Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 Review 2022: Is It Worth Buying?

Punchy speakers and a large display with thin bezels that is ideal for media streaming help the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 earn its place among the best affordable Android tablets.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 is a beautifully constructed low-cost tablet, but you might decide to choose something a little more expensive because of the poor display.

Our evaluation will go into great detail about its features, design, software, battery life, and other factors. Keep reading!

Introduction

A far cry from the opulence of the all-singing, all-dancing Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, the Galaxy Tab A8 is Samsung’s attempt to appeal to the lower end of the tablet market.

If you spend some money on this device, you’ll get a large 7040mAh battery and a 10.2-inch screen for a reasonable price, but does it deliver on its promise, or does it fall short of expectations in some important ways?

Pros And Cons

Pros

• Loud Dolby
• Atmos speakers
• Solid performance
• Wide display great for streaming
• Metal body feels premium for the price
• Impressive battery life
• Long-term security support
• Affordable prices

Cons

• Slow 15W charging
• Weak front and rear cameras
• Limited base model RAM and storage
• No fingerprint sensor

New Design

• Attractive, unflashy design
• No IP rating
• Picked up some scuffs, but feels robust

The Galaxy Tab A8 doesn’t have a particularly eye-catching color or design, in keeping with the majority of tablets currently on the market. With the exception of a thin stripe that runs along one edge and is slightly lighter in tone, the rear panel of our test sample is a dark grey. It just looks like a big, grey slate other than that and the camera lens. Most importantly, the back panel has a matte finish rather than a glossy one to prevent fingerprints and smudges from sticking to it.

However, despite the growing trend for big-screen devices to reduce the bezels around the side of the screen, this one still has rather large black bars at the edges. While they are at least uniform in size (unlike the iPad 9), it would look better with a thin frame around the edges. Having said that, at least the obtrusive in-display notch, which was regrettably present on the company’s flagship tablet, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, has been removed.

The tablet still has a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio playback, which has been long abandoned by many high-end smartphones, including Samsung’s own Galaxy S22 series. It also has a dedicated MicroSD card slot for when you need to increase storage or transfer photos from your camera more conveniently. Given that, of the base-level 32GB storage, only 18.2GB is actually usable after system requirements and pre-installed apps are taken care of, this latter feature may prove to be especially helpful.

You have the choice of using the tablet’s face unlock feature, a pattern, or a PIN to unlock it. For me, none of these techniques had annoyingly long delays or false negatives; they all worked effectively. While this could be choppy and occasionally required me to wait an extra few seconds for the correct orientation, the tablet did a respectable enough job of automatically reorienting itself when moved from a landscape to a portrait position and vice versa.

We can’t be certain of how the Galaxy Tab A8 would fare with exposure to water or dust because it lacks an IP rating. Furthermore, the display’s maker has not specified whether it is constructed of Gorilla Glass or another scratch-resistant material. I don’t believe you will need to be concerned about your child breaking the device unless a very large amount of force is applied because the frame still felt physically robust and did not flex under pressure.

Performance

• Poor performance
• Demanding games may be unplayable
• Experienced lag and brief frozen screen
• Some Wi-Fi issues
• Good sound

The Unisoc Tiger T618 chipset powers the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 tablet. I’d never heard of this 12nm silicon before, and to be honest, I’d be content if I never did.

Both in actual use and in industry benchmarking tests, this device’s performance levels are pretty appalling. I used the base model, which has 32GB of storage and only 2GB of RAM.

I ran 3DMark tests to evaluate the output of the GPU (which is related to the tablet’s gaming potential) and Geekbench 5 benchmarks to assess the tablet’s CPU power (which determines general performance). You can slide across the table to see how it compares to its competitors after viewing the results in the section below.

Display

There is no doubt that Samsung built the Galaxy Tab A8 with media streaming in mind.

