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Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Review: DON’T Buy It In 2024

Should you get the 8.7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite in 2024? For our review we tested the screen, its performance, battery life, and more.

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After reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite a second time, I don’t think you should buy this 8-inch tablet today in 2024. Compared to its competition, the performance feels very slow and since it has gotten two big software updates already, I don’t think it’ll get Android 14 anymore.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite on* Amazon

I think much better alternative are the following tablets in this order: The direct successor, which is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 (review), the Lenovo Tab M9 (review), and Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus 2022 Edition (review).

The only time I think the A7 Lite could be a good buy in 2024 is if you can get a great deal and it’s significantly cheaper than the three tablets I mentioned above.

When Samsung released the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite in July 2021, I bought and reviewed it immediately. At that time, I thought that it’s a pretty good 8-inch tablet that was and is quite affordable at $159. I love that Samsung kept its promise and updated it from Android 11 to Android 12 and later to Android 13. However, we’re at the end of its lifecycle now.

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03/13/2024 05:08 pm GMT

Below you can read my original review of this tablet which I edited to reflect my newest findings after comparing it to its successor, the Galaxy Tab A9.

Design & Built Quality

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite built quality

Considering its price, I think the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is well built. We’re getting a mostly metal body with some plastic parts at the top and bottom. I like the design and it does look better than the competition from Amazon.

It’s 8mm thin, weighs 360g, and is narrow enough so that you can hold it in one hand. That’s what you usually want to be able to do with an 8-inch tablet.

Read: These Are The Best Samsung Tablets

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite USB C port

It has a standard headphone jack, a USB C 2.0 port, and a microSD card slot. There’s no fingerprint scanner but you can unlock it using the webcams facial recognition.

The 2-megapixel webcam is not great at all. In fact, especially the HD video out of that camera looks a bit blurry. It’s lacking fine detail. And the same goes for the 8-megapixel main camera. Photos look fine but the video looks over-sharpened.

I like that we get two speakers that offer a real stereo separation. Considering its price, I think the sound is fine. But, obviously, you’ll get much better bass and a more pleasing sound with most pricier tablets.

Display

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite display

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite has an 8.7-inch LCD with a resolution of 1340 x 800 pixels. It means that the pixel density is the same as on typical 8-inch tablets with a standard HD resolution. That’s not great and I wish Samsung would have used a FullHD screen. Because here, texts certainly don’t look as sharp as they could.

Usually, you’ll be holding a smaller tablet closer to your face than a 10-inch one. And that means the pixel density needs to be higher for the screen to look sharp. So, if you use your phone first and then switch to the A7 Lite, I think many will clearly notice a lack of sharpness. But well, that’s what you get in this price range.

All other aspects are not great but fine. Viewing angles and color reproduction is good and the brightness is okay. I was able to read with it while sitting in a café outside. That’s doable as long as you’re not sitting in direct sunlight but a bit brighter would have been better. Now, it’s not great in direct sunlight at all so it’s not a beach tablet or so.

It seems like Samsung didn’t cover the display in a coating to prevent fingerprints because I had to clean the screen all the time.

Another kind of downside is that the tablet has a Widevine Level of L3. That means that you can’t watch Netflix with HD resolution. It’s not too much of a bummer because the screen doesn’t have the highest resolution anyways.

By the way, the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite does not support the S Pen. So, this is not a great tablet for handwritten notes. You can use generic pens made for capacitive touchscreens but they are terrible and might be okay for little children. But not for handwriting.

Hardware & Performance

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Geekbench 5

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite features a MediaTek Helio P22T processor with 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage. Out of the box, 12.5GB are used by the system. You can get it with LTE as well.

Benchmark results are pretty week. It’s much slower than the bigger Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 in the Geekbench 5 benchmark. Today in 2024, its significantly weaker than all direct competitors including the Galaxy Tab A9, Lenovo Tab M9, realme Pad mini and Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus 2022.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite gpu

My gaming test shows that while you can play many games on the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite, you’ll have to select the lowest graphics on pretty much all demanding titles like PUBG Mobile. It doesn’t look amazing but with low settings, it does run fine. But you will have to live with occasional stutters but I think it’s playable.

