Yesterday once more

I’m not sure how much use people make of the cameras in their tablets but the Tab 2.0’s 3.15Mp camera is a pretty mediocre affair given its oft-times clueless auto-focus together with poor low-light performance, exacerbated by the absence of a flash. Video can be recorded at up to 720p with somewhat better results. The VGA webcam is another indicator of the Tab 2’s lower status. In this day and age, 640 x 480 simply doesn’t cut the mustard even for having a quick video chat over Skype let alone taking self-portraits.

Video player

The 7000mAh battery is the same as that in the Tab 2’s predecessor and returns similar numbers. In mixed everyday use you will get between 7-8 hours depending in screen brightness and Wi-Fi use. Loop a 720p video and it delivers just over six hours from a charge, which is about what a Transformer Pad can manage.

Respectable, yet not so quick on the draw given the competition

Verdict

With Asus’ 32GB Transformer Pad available for £399 complete with quad-core CPU, 8Mp camera and keyboard dock, and the smaller Nexus 7 soon to hit the market for £160, the Galaxy Tab 2 isn’t quite cheap enough to make a compelling case for itself. It’s not a bad device per se, though. Indeed, as little as three months ago I would have rated it more highly. But how much Android tablet you can expect and for how little money is changing with dizzying speed. Yesterday’s good is today’s average, is tomorrow’s also-ran. ®

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