First Thoughts
I was so excited to get this. I have had it a good long time and I am quite sad to give it up. I had heard many times that it was quite comparable to the iPad, even after some screen issues with the glass popping out of the bezel (taken care of now). I still want this tablet.
The Looks
It looks well built, it looks very thin as well. I am sure many would mistake it with an iPad until they got a good look at it. The words Galaxy Tab on the very white back are a dead giveaway that this is not an iProduct. The big screen and Honeycomb software are really nice looking as well. It looks so nice and refreshing compared to some of the darker colored tablets out there right now. White and silver are complementary in this instance.
The Hardware/Screen
A Dual core, 1000 MHz processor is stuffed into this thin tablet. You also get a 32 gb hard drive on board for every day use. No SD card slot is included, there are also no USB ports on this one. It is a very thin clean model and I like it this way.
The 10.1 inch screen has great resolution with 1280 x 800 pixels. Every image is clear and crisp, the video in HD looks great!
The Battery
Tablet batteries are always bigger and seem to last me longer even though they have much more screen to power. This one is a 6800 mAh battery and it can last me a day or two depending on use. Games will take up more of the battery, but the internet and general use work great.
The Operating System/Software
The OS is Honeycomb, this one is updated to 3.1 and that is great, the 3.0 software is nice but first edition. The 3.1 software on this adds a lot of good updates, widget resizing is one of the good ones. Stability is another (even though the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is much more stable than the Xoom in its early days). Over all it provided a good experience. I never upgraded to the Tab TouchWiz UI so I can not comment on it much.
The Keyboard
The keyboard is something android needs to work on for tablets, it wasn’t very nice at all, I am pretty sure I have said that with most tablets I have reviewed. I ended up using new swype, it is optimized for tablets. I also used swiftkey X for android tablets and that worked really well. It provides a very optimized feel. Both keyboards are better than the stock android tablet keyboard sadly.
The Browsing, Camera and Video
Browsing on this tablet depends on your wifi connection for speed, but it is reliable and does everything you need. The labs feature from the Xoom isn’t here so you browse kind of like you would expect.
The rear camera on this is a 3MP, the front is a 2MP. Both are fine for tablets, I have never wanted a tablet to be my picture taking machine. My Evo is much better for this. Front facing video is what I want and it works well. Video is great on this one, the google talk app is quite nice.
Summary
Pros:
- The screen is nice and big
- Video chat is awesome
- Plenty of room to do it all
- Browsing is the best on a tablet
Cons:
- It feels a bit too thin sometimes
- TouchWiz could kill it
Conclusions & Final Thoughts
I love this tablet, it is not for taking everywhere and it is not for being rough with but it is great. It is a great build quality, being too thing is one of its only downfalls. It sometimes feels like someone could snap it in two. If you are careful and taking this to the office or something it is ideal though. If you work in a warehouse or on a construction site, this may be something you need to baby.
Finally, with a bit of self promotion… circle me on Google+
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