The 1,920 x 1,200 resolution of the 10.5-inch LCD screen is sufficient for the majority of uses. Although tablets only have 60Hz screens, unless you start spending a lot more, you won’t actually see faster refresh rates on them.

A natural fit for streaming services is the large panel’s 16:10 aspect ratio presentation. I was watching The Witcher’s second season catch-up and noticed only tiny black bars across the top and bottom edge. Obviously, it won’t look as good if you want to watch something like The Lighthouse, which was shot in 1.19:1, but other media will look fantastic. I also like how the bezels are uniform on all four sides. They are thick enough to hold onto but not conspicuous thick.

My main complaint with Samsung’s display is that it tends to lean cooler and more blue-tinged when used regularly. Though it usually goes away when watching a TV show or a movie, it is more obvious in apps with white backgrounds. The tint didn’t appear to be affected significantly by changing the brightness either. Samsung does offer a few color correction options for you to test out, but they are mostly for color blindness and don’t address the overall blueness.

Screen & Speakers

• 10.5in LCD
• Full HD
• Quad speakers with Dolby Atmos

The 10.5-inch 1920×1080 resolution display on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 is the very definition of Full HD or 1080p.

For a budget tablet of this size, it is sufficiently sharp, but because it uses a TFT LCD panel, it is not particularly vivid or color-accurate. Better colors and viewing angles are generated by IPS LCD panels.

Indeed, the gamut coverage of 82% sRGB, 60% Adobe RGB, and 63% DCI P3 isn’t great, and the average Delta E is 4.39, which is far from ideal. Just to be clear on that last point, the closer to 1 the better, and even a passable display will reach around 2.

A peak brightness of 327 nits is acceptable but not particularly noteworthy. Even moderately bright outdoor conditions won’t make it enjoyable for you to use the tablet.

It’s also not particularly fluid elsewhere because of the basic 60Hz refresh rate. However, Apple continues to use 60Hz for all of its iPads that aren’t Pro models, which is a far cry from what is typical for a tablet this affordable.

The real issue here is the output picture quality, especially given that Samsung is really positioning this tablet as a budget-friendly media player. In fact, it went above and beyond by giving the Tab A8 a quad speaker setup and support for Dolby Atmos.

Sure enough, audio is loud and clear whether using the preinstalled Samsung Free app to watch TV shows and podcasts or the preinstalled Netflix app to watch movies.

Just the fact that Netflix content doesn’t look great, with flat colors and no HDR support, is regrettable.

Cameras

• 8Mp rear camera
• 5Mp selfie camera

No tablet should ever have the camera as its primary feature. This is especially true of inexpensive tablets. In order to save time, I won’t say much more about the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8’s camera capabilities other than to say that it isn’t very good.

There is only one 8Mp rear camera available here, and there is no flash or backup telephoto or ultra-wide lens. Shots from that lone sensor are frequently horribly overexposed, noisy, lack depth and dynamic range, and have a narrow dynamic range.

On the morning of my test shots, the 5Mp selfie camera proved to be nearly useless, appearing completely unable to handle the day’s moderately bright conditions. The gallery allows you to see the appallingly blown-out outcomes for yourself. However, it will do a perfect job of fulfilling its purpose as a Zoom camera.

If you want to use any tablet to take shots, I would almost always advise you to reevaluate your priorities. However, if you insist on using your 10-inch device for pointing and shooting, know that even a super-cheap smartphone will produce better results than the Galaxy Tab A8.

Battery Life & Charging

• 7040mAh
• 15W charging
• 7.8W charger supplied

You can use the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 for days on end with its respectable 7040mAh battery.

Increase the intensity of the workload and you’ll see a significant decrease in that number. The Galaxy Tab A8 achieved a mediocre 8 hours 49 minutes in our standard PCMark World 3.0 battery life test.

It performs significantly better than its recent low-cost rival, the Nokia T20 (6 hours 39 minutes), but only narrowly outperforms its more advanced sibling, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (8 hours and 35 minutes).

