SAMSUNG SM-T290NZKAXAR, Galaxy Tab A 8.0" 32 GB Wifi Android 9.0 Pie Tablet Black 2019

This tablet is replacing a first gen Galaxy tab. It was a great tablet but time has taken it's toll and it was time to replace it. I have a 2017 Tab A and love it so this one was for my wife. . This is a great improvement over the 2017 version. Both are running Android 9.0 smoothly. Battery life on both is amazing (we charge them 1 or 2 time a week and they see 4 to 5 hours use daily). Screens are also amazing. This tablet ups the stakes with the return of auto brightness setting and what appears to be a better camera setup (the reality of it is that both have pretty good cameras for a tablet) Samsung also did away with some of the bloatware (THANK YOU SAMSUNG!!) They got rid of that stupid Bixby home thing (I finally was able to disable it on my 2017 after the latest Android update). There is some other bloat ware that was also not included (like half a gig worth!) Speed for both is the same. Now there are some steps backward. They moved back to a micro USB charging (the 2017 had USB C) and the speakers are not as nice (in real world performance- no idea on the spec sheet). Also they removed the physical home/back/list buttons from the bezel and put a virtual back and list button on the screen space. THe home button is gone completely and you have to use the power button now (A HUGE step back!). With the buttons gone now the bottom of the tablet has this 3/4" bezel at the bottom that does nothing but make the tablet longer than it needs to be. Bottom line this is a great tablet. It is fast, powerful and with a micro SD card installed has a ton of storage. At the current price (under 0ne hundred and twenty bucks!) it is a steal.

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I got the 8-inch T290. If you are aware of what you are getting for your money, this tablet is worthy of five stars. No it doesn't have the top processor speed or display resolution. It's a budget tablet at a really good price (especially if you catch it on sale), and you get a lot of bang for your buck. The display is 1200 X 800 pixels which qualifies as HD, but not ultra HD. What counts the most when it comes to font legibility on screens is pixel density. A 1200 X 800 8-inch display has a pixel density of right at 180 pixels per inch (PPI), and that's not too shabby. My 6th generation Kindle Paperwhite has a pixel density of just over 210 ppi, so this tablet isn't too far from that. If small fonts are hard to read, you can scale up the fonts and size of things in the settings. The display also has good color and contrast, and is plenty bright. The blue light filter app included doesn't offer as many options as I like, so I add one from the Google Play store. And speaking of that, with an Android tablet (and this one comes installed with Android Pie) you do have full access to Google Play store. The sound is a lot better than I expected, and that can be enhanced even more with a third party volume booster. And I find an 8-inch tablet is just the right size. A 10.1-inch tablet is too cumbersome in my opinion, and a smart phone is too small. And an 8-inch tablet like this one will fit in the back pocket of men's pants. (But not so much if you have it in a case.) And at just 12 and a half ounces, it's a lot lighter than a 10.1-inch tablet. So understand what you're getting, don't expect top of the line, but you get a good tablet for the price.

I was looking for a sub-$150 tablet that I can share with prospective foster kids, and wanted access to the Play Store to improve versatility for multiple age groups and broaden the possible usage range, e.g. downloading Android apps that might be needed to complement with STEM toys along the way. Between the Lenovo Tab 4 8 and the Galaxy Tab A, I chose the Samsung because of its higher RAM (2 GB vs. 1 GB on the Lenovo). In less than an hour, I was able to set up my own walled garden by creating 2 user profiles -- my own with all my usual apps including my Kindle library, Skype, Youtube and Chrome, and the kids profile where I enabled only the kid-friendly apps and excluded Chrome browsing. For the kid apps - I downloaded a plethora of free educational apps (Khan Academy, Khan Kids, Duck Duck Moose, Starfall, National Science Foundation Science Zone, YouTube Kids, and Scratch Jr). They all seem to run fine, but I will update after a few placements when they get more mileage. For the adult usage - the form factor was great for Kindle and for casual Youtube viewing, but Web browsing was laggy (pictures take time to load) and the 8" screen isn't really big enough to view websites in landscape comfortably. It's very convenient to tote it around the house while conversing on Skype, but the button to switch from rear to front camera is fiddly and not very responsive. Screen size probably played a role here, because the inset showing what the camera is capturing is already small, and you have to press a tiny button within that to toggle between the two cameras. In summary -- in the 8" format, this is a basic device aimed at simple uses, with screen size being a limitation to the complexity of the content you will want to consume on it.

