我们有机会回顾联想(Lenovo)最近在平板电脑市场(tablet market)上的一款产品：联想 TAB 2(Lenovo TAB 2) A7。联想是一家在 2005 年通过收购(Lenovo)IBM 计算机(IBM computer)部门而步入大联盟的公司， IBM 计算机部门是 80 年代和 90 年代数字市场的重要参与者。从那时起，他们专注于个人电脑、笔记本电脑、笔记本电脑，并且最近进入了移动设备市场。联想(Lenovo)于 2014 年初推出了其第一款平板电脑。我们在本次评测中测试的型号联想 TAB 2(Lenovo TAB 2) A7 相当年轻，于2015 年1 月问世(January 2015). 我们对它进行了大约一周的测试，我们想在这篇评论中分享我们对它的看法：
对联想 TAB 2 A7 拆箱
联想(Lenovo)为这款平板电脑制作的包装由一个黑色的硬纸盒组成，与平板电脑本身的(cardboard box)宽度和高度(width and height)大致相同，并用联想(Lenovo)的安全贴纸(security sticker)密封。盒子的正面显示了实际平板电脑的图片，而盒子的背面则提供了有关平板电脑规格的一些信息。盒子的侧面是纯黑色的，没有提供额外的信息。
打开盒子并滑出(box and slide)内部容器后，您首先看到的是平板电脑本身，它位于其他一切之上。
隐藏(Hidden)在平板电脑下方的是电源充电器、microUSB 充电和数据线(microUSB charging and data cable)以及安全、保修和快速入门指南(Safety, Warranty & Quick Start Guide)。
您将在TAB 2 A7 包装(A7 package)中找到的物品清单到此结束。
硬件规格
联想(Lenovo)为这款平板电脑选择了分辨率为 600x1024 像素的 7 英寸IPS LCD 显示屏(IPS LCD display)，像素密度为 170ppi。这不是市场上最清晰的显示屏之一，但考虑到这款平板电脑适合的价格范围(price range)，它再现了色彩出奇的鲜艳自然，亮度也足够满足大多数用户的需求。
在内部，这款平板电脑由Mediatek MT8382M 芯片组(Mediatek MT8382M chipset)上运行频率为 1.3 GHz的四核Cortex A7 CPU供电。它具有 1GB 的RAM 内存(RAM memory)，而图形由Mali-400MP2 GPU 处理(Mali-400MP2 GPU)。内部存储容量(memory capacity)为 8GB，可使用最大 32GB的SD 存储卡进行扩展。(SD memory)
我们审查的单元是TAB 2 A7-30F，这意味着在连接性方面，它完全基于WLAN网络。根据您所处的区域，您可能会发现这款平板电脑的其他口味，即TAB 2 A7-30HC（WLAN + 3G和语音）、TAB 2 A7-30GC（WLAN + 2G和语音）或TAB 2 A7-30H（仅限WLAN + 3G）。用于蜂窝网络的SIM 卡插槽位于(SIM card)SD 存储(SD memory) 卡插槽(card slot)旁边。
此平板电脑的物理尺寸为 189 x 105 x 9.3 毫米（高 x 宽 x 厚(Height x Width x Thickness)）或 7.44 x 4.13 x 0.37 英寸。它的重量约为 269 克（或 9.49 盎司），属于轻型平板电脑类别。该设备运行的电池额定为 3450 mAh，这可能看起来并不多，但考虑到内部组件不是那么耗电，您可能需要再考虑一下。
TAB 2 A7预装了 4.4.2 KitKat 版本(KitKat version)的Android。这是一个相当新的Android版本，提供了流行(Android)操作系统(operating system)的大部分新功能。为这款平板电脑提供动力的ROM并不像您对移动设备制造商所期望的那样由(device manufacturer)联想(Lenovo)提供个性化或品牌化，而是从一开始就提供了相当干净的Android(Android right)风格，接近您在Android的(Android)股票版本(stock version)上看到的内容. 但是，联想(Lenovo)添加了自己的启动器，并对库存进行了一些其他小的改动安卓(Android)。
在图像捕捉(image capture)方面，TAB 2 A7 平板(A7 tablet)配备了前置VGA 640x480像素摄像头和后置 1.9像素摄像头(megapixel camera)，分辨率高达 1600x1200 像素。正如您对VGA 前置(VGA front)摄像头所期望的那样，它的质量并不是一流的，但它在使用Skype或任何其他视频通话应用程序的视频通话中表现出色。至于连接性，您将获得一个仅与 802.11 b/g/n 网络兼容的 Wi-Fi 适配器（不支持 802.11ac）、通常的蓝牙 4.0(Bluetooth 4.0)模块、用于充电和数据传输的microUSB 端口(microUSB port)、3.5 毫米音频插孔和A -GPS 模块(A-GPS module)。
