Samsung experimented a lot in 2011 and a bit in 2012 with a variety of tablet formats. Those included 8.9 inch slates, 10.1 inch tablets, a variety of 7 inch models and even a bizarre 7.7 inch tablet, the one that we’re discussing here. That model was launched long before Apple figured out that their smaller iPad needs to be closer to 8 inches in diagonal rather than 7.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 should cost around $400 to $500 nowadays and it’s still a pretty appealing device, especially thanks to its bright display. The tablet features a Super AMOLED Plus 7.7 inch panel, with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and inside it there’s a dual core Exynos CPU at 1.4 GHz, as well as a Mali 400 MP GPU. At the moment when we tested the device, it ran Honeycomb 3.2 with TouchWiz on top and Android 4.0 ICS en route to update it. Sadly, throughout 2012 the device got neglected and updates were very late, to be polite…
Back to the device’s advantages, its stereo speakers are pretty groovy and other features include a microSD card slot, 1 GB of RAM, 16/32/64 GB of storage and support for HSDPA 21 Mbps connectivity, if you bought the 3G unit. Bluetooth 3.0 and infrared are also here and you should know that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 also works as a phone, so you can make phone calls from it. At the back there’s a 3.15 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash, geotagging and 720p 30 fps video capture.
We can do videocalls courtesy of a 2 megapixel shooter with HD abilities. Finally, this product allows you to send texts, MMSes, use its GPS, gyroscope, proximity sensor, compass and accelerometer. The battery on board of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is a Li-Po 5100 mAh one, that I called “Lithium Polonium” by mistake in the review, and not Lithium Polymer. My bad! You should know that this battery gives you 8-9 hours of functioning time or about 30 hours of calls.
The tablet’s general design reminds me of an oversized phone, that may bother some users, while others will be pleased with it. Depends on the taste very much.. What I loved most about this product was the screen, its deep contrast, wide viewing angles and great sunlight behaviour. Overall, this tablet is well worth the purchase, even today almost a year after its launch, if not more. We give a 9 out of 10.
