Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7"

[My1stMacWasLisa]

First of all I apologise profusely...

My father in law bought a galaxy tab 3 7" and my god it's a piece of junk. It got so hot during use he took it back and got another. It turned put the replacement did the same it was a firmware problem that caused a kernel panic. Awful error screen, no help at all.

Anyways, he continues to have MANY problems and what I want to know is, can anyone out there recommend some good resources for me to go to to discus/ find advice. Samsung do not seem to offer any support community, there doesn't seem to be anything with the vitality of macrumors. I have found galaxy tab forums but they usually have a handful off postings per month from newbies.

We are so lucky in AppleLand to have the community we have. This Samsung world is a nightmare.

On the Galaxy Tab, I can't begin to describe the touchscreen lag, the time it takes to pop up the on screen keyboard, this machine is sooooo slow, the insanity of having 3 icons on the home screen out of the box that are all browsers under different guises. The email account/app proliferation. there are 3 chat apps on the home screen and my father in law needs NONE of them. Samsung and Android is a mess.

I'm the family "expert" but this device is awful.

Can anyone suggest a source of wisdom and information for Samsung Galaxy Tabs

 

[tbayrgs]

First of all I apologise profusely...

My father in law bought a galaxy tab 3 7" and my god it's a piece of junk. It got so hot during use he took it back and got another. It turned put the replacement did the same it was a firmware problem that caused a kernel panic. Awful error screen, no help at all.

Anyways, he continues to have MANY problems and what I want to know is, can anyone out there recommend some good resources for me to go to to discus/ find advice. Samsung do not seem to offer any support community, there doesn't seem to be anything with the vitality of macrumors. I have found galaxy tab forums but they usually have a handful off postings per month from newbies.

We are so lucky in AppleLand to have the community we have. This Samsung world is a nightmare.

On the Galaxy Tab, I can't begin to describe the touchscreen lag, the time it takes to pop up the on screen keyboard, this machine is sooooo slow, the insanity of having 3 icons on the home screen out of the box that are all browsers under different guises. The email account/app proliferation. there are 3 chat apps on the home screen and my father in law needs NONE of them. Samsung and Android is a mess.

I'm the family "expert" but this device is awful.

Can anyone suggest a source of wisdom and information for Samsung Galaxy Tabs

Any chance he can still return it? That's the best advice I have for that tablet. There are quite a few better options available if he wants to stay with Android.

 

[iSheep5S]

Sell or return. Get a Nexus. Good deals on 1st gen. Or get a second gen. Not too expensive.

 

[TacticalDesire]

I've had the displeasure of using the Tab 3 7 on a few occasions. It was a horrible tablet and hasn't gotten better. Nothing but a samsung money grab and absolutely a disgrace to android. Have him return it and get a Nexus 7

 

[kevinof]

My sister was all set to get one of these until I stepped in and got her to go for the nexus 7 instead.

If you can return it asap. N7 is a much better tablet.

 

[Tsepz]

Had the chance to use a Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 this week as I was staying at a friends, and left my iPad4 at home, my mate just left his iPad2 for the Tab 3 10.1 with Intel CPU. That thing is just as bad as the 7inch, a lot of overheating, great deal of lag, freezing and just pure frustration at the whole experience.

I sat with that Tab 3 for a while and Disabled unnecessary apps such as ChatOn, Hangouts, Google+ Etc... as they run in the background eating resources, it helped a little, also removed the AccuWeather widget as it for some weird reason eats a whole lot of CPU and RAM.

You know YOU CAN remove all those shortcuts and widgets in the Homescreen right??? Long press and then put it in the trash can at the top of the screen.

All that said, the Tab3 is the reason I stay away from Android tablets, they all seem to have strange issues and lags, unlike Android phones which have matured a lot, the Tablets still require a lot of refinement. I though Android3.0 HoneyComb was what would improve these tablets, yet here we are with Android4.2 JB tablets having the same issues. I once owned the original Galaxy Tab10.1, it was great for about 2months then it began to just fall apart in terms of UI speed, stability etc... Hope Google and the OEMs have fixed all this in 4.4.2 KitKat.

Right now I'd say take the Nexus 7 (2014), update it to 4.4.2 immediately after starting it up.

 

[srkmish]

I used my friend's Tab 3 and found it to be laggy and unresponsive. Its 2014 and a premier company like Samsung still comes up with these products. Unusable IMO

 

[skratch77]

The galaxy tab 3.0 7in is Samsung's lowest end tablet they make.its 169 dollars right now on samsung.com

What else did you expect with a tablet with 2.5 year old specs is going to run like?

The nexus 7 2013 edition is what you should of got him.

Ps the tab 3 is like a iPad 1 with an extra core and is severely underpowered to run smooth...but its 169 bucks and fits the low end segment just fine and is exactly what its made for.

 

[Tsepz]

Ye, I think at this point if you want an Android tablet get a Nexus, a Galaxy Note or a Kindle Fire HD.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I wouldn't even consider a Tab 3 7" model. I know specs aren't everything, but like skratch77 said, the specs on this thing are just horrible.

 

[blackhand1001]

Have him return it and get a nexus 7. Its a much better experience.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I've tried a demo unit in a store and it was really laggy. I was surprised as demo units are usually fast and don't always give a realistic impression of how a device will perform in real life.

 

[weckart]

On the other hand, these things are very cheap now. £79 in the UK at the moment, which after stripping out VAT is about $108. In fact, the Tab 2 7" is more expensive for some reason.

Having said that, I picked up an Advent Vega Note 7 (Evga Tegra Note 7 in the US) for £10 more and that is faster than the Samsung Note 3, virtually stock Android onboard with Kitkat promised and has decent battery life. Cheap no longer has to mean nasty with no support.

There are also rumours of a price war on tablets after Xmas.

 

[mclld]

My wife has a Tab 2 and it is fine