Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Review
4 min readBy Rob Boggan
Samsung continues to grace us with new members of it’s Galaxy family what feels like every week now. With it’s continual onslaught, consumers ultimately win due to the massive lineup of products available, especially when they happen to be available from every major (and some minor) carrier(s) around. Samsung seems to have this method down to a science, as they have several tablets available, to fit just about every style and every budget. What we’re looking at today is one of Samsung’s latest releases into the Galaxy Tab lineup, the Galaxy Tab 7.7. Calling the land of Verizon home, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 packs a ton of features into a super portable form factor with 4G LTE connectivity. Does it have what it takes to stand out in Samsung’s lineup? Read on for my thoughts on the Galaxy Tab 7.7.
I love how Samsung decided to keep most of the look from last year’s Galaxy Tab in tact for the 7.7 version. I’m a huge fan of the brushed metal backing and the overall simplicity of the grey and black design. Sporting a super minimalist design, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 looks really clean and elegant especially when being viewed from the front. There’s a simple black frame right around the bezel of the screen which actually serves to make the exceptional screen quality stand out even more. Around the front of the Galaxy Tab, you’ll see the 2MP front facing camera, and of course the gorgeous 7.7 Super AMOLED Plus display. On the back o0f the device, there’s the ultra high quality brushed metal rear, with a plastic top and bottom to incorporate the antennas into the device. On the side of the device is the SIM slot, micro SD slot, and (gasp!) the IR sensor for the PEEL Smart Remote app. On the inside of the device, we’re graced with 16GB of internal storage, 1GB of RAM, a dual core (double gasp!) Samsung Exynos processor, and a gigantic 5,100 mAh battery. Very impressive specs.
On the performance side of things, I have not yet used a tablet that gave me as good battery life as the Galaxy Tab 7.7 did. Seriously, whatever Samsung is doing lately with the batteries in their devices right now, they totally need to keep it up. While connected to Verizon’s ultra fast 4G LTE data network, under heavy usage (Twitter, Facebook, tons of email, lots of YouTube) I was able to go two days on a single charge! With the included Samsung Exynos processor, the Galaxy Tab powered through every single thing I threw at it and gobbled up tasks with relative ease. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 sports a dual camera system, with a 2MP camera on the front, and a 3MP camera on the rear both of which work as expected. Essentially what that means is that the cameras will do their job, and take pretty solid shots, but you definitely shouldn’t consider this a replacement for your main shooter. The rear camera is capable of shooting video in 720p, but don’t expect any videos to be extremely good as this is only a 3MP camera. As with the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus we reviewed earlier, the 7.7 includes an IR sensor for use with the PEEL Smart Remote app. PEEL worked perfectly on the Galaxy Tab 7.7, and I’m glad the bugs I experienced last go round have all been worked out. My TV no longer turns off whenever I try to switch inputs or change the channel which is a huge bonus.
Now for the frowny side of this device, the price. With this slate tipping the register scales at $499.99, it almost makes better sense to scoop up the year old Galaxy Tab 10.1 for a whopping $30 more simply for the bigger screen, and faster access to Ice Cream Sandwich. In fact, at that price point it would almost be better to drop the coin on an iPad 2. Performance and features aside, this thing is flat out over priced by at least $80 bucks.
All in all, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is a pretty hot device. Packing unheard of tablet battery life, speedy data connections, and a remarkably brilliant screen, this is one can’t miss device for those who crave the latest and greatest. Even with a super high price tag by comparison to what else is available on the market, I wouldn’t mind having one of these puppies to call my own.