一个显着的特点是杜比(Dolby)音频支持，我们必须说，当您使用质量更好的耳机时，它可以提供非常简洁的音质。
完整的规格列表可以在联想(Lenovo)网站的产品页面上找到(product page)：联想 TAB 2 A7-30 - 技术细节(Lenovo TAB 2 A7-30 - Technical Details)。
使用联想 TAB 2 A7
平板电脑的整体构造非常简单，没有不必要的边框或偷工减料。设备正面在左上角显示前置VGA 摄像头，靠近中心徽标。(VGA camera)在平板的右侧，你会发现音量键(volume rocker)和电源开关(power switch)，SD存储(SD memory) 卡插槽(card slot)和SIM卡插槽(card slot)在左侧，麦克风位于底部，而顶部则是两个扬声器设置(two-speaker setup)，microUSB 端口(microUSB port)和 3.5 毫米音频插孔。这个选择的布局的好处(chosen layout)是因为连接器位于设备顶部，在充电时使用设备或插入耳机音频连接器时，不会有损坏设备的风险。
设备的背面有一种磨砂的感觉(matte feeling)，当你握住它时提供了一个很好的抓地力。后置 1.9兆像素摄像头(megapixel camera)位于设备的左上角。
我们真正关心的一件事是，SD 存储(SD memory) 卡插槽(card slot)被一个橡胶保护盖(rubbery lid)覆盖，可防止灰尘堵塞到空腔中，并且(cavity and fits)与平板电脑的后盖完全一致。这总是一个很好的功能。
虽然 7 英寸IPS LCD 显示屏(IPS LCD display)不是您在平板电脑上见过的最好的显示屏之一，但它确实可以提供。图片由鲜艳的色彩组成，并且足够明亮以提供良好的可读性。视角也足够宽这样用户在使用时就不会因为完全笔直地握住设备而受到限制。
就可用存储空间而言，8 GB 的存储空间对于任何现代移动(storage space)设备用户(device user)来说都远远不够。即使使用 600x1024 像素的相当低的分辨率，这意味着您没有任何理由在其上加载 1080p 视频，您可能想要为假期打包一些 720p 电影，可能还有一些音乐和一些游戏。有了 8 GB 的空间，其中只有大约 5 GB 可供用户使用，您没有太多选择余地。幸运(Luckily)的是，使用高达 32GB的SD 存储卡，单独购买，您可以扩展(SD memory)存储空间(storage space)可用，让您可以在此设备上存储更多内容。不幸的是，这款平板电脑没有其他变体可以提供更多可用的内部空间，因此就内部存储而言，你只需要那些 8 GB 加上提到的SD 卡(SD card)。
联想(Lenovo)选择安装在此设备上的前置摄像头仅用于视频通话。它提供的图像质量(picture quality)很差，我们不建议使用它来拍摄任何照片。后置摄像头更适合这种情况，但在光线不足的情况下，它的效果也很差。没有闪光灯的事实确实限制了它在光线充足的环境中拍摄户外照片的性能。不过，好的一面是，它具有电子稳定系统(stabilization system)以及HDR 拍摄模式，这对(HDR shooting-mode)高质量的图像和图像噪点(quality image and image noise)有很大帮助。
作为一款入门级平板电脑，TAB 2 A7 的组件不需要那么大的功率即可运行。这意味着这款平板电脑将保持其讨价还价，并且可以正常使用一天而没有任何问题，具体取决于您通常需要什么。一些互联网浏览(internet browsing)、一些简单的游戏以及拍摄几张照片不应该消耗太多电池。另一方面，这些组件不是为激烈的游戏而设计的，所以如果您正在寻找可以玩最新的精美全特效赛车的设备，您可能不应该选择这款平板电脑游戏。即使CPU 和 GPU(CPU and GPU)能够以不错的可播放帧速率运行它，电池也无法长时间使用，您最终可能会被困在墙上，电源插座(power outlet)。
我们最喜欢联想 TAB 2 A7 的地方在于其简单明了的设计。你会发现没有革命性的噱头，没有“让我们试试这个大胆的设计方案，看看我们的用户会如何接受它”。它的一切都如你所愿，在你所期望的地方。很高兴不要感到惊讶，因为改变了。(What we loved most about the Lenovo TAB 2 A7 is its simple, straightforward design. You'll find no revolutionary gimmicks, no "let's try this bold design scheme and see how it will be received by our users". Everything about it is as you'd expect it to be, where you expect it. It's nice to not be surprised, for a change.)