I played a bit of F1 Mobile Racer and it’s playable as well. But again, it doesn’t look amazing and you’ll have to live with some minor stutters. Other games like Super Mario Kart run fantastic.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Super Mario Kart

The operating system itself and common apps like Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, and Microsoft Office run very slow for 2024. When using tons of tabs or switching between apps fast, you sometimes will have to wait a bit until something is loaded. That’s to be expected in this price class of an old tablet because this clearly is an entry-level device. So, don’t expect a super snappy experience. It’s usable but that’s it.

Software: Updates to Android 13

Samsung is shipping the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite running Android 11 and its OneUI in version 3.1. So far, Samsung has updated it to Android 12 and Android 13 with OneUI Version 5.1. I love that Samsung kept its update promise and released two major version updates. However, I don’t think it’ll get Android 14 anymore.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Android 11

With OneUI, standard Android gets customized a bit. The interface is not as heavy as it used to be. Some of the features can be very useful.

Read: These Are The Best Android Tablets

For instance, I like that you can open apps in a so-called pop-up view. That means it’s opened in a free-floating window which can be very handy if you’re using the tablet with a keyboard and mouse.

The Samsung Notes app is a fantastic note-taking app for Android. Yes, even without the S Pen and especially when you’re using other Samsung devices too.

Battery Life

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite battery

The battery life is average only. When streaming HD videos on YouTube with maximum brightness, the battery lasted 6.5 hours.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Review: Final Words

Let’s get to the end of my Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite review. I mentioned quite a lot of downsides like its low-resolution screen, the weak graphics performance, bad cameras, and the not-supported S Pen. But actually, I think all of that is okay once you consider the price. It’s a very cheap tablet and of course, it’s to be expected that we don’t get the best features.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Review

With that being said, I don’t think it’s a great buy in 2024 anymore. I compared it to the Galaxy Tab A9 and Lenovo Tab M9 and both tablets are much snappier. You’ll have a noticeably nicer experience with them and in the case of the A9, likely another two years of software updates.

Back in 2021 the A7 Lite was a good choice for its price and if you’re still using it, keep doing so. Once you feel it’s getting too slow, you can upgrade to one of the competitors I mentioned.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite design

Sadly, the premium competition is very small. If you want a great premium 8-inch tablet from Samsung, the only contender today is the newly announced Galaxy Tab Active5 which I haven’t reviewed yet. At the top of this list sits the iPad Mini 6.

Note: I published the first version of this review on July 29th 2021. On March 6th 2024 I updated this report based on my second test and comparison with new competitors.


5
Galaxy Tab A7 Lite
Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Review: The Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite was a good 8.7-inch Android tablet back when it was introduced in 2021, giving us a nice entry-level device. However, I don't think it's a great buy in 2024 anymore because compared to new competitors, it feels very slow.
Positive
  • Good design
  • Up-to-date software
  • Very affordable
Negative
  • Low-resolution screen
  • Slow performance
  • Bad cameras
Buy at* Amazon
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11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Murray Henley

    July 29, 2021 at 8:14 pm

    Something odd about this new tablet is the non-standard 1340 x 800 screen resolution. Usually, we get a 16:10 resolution (1280 x 800). So this tablet is more elongated than 16:10, but not quite 5:3 either, which would be
    1280 x 768, well-known numbers in the computer world.

    What was Samsung’s thinking in choosing this non-standard resolution? Are there benefits to a more elongated tablet?

  2. Joe Mah

    December 21, 2021 at 6:46 am

    I don’t own this tablet but I think the issue with the Widevine Level of this tablet is fixed by an update. From what I saw in some posts in Reddit and comments in some YouTube videos about the A7 Lite, it’s now at Widevine L1.

    • krzywy.nos

      October 3, 2022 at 12:00 pm

      I own it and after the update to Android 12 Netflix still shows that it has support only for Widevine Level of L3. However other streaming services are available in 1080p resolution, like Prime Video (with hardware support but only with “better” quality, choosing “best” quality returns with error) and Disney+. YouTube also allows choosing 1080p resolution for streaming.

  3. Jack

    February 12, 2022 at 4:57 am

    I’m planning to get another, smaller tablet and I think the Samsung Galaxy Tax A7 Lite is going to be perfect for me. So, your review is very helpful, thank you/dziękuję!

  4. philipzxcvbnm

    July 20, 2022 at 4:00 pm

    I own this tablet: it weighs 366 grammes – too heavy to hold in one hand for any length of time. By comparison, my Lenovo Tab M8 was 305 grammes and no problem.

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