Samsung Galaxy Tab Review - Pros & Cons - Buy Samsung Galaxy Tab

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Samsung Galaxy Tab, which was spectacularly announced in the beginning of September at the IFA consumer electronics fair, is a 7-inch tablet with Android OS 2.2 (Froyo). It's equipped with Samsung TouchWiz UI upgrade, so it can access bout applications available by Android Market and Samsung Apps Store.

This tablet also features a capacitive TFT display, ARM Cortex A8 processor running at 1GHz, PowerVR SGX540 graphics adapter, and 16GB of internal memory that can be expanded by microSD memory cards of up to 32GB. For networking, it can connect to HSDPA, Wi-Fi b/g/n, and it also has GPS receiver and Bluetooth 3.0 support.

At the first glance, Samsung Galaxy Tab looks a lot like Apple iPad, but it has several advantages over it, and several weaknesses. It’s half the weight of iPad (380 grams compared to the 3G iPad of 730 grams), you can make phone calls (in U.S. version available only by Skype), and it supports Flash while browsing. The iPad, on the other hand, is bigger, has display of higher quality, metal case, and more battery life.

If we leave out the display, Samsung’s tablet is made entirely of plastic, which makes it very light. In basic version it has a white back side and the black front, with rounded corners, which gives it a very modern look (some operators will possibly offer other color choices). The tablet’s dimensions (190 x 120.5 x 12 mm) are ideal for holding it in one hand, leaving the other free for using the screen and control buttons.

Considering that most of the other tablets have to be held with two hands, Galaxy Tab reminds us on an oversized smartphone, more than any of its competitors. In fact, the only thing that (besides dimensions) that makes it different than a smartphone is that you have to use supplied headphones (or any other that have 3.5mm connector plug) for voice calls.

Capacitive touch with 7 inches across diagonal has a WSVGA resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The display offers incredibly sharp picture, thanks to such a high resolution for this screen size that brings density of 192 pixels per inch. As it still is a TFT LCD display, the quality of picture cannot match the AMOLED that is built into Samsung Galaxy S smartphone (which has similar appearance to Samsung Galaxy Tab). Picture quality is still very high with vivid colors, and most users will be very satisfied.

On the bright sunlight picture is still reasonably visible for comfortable viewing, although it loses a lot of contrast. That is the benefit of using LCD over AMOLED, since the latter loses all its qualities when being exposed to direct sunlight.

The viewing angle is good although not as good as in SuperAMOLED display. The picture loses its visibility when viewed from side. It’s good that this display can fit in one hand so it will always be directly in front of the user.

The response of multitouch screen is just great. Galaxy Tab will precisely register what you’re trying to accomplish, and the on-screen keyboard is so well made that in no time you’ll achieve full typing speed. This goes for both horizontal and vertical display orientation.

The ARM Cortex A8 processor with speed of 1GHz can easily manage all processes that are running on this Samsung’s tablet, and viewing multimedia content goes smooth and with no hang-ups.  The only thing that slows it down a bit is browsing sites that have many flash elements on them. It can be due to unpolished and not completely developed Flash player, but smartphones running Android OS 2.2 and Qualcomm Snapdragon processor on 1GHz have smooth Flash browsing experience.

It doesn’t matter that Google repeatedly reported that Android OS 2.2 is not suitable for tablets, because no problems were found on OS level. On the contrary, Froyo fits quite nicely into this computers concept, and Samsung Galaxy Tab is, among other things because of excellent OS implementation, the only serious competitor to Apple iPad.

That is in great deal thanks to TouchWiz UI, a Samsung’s addition to Android OS on this device, just like on Samsung smartphones based on Google’s OS. Home screen can have between five and nine custom desktops. Switching between desktops is done by scrolling/moving them left and right, you can also fill them up with widgets and application icons, and also all the gestures that are common for multitouch are supported.

Thanks to TouchWiz UI, along with Android Market there is also Samsung Apps, an application store made for Samsung devices. The downside is that Samsung Apps is only available when there’s a SIM card inside the tablet, while Android Market is available all the time. It can be expected that some people will want to connect to the Internet using WiFi, and not only by the 3G connection supplied by the mobile operator where they bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Galaxy Tab can be used as an eBook reader, as it comes with already installed application imaginatively called “eBook”. eBook application is similar to the one on iPad, with virtual shelves filled with book titles, and it displays animations when turning the pages. Other apps that come with the tablet are the usual ones that come with Android OS. Previous users will definitely be familiar with them.

Web browser loads the sites pretty fast, especially on Wi-Fi network, and all sites are displayed proprely, without mistakes, even in dynamic, highly scripted pages. It's really beneficial that all the functionalities can be used even when no SIM card is present (except Samsung Apps, as I've told before). That makes Samsung Galaxy Pad a tough competitor to iPad, which only comes with Wi-Fi support.

Battery on Galaxy Tab has proven to be very durable, and with constantly active 3G and Wi-Fi connections it can be used actively for more than five hours. With regular use, that means that you'll have to charge it every two or three days, which isn't very often. The battery cannot be removed, just like in iPad, iPhone and iPod, and if it eventually loses its capacity, it will have to be replaced at Samsung service.

With all pros and cons summed up, Samsung Galaxy Tab is a very balanced tablet. Those that don't find its 7-inches to be too small will enjoy an excellent implementation of Android OS and Samsung's TouchWiz UI, as well as precise capacitive display and excellent connectivity with all wireless and mobile networks.

You can buy Samsung Galaxy Tab from Amazon. At the moment they include free shipping with your order, and based on my research by comparing prices with other online merchants, Amazon currently has the best deal, especially with the free shipping. You can also find more reviews there from people who have bought the Galaxy Tab on sale.