Set
The boxes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 and Realme Pad do not indicate that the device belongs to the budget segment – everything is well packed and nothing hangs inside. At the same time, at first glance, it may seem that the packaging is too small for tablets with a diagonal of more than 10 inches.
Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 comes with 7.8W charger, USB Type-C cable and documentation. Realme has a similar composition.
It is worth noting here that the Chinese tablet offers 18W charging – more powerful and, as a result, faster.
Traditionally, tablets don’t come with any casing – a major shortcoming, especially in models whose body is made of aluminum – a material that scratches and creases quickly.
Design
Externally, the Realme Pad and Galaxy Tab A8 are similar in many ways – the body of the devices is made of metal, and behind it there is a small plastic panel in which the communication modules are hidden. Despite the external similarity, physically the difference is more pronounced.
For example, a tablet from Samsung weighs 508 g, and Realme weighs 440 g, the difference of 68 grams is noticeable – watching TV shows with the Galaxy Tab A8 in your hand is not very comfortable.
The ends of the glass on the Samsung tablet are placed on the metal frame. Realme has the opposite – the bezel protrudes above the screen. This solution gives more confidence that the Realme Pad screen will not be damaged if it falls or hits the side. It is unknown how Samsung will act in such a situation.
In general, both tablets do not look like cheap devices due to the use of metal.
Samsung/Realme
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 has a 10.5-inch TFT display with a resolution of 1200×1920 pixels, while the Realme Pad offers a 10.4-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1200×2000 pixels. The two devices are the same height, but Samsung is slightly wider thanks to the 0.1 inch difference and different aspect ratio – the Tab A8 uses a 16:10 aspect ratio while the Realme uses 5:3. This means that the models have approximately the same screens. Only Samsung has 0.1 inches more. Samsung also uses TFT, which is a more primitive and cheaper type of matrix. In size, the difference is only noticeable when comparing head-to-head.
Neither one nor the other tablet will be bright enough for outdoor use on a sunny day. However, for comfortable use of gadgets in the room, the light intensity of both screens is sufficient with a margin.
The only notable difference is that Realme’s display produces warmer and richer tones, while Samsung’s display is cooler. Also important, the white color is cleaner and more uniform in the performance of the South Korean device.
Shell
Both tablets run the Android 11 operating system, built on Samsung and Realme branded skins. So Galaxy Tab A8 is using OneUI 3.1 and Realme Pad is using RealmeUI in first version for tablets.
With Samsung, everything is clearer – the company has been releasing tablets for several years, it has a fairly convenient and well-developed system. The only thing that can upset a Korean device is the lack of DeX, an option that puts the tablet into desktop mode and makes OneUI look like Windows, and also the shell is slow to respond, especially on this model. All these shortcomings are associated with budget equipment. However, the shell still looks beautiful and does not differ from Samsung tablets, the cost of which sometimes exceeds 100 thousand rubles.
For a general understanding, it is worth noting that the RealmeUI shell for smartphones is one of the most functional and stable on the market. But things are different with Realme’s first tablet. Getting acquainted with the device, even fans of the brand will not immediately understand that this is a shell from Realme, since it lacks almost all the chips that are found even in budget smartphones of the company, such as the possibility of customization.
Also, when using the gesture control system, the tablet starts to slow down instead of the three navigation buttons. For example, when you try to open the menu with recently running apps, the tablet returns to the desktop or sees no touch in the area where gestures should be read.
If you adjust the control of the three “home”, “back” and “recent apps” buttons – everything changes dramatically. Tablet in all its glory and this is where the stable, fast and flawless working shell with such settings shows itself. But this solution seems outdated and the navigation bar still takes up most of the usable viewing area.
Samsung/Realme
Yield
The Samsung tablet is powered by a Unisoc Tiger T618 processor with Mali G52 MP2 graphics core. Realme Pad is powered by Mediatek Helio G80 with Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. Both processors are built on the same Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55 cores, as the tablets being compared show similar results in the benchmarks. Thus, in Geekbench 5, Samsung scored 366 points in the single-core test and 1209 points in the multi-core test. Realme Pad, on the other hand, showed 343 and 1303 points, respectively.
