The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 wants to be your budget tablet for work and play

A considerate facelift for the Tab A series

Samsung is one of only a few serious tablet manufacturers in the Android markets, and the company is very much interested in maintaining this reputation. It caters for almost all price points, with high-end tablets like the Galaxy Tab S7 and S7 FE and more affordable devices like the Galaxy Tab A7. The latter is in for a refresh today, as Samsung has just announced the Galaxy Tab A8, a follow-up that finally makes the Tab A series look like it was created for this decade.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 looks considerably more modern than its predecessor. We already complained about its dated backplate in January 2021, and it was high time for Samsung to bring a small facelift to the budget tablet. The Tab A8 looks quite similar to the iPad Air/Mini, with sharp, boxy corners and a prominent circular camera bump in the top right corner of the back. The logo placement in the top left corner is quite reminiscent of the Tab S7 and Tab S7 FE.

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A 10.5-inch 1920x1200 TFT panel dominates the front — pretty similar to the A7. It’s great to see Samsung using the versatile 16:10 screen aspect ratio again, too, which makes it easier to see more content when browsing the web. The front-facing camera is integrated into the longer edge of the tablet — the objectively correct position for video calls.

Samsung hasn’t shared which processor exactly it’s using in the Tab A8, but the company did say that it’s supposed to be 10% better than the Snapdragon 662 in the Tab A7, so there’s that. And while it’s great to see a new 128GB variant of the Tab A8 that even packs 4 rather than 3GB of RAM, we’re not happy that Samsung stuck with the paltry 32GB entry-level model. At least you can extend storage easily with a microSD card, but managing external storage is always more involved. Other key specifications, like the camera resolution (8MP rear and 5MP front), the battery size (7,040mAh) remain the same between the A7 and the A8. It’s mostly just a facelift with the newer Android 11 (but not 12, unfortunately), a slightly bigger screen, and a new processor.

Samsung positions the Tab A8 as both an entertainment and a work device, saying that it’s the perfect tablet for living, learning, and working from home. Given the lack of a first-party stylus and keyboard accessories, the latter two could be a stretch depending on what you need to get done. There are some other covers and cases, though, and you’ll have access to Samsung’s usual tablet features and enhancements, like multi-window mode, split screen, and multi-user management. At the rumored price, the lack of included accessories isn’t too surprising, though, and the tablet could still serve as a neat auxiliary device for anything that requires a bigger screen than a phone but not quite a laptop.

The Galaxy Tab A8 will be available in Europe starting late December while it will take until January 2022 to make it into the US and other regions. For now, we haven’t heard anything on pricing, but we’ll be sure to update you once Samsung releases details. Rumors have previously pointed to about €230 for the cheapest model in Europe, which would be similar to its predecessor that started at $230 in the US.

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Manuel Vonau (1531 Articles Published)

Manuel is a tech enthusiast and Android fan based in Berlin. When he's not writing articles for Android Police, he's probably out and about as a videographer.

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