Tablet Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab

Great HDin a Tab

Tablet Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab

by Hedirman Supian

05:55 AM Dec 24, 2010
Samsung's Galaxy Tab ($998) boggles the mind quite a bit.

The seven-inch device might seem four times bigger than your smartphone but it can still make calls. Yes, despite how absurd it might look (Tip: Use a wireless headset).

This Android-based tablet - running Froyo, or version 2.2 - is probably the first credible challenger to the Apple iPad. In terms of hardware, it has a slight edge over the iPad, thanks to its relatively diminutive form factor, which is easier and lighter (at 380g) to hold in the hands. There are dual cameras so you can take pictures or conduct video conferencing. There's 16GB of built-in storage which can be expanded up to 32GB via the microSD slot.

The industrial design is decent enough but not quite drool-worthy with its plastic enclosure that smudges easily.

The Tab's 1GHz processor makes surfing, gaming and high-definition multimedia playback a breeze but we can't help feeling that the capacitive touchscreen lacks the responsiveness we're used to on other major touchscreen-based smartphones and tablets.

Yes, you can visit YouTube and play Flash videos in their entirety but it takes a lot of horsepower (and with that, battery power) to run them decently. Although Flash compatibility is a nice-to-have feature, we find that most Flash content online isn't quite suited for touchscreen input. For instance, it is a drag, literally, to scrub through a video using YouTube's Flash player. It keeps stopping and resetting playback instead.

The Android interface on the Tab seems uninspired - it just seems like a bigger smartphone, not a tablet. The majority of apps downloaded from the Android Market will be simply scaled up in size. For now, the tablet experience isn't distinct enough on the Galaxy Tab from one that you could have on a smartphone.

Still, it's early days yet in the tablet era, and Samsung has its work cut out for it. The Galaxy Tab would serve well for those who fancy Android in a slightly larger form factor. But they might need to wait a while before the mobile operating system and its slew of applications make full use of the bigger form factor. Hedirman Supian

Source: www.todayonline.com