairly standard and doesn't take advantage of S Pen support or a high refresh rate. It's limited to 60Hz, but that's to be expected given the market bracket in which it fits.
Camera
The back of the Galaxy Tab A7 carries a single 8MP camera. The front-facing selfie shooter has a resolution of 5MP, and because the tablet lacks a fingerprint scanner, the selfie camera provides the only biometric authentication method in the form of face recognition.
There's nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary regarding the tablet's camera setup. It exists and it serves its purpose but it's not going to satisfy avid mobile photographers. However, the camera setup should be good enough for voice calls and casual photos.
Software
The Galaxy Tab A7 runs Android 10 and Samsung's latest version of One UI 2.5 out of the box, although you may find that certain features are missing since they may not be supported by the hardware. At launch, Samsung made no mention of how many Android OS updates the Galaxy Tab A7 is eligible for, but hopefully it made the list of devices that are now supposed to receive three OS updates instead of two.
Price and availability
Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy Tab A7 on September 2, 2020. The tablet became available for pre-booking in India at the end of the month for an entry price of INR 20,999 ($284). The Galaxy Tab A7 was also released in the USA on October 8 for $229. Other markets followed, including South Africa where the tablet was released in November.
