Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review
Samsung Galaxy Tab (16GB)
As thin as the iPad 2 and even lighter, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the sexiest Honeycomb tablet we’ve seen.
It has a 3-megapixel back camera and a 2-megapixel front camera, and powerful dual speakers.
But the lack of ports on the tablet will be a problem for some and the plastic back leaves it feeling less solid than the iPad 2.
Sleek, sexy, and light, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 gets as close to the iPad 2 as any Android tablet before it.Galaxy Tab Design and features :
First thing that struck us upon taking the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 out of its box was its slim profile. In fact, when it’s lying next to the iPad 2 we honestly can’t tell which tablet is thicker and unfortunately we don’t have a micrometer handy to get down into the business of microns.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs 1.24 pounds, compared with the iPad 2′s 1.32 pounds.Here’s a handy chart to illustrate the size differences between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other recent tablets.
| Acer Iconia Tab A500 | Asus Eee Pad Transformer | Motorola Xoom | Apple iPad 2 | T-Mobile G-Slate | Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight in pounds | 1.66 | 1.52 | 1.62 | 1.34 | 1.38 | 1.24 |
| Width in inches (landscape) | 10.2 | 10.7 | 9.8 | 9.5 | 9.6 | 10.1 |
| Height in inches | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.6 | 7.3 | 5.8 | 6.9 |
| Depth in inches | 0.51 | 0.51 | 0.5 | 0.34 | 0.49 | 0.34 |
| Side bezel width in inches (landscape) | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
The iPad 2′s school of “sexy tablet building”, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has one of the cleanest designs we’ve seen in a tablet. From the front – 10.1-inch screen is surrounded by its 0.8 inch black bezel and a silver aluminum outline at the edge. In the top middle sits its 2-megapixel front facing camera.
On the top edge from left to right are the power – sleep button, volume rocker, and headphone jack. A speaker adorns the right and left sides and the universal connection port is found on the bottom edge, right beside a microphone pinhole.
There are no USB and HDMI ports. And, try as we might, we couldn’t find ports for either SD cards or SIM cards. We are hoping Samsung’s final release version will make finding the ports a lot easier.
The back of the Galaxy Tab sports a 3-megapixel camera at the top and a plain white back. It’s the feel of the plastic back that is the most disappointing aspect of the Tab 10.1′s design. It doesn’t feel as solid as the iPad 2, and as a result, doesn’t feel as comfortable in our hands. Still, despite its 10.1-inch screen, the tablet never felt the least bit bulky.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a Google Experience tablet, meaning it uses the base version of Honeycomb 3.1, with no customizations to its interface; however, Samsung does include its Samsung Apps, um, app. Samsung Apps gives you access to the company’s own application store.
Performance and battery life
While the internals remain the same here as on the Limited Edition build (1GHz Tegra 2, 1280 x 800 resolution display, front- and rear-facing cameras), something’s changed with Android 3.1. Google claimed that the newest build of Honeycomb would perform even faster than 3.0, and in practice, things did seem to operate at a subtly brisker pace.
Animations were a pinch quicker, and transitions were ever-so-slightly faster. Web browser performance was noticeably better, although we did see a few videos load up in a smaller window while the same video expanded out to fill the screen within Android 3.0.