Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 with S Pen [2016] - Does It Suck? [Review]


  • 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 Res 16:10 Screen
  • Exynos 7870 1.6Ghz 8 Core CPU
  • Android Marshmallow 6.0
  • 3GB RAM
  • 16GB of storage (Expandable microSD storage up to 256GB)
  • 1.22 pounds (553 grams)
  • Wi-Fi ONLY
  • 7300mAH Battery

Things I Like & Things I Hate

Thing I Like

Things I Hate

  • Filled with bloatware (As much as samsung has said they've made efforts to minimize it)
  • Touchwiz is still cancer (The only thing to remedy the situation is to try out a different Launcher.. Like so..
  • There is some noticeably Latency when writing with the S-Pen. however it is very accurate so it's more of what you find as a problem. that it's accurate and has latency, or inaccurate and fast.


* After setup and all that jazz, the leftover space on the tablet is 10GBS of Storage plus or minus. however MicroSD expansion is available so this isn't an issue.
* There is some distortion from the speakers when you put raise the volume to the maximum. you can remedy the situation if you know how to mess with the equalizer.

* There is a good chance because SAMSUNG you will probably never see Nougat on this..

Final Thoughts:

Is it worth the launch price of $350? Hell No. However I picked this up on Thanksgiving / Black Friday. and I found it for a small loan of $249.. right now it's $323..


if you can find it under $300 then it's a steal and I recommend you pick it up if you are looking for a surface alterntative. also there is a custom recovery available for the device, and you can root it.. but there is no real custom rom support right now..

Overall Rating 7/10 could be better..

4 Likes

So you did get one :) I will have to do my ASUS Transformer Book T100CHI-C1-BK(WX) Intel Atom Z3775 (1.46 GHz) 64 GB eMMC Intel HD Graphics Shared memory 10.1" Touchscreen Windows 10 Home 32-Bit due in today.

I mentioned in the lounge I was going to get one.. I could of got a surface.. however Microsoft is going to be problem for me, and also the Windows store is still bad..

1 Like

thats why you install arch on it ofc

I will not be using store apps :) In fact , I certain a great many things will stripped from it.

Get a surface and install Linux /s

Touch is still bad on GAHNOO / LINUCKS.. and I refuse to use KDE.. I tried it out just recently.. it triggered me.

1 Like

seems like it should be decent and snappy with the all that ram and a 8 core

my issue at the moment is to properly debloat it. which I'm reading a tutorial on how to do right now. however I need root. it looks like it was debloated from the app drawer, but I just hid them with a app.

you will always need root to debloat phone

I know that which is why I mentioned it.

1 Like

Shameless self bump for the greater good.

Great review thanks, i really appreciate this.
I assume that the S pen funtion isnt really for me.