This summer, I managed to get my hands on Samsung Galaxy A7 (White) and the Tab S 8.4. This review is not your typical technological mess that deals with specs, benchmarks, etc. After all, I am not a technological savvy person. What I will document here are my perceptions, opinion and experiences as I live life and use both devices in my day to day usage. Without further ado, let's proceed to the meat of the discussion shall we? :)
The devices look so premium. Being that I was stuck to a budget of 10000 php with my devices, the jump to a tier of 20,000 and above has obviously impressed me.
Look at all these beauties. :)
Using both was a pleasure to use, although the phone was a bit big and I can only used it two-handed due to my small hands, I was fairly excited about my purchase and the unboxing was done on the store to check for defects. Despite the prices, though, the tablet obviously has a more premium boxing despitebeing only 21,990 php compared to the pricier A7 (25,990). Disregarding the boxes, the interior houses almost the same content: charger, earphones and manuals (with the extra pin for the A7). A day has passed since I purchased the items (two for the phone which was purchased earlier). So I think I am ready to post my experiences after a day of playing with them. Here are some of my initial impressions.
FOR THE PHONE
The phone was big. I purchased it mainly to replace my aging lenovo s820 (white). The immediate thing I noticed is its size, and its weight. :) While the lenovo was smaller, the gigantic size of the samsung a7 was made up for its extreme weightlessness. At that point, the added screen space was a joy to have while sacrificing little on the weight department.
Performance wise, the phone was very responsive and the screen was very bright, even better than the iphone's. I had no trouble reading text messages as I exited the mall despite the bright sunlight and the dim settings (the store clerk set the brightneds to -3 because the battery was at 50%when I bought it). I also noticed a significant increase in my mobile data speed. I will be conducting some speed tests once I will learn how to do this.
I also have to emhasize that the input on its touchscreen is hypersensitive. I haven't even touched a letter yet and italready registers with my finger just a few millimeters hovering over it. Whether or not that is a bad thing is up to you to decide. For me I was pleased by it. The phone is flawless, aside from two MAJOR issues.
1. One problem I had is the hybrid sim/memory card slot, in which if you use a memory card, you lose the dual sim functionality of the phone. And with its internal memory only 16 Gb, amemory card is guaranteed to occupy that slot. This means a loss for me as I used a smart sim for calls and phones and the free internet (facebook) with the globe sim. Luckily for me, Sakto20 for smart has increased its free data allocation. Though this is by no means equal to the unlimited FB that globe offered, it will have to do. I usually used globe to message in fb if I ran out of load or I am unable to text in smart. Regardless, I tossed the globe sim for the memory card.
If you only use one sim, then this is a non issue for you. But for those of us who used to have two sims, some changes and adjustments must be made. If you are NOT open to the idea, then this phone is NOT RECOMMENDED for your use, no matter how shiny, and beautiful and amazing it is.
2. Aside from the sim issue, the phone's speaker is dismal. The alarm failed to wake me up because I can't hear it. Some calls were missed, more so the text messages. I was only able to relieve such issues by enabling vibrate which somehow mitigated its ill effects. I would think that this would suitmy purpose wellbeing that come June 8, I will be spending the majority of my time in classes and studies and exams.
Despite these, I love the A7 very much. It resembles the iphone (a design which I always adored, especially the physical home button and a thinner frame) but without sacrificing my freedom (android instead of ios and a functioning bluetooth) and the memory card slot which is sadly missing in iphones.
Lastly, the battery of this phone is excellent. One day of constant browsing, reading and music left me with a 40% charge (6am to 5pm).
Though the phone is extremely pricey, the design and its performance makes up for it. Though it is not a perfect phone, its quirks are livable and can be dealt with through slight adjustments in your phone habits.
FOR THE TABLET
First impression, it is thin, light and feels like an iPad mini. As you can already get from my previous statements, I am a fan of the apple design. Sleek bodies thin frame and a squarish screen. I always hated the long and thin designs of most android tablets which is why I settled for a second-hand iPad (16gb iPad3) which costs me 12,000 pesos.
But, it was in ios6 and as soon as ios8 rolled out and most apps started requiring ios8, the ipad become a brick. It served only as an ebook reader and I was frustrated by it. Its lack of bluetooth hampered file sharing among my classmates and I lagged behind the distributed reviewers (currently in med school here). Though it helped me to force myself reading my books, it is time consuming. Thus, this signified a hunt for android tablets.
Entered the tab s 8.4. I have long lusted after this beauty ever since I entered the Samsung store at Gaisano mall. And I nearly jumped with joy as I withdrew the cash to purchase it.
Unboxing was done once again on the store. The case and screen protector was mounted by the sales rep and I was on my way home. I was kind of dissapointed with the only case at the store. It was fat and most of the time I tend to remove the tab from it just to enjoy its majestic thinness. It's so thin that I felt like I am holding a pamphlet,not a thick booklet. I was also pleased with its squarish screen as opposed to the long and thin android tablets (which is why I steered clear of samsung's 7inch tabletsdespite their lower price).
Unlike most reviewers, I'm going against the flow here and say that I adore the touchwiz implementation here. The magazine-like interface reminded me of windows 8 which I am accostumed to. And get this, the lady said that I can put in 120 Gb of memory card. Sweet!
The tab also came with a free smart bro sim with free 150mb free data and 150 texts which renews monthly for six months. A sweeter deal. :)
Now on to performance, the sound was fantastic, way better than the A7, which is why the dismal sound on the A7 isn't such a loss for me. The tab makes up for it and I can set my alarms here.
No lag was detected using the basic apps and browser feels snappy (loading creepypasta and the mobile fb had no delays. The pages just load as soon as I hit enter. The screen was not as sensitive as the a7, though. Some keys were not registered making typing this article difficult. You can notice that some words have no spaces between them. I type very fast and the keys just won't register. Though I did some proofreading, I may have left some of them out.
The true strength of this tablet lies in its battery.
I have beenhsing the tablet since 3 am in the morning since I couldn't sleep (partly due to the excitement thegadgets gave me. I spent the time reading creepypastas and stories online. At the time of this writing, it is still 30%. Neat huh? :)
At any rate, I have no real complaints about this tablet. It is perfect in every way. :) If you were to ask me, this would be the top tab that everyone should have. And if I only have to buy one gadget, it would be this one. You can already text and call in this device, making the a7 kind of redundant, but I am sadly opposed to the idea of bluetooth headset and, talking to a eight-inch phone is kind of, dork-like haha.
At any rate,my initial impressions of these two devices have been nothing but perfect. I love them to bits. :) Now I'll just live with them for a while and see how they hold up for daily use, especially during classes. I will be doing an individual review soon, with more complete features. For now l highly encourage you totry them out. :) you might be persuaded. The pair is an over-all perfect combination. If you are looking to purchase an overpriced apple product with a restrictive set of features and OS, why not give this combo a try? At roughly 47,000 for the two, you will have more Bang for your buckthan when you were to purchase an expensive iphone 6+. :)
Plus the android system will still be useful for the next five years. If updates stop, the modding community can satisfy your needs with custom roms, unlike in the apple system where after two or three system version, you will find your device useless and your app choice limited.
Cheerd to android and cheers to samsung for the well-made devices. :)
