I have been using this tab for 2 weeks now and I have been
very satisfied with it. So lets get started:
Overview
At just 8.6mm, it is 0.2mm thinner than the
iPad
2. And you know what? At 565g it's also 36g lighter. Yup! That is the first
thing you will notice with this tab, it is very very thin. It even puts the
iPad to shame. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 7000mAh battery for
all-day tablet use. The Apple
iPad
2 battery is 6600mAh. In my use so far, I have had not had any battery
issues. I sometimes am surprised at the usage I put it through and it still
manages a whole day. Most tablets promise good battery life these days but
don't live up to their word. The Galaxy Tab definitely lives up to it.
The 10.1 also has a four-way accelerometer and gyro . That
may seem like a minor upgrade, but most of the games on the Galaxy Tab 10.1
responded faster to quick turns and screen rotations, and generally worked
better for controlling games. It also has great side speakers for playing music
and movie audio, and plays smooth 1080p video.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 matches the features of other
Android tabs: built-in GPS, support for Adobe Flash in the browser (you still
have to download it on your own), 1290 x 800 screen resolution, Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi, the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor and Android tablet app.
Hardware
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 does have, yes, a 10.1 inch screen. The
Power and Volume Rocker buttons are at the top, while there are two speakers on
each side. The 3.5 mm headphone jack is also at the top and if you get the 3G
version, the sim slot as well. At the bottom of the Tab is proprietary USB
port. It somewhat looks like an iPad or iPhone jack but its not the same.
The Tab has two camera, the shooter at the back is 3MP with
flash, while the front one is 2MP. The quality of these cameras is pretty
decent in good lighting but you don't want this to be your primary camera.
Believe me.
In the Box: comes the USB wire, a 250V charger, obviously
the usage booklet, and a pair of Samsung headphones and spare earbuds. These
headphones have surprisingly good quality and unlike some HTC headphones, don't
have any magnet connections to each other. There have been cases where HTC headphones
get stuck to each other.
Over with the good, let me talk about some bads in Hardware.
The Galaxy Tab, unlike other tabs (
Transformer) does not have a slot for adding more memory
through an SD card. My version comes with 16GB of memory which is more than
enough for me. But some people prefer to add more space rather than deleting
stuff so I can understand why this would be a problem. There is also no USB
port, like some other tabs, for using external keyboards or even a USB flash
drive. There is a keyboard dock by Samsung which fits into the Tabs USB slot.
The dock currently retails for about HK$555 from
Expansys online. Of course if you know how to navigate
your way through Sham Shui Po, you will find a much cheaper alternative :)
Software
The Galaxy Tab is running Honeycomb version 3.1. This is the
tablet version of Google's Android.
Samsung has of course added its Touch Wiz skin on top but it
is very light and it actually adds onto it rather than taking anything away
from android.
The software is smooth and fluid. It has a very futuristic
feel to it, much like Tron if you've seen the film, all neon blue and
shiny. I really like this design.
Things you need to know about the software:
There are many technical aspects about the software but I am
only going to stick to what I think are the essentials.
Basic App Navigation:
Once you get to your homescreen. You can notice certain
things. At the top right corner is where you can access the app drawer and add
wigets to your homescreen. By pressing on the +, you can see all the options
and stuff that you can add to your home-screen.
Multi-tasking
Multi-Tasking is a very welcome feature on the Tab for me.
If you press the 3rd button at the bottom of your screen, a scrollable bar
appears as in the picture above. You can scroll through it and even see the
last 10 apps that you used to switch back to them.
Quick bar
Another VERY welcome feature added by Samsung is the
quick bar as in the picture. While on any screen, you can press the upward
facing arrow and 6 consistent widgets open up at the bottom of the screen. You
don't need to switch screens to view these. They appear right on top of
whatever app you are on and you can navigate through them. The 6 apps that
appear are Task Manager, Calendar, World Clock, Pen Memo, Calculator and Music.
I personally love the calendar, music and calculator app.
As you can in this picture, I had whatsapp running and I
needed to check certain dates and the calendar pops right on the screen. You
can even type or interact with the app behind it and it becomes transparent.
So moving on, the app drawer is also slightly different when
compared to Android handsets. At the top you have all apps, and then you have
My Apps. This shows you all the apps that you downloaded. Then on the right
side you have the shortcut to get straight to the Android Market.
Just like before, as with the good, there is also bad. If
you are a first time tablet user, and don't have a very good handle on new
tech, you should not try your hand at this. You will get frustrated. A lot of
times, the Honeycomb OS is not as fluid, atleast when compared to the iPad. It
also requires some getting used to, so if you don't right away like it, give it
some time.
*I had to point out this one setting on the Tab which I
find very interesting and it is also unique to it. The stock Video Player in
the tab is very powerful. It can play a lot of formats and even play HD upto
1080p. The most interesting thing added to this stock player is the outdoor
visibility mode. I haven't seen any reviewers talk about this which I find
surprising. If you are outdoors in the sun, its obvious that the screen quality
takes quite a hit. However if you go to settings and turn on outdoor
visibility, the tab adjusts colors in a way that greatly improves the quality
and you can see everything clearly. I really like this setting which turns this
tab into a more media centric device which you can take outdoors.
Benchmarks
I ran some benchmarks on the tablet just for comparison's
sake and here are the results. At the top is of course Asus Transformer Prime
which is not yet released. That is a quad core tablet so of course it deserves
the place there. Under it is the Galaxy Nexus. Basically the only tablet there
is the Moto Xoom. I have watched many reviews and even handled the Xoom myself,
and trust me, the benchmarks are completely off. It is nowhere near this kind
of quality. The xoom is very laggy and has very bad battery life.
Conclusion
The tab is a very well constructed piece of tech and one
that I think is rightly called the top Android tab of the year. Apple has been
suing Samsung over this tabs design left and right so you know they did
something right. It's thin and light structure make it very portable, while at
the same time the large screen and clear display make it very usable. The
software is smooth and crisp, and the features that it provides are very
extensive. Many iPad owners will be surprised at how little their tabs can do when
they check this one out.
Final Verdict
If you are an android fan and want to buy an android tablet,
I suggest you definitely give this a serious look. If you are a first time
android user but are someone who is tech savvy, then again definitely give this
a look. If you easily get confused by tech and like everything to be simple,( I
have some friends like that) do not get it. Stick to Apple. It all depends on
your own personal needs. I like to read news, edit microsoft word, excel and
powerpoints, do all kinds of other software updates so this tablet is my kind
of thing. Apple is too restrictive for me. Samsung has done a great job of
simplifying the outlook of android for mainstream consumers and I really think
this tablet is a great step towards showing the general public that android
tablets can be hit mainstream markets too.
If you guys are still confused about which tablet you should
buy, and whether you should buy a tablet at all, leave me a message or comment and I will try to recommend a tablet according to your needs.
Hope this was useful. :-)! Take care everyone!
