Gadgetblurb

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the first real competitor to the iPad and a formidable one at that.  It has been a long time coming since it was first announced and it will be very interesting to see if it can challenge the iPad with any kind of sales competition.  This is the first in a large group of Android-based tablets that will hit the market soon.  So, how does it stack up to the iPad?  This post will look at the strengths and weaknesses of the device and try to compare it the iPad in some respects.  As most of my reviews do, I really don’t go into too much detail on specs, but will try to provide honest feedback on the things I like and things I dislike about the device.

The Galaxy is a 7″ form factor that was an interesting choice for the first tablet to truly compete with the iPad.  The iPad is a 10″ device so it is surprising to see Samsung not go directly after the same size device.  The price point for the Galaxy is $599 in the USA and has a few data options for internet access.  The entry level price point for data access is $20 for 1GB and $35 for 3GB per month.  This is a month to month plan so, like AT&T and the iPad, you are not locked into any multi-year agreements.  That being said, this data plan is $10 per month more than the iPad on AT&T, but has an extra GB of bandwidth, so it will be interesting to see if they can compete.

One of the first things that I did when I picked up my test device was to put it in my front pocket.  It fit!  I was wearing slacks that had a pretty big pocket, so dont try to put this in a pocket in a pair of skinny jeans!  With a 1024×600 TFT WSVGA screen, it has plenty of real estate to browse the web, play games and watch videos.  Although it doesn’t have the Galaxy S AMOLED screen like its phone counterpart, the screen still looks quite nice.  The Tab also has black or white plastic back, so it is a bit lighter than the iPad, which as we know has a metal back.  Overall I liked the form factor, it never really seemed to be too small to do any of the things I normally do on my iPad, but I do think 10″ offers more comfortable room to play.

From a software perspective, it runs Android 2.2 (froyo) and isn’t really all that different from its mobile counterpart.  At this time, there are no real special tablet-based apps like there are with the iPad.  It really is a blown up version of the Galaxy S.  It does have pretty much the same processor as the iPad at 1Ghz, so it does perform adequately opening and running applications with a few exceptions I will discuss later.  One of the things hardware wise that I did like to see was the dual-cameras for both taking pictures and video chatting.  This is one thing that a lot of people hoped that the iPad would have, but doesn’t yet.

The Tab has both built-in 3G as well as Wireless N wifi.  You can’t buy the Tab without 3G, so there are no alternatives to compare to the wifi-only iPad.  Samsung also announced that they are going to produce a 16 and 32GB Tab, but the 16GB is the only one to hit the market thus far.  One of the things the Tab has over the iPad is an additional micro-SD card slot so you can expand the storage if you need up to 64GB.

While the Tab does have a fast processor, I wouldn’t say that it is as smooth as the iPad.  It lagged a bit doing some of the more simple gestures and actions, but this will probably be addressed with future OS upgrades.  As with its phone counterparts, the Tab comes with Google Maps/Navigation, which really does blow away the maps implementation on the iOS devices.  As far as battery life is concerned, it isn’t close to the performance of the iPad.  I was able to get about 5 hours use before it needed recharging and it was definitely not continuous use.  The battery performance issues that plague Android devices is evident in the Tab as well.

One of the things that I didnt like about the Tab was the fact that it is not an OS optimized for tablets.  Also, as stated above, the applications in the Market are not optimized for a 7 inch screen.  The result is some blurry interfaces in applications that made it look a bit like running iPhone apps on the iPad.  Perhaps this is why Samsung chose to limit the screen size and resolution?  It would be nice if Google created a Tablet-based OS and developers began created apps optimized for the larger real estate.

One of the things I really liked about the Tab was the notification bar had the toggle switches for power, wifi, bluetooth and GPS built-in.  This was very cool and perhaps we will see this in the phone versions soon.  I also really liked the email/calendar implementation on the Tab.  It is slick and the UI is very nice.  It made it feel like a truly customized interface for email and rivals that of the iPad.  Another thing I liked about the Tab is Flash support, although the implementation wasn’t perfect as I did have some trouble with a few sites.  But it is better than nothing!?

So, would I buy the Tab?  In a word, no.  It is just a big Android phone to me without the phone (although it does have a dialer and you could theoretically use it as a phone, but you would look pretty silly with one of these against your head).  There are no real tweaks or modifications to the Android OS that make it feel like a tablet.  Apple really did set the bar by having increased performance, amazing integrated tweaks and the ability for developers to create tablet-specific apps.  Until Google puts together a tablet-based OS for Android, I believe all Android tablets will play second fiddle to the iPad.  However, I do believe that this was a pretty good first go at an Android tablet and I am excited to see whats in store for the future.  That being said, if you are a Android phone user and have a lot of apps purchased, you may like the addition of the Tab to your Android collection.

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