Mainly I want to use the tablet for reading eBooks, but occasionally also listen to music or watch videos, and, as already mentioned above, for mobile Internet; call or write for surfing or e-mails. For telephony my smartphone is sufficient. ;-)
Other buying criteria have been equipping, expandability and availability of the accessories. For this reason, I have decided on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 3G 16GB. The Amazon recommended Ultra Slim leather case I immediately ordered.
Thanks to Amazon Prime I had are the package directly the next day to order at home. However, when unpacking, I realized that I was not the first who has the pleasure to unpack the 'new' device. The seals were pasted over with new seals, the protective films showed appropriate traces on. I found this now not so tragic. However, here the question arises whether the salable packaged equipment has been tested properly. But more on that later.
I closed the Tablet to the power adapter. Fortunately, it took, thanks to my 'Vortesters', are loaded much longer.
After charging is complete, I turned on the device that performed initial configuration procedure, and hey presto, I received a message that there is a new update for my tablet, which I immediately downloaded and installed.
Small note in the margin: As I read on the net, the update starts at Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1 seems to be different. For one thing, it already comes with Android 4.0.4 (which is possibly due to a more current batch), the other received an update notification and the rest waiting in vain for an update.
well then. After successfully completing his update I have inserted my SIM and microSDXC card. How I could here and see the net some reports, even 64GB cards are possible. I ordered the SanDisk Ultra 64GB Class 10 microSDXC memory card with UHS-I adapter on Amazon. On computer I have this card then formatted with the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool FAT32. However, the Galaxy Tab 2 does not recognize the card. Formatting experiments on the tablet itself also failed. After further research on the net has been proposed that map via the console (any Linux distribution) VFAT format. This has been, unfortunately, is not successful. Thus, I finally tried using GParted and FAT32. Lo and behold. it's worked out! The device detects the card immediately and the card can be formatted now also on the tablet. I'm excited.
I want to use the device primarily for reading eBooks, I've installed directly to Adobe Reader. I must say that I was a bit skeptical that you can read at decent resolution and screen size. And it works. Books I can read perfectly in portrait mode at full page width. EBooks in EPUB format on Aldiko are also no problem. In magazines, in turn, I have found that it is more comfortable with a corresponding format to read in landscape mode, but brings with it frequent scrolling. Nevertheless, it is perfectly adequate for my needs.
Upon further testing my enthusiasm was somewhat clouded. I have found an occasional mild to severe flickering of the display reading. This usually occurred when auto brightness setting, if it will change to a low brightness. I say it reluctantly, but this phenomenon occurs sporadically in me.
The same problem now and then occurs when you set a lower brightness level niedriege itself; I would say, from the second quarter of the controller is no longer flickering festelltbar with me.
Here I would now like to know if that's just me. I have this problem resolved by I deactivated the automatic brightness adjustment and the brightness was adjusted accordingly as of the second quarter of the regulator. Here I would be happy about the experience of other users.
Furthermore I tested the music and video playback. Here I have the preinstalled programs used on the tablet. Even at 720p MKV files will play the player. The standard fare such as MP3 and MP4 files are no problem.
I noticed is when the video playback, that depending on how you hold the tablet, one speaker covers. In that case, I had the tablet in Queformat with the Samsung logo to the right in the left hand and had accidentally covered the lower left loudspeaker. Whether the placement of the speakers is now cleverly chosen, was once an open question. Anyway, I find myself quite often, as I have just noted reading in muffled tones when keys email.
This should not be a criticism-point now. However, the device seems to be well designed mainly for use in portrait mode. In portrait mode (Samsung logo below), the speakers are left and bottom right. The power switch on the top right of the page, followed by the volume control (high up / down quietly). Keep this in mind when the device eg for watching videos in landscape mode (Samsung logo on the right) holds (left louder / quieter right). Stereo sound is not really on. But this is not an issue anyway when using headphones.
So much for my first impression. For more suggestions or tips, I am very grateful.
I'm going to test the device in everyday use, check how the battery life is, and contact the customer support from Samsung and responsive to the display flicker.
Finally, I have no complaints at the moment nothing serious on the device and am completely satisfied. The Galaxy Tab gets me currently 4 stars out of 5.
Addendum of 21/08/2012:
Have the customer support written by email and receive a response within 24 hours. With respect to the flicker was recommended the device reset to the factory settings. If the flickering continues, this would be due to a hardware defect. Unfortunately the flickering persists, but only when I am with the tablet in dark / shaded environment with activated automatic brightness adjustment. Can another owner to test this model?