Ray Hendon
Nov 10, 2010
The Galaxy Tab is now for sale at T-Mobile stores, and I was there early this morning to get some hands-on time with it.
My first impression when handed the Tab was how small and compact it was when compared with the iPad. It is small enough to be held in one hand, and it will fit in a back pocket or purse, but the idea of having it in my back pocket was immediately nixed by my practical self—if you carry it, a case or cover will be needed.
The build quality was what I expected from Samsung—it weighs .8lbs and felt solid in my hands. The screen looks great—high resolution for pictures that exceeds the quality of an iPad or most computer screens. A video from YouTube looked wonderfully crisp and clear in high definition. The Snapdragon processor does its job with dispatch.
Touch operations and screen adjustments to orientation are fast and seamless, and scrolling, even with the protective plastic sheet in place on the screen, is sensitive.
I tried a few applications. A Kindle reader comes installed. I established a WiFi connection, logged on to my Amazon account and immediately downloaded one of the books in my library. It was quick, and the book went immediately to the last page I had read. Good implementation by Amazon. I am confident that Nook and Kobo will have their own apps available for it soon.
The only downside I detected with the Kindle reader was that in landscape mode the screen shows only one column for the page. That makes the lines too long to read comfortably on the Tab, so for now, until Amazon addresses this inconvenience, it is best to hold it in the portrait mode for reading.
Amazon made this same mistake on their Android app, but it was fixed a month or so ago, and now it is my favorite eReading app on my Droid. I expect this to be addressed with an update, soon.
Another minus on the reader, however, is that I didn’t find the brightness and font adjustment controls for the time I had it. They are probably there, somewhere, but they are not in the same place they are for other Android devices.
There are a host of built in applications: calendar, contacts, maps,weather, etc. I counted about 20 built in apps. When I looked at the Android Market, there were more ready for download, but there were not the tens of thousands one finds on Android Smartphones. But, this will be addressed as soon as Android 3.0 is released. The current version on the Tab is 2.2.
The screen size is, to me, ok for what I do on this kind of device, at least for most of the time. While it is does not have as much real-estate available as the iPad, with its 9.56-inch screen, I found it entirely acceptable for everything but extended surfing. The browser on the Tab is detected as a mobile device, and this cuts the graphics presentations out of view, with a few, small exceptions.
This is a serious demerit for my use, and I did not enjoy the general surfing experience as much as I do on the iPad. There may be some work-arounds for the problem, but even if there are, a 7-inch screen can’t show as much as a 10-inch, so there will be some sideways scrolling to endure for many web sites. I will have to give this problem some more time to investigate before concluding anything definitive about the suitability of surfing with the Tab.
The WiFi connectivity is hale and hearty. The T-Mobile store does not provide a WiFi signal, but the salesperson got an HTC Android phone into the hotspot mode and I was able to use it for surfing on the Tab. Speed was excellent—YouTube HD videos played well.
The version of the Tab I was using also has the 4G receiving capability for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network, but I couldn’t check it out since the personnel at the store did not know the password for this service. I don’t think they were entirely ready for the Tab.
The Tab is sold at T-Mobile with the requirement of a two year contract for data services if you want it at a reduced price. The salesperson said $40 a month for data, but I asked about smaller data plans and they found a 250 MByte plan for $24 a month. You can also get it in a prepaid, no-contract account, but you pay $200 more for the device. To me, $599 is too expensive for this gadget.
The on-screen keyboard is better than a smartphone but not as large as the iPad’s. But, I found it ok for doing small things. If serious typing is required, an external keyboard will be available before long.
Samsung has promised a WiFi version only, and I think that would be a good addition. They haven’t set a price, however, so we must wait for this promise to mature.
The bottom line for the Galaxy Tab is that it probably will give the iPad a serious run, but perhaps not right away. The biggest limitation for it now is the lack of apps. Some of the tens of thousands of apps available for Android Smartphones have been blown up for a 7-inch screen, but only a handful. Until Android 3.0 is released, it is going to be slim pickings for apps, and apps are a huge part of the usability of any tablet device.
Perhaps by mid 2011 the Tab will be closer to par with the iPad, but that is yet to be seen. All the flash playing, front and rear facing cameras and other features of the Tab will attract some users, but in my view, to be fully competitive the browser issue and deficit in apps needs to be addressed before that happens.
“A great read is a few seconds away,” proclaims the Sony Reader Daily Edition screen as it tries to connect to the Sony store–or to do anything else involving the unit’s wireless Internet access. Unfortunately, in my tests, I had to wait a lot longer than a few seconds.