But in practice, tablets feel different in terms of performance.
For example, Realme in the game “League of Legends: Wild Rift” allows you to choose “maximum” graphics settings, while Samsung can only work with “high” settings, which is one level worse. It is also stable at 60 frames per second in both cases.
In the popular PUBG: Mobile, the graphics settings on both devices are the same – “medium”. However, while the game runs more stable in Realme, the frames per second sometimes drops in Samsung.
Samsung stands out from the rest – the tablet practically does not heat up, while Realme does get hot during games at the maximum brightness setting.
With simpler games and tasks, both tablets do well. However, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 is sometimes slightly inferior to the Realme Pad in some usage scenarios due to the smaller amount of memory – the minimum configuration offers 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. Realme has 4GB RAM and 64GB ROM. But both tablets have microSD card support, which will avoid problems with filling up the storage.
cameras
Cameras on tablets are often set up for demonstration purposes, so they’re good enough to make video calls or take pictures of documents. The Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 and Realme Pad are no exception. The first is equipped with an 8-megapixel camera and a 5-megapixel front module. Realme also offers 8MP for the main module and 8MP for the ultra-wide-angle front camera.
When comparing the two devices, Samsung is frankly bad. The selfie camera shoots from a very close range – even if you stretch your arms, only the head will fit in the frame. At the same time, the quality of photos and videos is not very encouraging. The main camera also can not boast of anything.
Realme Pad, on the other hand, clearly stands out from its competitors – the quality of photos and videos on the main camera rises to the level that smartphones show for 10 thousand rubles, which is more than enough for such a device. The front camera attracts attention with its 105-degree wide viewing angle.
features
Despite the fact that the Galaxy Tab A8 and Realme Pad tablets are presented in the budget segment, they are equipped with four loud and high-quality stereo speakers. At the same time, both support Dolby Atmos technology, making the sound even better. But Realme has cleaner low frequencies that make the bass feel more voluminous in music, movies and games. Also, Samsung and Realme tablets have a headphone jack.
The devices compared can replace a laptop for text and browser work – part of this review, for example, was written on the Realme Pad. To do this, you can buy an inexpensive Bluetooth keyboard and mouse on Aliexpress. For unknown reasons, Samsung and Realme did not introduce such accessories. Perhaps this is due to the fact that official keyboards usually cost 10 thousand rubles. and more expensive – and this is already half the cost of the tablet.
The interesting thing about Realme Pad is that the tablet comes preloaded with Google Kid Space and YouTube Kids apps. If everything is clear with the latter, Kid Space is a simplified child interface with parental control functions. For example, you can choose to restrict the age rating of apps that appear on Google Play or filter Google Chrome search results, such as not showing adult sites. It was not possible to find this application separately in the Play Market on Samsung.
Samsung/Realme
battery
As mentioned earlier, the Galaxy Tab A8 comes with a 7.8W charger that will fill the 7040mAh battery from 0% to 100% in less than 4 hours. At the same time, the tablet supports charging up to 15 watts. What prevents Samsung from providing the device with a more modern unit is unknown.
Everything is simpler with the Realme Pad tablet – 18W charging is supported and exactly the same block is included in the kit. It takes about 3 hours to charge the 7100 mAh battery in total.
Battery consumption on the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 performed slightly better. For example, 18% was spent an hour after watching a YouTube video at full brightness – in the same conditions the Realme Pad spent 20%. In general, both tablets work on a single charge for about two days with active load, or 8-12 hours, depending on the use cases – this is a good result.
Results
Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 4/64 GB is sold in Russia at an additional cost of 21 thousand rubles and 2 thousand rubles. You can purchase a version with LTE support.
Realme Pad went on sale at a price of 20 thousand rubles. In the modification of 4/64 GB. At the same time, the tablet does not provide for the possibility of inserting a SIM card – in any case, such a model is not officially presented in Russia.
Both tablets look competitive, but Realme offers a little more for less, which is one of the main factors in the budget segment.
In any case, there is no need to purchase an iPad Pro or other flagship tablet for a child or student who will not use the device to its full potential. Even for home use – watching movies, YouTube or surfing the web, budget devices are more convenient and save you money once again.
Source: Gazeta
