SINGAPORE — There is no doubt that Samsung has improved its Android tablet offerings dramatically over the past few years. The Korean chaebol has launched a plethora of tablets under its Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab branding to cater to user tastes, and the Galaxy Tab 3 is the latest to join that growing family of gadgets.

Despite sporting a plastic case like most Samsung products, the 8-inch Tab 3 review unit we received is one good-looking machine with its iPad Mini-like form factor. It is also only 7.4mm thick and 318g in weight, making it one of the sleekest and lightest tablets on the market today.

Under the hood, the Tab 3 packs Samsung’s Exynos 1.5 GHz dual core processor with 1.5GB of RAM, along with 16GB of storage (expandable to 64GB) and a 4,450 mAh battery.

The tablet’s performance was good — but not great. I feel Samsung should move away from its proprietary TouchWiz user interface with unnecessary features such as Smart Scroll if it wants to give users a better, faster tablet experience with the vanilla Android. The Tab 3 was also laggy at times, especially when running high-definition games, but that is par for the course for most non-Nexus Android tablets.

In terms of battery life, the Tab 3 will last for about two days on a single charge if you use it to watch movies, read emails and play games — which, again, is the minimum standard for today’s Android tablets.

Pictures, videos and text are also brilliantly clear on the Tab 3’s 1280 x 800 resolution display. However, there are a handful of tablets of similar size (such as the new Nexus 7 by Asus) that boast superior specs in terms of display quality and are worth the additional cost.

The Tab 3 is not going to revolutionise the Android tablet market, but its decent specs and reliability make it an easy choice for those looking for an inexpensive way to work and be entertained on the go. But if you want a more high-end device, I recommend waiting for Samsung’s next line of Note tablets.

The 8-inch Tab 3 is now available in white at S$668 for the LTE version and S$468 for the Wi-Fi version (both without contract).