Samsung has only provided its low-cost tablet with a 7.8W charger in the box, despite the fact that it supports 15W charging. That is more than it can do with even its most expensive smartphone, but because of the size of that battery, it takes an eternity to charge.

In my testing, it went from 0 to 10% in 30 minutes, and it reached 80% in 3 hours and 15 minutes. Even though quick charging is obviously less important for tablets than it is for smartphones, the Lenovo Yoga Tab 11 only reaches 43% of its capacity in 30 minutes.

Software

• Android 11
• One UI

The most recent budget tablet from Samsung is powered by the now-outdated Android 11 OS, with Samsung’s own One UI handling the user interface.

Samsung’s software seems to be a real love-it-or-hate-it situation. Due to its overly fussy nature, somewhat gauche menus, sluggish animations, and abundance of custom-made and third-party apps, it isn’t really my cup of tea. But I’m well aware that many people consider it to be the most authentic representation of Android—perhaps even more so than stock Android.

No matter how you feel about it, One UI has been adapted to tablets fairly well. Despite the weak hardware underpinning it all, using two apps simultaneously in split-screen works particularly well.

You can record anything that’s on your display, along with commentary if you’d like, using the new Screen recorder feature, which is accessed through the drag-down shortcut settings menu. As a tool for instruction and learning, the Galaxy Tab A8 may benefit from this.

In contrast to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, however, this device is not compatible with the S Pen. Budgets were limited, which I can appreciate, but given the likely audience for the Galaxy Tab A8, it seems like a missed opportunity.

Price & Availability

On January 4, 2022, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 was released in the US and the UK.

The 32GB Wi-Fi model has an entry price of 219 pounds. For £259, you can add LTE. For another £249, you can double the storage and increase the RAM to 4GB. The most expensive model costs £289 and includes 64GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, and LTE.

There are many places where you can buy it, including Samsung, Box, Amazon, John Lewis, Argos, Very, AO, Currys, Ebuyer, and Laptops Direct.

In case you want that much storage, the US also offers a 128GB model, as was previously mentioned. Here’s the price breakdown (RRPs) for all models via the Samsung store:

• 32GB Wi-Fi – £219/$229.99
• 64GB Wi-Fi – £249$279.99
• 128GB Wi-Fi – $329.99
• 32GB LTE – £259
• 64GB LTE – £289

You can purchase it in the United States from Samsung, Amazon, BestBuy, and even Dell.

As a substitute, the Nokia T20 provides an even more affordable full-sized Android experience starting at £180, along with better software and an improved IPS screen. However, it doesn’t perform at all well.

Anything Else?

• Audio: Impressive audio setup is available with the Galaxy Tab A8. It has four speakers—two on each side—and Dolby Atmos tuning. They have impressive volume levels, and I didn’t hear any distortion at louder volumes. Although it is dangerously close to the corner, the tablet also has a headphone jack. It’s a nice addition, but the placement gives the impression that the headphones could be removed without much effort.
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 are supported by all Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 models. For a small fee, you can also purchase a version that supports LTE. 5G speeds are not an option, but that was to be expected given the price.
• One UI: The tablet version of One UI has not undergone many changes; you can read all about it here. Although you can monitor your children’s screen time, Samsung Kids shines on the larger display and allows them the freedom to play safe games and watch videos. Additionally, the Samsung Notes app is excellent because it allows you to divide your screen so that you can take notes as you follow along with a recipe, for instance.

Our Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 doesn’t significantly improve on its already excellent predecessor, but that wasn’t necessary.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 is the best-built budget tablet available. You’re halfway to having an excellent affordable media player if you add some powerful speakers and a long battery life.

However, if you’re just looking for a reasonably priced travel companion to watch videos on or use simple apps, you could do much worse than this one; the screen is still of sufficient quality to enjoy movies and TV shows, and the battery life offers impressive endurance that will comfortably see you through long-distance journeys.

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