The Samsung Galaxy Tab
Since its inauguration in April, 2010, Apple’s iPad has pretty much taken over the market when it comes to personal tablets. It is reputed to account for over 90% of worldwide tablet sales. It is a mighty monster among miniscule mice. But now we have a new competitor in the mix in the Samsung Galaxy Tab. It is time for a change in government.
Introduced in November, 2010, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is a small, sprightly challenger to the Apple iPad and the emerging Dell Streak. It addresses the faults of the iPad but introduces a few bugs of its own. As the first of its family, however, a few quirks and hitches are to be expected.
The Galaxy is a 7-inch tablet PC, rectangular with a glossy black surface and a smooth rounded white back. It is portable and weighs 13 oz, easily stashed away in a handbag, purse, backpack, a large jacket or pants. It is designed for multimedia use such as gaming, reading, listening to music and even watching movie. A vibrant 7-inch LCD touch display screen with an incredible 1024 x 600 pixel resolution packs enough jounce for all the above activities, and may use a Samsung Galaxy Tab case and Samsung Galaxy screen protector. The screen is responsive but slightly spastic, and is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. There are only two physical buttons: a volume rocker and power on/off button, both on the right-hand side. The design also includes a microSD slot and a headphone jack. Built with high-quality Corning Gorilla glass, the Samsung Galaxy will take a lot of impact.
Many thanks to Froyo, the Galaxy Tab’s operating system. Running on a slightly skinned version of an upgradable Android 2.2 OS and utilizing a 1GHZ processor, the Galaxy is a quick and nimble multi-tasking machine, equipped with 512 MBs of RAM and 16 GBs of internal memory. In contrast to the iPad, the Galaxy Tab is able to multitask and Adobe Flash. 3G Wi-Fi and cellular browsing speed is usable, but occasionally irritating. Prices vary by monthly memory and carrier. However, there are a few under-the-hood wrinkles than need to be ironed out. Froyo was never optimized for personal tablet use, so certain apps, online video formats, and other files dwell somewhere in limbo between personal PC and smart phone. Technical service and support is limited as well. Many of these problems are supposed to be solved with future optimized versions of Android.
Delicious goodies come standard with the Samsung Galaxy. It boasts a 3.2 MP front- and rear-facing camera for point-and-shoot photography and Qik voice chatting. Its main competitors have no camera, period. Granted, with low maximum resolutions and little customizability, both cameras are somewhat lackluster, especially the 1.3 MP front-facing camera. Since it’s runs Android, you can access the Android app market, which has over 100,000 applications. Problem is, most of those apps have not been optimized for tablet use, and so either remains in their smart phone form or grotesquely enlarge to fit the screen. The handful of pre-loaded apps, including Nook, Kindle, Qik, QuickOffice, and Facebook.
Ergonomics are essential. A virtual QWERTY and SWYPE keyboard makes texting or e-mailing a cinch, and a gamut of Samsung Galaxy Tab accessories allows users to customize their tablet. With a 13-hour battery life, the Galaxy makes on-the-go plain easy. The downside is that the battery cannot be recharged by plugging it into a desktop or laptop computer. This flaw, along with several others, is mostly due to the Galaxy’s youth. The Galaxy will only raise the bar in future generations.
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