Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8"; 16 GB Wifi Tablet (White) SM-T350NZWAXAR

I will continue to buy Samsung products after using this for several years.

I have been an Apple iPad purist for years. When I recently gave my mother my iPad Mini (she is having some issues with her vision and it's easier for her to use for certain apps than her phone), I thought I'd be content with just having my Pro 9.7. However, I like to read in bed, and the larger iPad really doesn't work well for that. I considered a Kindle Paperwhite, but since the Paperwhite doesn't reverse to a black field with white text I didn't want to use that and needed something for which I could use the Kindle app.I decided to try an Android tablet, which would be significantly less expensive than a new Mini 4. Plus, I'd been wanting to get experience with Android because I have friends who have Android phones who are always asking me questions about them for which I have no answer. After doing a bit of research, I decided on the Galaxy Tab A 8-inch, which was almost exactly the same size as the Mini. Several local stores had good sales but nobody ... and I mean NOBODY ... had one in stock. They had plenty of the 7" tablets but with the smaller size and only 8GB of memory, even with the SD expansion slot, I wasn't interested. So I ordered it here.I am very pleased with this device. It was easy to set up and it's been responsive and intuitive to use. The size and form factor are nearly identical to my old Mini. If anything I like the Kindle app better on the Android than on the iPad -- not the least of which is because you can buy Kindle books directly from the Android app and not from the Apple one (has to do with Apple demanding 30% of all sales on the iPad, which includes Kindle books. Can't say I blame Amazon for not wanting part of that "deal").I only have one minor complaint and not a large enough one to warrant a loss of a star -- you can't turn down the ambient light on the Galaxy as far as you can with the Mini. This only becomes an issue because I tend to stay up later than my husband so when I am reading he is trying to sleep, and it seems like I can't get the screen as dark as my Mini could go. Curiously, he says the ambient light it throws seems to be less overall and it doesn't bother him at all. Maybe it projects less overall but it seems brighter to me.

Picked up this tablet recently when the price dipped one evening to about $130 for use as a FPV and telemetry display for flying my Solo quads. I had been using my Samsung phone, but I wanted a bigger image to help compensate for slightly over 30 eyes. The 8" size is perfect, although a tad heavy and about the max that fits in the controller mount. I had initially tried an older 8" Lenovo tablet that I already had, but it was incompatible with the app I need to run. The Tab A is one of the tablets tested to be fully compatible with the app, so I figured I'd just buy one, especially given the price, even though the technology is getting a little dated. Interestingly, when I'm not out flying, I find myself using this tablet more and more for email, reading the news over coffee in the morning (not CNN or MSNBC fake news!), web searches, Amazon shopping, etc. It's plenty fast enough for these purposes, the display is sufficiently bright and pleasant to look at, and the battery holds up well for many hours. It also comes with very usable Microsoft Office apps, although I've so far only found the need to use Word or Excel a couple of times. The only negative as a FPV display is that the image could be a tad brighter for outdoor use. But with a sun shade or by standing under a tree to get out of the direct sun, it works pretty well to see where you're flying and to keep track of down-range distance, altitude, flight battery charge state, etc. For the price paid, this is a really nice tablet in a size that's perfect for me. Oh yeah, one nice surprise I wasn't expecting: shortly after I started using it, the operating system updated to Android 7!

I own both the models of Galaxy Tab A 9.7 and 8.0 in our household and the Tab A 8.0 is the one I use personally all them time mainly because of its compact size which is great for one handed use and a sharper screen . I purchased the Tab A 8.0 after deliberating considerably whether to go for the Tab A 8.0 or the newer Tab E . In the end I choose the Tab A because if felt much more premium in hands compared to the Tab E. Here's how I feel these both the Tab A 9.7 & 8.0 tablets stack up against each other if you're considering either of the two :BUILD QUALITY- Both the tablets are made of plastic with a metallic frame that runs around its sides. Despite its plastic construction these tablets do not feel cheap in any way ( The newer Tab E in comparison feels cheaper) with its soft touch matte finish plastic- The color choices on the tablet is great , having owned both the White & 'Smoky Titanium' colors - you cant go wrong with either of them . The white color is a nice soft metallic white with a slight pearl effect and the 'Smoky Titanium' is more of a metallic gunmetal shade - a good departure of the standard solid whites ,greys or blacks found on most other tabletsFEATURES & PERFORMANCE- Both the Tab A 8.0 & 9.7 feature the same Qualcomm SnapDragon 410 processor - A mid range quad core 64 Bit 1.2 Ghz processor released in 2014- Both the 8.0" and 9.7" scored pretty similarly on the AnTuTu synthetic benchmark owing to their similar hardware specifications (see pics)- Both 9.7" and 8.0" tablets feature screens with 768 X 1024 resolution which gives them a pixel density ( higher values mean sharper images & text) of 160 PPI for the 8.0" model and 132 PPI on the 9.7" model- The 160 PPI pixel density on the 8.0" is adequate for most uses , including browsing text heavy websites like Wikipedia , without having to zoom in too much. The pixelation is much more noticeable on the 9.7" model- The screen colors are rich and vibrant with good viewing angles- The 8.0" tab features a 4200 mAh battery which is good for 1.5 days of heavy use , the only issue here is it charges rather slowly at max of 1A as compared to the max charging current of 2A on the 9." model- In terms of performance , it can easily handle about 3 simultaneous tabs in the chrome browser after which the limitations & slowdowns due to its 1.5GB RAM become apparent (Both models have 1.5GB RAM)- The single speaker at the bottom of the 8.0" model is pretty weak and you would usually have to turn up the volume above 75% to hear anything clearly (as opposed to better dual stereo speakers on the 9.7" model)- The tablet does have an expandable MircoSD card slot which is greatTHE GOOD- The 8.0 model has a rich and vibrant screen with good viewing angles and sufficient resolution for everyday use- Touchscreen sensitivity and fluidity is great with not stuttery UI performance- The 8.0 screen size is ideal for one handed use , yet offer enough real estate for media consumption like pictures or videos.- The tablet performance is more than adequate, I had no issues running 1080P movies on the Netflix app , browsing with 3-4 tabs open or playing light games like Temple Run, Subway Surfer etc- I absolutely love Samsung's implementation of multi-tasking which allows you to run two compatible apps side by side in windowed form . This is one feature , which once you get used to, you will be using very often- Expandable storage- Its upgraded to the latest Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow OSTHE NOT SO GOOD- Weak single speaker- the 5MP rear and 2MP front camera's are not that great, though they are sufficient for video chatting- Average battery life of 1.5 days and very slow charging speeds at 1A- For these reasons I take away one starFINAL THOUGHTSOverall I really like the Tab A 8.0 (over our Tab A 9.7) and can highly recommend it to you as you get a great form factor , decent screen resolution and performance with bright vivid colors and expandable storage all for under a $150 price tag. In fact i still choose this tablet over heavily discounted Ipad Mini during Black Friday 2016 as I felt it fulfilled my requirements sufficiently and gave more bang for my buck