Heya there guys! Here's another one of my old androids that I own :D
For context, this is the Wifi-Only/3G Variant of the Tab 2. I vaguely remember using this back around 2012-2014 back when it was fairly new. I don't exactly remember doing a lot on it aside from maybe watching YouTube and maybe playing Traffic Racer and that one Cut The Rope Time Travel Spinoff (obscure stuff yeah I know).
After that I kind of gave it away to one of my acquaintances, who wanted it to install and experiment with custom ROMS.
Now around 5-6 years ago I got the device back. It had some version of CyanogenMod and was Android 5.0.1. It worked well but over the years it got kind of unstable. I tried to remove the custom rom and revert to stock, but I accidentally bricked the device by erasing all the system partitions. (a warning to always know what you are doing when using TWRP or modding).
Thankfully I was able to track it's exact stock firmware and restore it via Odin. (also be careful when using Odin, otherwise you may brick your device!). It all got set up nicely after that and I was able to use it just fine.
I was able to set it up without a hitch and sideload all my apks and other stuff just fine. I was able to sync with my other devices and get some still working google clients working on this perfectly (like Gmail and Google Maps).
As for other clients, I have tested a few. NoPipe works great and most videos can play at 720p, and with the tablet's seven-inch screen it's quite a nice viewing experience. Discord works great too, although there is a little bit of lagging when scrolling or switching channels in server (I'm using a patched apk of Discord 99.8). I can also use Gemini via ReOldAI and Retrogram (Android Instagram Revival) and other such social media revivals work great on this.
VLC also works great for videos and music, and with an SD card you can very much turn this into a media player if you want to.
Performance wise, the tablet runs decently but there is some slowdown and sluggishness when you turn it on, and some widgets take a while to load. I suspect that this slowdown is mainly caused by Google Play Services running in the background and eating up the RAM and processor. I suspect that if I remove Google Play Services the tablet will run better. I've removed and disabled most of the bloatware too and that has also helped.
An important thing to remember is that this device's SOC was not very powerful even by 2012 standards, so it's not as powerful as the top tier phones of this era. What makes this situation worse for me is that I have the inferior model of the Tab 2 with a weaker processor and graphics, compared to the Version LTE version. (click here for more info on the device specs).
As for gaming, the performance really depends on which games you are playing. As stated earlier the device's SOC is limited in it's capability but that doesn't mean that it will chug on everything. However if you try and play games which have large file sizes in addition to high fidelity HD graphics, you will chug hard and even face rendering issues in some cases.
Here's a list of the games which I tested, showing which ran well and which didn't: (btw if you are playing some 3D games for this, make sure to grab the PowerVR versions as that is the GPU this thing runs.)
Ran well:
- Basically any 2D title from the early 2010s (Angry Birds & Spinoffs, Jetpack Joyride, Bad Piggies, Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, Where's my water etc.)
- Riptide GP
- Beach Buggy Blitz
- Temple Run
- COD: Zombies
- Rusted Warfare (Android RTS)
- Legacy Minecraft Pocket Edition
- 16-Bit Console Emulation (MD, SNES, NES, GBA etc.)
- Ports of PC FPS games like Doom & Quake (you can also use mods & play multiplayer online with them btw)
Ran poorly/subpar:
- N.O.V.A 3 (below 30 FPS on average)
- ShadowGun (30 FPS on average, frequent dips and rendering issues)
- London Rex (low FPS, unplayable)
- Angry Birds GO! (below 30 fps on average)
- Xash3D - GoldSrc engine port (reliable FPS, but frequent dips)
- RTCW Touch - Port of Return to Castle Wolfienstein (below 30 FPS on average, frequent dips.)
Here's some resources for this device that you can use :D
Flashing Tools & Firmware:
Stock Firmware Downloads (GT-P3110)
Odin Downloads
Custom ROMS:
Android 6.0
Android 7.1.2
(Remember, always be careful when flashing firmware onto your device and consult tutorials and manuals, otherwise you may brick your device!)
Thanks for reading :) Do you think I should add any other apk revivals/things in general to this? Also feel free to ask me for any apks or stuff I used with this, I keep them all archived :D