Samsung was one of the first Android tablet makers with the Galaxy Tab. It was really beautiful with a conveniently sized seven inches display. Apart from that, it also had 3G support, Adobe Flash, and Android 2.2 OS. It had everything that the iPad had and was the only real threat to the Apple’s tablet.
However, people decided to stick with Apple iPad and hence Samsung’s product wasn’t a big success. One big reason behind this was the lack of Wi-Fi only version. To care of that, the Korean company is now out with 16GB Wi-Fi only version for luring tablet enthusiasts.
It is a bit disappointing to see this tablet now. The manufacturer should have introduced this along with the 3G model itself. Also, Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb is now out and hence the attention has been shifted to the newer OS. That said, I still think that the Galaxy Tab is still the best performing seven inch tablet devices in the market right now looking at the low price of Rs. 24,500. Compared to this, the BlackBerry PlayBook and the Apple iPad are more expensive.
Design
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi is 7.5 inches tall, 0.5 inch thick, and 4.7 inches wide. It has a solid paperback like solid feel and you can hold it comfortably in one hand. Unlike iPad, I didn’t have to put this device on my laps or cross my legs while using it. The Galaxy Tab is more like a big Android phone and it doesn’t involve any learning curve for navigating through the menus, typing e-mails, or browsing the Web.
Ports and jacks
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi looks beautiful with its glossy screen. Above the display, there is a 1.3 megapixels front facing camera and it is great for video chatting through the bundled Qik Plus app. On the bottom, there are the standard Android buttons for search, back, home, and menu. On the top, there is a headphones jack and you get in-ear headphones along with this tablet. On the side, you have the power and volume buttons and close to this, there is the microSD card slot. Bottom edge has pair of built-in speakers and dock connector; the latter works with bundled USB adapter and the power brick. It can be used for accessories too like video output adapter and keyboard dock.
The rear side has a three megapixels camera with integrated flash. This camera can record content at 720×480 pixels at 30 fps.
Screen
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi has a protective Corning Gorilla glass layer on the top. The screen has a resolution of 1,024×600 pixels and it is the same as that of the iPad 2. But this display is half the size and hence pixel density is tighter. There is capacitive multitouch technology used here which can Apple iPad both in usefulness and response time.
Unlocking the Tab will take you to a familiar looking home screen having floating Google search bar and there are dock icons for Web browser, email and an app drawer. Holding the Tab in either landscape or portrait model will automatically re-orient the screen courtesy of the accelerometer which is built-in. There are five home screens out of the box and you can scroll through them by flicking right or left.
Two best features
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi’s two best features are smaller size (it is smaller than the iPad and hence more convenient to use) and Android 2.2 undiluted experience. You get to install a lot of third party apps and there is also the Android Market for installing all the goodies. However, Google recently released Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS made especially for tablets. Android 2.2 is made for smartphones and Samsung put it in the Galaxy Tab because Honeycomb wasn’t available back then.
Apps
The big problem with Android tablet apps are that most apps aren’t made for the bigger screens of the tablets. This complaint is applicable to all Android tablets. Most apps are the bigger print versions of the smartphone versions. If you want tablet-optimized apps, it is recommended to that you get an Android 3.0 device. That said, there is still something to like the Galaxy Tab like GPS. This included navigation app does a pretty good job as in-car navigation device by offering you turn-by-turn directions, voice search (through the integrated microphone), and points of interest.
Adobe Flash 10.1 compatibility
This is a big advantage that the Galaxy Tab has over the Apple iPad. You get to play the Web Flash video content in the browser itself. One hiccup here is that the OS here is v2.2 and hence most Website treat this device as a smartphone and mobile version of the content instead of the desktop one. You can get third party browsers like the Firefox but let me tell you that the Flash experience won’t be the same as that on the Android 3.0 siblings.
Multimedia
In my testing, the audio and video performance was quite satisfactory. The content can be transferred either through a microSD card or USB cable. The new content get scanned immediately by the device. Samsung has a huge experience in making media players and it shows on the Tab with goodies like video bookmarking, audio enhancement settings, and a plethora of video stills for skipping to the desired spot in your movie.
Galaxy Tab as an e-book reader
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi can be used as an alternative to the e-book reader. The e-books fit on the screen perfectly well. The only drawback is that the battery life is relatively low as compared to dedicated e-book readers and hence you won’t get countless hours of reading time.
Productivity
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi has e-mail and calendar apps for Gmail and Exchange accounts. I was also glad to see that the manufacturer had ThinkFree Office app pre-installed and through this, you can view and edit any of the Microsoft Office docs. But if you are in to serious document editing, I will recommend you to invest in a Netbook instead.
iPad or Galaxy Tab?
Apple iPad is still the best option amongst the two right now and it is mainly because of Apple’s huge catalog of games and apps which no other manufacturer has been able to imitate. Android Market has come a long way since its inception but it is still not on par with that of Apple.
Conclusion
Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi is a full fledged tablet having a great performance and good screen quality. But in spite of the attractive price, I feel that Honeycomb tablets are much better than this. The Galaxy Tab feels like a half-baked cake and it is seriously outdated.
Specifications
| General | 2G Network |
| Chassis | 190.1 x 120.5 x 12 mm dimensions 385 grams weight |
| Display | TFT capacitive touchscreen 16M colors 600 x 1024 pixels resolution 7.0 inches screen size Gorilla Glass display TouchWiz UI Multi-touch input method Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate Three-axis gyro sensor Touch-sensitive controls Proximity sensor for auto turn-off |
| Sound Alert types | Loudspeaker with stereo speakers 3.5mm jack |
| Memory | Practically unlimited entries and fields for phonebook 16 GB storage memory 592 MB RAM 512 MB ROM microSD card slot Expandable memory up to 32GB |
| Data | No GPRS No EDGE No 3G Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot v2.1 Bluetooth with A2DP No infrared port v2.0 USB |
| Camera | 3.15 MP primary camera 2048x1536 pixels resolution Autofocus LED flash Geo-tagging Video recording at 720x480 at 30 fps 1.3 MP secondary camera |
| Features | Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo), upgradable to v2.3 OS 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU TI OMAP 3630 chipset PowerVR SGX530 GPU Email, IM, Push Mail, RSS messaging options HTML browser No radio Black and grey colour options No GPS Java MIDP emulator Social networking integration Full HD video playback TV-out Supported video formats - MP4, DivX, WMV, H.264, H.263 Supported audio formats - MP3, WAV, eAAC+, AC3, FLAC Organizer Image/video editor Thinkfree Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF) Google Search, Gmail, Maps YouTube, Google Talk, Calendar, Picasa integration Readers/Media/Music Hub Adobe Flash 10.1 support Predictive text input (Swype) |
| Battery | Standard lithium polymer 4,000 mAh |
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