Reviewing Lenovo TAB 2 A7 - A Small Tablet With An Affordable Price
We were presented with the opportunity to review one of Lenovo's recent entries in the tablet market: the Lenovo TAB 2 A7. Lenovo is a company that stepped into the big league in 2005, with the acquisition of the IBM computer division, an important player on the digital market in the '80s and the '90s. Since then, they have specialized in perѕonal compυters, laptops, notebooks and they recently got into the mobile devices market. Lenoνo launched itѕ first tablet at the beginning of 2014. The model we tested іn this review, the Lenoνo TAB 2 A7, is prеtty young, having seen the light of day in January 2015. We tested it for abоut a week and we would like to share what we think abоut it, in this review:
Unboxing The Lenovo TAB 2 A7
The packaging Lenovo made for this tablet consists of a black cardboard box, roughly the width and height of the tablet itself, sealed with Lenovo's security sticker. The front side of the box shows a picture of the actual tablet, while the back side of the box gives some information about the tablet's specifications. The box's sides are solid black, offering no additional information.
As soon as you open the box and slide out the interior container, the first thing you see is the tablet itself, sitting on top of everything else.
Hidden under the tablet you will find the power-charger together with the microUSB charging and data cable and the Safety, Warranty & Quick Start Guide.
And this concludes the list of items you'll find in the TAB 2 A7 package.
Hardware Specifications
Lenovo chose a 7" IPS LCD display with a resolution of 600x1024 pixels for this tablet, at a pixel density of 170ppi. This is not one of the most crisp displays on the market, but given the price range this tablet fits into, it reproduces colors with a surprisingly vivid and natural look. The brightness is also high enough to satisfy most users.
On the inside, the tablet is powered by a quad-core Cortex A7 CPU running at 1.3 GHz on a Mediatek MT8382M chipset. It features 1GB of RAM memory, while the graphics are taken care of by the Mali-400MP2 GPU. The internal memory capacity is 8GB, which can be expanded by using an SD memory card of up to 32 GB.
The unit we had in for reviewing is a TAB 2 A7-30F, which means that in terms of connectivity, it bases itself solely on WLAN networks. Depending on the area you find yourself in, you may find other flavours of this tablet, namely the TAB 2 A7-30HC (WLAN + 3G and voice), the TAB 2 A7-30GC (WLAN + 2G and voice) or the TAB 2 A7-30H (WLAN + 3G only). The slot for the SIM card used on cellular networks is right beside the SD memory card slot.
The physical dimensions of this tablet are 189 x 105 x 9.3 mm (Height x Width x Thickness) or 7.44 x 4.13 x 0.37 inches. It weighs at about 269 g (or 9.49 oz), which files it into the light tablets category. The battery which the device operates on is rated at 3450 mAh, which may not seem much, but given that the components inside are not that power-hungry, you may want to think again.
The TAB 2 A7 comes with a 4.4.2 KitKat version of Android preinstalled. This is a fairly recent version of Android and offers most of the newer features of the popular operating system. The ROM powering this tablet is not as personalized or branded by Lenovo as you'd expect from a mobile device manufacturer, offering instead a pretty clean flavour of Android right from the start, close to what you'd see on a stock version of Android. However, Lenovo added its own launcher and made a few minor other changes to the stock Android.
