Gadgetory

another day another Samsung product which isn't necessarily a bad thing see what it basically means is that we are probably already familiar with the general design and the user experience but Samsung did want to update their Galaxy Tab line with a new 8 inch tablet that is supposed to be lighter nimbler and a lot easier to handle does it provide a worthy enough refresh the answer is sort of hey it's Josh of Agartha mantra' authority what's going on everybody and this is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8 first impressions are about what you would expect this is yet another Samsung product that employs the plastic and rounded look that the vast majority of their devices sport while this might be you tried-and-true design plenty of people are wishing for a change in these aesthetic choices unfortunately you won't be getting that here the tap three does sports some enhancements that supplement what we've come to expect you still get the rather slippery plastic feel with the 8-inch screen up front atop the usual line of buttons there is a significantly thinner bezel now which helps make the screen handling a little better around the back of the unremovable cover also houses a 5 megapixel camera in the very corner and along the somewhat golden sides are the power button and volume rockers on the same plane as the built-in IR blaster opposite this is a very welcome micro SD card slot so that's all good and unsurprising until you hold it in your hand the after mentioned thinner bezels do a nice job of improving the handling of this 8 inch tablet but a lighter weight very much helps as well weighing in at 314 grams the Tab 3 is pretty easy to maneuver and throw around as you need while it is just outside the comfort of a one hand grip you can pretty comfortably rest the entire device on your fingers and reach what you can with your thumb in the end this is a no frills design that actually somewhat surprises with its ease of handling you would hope for a good display on an 18 inch tablet well this isn't a 1080p display like we're getting accustomed to these days the Tab 3 still sports a nice TFT capacitive screen capable of 1280 by 800 resolution and an understandable 189 PPI density it's understandable because with this larger screen the device will be far enough away from your face that pixelation in text and whatnot won't be as bad and it isn't though some software enhancements for text certainly help nonetheless you're not going to be getting the sharpest or most crisp experience here however colors are quite vibrant and viewing angles are very good the more bloated TouchWiz elements work on a screen of this size and keeps things very easy on the eyes overall I did have an enjoyable time with this display in the performance aspect Samsung went with their in-house processing package with an X eNOS 42:12 dual-core clocked in at 1.5 gigahertz it is backed by the Mali 400 MP and 1.5 gigabytes of RAM it isn't a high-end package by any means and benchmark scores support this but in practice the tablet does manage to perform quite well it loads apps pretty smoothly but as you load more and more apps on top of all of that it does end up stuttering a little bit as resources aren't continuously used in the background for the power user this might not be the best performer but I will say that the general user will find web browsing the occasional game and YouTube viewing easy enough with the tab 3 if you are expecting the tab 3 to feature many of the same extra bits and pieces as Samsung's Galaxy s4 then stop Samsung's tablets don't often get the same flagship treatment the way their phones do nonetheless with the absence of any extra sensors aside from just the typical accelerometer you do get the IR blaster for watch on capabilities are generally sought after feature of expandable memory is here though with a micro SD card slot thankfully found on the side NFC for sbeam though is not available it is worth mentioning that a version of the Tab 3 capable of phone network connectivity is available but such things seldom ever come to the states there are thus 3G GSM and LTE capable versions overseas but this one is simply made for Wi-Fi which goes along with the usual Bluetooth and GPS and as I said before the back cover is not removable but the 44 50 milliamp hour battery found underneath provides a pretty good level of juice straight usage either through web browsing or just a marathon a video watching gets the battery drained in up to 8 hours I got around 6 to 7 for the general user who doesn't have their eyes glued to the screen all day though you can eke out a few days of usage especially with the power saving features enabled we never really ever expect cameras on tablets to be exceptionally good 5 megapixels is what you get here and in the camera app a startling lack of modes when compared to many of Samsung's other newer products you get a few modes to play with here and picture quality is decent enough for a tablet it's become a necessity to put cameras on just about anything now but that doesn't mean they'll blow you away those quite familiar with Samsung products will likely be familiar with the general user experience TouchWiz powered by Android 4.2.2 makes a return with little changes aside from becoming a little bit more tablet friendly watch on and group play are the only app inclusions and as far as navigation goes you do get a couple motion capabilities but not much after that Google now and s-voice are both available for your voice commands all in all this is TouchWiz as we have come to know it for so long now and it works about as well as expected this 8-inch tablet by Samsung comes in at 299 dollars a pretty middle price range for a device that is well very middle and so there you have it I know that my tone here might seem a little drab but I will say this the tab 3 is still an enjoyable device the lighter form and thinner bezels make for a much easier to handle tablet and that's always a plus the screen is actually quite good and is as easy on the eyes as it can get but these enhancements all just feel like ways of trying to detract from the truth the truth that we've seen this all before the plastic body the all-too-familiar TouchWiz and these middle-of-the-road specifications can all be had in plenty of other devices not to mention ones that are cheaper than the tap three if you do think that what the Tab 3 offers will please you then I'm sure it will but this is just an experience that I feel like I've had all too many times before and not to mention and a bunch of other Samsung products too boo and in the end it ultimately just all feels far from unforgettable as always stay tuned to android authority for all of the best coverage drop us a like down below and subscribe to our Channel and when it doubled all of that head on over to android authority comm because we're your source for all things Android