The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a feature-packed Android tablet, it’s the first Android tablet that can rival Apple’s iPad. Samsung’s done a commendable job distinguishing the Tab from the others with it’s design, hardware, and build quality.
DESIGN
With a slick black and white-styled body and a bright and shiny LCD touchscreen, the Samsung Galaxy Tab gets off to a good start in that it looks absolutely fabulous. The body is entirely made of plastic, this enables it to stay solid and pretty light.
On the front of the device there are four touch buttons, one for home, one for options, a back button and one for search. On the top of the device there is a 3.5mm headphone jack. The on/off button is on the right hand side next to the volume controls and further down that left hand side there are slots for a SIM card and a microSD expansion card. On the bottom of the device there is the charging and docking connector. And on the left side there is a microphone.
FEATURES
The Samsung Galaxy Tab is powered by a 1GHz processor, full Flash support thanks to Android 2.2, dual cameras, support for up to 32GB of storage and WiFi / 3G connectivity.
Screen
The 7-inch display is just a fairly standard TFT LCD. It’s bright and colourful enough, and the WSVGA screen resolution (1024×600) is only slightly lower than that of the 9.7-inch iPad (so that’s 260ppi versus 132ppi) which means that the display on the Galaxy Tab is a lot sharper.
Camera
The Galaxy Tab comes with two built-in cameras: one 3 megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and also a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video conferencing. The 3 megapixel cam with LED flash on the back is pretty good, it did take some decent still shots. The flash was helpful when taking some indoor dark shots and the outdoor pics are quite sharp. The camera interface consists of the standard Android controls, and per usual it handled auto-focus and white balance. The panoramic mode was great for taking wide-angle shots. There is also a continuous mode, which will take a sequence of nine shots.
Connectivity
This is intended to be an on-the-go device which means 3G connectivity is central to its functionality. Alongside this 3G connectivity sits 802.11n Wi-Fi which means streaming videos when you’re connected to a wireless network will be easy, also the Galaxy Tab got Bluetooth 3.0 for transferring files and streaming to external devices like headphones and speakers.
Storage
The Galaxy Tab does come in two different versions. There’s a 16GB version and also a 32GB version. The microSD slot can add up to another 32GB of additional storage.
Multitasking
Multitasking on the Samsung Galaxy Tab is amazing. The device was able to handle having multiple apps open at the same time, and switching between them, without slow down. If you hit the Home button while you’re in an app, you’ll be taken back to your homescreen while the App stays running in the background.
This means you can play music while browsing the web and checking your emails. It also means you can have frequently used Apps all open at the same time without having to repeatedly load and close them.
On the homescreen there’s a very useful ‘Active applications’ button which, when pressed, gives you information about all the apps which are currently running on the device.
Battery Life
The Galaxy Tab’s battery is pretty good. After surfing the web and reading on the Tab for about a day with just WiFi on and at about 50 percent brightness, the battery is at about 30 percent.
Usability
The Galaxy Tab a heavenly joy to use. In terms of day-to-day use. Since i got the Galaxy Tab it has already taken control of my digital life. In fact, because of the mail support and display quality, i don’t have the need to open up my laptop, unless I need to do some high end stuff.
The Tab is really 8 devices rolled into one: Internet Browser, Multi Media Player, Gaming Console, Phone, Organizer, Messaging Client, Mobile Computer (documents etc), E-book reader.
Browsing and Flash
The browsing experience on the Tab is rock solid pages loaded quickly over WiFi and scrolling / zooming on most pages was snappy. However, when loading a few heavy sites i did notice the scrolling to be a bit jittery and not as smooth as on the iPad. But, obviously, the Tab differs from other tablets with its full Flash support. Thanks to its 1GHz processor, the experience isn’t as slow as i expected, but i can’t really say i took advantage of the feature all that much.
Media Performance
The Galaxy Tab is compatible with lots of different file formats for both audio and video. You’ve got all your standard must-haves in there, including DivX, Xvid, MPEG4, WMV and H.264. Audio compatibility extends to MP3, WAV, eAAC+, AC3 and FLAC files.
Conclusion
I like the Galaxy Tab, i really do. The Android interface is fantastic. The screen is bright and colourful. Watching videos and listening to music is easy, as is transferring content to and from the device.
The Android Market enables you to customize the device beyond recognition, and so you’ll never get bored of it. The size has its benefits, too. It’s a lot more pocket and bag friendly. Flash support is a major advantage over the iPad, and the ability to surf online video is very well received.
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