In terms of image capture, the TAB 2 A7 tablet features a front-facing VGA 640x480 pixels camera and a rear-facing 1.9 megapixel camera, with a resolution of up to 1600x1200 pixels. As you'd expect from the VGA front camera, its quality is not top-notch, but it does its job well in video calls using Skype or any other video-call app. As for connectivity, you get a Wi-Fi adapter compatible only with 802.11 b/g/n networks (no 802.11ac support), the usual Bluetooth 4.0 module, the microUSB port used for charging and data transfer, the 3.5mm audio jack and the A-GPS module.
A notable feature is the Dolby audio support, which we must say, offers a pretty neat sound quality when you use better quality headphones.
The full list of specification can be found on Lenovo's website, on the product page: Lenovo TAB 2 A7-30 - Technical Details.
Using The Lenovo TAB 2 A7
The overall build of the tablet is pretty straightforward, with no unnecessary bezels or cut corners. The front of the device shows the front-facing VGA camera on the top-left corner, near the centered logo. On the right side of the tablet you'll find the volume rocker together with the power switch, the SD memory card slot and the SIM card slot are on the left side, the microphone sits on the bottom side, while the top side houses the two-speaker setup, the microUSB port and the 3.5mm audio jack. The nice thing about this chosen layout is that with the connectors on top of the device, you don't run any risk of damaging the device when using it while charging or with the headphones audio connector inserted.
The back of the device has a matte feeling to it, offering a nice grip while you hold it. The rear-facing 1.9 megapixel camera sits in the top-left corner of the device.
One thing we really cared about is that the SD memory card slot is covered by a protective rubbery lid that prevents dust from clogging up into the cavity and fits right in line with the tablet's back cover. That's always a nice feature to have.
While the 7" IPS LCD display is not one of the best looking displays you've seen on a tablet, it surely delivers. The picture is composed of vivid colors and it's bright enough to offer decent readability. The viewing angle is also wide enough so that the user isn't constrained by holding the device perfectly straight while using it.
In regard to available storage space, 8 GB of storage is not nearly enough for any modern mobile device user. Even with the fairly low resolution of 600x1024 pixels, which means that you don't have any reason for loading 1080p videos on it, you might want to pack some 720p movies for the holidays, maybe some music and a few games on the side. With 8 GB of space, out of which only about 5 GB are available to the user, you're not left with much choice to make. Luckily, with an SD memory card of up to 32GB, purchased separately, you can expand the storage space available, giving you the possibility of storing much more content on this device. Unfortunately, there are no other variants available for this tablet to offer more internal space available, so in terms of internal storage, those 8 GB plus the mentioned SD card are all you get.
The front-facing camera Lenovo chose to put on this device is intended only for video-calling. The picture quality it offers is poor and we don't recommend using it for taking any pictures whatsoever. The rear-facing camera is more appropriate for that, but in low-light conditions, it also delivers poor results. The fact that there's no flash light present truly restricts its performance to outdoor pictures, in well-lit environments. On the good side, though, it features an electronic stabilization system and also, an HDR shooting-mode which helps a lot with quality image and image noise.
Being an entry-level tablet, the TAB 2 A7's components don't need that much power to run. This means that the tablet holds its end of the bargain and lasts for a day of normal use without any problem, depending on what you usually need. Some internet browsing, some light games and maybe taking a few photos should not drain the battery that much. On the other hand, those components aren't made for intense gaming, so you probably shouldn't choose this tablet if you're looking for a device on which you can play that latest great-looking full-of-special-effects racing game. Even if the CPU and GPU are able to run it at a decent playable frame-rate, the battery won't survive for long and you might end up tying yourself to the wall, in the vicinity of the nearest power outlet.
What we loved most about the Lenovo TAB 2 A7 is its simple, straightforward design. You'll find no revolutionary gimmicks, no "let's try this bold design scheme and see how it will be received by our users". Everything about it is as you'd expect it to be, where you expect it. It's nice to not be surprised, for a change.
