Galaxy Tab A6 10.1 16 Go

Tom's Guide Verdict

Samsung's Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is a decent Android tablet that's surprisingly small and affordable.

Pros

+
Cheap
+
Lightweight
+
Full access to Android and the Google Play shop

Cons

-
Low-res display
-
Bad cameras
-
Sluggish performance under pressure level

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite specs

CPU: MediaTek MT8768T
RAM: 4 GB
Display: 8.7-inch screen, 1,340 10 800 pixel resolution
Storage: 32-64 GB
Ports: USB-C, microSD carte reader, headphone jack
Bombardment life: x:07
Dimensions: eight.37 x 4.91 ten 0.31 inches
Weight: 0.81 pounds

The Samsung Milky way Tab A7 Calorie-free was unveiled in May of 2021 as a cheaper, lighter spin on the Galaxy Tab A7, one of our pinnacle picks for the all-time Android tablet y'all can purchase.

Later spending a few weeks testing and using the A7 Lite I can confidently tell yous it'southward far from the best tablet on the market. But information technology is quite a handy little device that's well worth your consideration if you need a capable Android tablet for not a lot of coin.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite review: Cost and availability

The Galaxy Tab A7 Low-cal is bachelor for purchase via third-political party retailers and Samsung'south own website (opens in new tab) at a starting price of $159, though you lot tin can often detect information technology on sale for less.

What you arrive return is a lightweight Android tablet with an octacore MediaTek MT8768T flake, four GB of RAM, and 32 GB of retentiveness, though you can pay an extra $40 to upgrade that to 64 GB. Alternatively, yous could use the tablet's MicroSD bill of fare reader to slot in up to 1 TB of additional storage. There's as well an option to buy a model with back up for 4G LTE (through Verizon or AT&T) for an additional $40.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite review — (Paradigm credit: Futurity)

The unit of measurement we reviewed is Wi-Fi only and arrived sporting 64 GB of memory, meaning it retails for $200. However, at fourth dimension of publication Samsung is running a big sale on its website that slashes the price down to $twoscore, which is an incredible value.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Calorie-free review: Design

As the proper noun suggests, the Galaxy Tab A7 Low-cal is a lighter, smaller spin on the Milky way Tab A7 tablet the company released in 2020. Information technology's 8.37 x iv.91 ten 0.31 inches in size and weighs in at just 0.81 pounds. It means that it's lighter and more meaty than almost every tablet on the market. The notable exception is Apple'due south iPad mini, which is yet a bit smaller and lighter (at 8 10 5.three ten 0.24 inches and 0.66 pounds) than the Tab A7 Low-cal.

Of grade, the iPad mini is withal reliant on Apple'southward proprietary Lightning port for charging, whereas the Milky way Tab A7 Lite sports a more ubiquitous USB-C port instead — though rumors suggest Apple tree is swapping that out for USB-C on an updated iPad mini due out at the cease of 2021.

Forth the bottom edge of the Tab A7 Calorie-free you'll notice a Type-C USB ii.0 port which is predominantly used for charging the device. The power/wake button and volume controls are nestled along the meridian right edge, while the microSD card slot is located on the left edge.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite review: Display

The Tab A7 Calorie-free's 8.vii-inch, one,340 ten 800 pixel screen looks pretty skilful in most situations, though in bright light I establish myself staring at my reflection more oft than I liked.

Colors await squeamish and bright, and the bright reds and yellows popped in films like The Tomorrow War and Knives Out. Nonetheless, there was some noticeable blurring and smudging of details in dark or fast-moving scenes. That could have something to do with the Tab A7 Lite's rather depression pixel density. At roughly 179 ppi it'due south not every bit abrupt as the Fire Hard disk drive 10 2021 (224), the Galaxy Tab A7 (224) or the iPad 2020 (264 ppi).

Based on our colorimeter testing, the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is capable of displaying 81.8% of the sRGB color spectrum. That'due south a fair flake short of the 100% platonic, and a bit less vivid than the iPad 2020 (97%) or the Milky way Tab A7 (101.7%).

The screen gets bright plenty to exist usable in broad daylight, but information technology's non the brightest tablet you can purchase. In our testing the Tab A7 Lite'south display had a maximum brightness of 315 nits, which is good enough but not as vivid as the Galaxy Tab A7 (329.3 nits) or the iPad 2020 (484 nits).

These results are well in line with the Tab A7 Lite's budget-friendly asking price, and they aid explain why it can sometimes exist difficult to make out night scenes or use the tablet in bright light. However, the brandish works well as an input device. I had no trouble tapping and swiping my manner through Android, and gesture controls worked well.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Light review: Audio

The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite has ii speaker grills, one forth the peak right edge and another along the bottom left. Together they boot out some decent-sounding sound, and their location along the edges makes it easy to hear what's happening when the tablet is lying flat.

Listening to a few of my favorite playlists on the A7 Lite, I was pleasantly surprised at how good a task this little tablet does of producing crisp, accurate sound. Sure, you aren't going to feel the bass notes in your gut, only vocals, synths and other treble-y sounds come through nice and clear. You tin can crank your tunes up pretty loud, too; even at three-quarters volume I could clearly brand out vocals and pulsate patterns playing on the A7 Lite from the opposite end of my one-bedroom apartment. Nevertheless, if you lot push it up to maximum volume y'all may observe some distortion, as I did on tracks similar The Who's Baba O'Riley and Elton John's Rocket Human being.

