Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite Review
Delivering the basics at an affordable price
Verdict
The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is a good-looking, lightweight tablet offering excellent app support. It wouldn’t be my first choice for streaming movies or taking photos, but it delivers all of the basics at an affordable price.
Pros
- Super-affordable
- Sleek, lightweight design
- Great interface and app support
Cons
- Poor display quality when streaming video
- Battery life drains quickly
- No S Pen support
Availability
- UKRRP: £149
Key Features
- 8.77-inch screenWXGA+ TFT display
- 8-megapixel cameraWith support for FHD video at 30fps
- 5100mAh batteryWith support for 15W adaptive fast charging
- Up to 4/64GBStorage is expandable up to 1TB with microSD
Introduction
If you’re in the market for an affordable Android tablet, you may have come across the Galaxy Tab A7 Lite.
A lightweight, pared-down version of Samsung’s Tab A7, this tablet is ideal for those who don’t mind sacrificing the higher resolution display and front camera of the A7 in exchange for a more compact display and a budget-friendly price tag.
Read on to learn more about the design, display and specs from our time with the tablet.
Design
- A simple, lightweight design
- Available in grey and silver options
- No S Pen support on board
The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is a simple, if not slightly bland-looking tablet. The device is compact and lightweight enough to slip into a bag at 212.5 x 124.7 x 8mm and 366g, but its weight remains sufficiently reassuring to prevent the device from feeling overly cheap in the hand. The tablet is just slightly larger than Apple’s iPad Mini 6, which comes in at 8.3 inches.
The display is bordered by a thick black bezel, with the top and bottom edges particularly chunky. A punch-hole camera sits at the top of the tablet, but, unlike some Apple tablets, there’s no home button along the bottom bezel.
The rear of the device is a gunmetal grey, whose matte finish does a great job of not picking up any obvious smudges or fingerprints. The Tab A7 Lite is also available in a silver option if you prefer, with both models featuring the Samsung logo in the centre.
On the side of the device you’ll find power and volume buttons, as well as a USB Type-C port and a 3.5mm headphone jack along the bottom edge.
My favourite design aspect is the square camera in the upper-left corner, which in my opinion looks more interesting than a circular camera. That said, I wouldn’t call the camera unique (look at the iPad Pro, for example); plus there isn’t much about the A7 Lite’s design that makes it stand out from any other mid-range tablet on the market.
Sadly, the A7 Lite doesn’t include support for the S Pen, meaning that it isn’t a great choice if you hope to use your tablet for sketching or taking lots of handwritten notes.
That said, if you’re searching for a tablet with a sleek and minimal design, the Tab A7 Lite is a great option.
Screen
- An 8.7-inch WXGA+ display
- Good alternative to a smartphone for browsing and using apps
- It’s too low quality for streaming video
The Tab A7 Lite features an 8.7-inch TFT display with a resolution of 1340 x 800 (WXGA+). That’s a smaller and lower-resolution screen than the 10.4-inch 2000 x 1200 panel on the regular Tab A7.
I found the screen a good size for browsing the web and editing documents on the go. I often used it to stream video, although the quality was noticeably poorer on the 8.7-inch display than on my smaller smartphone screen.
The display is bright and vibrant, but the picture isn’t particularly sharp when faced with content from Netflix or YouTube for example. It’s something I could look past for those occasions I wished to stream on a more spacious screen than my phone, but I wouldn’t recommend this tablet to those who are looking for a device on which to mainly watch videos.
It’s a great device for accessing apps and editing documents, though. But, while you can arrange multiple windows to view side-by-side, I’d argue that the Tab A7 Lite’s display is just too small to comfortably multitask – except for those occasions that you have no alternative.
Instead, I found the tablet worked best for accessing the same apps and content I would do on my smartphone, but on a larger screen.
As far as other display features go, the A7 Lite benefits from an adaptive brightness feature that ensures the brightness remains at a suitable level, as well as a system-wide Dark mode for more comfortable scrolling at night.
Software and Performance
- Runs Android
- It comes with up to 4GB RAM /64GB of storage
- The cameras are just okay
Like Samsung’s other tablets, the Galaxy A7 Lite runs Google’s Android operating system. It also comes with lots of Samsung features baked in, such as the Galaxy Store, Samsung Notes, Samsung Flow and Samsung Internet.
