SAMSUNG SM-T290NZKAXAR, Galaxy Tab A 8.0" 32 GB Wifi Android 9.0 Pie Tablet Black 2019

This tablet is replacing a first gen Galaxy tab. It was a great tablet but time has taken it's toll and it was time to replace it. I have a 2017 Tab A and love it so this one was for my wife. . This is a great improvement over the 2017 version. Both are running Android 9.0 smoothly. Battery life on both is amazing (we charge them 1 or 2 time a week and they see 4 to 5 hours use daily). Screens are also amazing. This tablet ups the stakes with the return of auto brightness setting and what appears to be a better camera setup (the reality of it is that both have pretty good cameras for a tablet) Samsung also did away with some of the bloatware (THANK YOU SAMSUNG!!) They got rid of that stupid Bixby home thing (I finally was able to disable it on my 2017 after the latest Android update). There is some other bloat ware that was also not included (like half a gig worth!) Speed for both is the same. Now there are some steps backward. They moved back to a micro USB charging (the 2017 had USB C) and the speakers are not as nice (in real world performance- no idea on the spec sheet). Also they removed the physical home/back/list buttons from the bezel and put a virtual back and list button on the screen space. THe home button is gone completely and you have to use the power button now (A HUGE step back!). With the buttons gone now the bottom of the tablet has this 3/4" bezel at the bottom that does nothing but make the tablet longer than it needs to be. Bottom line this is a great tablet. It is fast, powerful and with a micro SD card installed has a ton of storage. At the current price (under 0ne hundred and twenty bucks!) it is a steal.

I got the 8-inch T290. If you are aware of what you are getting for your money, this tablet is worthy of five stars. No it doesn't have the top processor speed or display resolution. It's a budget tablet at a really good price (especially if you catch it on sale), and you get a lot of bang for your buck. The display is 1200 X 800 pixels which qualifies as HD, but not ultra HD. What counts the most when it comes to font legibility on screens is pixel density. A 1200 X 800 8-inch display has a pixel density of right at 180 pixels per inch (PPI), and that's not too shabby. My 6th generation Kindle Paperwhite has a pixel density of just over 210 ppi, so this tablet isn't too far from that. If small fonts are hard to read, you can scale up the fonts and size of things in the settings. The display also has good color and contrast, and is plenty bright. The blue light filter app included doesn't offer as many options as I like, so I add one from the Google Play store. And speaking of that, with an Android tablet (and this one comes installed with Android Pie) you do have full access to Google Play store. The sound is a lot better than I expected, and that can be enhanced even more with a third party volume booster. And I find an 8-inch tablet is just the right size. A 10.1-inch tablet is too cumbersome in my opinion, and a smart phone is too small. And an 8-inch tablet like this one will fit in the back pocket of men's pants. (But not so much if you have it in a case.) And at just 12 and a half ounces, it's a lot lighter than a 10.1-inch tablet. So understand what you're getting, don't expect top of the line, but you get a good tablet for the price.

As my title implies, much of my review is a comparison with with my old tablet that I bought 5+ years ago for the same price. After years of faithful daily service, I finally decided to replace my old SM-T230NU. It still works, battery holds a decent charge, but it's sluggish sometimes and is constantly running out of space. There are also apps that are just not compatible with this version of android (4.4). I use my tablet almost exclusively for reading & catching up on news/email. I usually use it at the end of the day, and the smaller size is great for reading from bed. It's also easy for when I'm on the go, I can even fit it in my sports coat interior pocket. As an upgrade, it has double the RAM, triple the storage space, and alot faster response. The screen size of 8" is slightly larger - which gives a good amount of real estate without getting too big to easily handle. Since it has a phone jack, I was able to keep using my wired earbuds and it has the same USB C plug for charging! The only two things I don't like are not having the dedicated navigation buttons at the bottom and the new process for accessing your app list (swiping up from the bottom). The next step up to to the Tab A, which was double the price. To me, it's just not worth it the extra cost, especially since I don't need a 10" screen. Bottom line: I'd recommend this to a casual user who prefers a smaller/portable size tablet.