To bank check out the full capabilities of the A7's speakers, make certain to pop into the Settings carte du jour, tap "Sound quality and effects", and toggle on the "Dolby Atmos" option. This setting promises to brand audio coming out of the tablet sound better and more immersive, especially if it'southward been mixed for Dolby Atmos. Though in that location still isn't a ton of Dolby Atmos content readily available for Android users, switching this setting to on volition (in my feel) make most music and movies audio a bit deeper and fuller.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Low-cal review: Performance

The MediaTek MT8768T flake powering the Milky way Tab A7 Low-cal isn't exactly a powerhouse, but its 4 GB of RAM helps brand the experience of flipping between apps and playing games nice and speedy.

However, be prepared for some hitches and slowdown when you open a lot of apps simultaneously, or endeavor to play more enervating Android games. When I opened 15 tabs in Chrome and tried to flip between them quickly, I regularly saw a bit of slowdown. I could play games like Asphalt ix and Call of Duty Mobile pretty well on the Tab A7 Lite, but it ofttimes struggled to maintain a smooth framerate when the screen got decorated in either game, and cutscenes promoting new content in Call of Duty Mobile oftentimes looked more like slideshows.

In short, using the Tab A7 Lite for annihilation more browsing the web and watching media is frequently a lackluster experience, and that'due south backed upward by our lab testing. The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite earned a score of 907 in the Geekbench five multicore operation benchmark, which we use to help measure the tablet's overall performance. It's a poor score that puts it quite behind tablets like the 2021 Amazon Burn down Hard disk drive 10 (969), Microsoft'southward Surface Go 2 (1,563) and the iPad 2020 (two,685).

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Calorie-free review: Bombardment life

The Milky way Tab A7 Light's battery packs plenty ability to go you through a cross-country flight or a few nights on the couch without having to scramble for a charger. In our battery test, which involves surfing the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the little tablet lasted x hours and vii minutes.

That's good enough for daily utilize, but information technology's all the same shy of larger tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 (13:13), the Amazon Burn down HD 10 (13:14), or the iPad 2020 (12:57). The Tab A7 Lite doesn't charge terribly rapidly, either: I plugged information technology in at viii% battery and later 90 minutes of charging it was upwards to 55%, which is good enough for casual employ only non great when you lot need to juice it upward in a bustle.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Calorie-free review: Cameras

The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite's 2 MP forepart-facing camera and 8 MP rear camera are good enough to get y'all through video calls and the occasional photo op without too much embarrassment, only in my feel they leave a lot to be desired. Pictures I snapped with the front-facing camera tended to look done out, and it had a hard time adjusting to changes in ambient low-cal.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite review - camera test — The Tab A7 Lite's selfie camera isn't keen at capturing fine details, or the pathos of a human being who's barely left his flat all year (Image credit: Future)

Snapping photos with the rear photographic camera produced meliorate results, simply colors still look muted and fine details like wood grain and surface reflections were almost incommunicable to brand out. In curt, the Milky way Tab A7 Lite's camera array is serviceable enough for daily use, but if you lot're carrying a relatively recent model of smartphone, information technology will nigh certainly produce higher-quality photos.

Still, there is one nice matter to say about the Tab A7 Low-cal's camera setup: the front end-facing camera supports login via facial recognition, a security feature that most sub-$500 tablets (including iPads) still don't offer. Setting upwards facial recognition on the Tab A7 Lite was a painless feel for me, though it had a lot of trouble reliably identifying me when I wore my glasses.

Samsung Milky way Tab A7 Low-cal review: Software

If you love stock Android you'll capeesh the experience of using the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite, every bit Samsung has mercifully restrained itself from aircraft it with a lot of extra cruft.

When you lot fix it upwardly, it comes pre-installed with the Samsung app store, but it's otherwise a relatively pure Android experience. That means that, unlike with Amazon's Fire tablets and their Android-based Fire OS, yous go total access to Google Play shop and its hundreds of thousands of apps and games.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Low-cal review: Verdict

Samsung has been pitching the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite equally a small, useful Android tablet that's easy on your wallet, and in my experience that'southward exactly what you get when you purchase ane.

While reading this review, you probably noticed the phrase "good enough" quite a few times, and that's for adept reason: if you're looking for a compact Android tablet to browse the Internet, watch videos, or play games on, the Tab A7 Calorie-free is good enough to satisfy your needs.

Just don't expect to be blown away past its operation, display quality or battery life. Competing tablets like Microsoft'southward Surface Go ii or the 2020 iPad will outperform the A7 Lite on all of these fronts, and while you'll have to pay a few hundred bucks more for them you lot can frequently nevertheless get either for under $500.

Alex Wawro is a lifelong tech and games enthusiast with more than a decade of feel covering both for outlets similar Game Programmer, Black Chapeau, and PC Earth magazine. A lifelong PC architect, he currently serves as a senior editor at Tom's Guide roofing all things computing, from laptops and desktops to keyboards and mice.