Gadgetory

Samsung has raised the bar on 7-inch tablets with its Galaxy Tab 7.7 well I'm Bill Detweiler head technology editor at CNET's sister site tech Republic and I'm going to crack open the Tab 7.7 for a look at the hardware inside despite looking a lot like the Tab 2 7.0 which I cracked open last week opening the Tab 7.7 s case requires a completely different approach instead of starting along the tablets edge and working my way around the case I started on the front inserting a thin metal tool between the front glass and edge of the back cover applying gentle outward pressure I popped the cover loose from the front panel assembly after working my way around the case I removed the back cover as with the previous Samsung tablets I've cracked open the Tab 7.7 has a very clean internal hardware layout an l-shaped motherboard is mounted along the tablets upper and left edges a circuit board mounted along the bottom edge contains the connector port speaker assembly and what appear to be two antennas the units large battery takes up much of the internal space now I really like that the motherboard has snap-on connectors as they make the components easy to detach I also like that most of the internal components can be replaced separately my only real complaint about the tablets design is the way Samsung joined the front panel and the display the two are either fused together into a single piece or held together with really strong adhesive now where the screen held in place with screws you can easily replace a cracked front panel without buying a new display and vice versa looking at the Tab 7.7 s internal hardware we find a 5100 milliamp hour battery 2 speakers an IR blaster and a beautiful AMOLED display which has a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels now like the Galaxy Tab plus the Tab 7.7 has a 2 megapixel front facing camera and a 3 megapixel rear facing one powering the device is Samsung's 1.4 gigahertz dual core Exynos 4210 processor and one gig of ram now as is common in current smartphone and tablet designs the application processor is mounted under the DRAM memory package in what's called a package-on-package configuration for cellular connectivity Samsung used its own LTE baseband processor and a vehicle accom a video chip which they also used in the Galaxy Nexus now rounding out the Tab 7.7 other major chips are a Samsung 16 gig flash storage chip a 3-axis gyroscope from InvenSense gps processor from CSR a silicon image HDMI chip and an atmel touch screen controller now given all the tablets high-end hardware it's not surprising that Samsung is asking a high-end price now as of this taping you can buy the Tab 7.7 for four hundred and fifty dollars with a two-year Verizon contract without the contract the price jumps does $700 Samsung definitely set the standard for 7-inch tablets with the Tab 7.7 it's thin powerful has a beautiful display and 4G support but the high price and two-year commitment may scare away some buyers now to see more Galaxy Tab 7.7 teardown photos check out my full cracking open gallery at TechRepublic com forward slash cracking open 4c net and TechRepublic I'm Bill Detweiler and this has been a cracking open of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 you