I have used a Nexus 7 tablet for years, but it was getting slower and slower and some things had a hard time running at all. So, time for an upgrade. I use a tablet mostly for reading the news and watching YouTube and occasional light internet browsing, and of course apps. I previously have owned a 10 inch tablet, but that was really too big for casual use where I'm usually sitting in an easy chair with the tablet on my lap. The 8-inch screen is just the right size for easy viewing while keeping the overall tablet small and light and easy to take with. I do notice that the screen sometimes doesn't look as sharp as the Nexus 7, but this could be the fault of a particular app instead of the actual screen resolution. For my use the tablet is very fast and runs everything easily. I don't know how well it would work with graphic-intensive games, but I don't use it for that. It has dual speakers that sound quite good, but both speakers are on the same end, which doesn't make much sense to me. A tablet is usually held in landscape mode, but both speakers are on the right end. You get used to it, but the placement is a blunder that I can only imagine was required by internal space constraints. Overall, the tablet is a good upgrade and a fine tablet for light use. I'm happy with the purchase. Cons: 1) Screen with a few apps looks slightly fuzzy. 2) Both speakers are on the right end. 3) Latest version of Android not yet supported by some apps. Pros: 1) Perfect size and weight. 2) Fast 3) Great battery life. 4) Good sound. 5) Great video. 6) Easy internet browsing. 7) Plenty of memory. 8) Good price.

This is a great budget tablet! I only use it for YouTube and web surfing and it's been working great for me. It doesn't have the sharpest screen like the retina display on a macbook but it's still pretty darn good, WAY way better than a fire tablet. Touchscreen responsive is quick and it has an overall good battery life. I did wish both sides had speakers... only the right has speakers so that could be an issue to some people. I use mine with a bluetooth headset so that's not really a problem. Overall, I'm super happy to have bought this tablet at affordable price and if you have simple needs like mine, I'm sure you'll love it too. Pro tip, don't use the chrome browser, use the native Samsung internet one as it's made for it; reliable, faster, and simple.

Picked up two on the Treasure Truck for our kiddos to replace old 7" Samsung tablets. I honestly wasn't expecting much as a Tab A, but I really like these! They come automatically with 32g of storage, which is great when downloading a bunch of games and apps that hog storage. Add an SD card and you're golden for a while. In particular was a messaging app that allows us to video chat as a family of 4 - the tablets do not have a lag even with 4 on video at the same time and show a clear picture using the front facing camera. And the battery lasts for what seems like forever - the first day with a full charge, it was used for over 4 hours (per the parental app we also downloaded) with videos and games, and still had over half of the charge. And as far as the size, you wouldn't think going from a 7" screen to an 8" screen would really make a difference, but it really does. The colors are vivid and bright. I can't speak for the tech stuff, but as a daily tablet to run games and videos and surf the internet and video chat, this really is great. I'm going to return and purchase another for myself to replace an old Nook.

Just got this yesterday in mail... Loving this tablet so far! Im old school and have only had Nexus 7 tablets. I like the mobility and ease of 7 inch tablets. I'm not tech savvy... And tried to research good tablets as best I could. I don't see how this tablet wouldn't suit as a solid budget option. It's speedy without lag as I go from email to games to video apps. You can't go wrong getting or gifting this tablet. I'm sure there are more powerful tablets out there... But for basic needs and purposes, this is great. I'm certain the 10 inch version for $50 more would be just the same. Comes with the new Android 9.0 Pie version and you also get future updates. So if you are out of the loop on tech or perhaps an older person looking for an easy budget option... I highly recommend. Only had one day... Will provide updates. Update 12/27/19... Still no regrets with my purchase. I use this tablet daily. Tablet is still smooth and zippy. Able to handle games, movies, email, shopping, etc. Battery life is good/charges up quickly. I haven't had any issues or complaints thus far!

Price was great. Screen is clear and bright. Slow boot-up. Biggest gripe is the touch screen response. Have used iPads and they have much better sensitivity. For e-mails or watching YouTube videos it's fine. Gaming of any kind would be an issue with the slow response. As a DirecTV device it works well.