The SAMSUNG SM-T290NZKAXAR, Galaxy Tab A 8.0" 32 GB Wifi Android 9.0 Pie Tablet Black 2019 is a wonderful device. My old 2nd Generation 32gb Apple iPad is getting slower, battery running down quicker, unable to expand storage memory, and no longer eligible for operating system upgrades. The idea of paying Apple prices does not appeal to me and really didn't want to go to the local Apple store to get a battery replaced, or to do that myself. So on Amazon Days, this Samsung tablet was offered at an appealing discount. This is one well-built tablet. It runs using the Android system, and it has updated that system, twice since I set it up. Nice weigh to it. Great screen resolution. Memory is expandable. My Samsung tablet is 16gb, but I added another 32gb of storage memory, using the SD slot. It is quick. When I hook it up to my laptop I can transfer and delete files, all types, very quickly. I do not understand reviews that say it is slow. Plus it downloads via wifi fairly quickly. You do have to know how to setup transfer types via the settings. That helps immensly with speed issues. Tethers easily to Bluetooth devices. Plenty of Apps are available via the playstore. Even at the non-discounted price it is the best tablet for the money, and certainly, measure for measure every bit as good as the Apple iPad, it's closest competitor. It's now my go to tablet.

Just got this yesterday in mail... Loving this tablet so far! Im old school and have only had Nexus 7 tablets. I like the mobility and ease of 7 inch tablets. I'm not tech savvy... And tried to research good tablets as best I could. I don't see how this tablet wouldn't suit as a solid budget option. It's speedy without lag as I go from email to games to video apps. You can't go wrong getting or gifting this tablet. I'm sure there are more powerful tablets out there... But for basic needs and purposes, this is great. I'm certain the 10 inch version for $50 more would be just the same. Comes with the new Android 9.0 Pie version and you also get future updates. So if you are out of the loop on tech or perhaps an older person looking for an easy budget option... I highly recommend. Only had one day... Will provide updates. Update 12/27/19... Still no regrets with my purchase. I use this tablet daily. Tablet is still smooth and zippy. Able to handle games, movies, email, shopping, etc. Battery life is good/charges up quickly. I haven't had any issues or complaints thus far!

As my title implies, much of my review is a comparison with with my old tablet that I bought 5+ years ago for the same price. After years of faithful daily service, I finally decided to replace my old SM-T230NU. It still works, battery holds a decent charge, but it's sluggish sometimes and is constantly running out of space. There are also apps that are just not compatible with this version of android (4.4). I use my tablet almost exclusively for reading & catching up on news/email. I usually use it at the end of the day, and the smaller size is great for reading from bed. It's also easy for when I'm on the go, I can even fit it in my sports coat interior pocket. As an upgrade, it has double the RAM, triple the storage space, and alot faster response. The screen size of 8" is slightly larger - which gives a good amount of real estate without getting too big to easily handle. Since it has a phone jack, I was able to keep using my wired earbuds and it has the same USB C plug for charging! The only two things I don't like are not having the dedicated navigation buttons at the bottom and the new process for accessing your app list (swiping up from the bottom). The next step up to to the Tab A, which was double the price. To me, it's just not worth it the extra cost, especially since I don't need a 10" screen. Bottom line: I'd recommend this to a casual user who prefers a smaller/portable size tablet.

Price was great. Screen is clear and bright. Slow boot-up. Biggest gripe is the touch screen response. Have used iPads and they have much better sensitivity. For e-mails or watching YouTube videos it's fine. Gaming of any kind would be an issue with the slow response. As a DirecTV device it works well.