Galaxy Tab E Android 4.4 4

Reasonably inexpensive, but the ageing Samsung Milky way Tab E but doesn't cut it as a budget tablet in 2018

When we originally reviewed the £140 Samsung Galaxy Tab E in 2015, we plant it to take a somewhat sluggish performance, mediocre battery life and a sub-par brandish. At the fourth dimension it had quite a lot of competition, fast-forward to 2018 and the now £120 tablet has even more to compete with.

For example, the Amazon Fire HD 8 costs simply £80, while the £130 Vodafone Smart Tab N8 has a large screen and 4G connectivity. Both provide better value for money with comparable specs to the Galaxy Tab E. We'd suggest looking at these alternative instead.

Our original review continues below

The Galaxy Tab E shows its age as soon equally y'all plough it on. The showtime sign is in the software: this tablet is still running Android 4.4 KitKat, which is at present positively ancient compared to the more than modern Android 6 Marshmallow and Android 7 Nougat operating systems. It hasn't received an update, and nor will it - which does put it at a disadvantage over other tablets.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab East review: Display

As a result, the Tab E looks old-fashioned from the off, and it certainly isn't helped by its low resolution of i,280 10 800. Stretched across its 9.6in, 16:9 brandish, text is visibly grainy and curved icons are jagged, making the Tab Eastward pretty hard on the eyes over long periods of fourth dimension. Of form, nosotros've seen other budget tablets recently with the same resolution – nearly notably the Amazon Fire HD 8 – just in the case of the Fire, those pixels are spread across a much smaller brandish, resulting in a higher pixel density, and fractionally more sharpness.

The quality of the Tab E's screen isn't swell, either. Our colourimeter showed it'due south only capable of displaying 60.8% of the sRGB colour gamut, which is below average, fifty-fifty for a budget tablet, and this means colours don't expect equally vibrant as they could exercise. At least it'due south bright, hitting a peak white level of 409cd/m2, which is more than enough for outdoor utilize (although mayhap not in straight, bright sunlight), and its dissimilarity ratio of 1,085:1 is also respectable.

Samsung Galaxy Tab E review: Functioning

This isn't the newest tablet, so it's perhaps unsurprising to find that its quad-core 1.3GHz Spreadtrum SC8830 processor and i.5GB of RAM isn't the fastest or most modernistic processor around. Information technology'south sluggish in everyday use, spider web browsing was quite stop-offset, and to make matters worse it wasn't even compatible with the Geekbench iv benchmarks, making information technology difficult to compare it with other contempo budget tablets.

Information technology likewise wasn't able to run GFXBench GL'southward Manhattan iii test, which doesn't exactly bode well for its overall longevity. If it feels slow now, it will feel even worse a yr or so down the line. Withal, I was able to play a reasonably smooth game of Threes, which proves information technology's able to cope with simple games.

It also coped fine with Netflix and BBC iPlayer streaming. Just comport in mind that the Galaxy Tab E simply comes with 8GB of internal storage (of which 5GB is available to the user), so you may want to invest in a microSD card to make more room for your various downloads.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Eastward review: Battery life

Battery life was adequately decent, but again, other tablets have managed improve in the past. With the screen fix to our standard measurement of 170cd/m2, the Samsung Galaxy Tab E lasted 8hrs 52mins in our continuous video-playback exam, then it should have enough stamina to last the improve part of a day. Even so, it however pales in comparison to the Burn HD 8, which lasted an impressive 13hrs 4mins under the aforementioned weather.

Samsung Galaxy Tab E review: Camera

Equally for camera quality, well, it'southward equally I'd await from a budget Android tablet, which is to say it's not particularly impressive. While the two-megapixel front-facing photographic camera is merely about serviceable for Skype calls and the like, the v-megapixel sensor on the back is poorly equipped to deal with either indoor or outdoor photography, producing blurry, noisy shots devoid of detail and vibrant colours.

Samsung Galaxy Tab East review: Verdict

The Milky way Tab Due east might be relatively cheap at around £120, merely in that location are simply superior alternatives on the market correct at present. Amazon's new Fire Hard disk drive 8 is much cheaper, has better battery life and offers a meliorate experience for younger users, while the Vodafone Smart Tab N8, offers the cheapest 4G tablet on the marketplace.

HARDWARE
Processor	Quad-core 1.3GHz ARM 7100
RAM	1.5GB
Screen size	9.6in
Screen resolution	one,280 x 800
Screen type	LCD
Front photographic camera	2 megapixels
Rear camera	v megapixels
Wink	No
GPS	Yes
Compass	Yeah
Storage	8GB (GB)
Memory menu slot (supplied)	microSD (upwards to 128GB)
Wi-Fi	802.11n
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 4.0
NFC	None
Wireless data	None
Size	241 ten 149 10 8.5mm
Weight	299g
FEATURES
Operating organisation	Android iv.four.four
Battery size	5,000mAh