Design and build

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 10.5 (2021) has a typical design for a tablet in this price range. Its body is metallic for the most part except for a portion on the right which is plastic. The reason for this is for the WiFi and carrier signals and other radio waves to pass through. Overall, the Galaxy Tab A8 10.5 (2021) feels strong and it feels durable. The same comes in the colors Gray, Silver, and Pink Gold, which is just pink, or gold. Over on the front, is its 10.5 inches display with a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Large display

This screen real estate is plenty enough to view different types of documents, including PDFs and presentations. No wonder Samsung ships it with Microsoft office pre-install. And Samsung Notes is another helpful app here using which you can take notes at annotations. Samsung should have provided a better IPS screen instead of its TFT panel. Not that it is downright bad, only that with growing competition, Samsung should be doing better in this department.

Nevertheless, the colors and vibrancy on this panel are great still. Watching videos on YouTube for example is full of fun. And you can even stream HD content on Netflix. Also, adding to the multimedia experience is the quad stereo speaker set here that supports Dolby Atmos audio.

Cameras

Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 10.5 (2021) is obviously not going to value its cameras. Its 8 MP, AF rear camera can handle things like scanning documents and notes. Its 5 MP front-facing camera will get you through your online classes, Zoom calls, and things like that. Video recording is capped at 1080p@30fps which is decent quality for this tablet all factors considered. You may also want to check out the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 which this one succeeds.

Samsung Dex?

While this tablet does not support Samsung Dex, Samsung Flow is a close substitute. With it you can connect the tablet to your PC over both wireless and via mediums, allowing you to share messages, clipboards, and files between the two. Similarly, you can even cast your tablet to the PC to enjoy Android apps on a bigger screen.

Also, although Samsung has not explicitly mentioned it, expect at least two Android major updates on this tablet. Also under this department is Samsung’s software experience where this tablet shines. Software superiority is quite evident, even when doing simple tasks such as browsing through the settings and web.

Performance

Now to the performance of Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 10.5 (2021). Much as reliable sources list Unisoc Tiger T618 (12 nm), Samsung does not explicitly mention the exact chipset that is used in this tablet. You will find that the Unisoc Tiger T618 (12 nm) will be performing better on GPU benchmarks. And this also reflects on the gaming side of things. In terms of day-to-day usage, the base 3GB RAM of Galaxy Tab A8 10.5 (2021) may feel rather slow. Multitasking is not that smooth either. And around 10GB of storage is already occupied by the system out of 32GB. So we strongly suggest you get the 4GB RAM, 64GB storage variant.

Battery life

As for the battery, Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 10.5 (2021) is able to get up to 7 hours of screen-on time on a full charge. So then it is suitable for tasks like attending online classes, streaming, multimedia, and even gaming every once in a while. With a relatively less demanding workload, it will easily last you for two days.

But charging this tablet is a bit of a hassle and although it can take in up to 15W of power, Samsung only ships a 7.75W charger inside the box. So be sure to get yourself a Samsung 15W charger to save on time. Otherwise, its Li-Po 7040 mAh, non-removable with the provided charger goes from zero to a hundred percent in a little over three hours.