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We're not quite sure what Samsung was hoping to achieve with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0. It's like the company has been in a state of Nexus-denial over the past 12 months or so, failing to even acknowledge the existence of two generations of Google-approved compact tablets.
But exist they do, and the brutal fact is that both Nexus 7 models are better than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 in virtually every way.
What's more, the most recent Nexus 7 was only slightly more expensive than the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 when it launched in the UK, whilst the original Nexus 7 can currently be picked up for slightly less.
Even without these unflattering Nexus comparisons, though, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is a deeply unremarkable tablet with underwhelming performance and a low-res display that remains ostensibly unchanged since the launch of the original Galaxy Tab.
We liked
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 continues with the Korean manufacturer's design philosophy, which has obviously won it a great number of fans over recent years. It's a solidly built tablet that nonetheless sits light in the hand.
Similarly functional is Samsung's TouchWiz UI, which in this stripped back form treats the Android Jelly Bean OS relatively lightly.
We're also happy to see a microSD slot for memory expansion purposes, which is the one thing it has over the latest Nexus 7.
We disliked
As popular as Samsung's design language has been, it's evidently growing a little long in the tooth. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 looks cheap.
That sense of cheapness permeates the device, making its way to an unremarkable dual-core processor and a disappointingly fuzzy display, and on into a 3.2MP camera that's so bad it was hardly worth including it.
All of this would be forgivable if the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 was one of the cheaper 7-inch tablets on the market, but it isn't.
Verdict
There's no getting around it - the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 is a deeply average tablet that's been way over-priced by Samsung.
Its specs aren't really good enough to show off the best of the Android platform. In particular, the tablet's 1024 x 600 display seems like it's from a bygone era before 720p YouTube videos became the norm. It seems to actively discourage protracted web browsing sessions, too, which is surely much of the point of a modern tablet.
But then, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 isn't really a modern tablet - it's a reminder of the way tablets used to be in the not-too-distant past. If you want to see where the next generation of Android tablets is headed, check out the similarly priced Google Nexus 7.
