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Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 — quad speakers, modern look, affordable price

Published: Sep 02, 2020, 4:20 AM

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Samsung has just announced its new midrange tablet for 2020 — the Galaxy Tab A7. On the surface, it looks like the flagship Galaxy Tab S7, but with a few corners cut to make its price more accessible. Let's take a deeper dive.

Design and display

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 — quad speakers, modern look, affordable price

The Galaxy Tab A7 looks a lot like the Tab S7 from earlier this year — a clean rectangular front with a uniform bezel all around the screen. It's slightly thicker than the bezel of the flagship Tab S7 and the screen is slightly smaller. The Galaxy Tab A7 has a 10.4-inch display with a resolution of 2000 x 1200 pixels. For comparison's sake, the Tab S7 has an 11-inch screen with 2560 x 1600 pixels. So, yes, there's a tiny difference in the ratios as well — the Tab A7 is 15:9, the Tab S7 is 16:10.

That's not all that's different, though. The Galaxy Tab A7 has an LCD panel, instead of an AMOLED one, and you can forget about that ultra-smooth 120 Hz refresh rate.

Around back, the Galaxy Tab A7 is a flat metal slab — a nice, matte finish, which is bound to feel good. You can pick it up in dark gray, gold, or silver — the latter has white bezels on the front. There are no connectors anywhere on the tablet's body, so it won't have a Book Cover accessory or an S Pen. But it does have a headphone jack.

Hardware and camera

The Galaxy Tab A7 is powered by the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 chip. It has 8 cores split in two clusters — 4 cores run at 1.8 GHz, 4 cores run at 2 GHz. The tablet comes with either 32 GB or 64 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot that can take a card of up to 1 TB. As for RAM, we are locked at 3 GB.

The Tab A7 doesn't put much emphasis on cameras — we got one main shooter with an 8 MP sensor and one front-facing cam with a 5 MP resolution. You know, the "good enough" type of camera, which is there for emergencies but don't expect to take pro-grade photos with them.

The battery capacity is rated at 7,040 mAh — definitely smaller than the Galaxy Tab S7's 10,090 mAh cell. But do keep in mind that the Tab A7 needs to push a lower-power processor and a much simpler, 60 Hz LCD display. So, we expect the Tab A7's battery life to be up to par.

It's worth noting that the Galaxy Tab A7 comes with a quad speaker stereo setup, tuned by Dolby Atmos. No corners cut here — the A7 is here to deliver on quality media experiences.

Galaxy Tab A7 vs Galaxy Tab S7 — which one to buy?

They look like they can be the same thing, but they are vastly different. The Galaxy Tab S7 is a powerful production machine, with an S Pen stylus (comes in the box) and a smart keyboard Book Cover (sold separately) and the on-board DeX suite, which gives the tablet a desktop-like UI on the fly. The Tab S7 also has a 120 Hz AMOLED screen and more powerful internals. It's a machine for the type of user that needs their tablet to be more than a Netflix binge machine. And it's priced accordingly, starting at $650.

Buy Galaxy Tab S7

The Galaxy Tab A7 is for those that need a portable device to watch their favorite media on or play some Android games on. It looks modern but comes at a significantly lower price — we've yet to get an official listing by Samsung, but early reports and leaks put it around the $250 - $280 range.

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Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.