Gadgetory

Samsung is jumping into the budget tablet market with a 7-inch device that looks nearly identical to the company's Galaxy Tab plus but costs half as much I definitely want to see what's inside this tablet I'm Bill Detweiler head technology editor at C net sister site tech Republic and I'm going to crack open the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 thankfully Samsung didn't use any hidden or tamper resistant case screws on this tablet to open the device you just pop off the back cover now I use the thin metal tool to start the process and then switch to a plastic spudger as I worked my way around the case once inside the case I found an incredibly clean Hardware layout in fact it's one of the best internal tablet designs I've seen there's a single circuit board each component is attached to the main PCB with a snap-on connector and with the exception of the display nothing is held in place with adhesive in fact my only complaint about the devices construction is that the display isn't easily separated from the frame now let's take a closer look at some of the internal hardware like the Galaxy Tab plus the tab 27.0 has a four thousand milliamp hour battery two speakers an IR blaster and a seven-inch PLS display with a resolution of 1024 by 600 this isn't the highest resolution display among 7-inch tablets but it is the same resolution as the Kindle Fires display Samsung replaced the pluses 2 megapixel front-facing camera with a VGA one but the 3 megapixel rear camera remains just without the LED flash now as for the tablets engine Samsung used a Texas Instruments 1 gigahertz dual-core 4430 OMAP application processor which is mounted underneath the units 1 gig ram chip this is a step down from the Galaxy Tab plusses 1.2 gigahertz Samsung Exynos 4210 processor but as with the display this chip is also used in the Kindle Fire rounding out the tab 27.0 other chips are an 8 gig samsung emmc memory module wolfson WM 18 11 audio codec and Broadcom PCM 4330 wireless transceiver so how does the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 stack up against other 7-inch tablets like the Galaxy Tab + and Amazon Kindle Fire well as Eric Franklin pointed out in his CNET review this tablet offers an excellent value and a full Android 4.0 experience that no other tablet can currently match for the price at 249 the Tab 2 7.0 is $50 more than the Kindle Fire but the Samsung device lets you expand the memory to 32 gigs using a microSD card and it can function as a TV remote on the other hand the fire puts the power of Amazon's online store in the palm of your hand comparing the tablet to other 7-inch devices is a bit trickier does it have the processing power of the Galaxy Tab plus well no but the user experience is still good and a half the price you get a lot of bang for your buck to see more Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 teardown photos check out my full cracking open gallery at TechRepublic com forward slash cracking open for CNET and TechRepublic I'm Bill Detweiler and this has been a cracking open of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 you