Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 review: Middle of everywhere

Connectivity

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 has the basic connectivity features. Since we have the WiFi-only version, there's no GSM/3G/LTE connectivity to speak of.

The Wi-Fi support covers a/b/g/n, with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz band compatibility and Wi-Fi Direct. The tablet also has Bluetooth 4.0 support.

The AllShare DLNA functionality, which used to be a standalone application, is now more tightly integrated into the respective Samsung applications. To share or access content on nearby DLNA-enabled devices, you do this directly from the My Video app and the Music Player.

Group Play allows you to share various multimedia across multiple devices in the same room, but unlike DLNA it's interactive.

One use case is to play a music track on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 and use multiple Samsung devices (with Group Play app) as speakers. You can pick the role of each phone/slate (e.g. left channel, right, etc.) all the way up to surround sound. This way you can control the music on one phone but use the loudspeakers of all.

Group Play • Multiple phones can turn into a multi-channel audio system

Of course, the other phones will need to support Group Play - the phones communicate over Wi-Fi (your Tab 3 8.0 becomes a hotspot that others connect to) .

More useful are the options to share a picture or a document - you can have the same picture appear on everyone's phone and you can draw over it if you need to highlight a certain element of the image.

Sharing a photo and drawing over it • Group Play enables multiplayer games

Finally, perhaps the coolest feature of Group Play is that it allows for multiplayer games to be played on several phones simultaneously. Of course, only supported games work.

Moving on, there's Samsung Link, another way to share content between devices. Unlike Group Play, Samsung Link is intended for personal use. You can link the phone to a computer that is synced with Dropbox, SkyDrive or SugarSync and remotely access content on that device.

Samsung Link lets you access content from your computer remotely

One advantage the Tab 3 8.0 has over most of the competition is its infrared port. The port is used via the Peel Smart Remote app, which allows the Tab 3 8.0 to act as a controller for television sets of numerous brands.

The Peel app lets you use the IR port

And finally, for wired connectivity we have the MHL port. By all appearances it is a normal microUSB port and works as one (a charger port as well). But the MHL port enables video output by using a MHL-to-HDMI dongle. Sadly, there isn't one included in the retail box.

Once you plug the dongle into the phone you also need to plug a charger into the additional microUSB port on the dongle and the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 screen will be mirrored on the TV.

There are two other models of the Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 available - GSM and 3G capable SM-T310 model and GSM, 3G and LTE enabled SM-T315 version. All of them feature a microSIM slot and are capable of making phone calls, send SMS/MMS messages and use mobile data for internet connectivity. You can check the supported network bands for those models at our dedicated specs page.

Two web browsers

A new Android version always comes with an improved web browser and the Jelly Bean browser running on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 is no exception. It looks much like Google Chrome and has pretty much about the same functionality sans the cross-platform sync.

The browser interface is the same as most of the desktop browsers - a top row with all the opened tabs, and a second row with the back and forward buttons, the URL bar with a refresh button, the tab switching key and the bookmarks key.

Browsing GSMArena.com on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0

The browser supports both double tap and pinch zooming along with the two-finger tilt zoom. There are niceties such as find on page, save for offline viewing, request desktop site and so on.

The Web browser comes with Incognito mode, which lets you surf the web without the browser keeping track of your history or storing cookies.

Another Samsung feature in the browser is the Print option, which lets you print out web pages straight from your phone. Unfortunately, this only works only with Samsung printers.

Quick controls are available as well.

The new and improved Quick controls

If you prefer you can also use the preloaded Chrome which offers excellent cross-platform sync capabilities. It's quite similar in terms of interface, features (sans the Quick Controls), and behavior. Sometimes it's even faster.

Google Chrome