The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 sports a 7 inch screen and runs on the Jelly Bean 4.1 OS. There is 3MP rear FF camera and a front 1.3MP camera. This Wi-Fi + 3G tab is powered by 1.2GHz dual core processor and is priced at Rs. 16,790.

Galaxy Tab 3 Box Pack
The box including the user manuals is made of recycled paper. The box contains the handset, travel charger and the data cable, there is no earphone included.

Design, Display and OS
As far as the design is concerned it has got the same looks as the Galaxy Tab 2. The screen is 7 inches TFT with the same resolution as found on the Tab 2 i.e. 1024×600 pixels. The viewing angle is good with vivid colors. The touch is smooth and responsive. There is light, proximity, accelerometer and magnetic sensors. Weight is 313 grams and with 10.43 thickness.

There are 3 buttons on the front facing bottom, the center physical button and two touch sensitive buttons on either side. The buttons do not lit up in the dark. The specs are nearly similar to the Galaxy Tab 2 but the hardware is different on the Tab 3.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 box pack

There is micro SD and micro SIM slot on the left side and on the right you will find the power button and volume rockers. The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top side and at the bottom there is the micro USB port along with dual speakers. The built quality is very good. The tab runs on Android 4.1

Memory and Storage
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 comes with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. Of the 1GB RAM the free space is 485MB and of the 8GB internal storage you get around 5GB free. There is micro SD card slot that can add up to 32GB external storage, however you cannot move / install apps on external storage. OTG is also not supported.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 SM-T211 review

Performance
The Tab 3 comes with 1.2GHz dual core processor Cortex A9 coupled with Vivante Corporation GC1000 Core GPU. The GPU is better than the PowerVR SGX found on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.

Benchmark scores

  • Quadrant Benchmark : 3611.
  • Antutu Benchmark : 10328.
  • Vellamo Benchmark : HTML5 – 1425, Metal – 472.
  • Nenamark2 : 51.8fps.
  • Multi Touch : 5 point.

3MP camera
The rear camera is 3.2MP fixed focus without LED flash support. The quality is good. The rear camera can also record HD videos. You can check the sample images and videos at the end of this review.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 3MP FF camera

Gaming and Entertainment
Though the Nova 3 game was listed in Google Play, I did not get the time to download (it’s 1.8GB), instead I tried the dead trigger game that did very well. You can play full HD videos with ease.  Sound is loud and clear. The dual speakers does a pretty good job, however when playing games you might actually be blocking it.

Others
The tab can be used as a phone. The phone dialer is with video call button. There is in call speaker or you can make use of Bluetooth to connect external devices. 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS (GLONASS) worked without any issues.  GPS lock was pretty fast under 10 seconds.

Battery
The battery performance is very good, the 4000 mAh battery gives a talktime of up to 20 hours.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 review
If you are looking for a 7 inch tab with 3G this is the best one to go for. The price looks good and it makes sense going in for the tab 3 instead of the tab 2. The tab 2 however is available for a cheaper price, nevertheless also a good option. There is not much of a spec difference between the tab 2 and tab 3.

Image Gallery

Sample Images

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 unboxing and review video

720p video shot using the Galaxy Tab 3

[poll id=”78″]

By Rajeev Rana

Founder and Chief Editor - gogi.in