Thankfully, there isn’t a huge amount of bloatware on board, and the Play Store and Galaxy Store are packed with pretty much every popular app or service that may come to mind. This makes it perfect for using social media.
The tablet is powered by an octa-core processor and comes with up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The latter is expandable up to 1TB using microSD.
I tested the 3GB/32GB model and found it ran a little slow at times. Most processes were fine, but I did notice some delays when tapping the screen – particularly when loading apps and typing in search bars.
The Tab A7 Lite tablet features two cameras: one 8-megapixel sensor on the rear, capable of recording FHD video at 30fps; and a 2-megapixel sensor on the front to support selfies and video calls.
Images snapped with the rear camera were just okay. Pictures are sharp but they lack detail, with colours appearing washed out.
The zoom feature does a decent job of capturing finer details, but I definitely believe this camera is better suited to taking quick snaps and document scanning than more advanced mobile photography and capturing aesthetically pleasing pics for your Instagram feed.
Likewise, the front camera produces images with a washed-out look. I wouldn’t choose selfies taken with the A7 Lite over those captured with my smartphone, for instance, although there is a Portrait mode that creates a nice bokeh effect. The 2-megapixel sensor is also smaller than the 5-megapixel unit included on the Tab A7.
Despite this, the front camera will certainly be okay for hosting video calls and joining conferences via the tablet if you aren’t too bothered about how sharp you look.
Battery Life
- Packs a 5100mAh battery
- There’s 15W adaptive fast charging
- Doesn’t support wireless charging
The A7 Lite includes a 5100mAh battery, along with support for 15W adaptive fast charging. Unfortunately, there’s no support for wireless charging here, meaning you can’t ditch the USB-C cable for a wireless charging pad or reverse-charge the tablet with your Galaxy S22.
When I tested the tablet, I found that the battery drained quite quickly. The indicator dropped from 100% to 75% in just short of two hours as I watched videos. Battery life dropped a further 10% on standby overnight.
Judging from my experience, this tablet could make it through a day if used for less intensive tasks, such as browsing or scrolling through social media, for example. However, long periods of streaming will certainly impact battery life and see it drain more quickly.
The Tab A7 Lite was also slow to charge back up, although support for fast-charging definitely helped. Unfortunately, the fast charger is sold separately, with only a standard charging brick supplied in the box.
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Should you buy it?
You want a cheap everyday tablet The Tab A7 Lite is an affordable Android device that packs a bright screen and offers access to a wide range of apps – all packaged in a sleek, lightweight design.
You want a high-quality display for streaming The screen is bright enough for browsing and scrolling through social media, but the low quality becomes more evident when watching video content from Netflix and YouTube. I wouldn’t recommend the A7 Lite if this will be its main purpose.
Final Thoughts
The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is a decent option if you’re looking for a cheap tablet with a sleek design and plenty of app support.
I wouldn’t choose this tablet over a device with a higher resolution screen for streaming video, and the camera leaves something to be desired. There’s also no S Pen support, so this wouldn’t be on the list for those into digital art or taking notes by hand.
However if you’re looking for a good-quality tablet with a bright screen to browse and edit documents or share with the family, the A7 Lite is a solid, lightweight option that won’t hurt your wallet.
How we test
We test every tablet we review thoroughly. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly and we use the tablet as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Used as our main tablet for two weeks
Drained the battery to determine how long it would last
Ran multiple benchmarking tests
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FAQs
The A7 Lite runs Google’s Android operating system, but comes with a handful of Samsung apps and features on board.
The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite features a 8.77-inch WXGA+ display.
The Tab A7 Lite can’t be charged wirelessly with a Qi charging pad. You’ll need a USB Type-C cable to power it up.
Trusted Reviews test data
Full specs
Jargon buster
mAh
An abbreviation for milliampere-hour and a way to express the capacity of batteries, especially smaller ones in phones. In most cases the higher the mAh, the longer the battery will last but this isn’t always the case.Qi Wireless Charging
The most common format for wireless charging and the one supported by the majority of devices. Charge speeds vary a lot by the phone.
USB-C
The modern USB connector you’ll find on most Android phones, new laptops, cameras and games consoles. It’s reversible and used for charging along with data-transfer.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
