Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 inch Tablet - Silver (16GB, 3G, Andriod 4.0)

I would echo what all of the 5 star reviewers have said so far - this is an excellent piece of kit. Everything it does (and it does lots) it does smoothly and efficiently. I hadn't realised when I bought it that it could send and receive text messages and make and receive calls out of the box. It can - so put your phone sim card into the 3g model and you have yourself a very large (Dom Jolly sized) mobile phone. You'll need to be a bit canny - change the APN settings to your mobile phones settings as the sim card will probably default to mobile internet. Utilise a browser from the play store (eg Dolphin Browser), which allows you to change the user agent to ensure your tab is treated as a mobile when on the net. Add a cheap hands free headset and if, like me you don't make or receive a huge amount of calls (100 mins or so per month) you have the perfect solution to running two gadgets and potentially two data connections. This has worked well for me for a couple of weeks now. I keep checking my account online to make sure that my network provider isn't charging me differently - so far so good. If they did ring me to tell me I'm not using the sim card in a phone, they would be ringing me on the Tab 2 so that should make for an interesting conversation! I understand that Giff Gaff already class the tab 2 as a phone, as it can make calls out of the box. There is an app in the play store called `text by voice' which is totally voice controlled. This means you can generate calls and texts without touching the tab. Again, this works well and I've found myself calling or texting whilst on the train, walking to the station etc without having to touch the tab, which is safely in my rucksack. Added to that functionality you get web browsing with that glorious 10.1 screen, which is an absolute pleasure to use and much better than using a normal sized mobile! Battery life is good - as a phone and subjected to quite heavy usage, I'm getting 2 days between charges. If you absolutely can't take the tab with you, divert calls and sms to your old mobile - again there are apps to do this in the play store. Diverted calls and texts should be covered in your monthly allowance if you have an inclusive tariff. An absolute pleasure to use. Pleased I went for the 3g - I couldn't see the point of having a portable tablet, which was only as up to date as the last time it connected to a wireless network.

I'm fussy, just ask my wife, the milkman, my friends and work collegues, they'll tell you exactly how fussy I am so I expect decent quality from big brand names. That's the background, now the review: This Samsung Galaxy Tab2 10.1" with 3G built in is simply amazing, I was lucky to get it at a decent price from Amazon and they delivered as promised, nice and fast. The build quality of this is good, it feels nice and solid and it's amazingly thin, actually almost too thin for big handed people, it nearly slides out my hands so you might well consider getting a protective case. The performance is good, it's fast without lag, it's got great battery life and a quality screen. wifi is excellent and 3G seems very good too - I've used a Three 1GB preloaded data SIM which last 30days or 1GB for around £5 a go. Pop in a voice capable SIM and you can make phone calls although the received phone audio comes out the loudspeakers so it's not a phone to use on the train without annoying everyone and not to mention looking stupid holding a 10" table to your ear (hint, get an earpiece) Don't expect much in the big impressive box, you get the Tab2, a mains charger and a USB to 30pin cable for charging and a user guide that's small and to the point, if you enjoy reading hundreds of pages of a user guide then prepare to be disapointed, the remaining item in the box is air, factory fresh air. You may want to get the Samsung 2amp car charger that's available on Amazon as it's pretty cheap and comes with another USB-30pin cable. All in all it's a superb tablet. There and I didn't even mention ipad, oh blast.

...I had trouble deciding between this and the Toshiba AT300 after finding a deal on the Wifi-only Toshiba, with quad-core processor & better connectivity (micro USB & HDMI) for almost £100 cheaper than the dual-core, 3G Tab 2. It seemed like no competition at all until I started reading through comparative reviews - despite the lower-spec processor, the Samsung mostly came out on top with better overall performance scores than the Toshiba and although they've both got the same resolution screen, the Samsung's was considered brighter with better colour reproduction. In the end, it was the fact that nobody's managed to unlock the bootloader (and therefore gain root-access) on the Toshiba yet that convinced me to go against my initial idea of which was the better deal and buy the Samsung. I'm glad I did - the tablet feels very solid (I've read that the Toshiba's case can easily bend under pressure) and it performs just as solidly. Since getting it for Christmas, I've been able to apply Samsung's official Jellybean 4.1.1 update and will probably soon end up putting a 4.2 custom rom on it as it's been very easy to root and Cyanogenmod roms offer significant performance improvements & better battery life than Samsung firmware. The screen is bright, clear & really responsive to touch. Although resolution isn't a patch on the screen on the Nexus 10, the lack of an SD card slot for expansion on the Nexus was a dealbreaker for me and I'm happy with how HD video looks on the Tab's lower resolution screen. The dual-core processor performs well and I've experienced no lag, even when playing NFS Most Wanted and GTA3 with the tablet set on power-saving mode. I've had no trouble streaming HD video either (this is something some reviewers said they'd experienced stuttering with). One disappointment, however, was finding out the IR blaster (allowing use as a universal remote control) I'd been reading about & expecting is only included on the US version. Overall, though, I'm satisfied with the Tab2 and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good value tablet with reliable (if not top-spec') performance.