Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8"; 16 GB Wifi Tablet (White) SM-T350NZWAXAR

I have been an Apple iPad purist for years. When I recently gave my mother my iPad Mini (she is having some issues with her vision and it's easier for her to use for certain apps than her phone), I thought I'd be content with just having my Pro 9.7. However, I like to read in bed, and the larger iPad really doesn't work well for that. I considered a Kindle Paperwhite, but since the Paperwhite doesn't reverse to a black field with white text I didn't want to use that and needed something for which I could use the Kindle app.I decided to try an Android tablet, which would be significantly less expensive than a new Mini 4. Plus, I'd been wanting to get experience with Android because I have friends who have Android phones who are always asking me questions about them for which I have no answer. After doing a bit of research, I decided on the Galaxy Tab A 8-inch, which was almost exactly the same size as the Mini. Several local stores had good sales but nobody ... and I mean NOBODY ... had one in stock. They had plenty of the 7" tablets but with the smaller size and only 8GB of memory, even with the SD expansion slot, I wasn't interested. So I ordered it here.I am very pleased with this device. It was easy to set up and it's been responsive and intuitive to use. The size and form factor are nearly identical to my old Mini. If anything I like the Kindle app better on the Android than on the iPad -- not the least of which is because you can buy Kindle books directly from the Android app and not from the Apple one (has to do with Apple demanding 30% of all sales on the iPad, which includes Kindle books. Can't say I blame Amazon for not wanting part of that "deal").I only have one minor complaint and not a large enough one to warrant a loss of a star -- you can't turn down the ambient light on the Galaxy as far as you can with the Mini. This only becomes an issue because I tend to stay up later than my husband so when I am reading he is trying to sleep, and it seems like I can't get the screen as dark as my Mini could go. Curiously, he says the ambient light it throws seems to be less overall and it doesn't bother him at all. Maybe it projects less overall but it seems brighter to me.

Picked up this tablet recently when the price dipped one evening to about $130 for use as a FPV and telemetry display for flying my Solo quads. I had been using my Samsung phone, but I wanted a bigger image to help compensate for slightly over 30 eyes. The 8" size is perfect, although a tad heavy and about the max that fits in the controller mount. I had initially tried an older 8" Lenovo tablet that I already had, but it was incompatible with the app I need to run. The Tab A is one of the tablets tested to be fully compatible with the app, so I figured I'd just buy one, especially given the price, even though the technology is getting a little dated. Interestingly, when I'm not out flying, I find myself using this tablet more and more for email, reading the news over coffee in the morning (not CNN or MSNBC fake news!), web searches, Amazon shopping, etc. It's plenty fast enough for these purposes, the display is sufficiently bright and pleasant to look at, and the battery holds up well for many hours. It also comes with very usable Microsoft Office apps, although I've so far only found the need to use Word or Excel a couple of times. The only negative as a FPV display is that the image could be a tad brighter for outdoor use. But with a sun shade or by standing under a tree to get out of the direct sun, it works pretty well to see where you're flying and to keep track of down-range distance, altitude, flight battery charge state, etc. For the price paid, this is a really nice tablet in a size that's perfect for me. Oh yeah, one nice surprise I wasn't expecting: shortly after I started using it, the operating system updated to Android 7!

About a year ago I bought a Samsung Galaxy 7 tablet for my son as a Christmas gift, but never had a lot of interest in buying one for myself, seeing I owned a Kindle Fire. Even though he is disabled, my son loves his tablet and takes it most everywhere with him. I have a Samsung Galaxy 5 cell phone, but it is a work phone and I am not allowed to load apps or anything to it. Love the phone but not being able to do anything non-work related with it is frustrating. So between my son's tablet and my phone, I have always been impressed with Samsung mobile type products. A friend has a Samsung tablet and suggested I might find it easier to use and more beneficial than my Kindle. I had always found the Kindle to be difficult to use except as a reader and for audible books and I have had it for several years now. So I figured I would give a tablet a try and this Samsung seemed to fit the bill. I am very impressed with it and now do everything I use to do with the Kindle plus a lot more. Accessing email, using apps, shopping on Amazon, plus syncing it with my Kindle and Audible books, is a lot better than my Kindle. So the Kindle will gather dust or I will give it to a friend. BTW - I don't get the cheap looking comments on this tablet. Not so in my opinion and I have a nice case for it, so not sure what folks are referring to in that regard. Very nice tablet for this first time tablet owner.