A comfortable tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

In 2010, Samsung was one of the first companies out with an iPad competitor, breaking into the tablet market with a 7 inch tablet that brought Android in a comfortable size. Two years on, the company is trying it again, slimming it down and refreshing the specs in the Galaxy Tab 7.7.

Features

Designed to be compact, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is a more pocketable tablet than the 10.1 inch Galaxy Tab this model plays sibling to.

Keeping up with the design used on that model, Samsung has kept with the aluminium and glass build materials, while still finding a way to reduce the size from the first Galaxy Tab in 2010.

There’s only so much you can do to make 7 inches appear smaller, and most of the shrinking from the first Galaxy Tab has been made in the thickness department, dropping from 12mm in the original to a much more svelte 7.9mm.

The screen is also a little different, with Samsung opting for a slightly bigger 7.7 inch panel over the 7 inch one found in the first Galaxy Tab. This new panel features a 1280×800 resolution, and is a Super AMOLED Plus screen, similar to the technology – not resolution – used in the Galaxy S2 smartphone.

This screen size makes the tablet a little taller and a little wider, and combined with the thickness and new reliance on aluminium for the build material, manages to be 40 grams lighter than the 2010’s plastic Galaxy Tab was.

2010's Galaxy Tab on the left with the new Galaxy Tab 7.7 on the right.

Under the hood, Samsung has changed the processor to a dual-core 1.4GHz processor, which should provide enough room to move for gaming and Android apps.

Like most Android devices, memory options include both 16GB internal storage, with a microSD slot for increasing that easily.

Two cameras are included in the tablet, with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash on the back and a front-facing 2 megapixel camera with support for 720p video.

Connection options include WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3, and a wired charge and data transfer port with Samsung sticking with the proprietary port it first introduced on the original Galaxy Tab.

Australian models seem to be WiFi only, but Samsung does have a configuration of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 with a 3G modem, it’s just not available here.

Two physical buttons are present here, with a volume rocker and power button all sitting on the right side. There are no physical buttons for using Android, with the buttons appearing at the very bottom of the screen in software only.

A 3.5mm headset jack also appears at the very top of the unit.