Samsung Galaxy Tab: Human Outside, Android Inside

If you’re not a nerd, you shouldn’t buy an Android tablet. This one is just like those, except it’s first the one to at least feel like a tablet for real people.

PLUSES
Thinner and lighter than an iPad 2, by a gram and a millimetre (or two). This is a Big Deal. It’s what makes the Galaxy Tab feel a generation ahead of any other Android tablet, even though it’s got basically the same guts and software and battery life, for the same reason that the iPad 2 felt like a genuinely new device, not a minor upgrade. It sets the bar for what every other Android tablet should feel like. The 1280×800 screen is pretty good—crispy and poppy and saturated, though you need to crank the brightness for the full effect.

MINUSES
Plastic. That’s Samsung’s shortcut to out-wisping the iPad 2. So it also feels cheaper, less well constructed. The 16:9 orientation makes it feel like you’re making a tiny mistake every time you hold it in portrait, like to read a book on Kindle. It’s too long and awkward; the centre of gravity’s off. The slow creep of bloatware, even on this mostly stock build of Android 3.0.1 – I just wanted Pulse and Weatherbug to go away, but there’s no easy way to get rid of them. (Pulse kept sending me notifications before the first time I even opened the app! I’m already afraid of the full TouchWiz experience coming to Tab people’ll actually be able to buy, even if it is based on the improved Honeycomb 3.1.) I want to cry every time I open the Android Market, looking for new tablet apps.

Specs
Samsung Galaxy Tab
Screen: 10.1-inch, 1280×800
Processor and RAM: Dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2, 1GB RAM
Storage: 32GB
Camera: 3MP, 720p video (rear); 2MP (front)
Battery: 7000 mAh
Price: Not for sale (limited edition version)

Video by Woody Jang


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