Samsung’s Big New Android Phone And 7.7-Inch Galaxy Tab

Samsung’s Big New Android Phone And 7.7-Inch Galaxy Tab

The 5.3-inch Galaxy Note and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 come in shapes that make them hard to classify. Is the Note a phone? Or a notepad? Or a tablet? Genius, right? Or, uh, foolish?

The Galaxy Note is the more unusual choice of the two. With a 5.3-inch screen it’s kind of in a weird no-man’s land, size wise. But hey, it’s a phone, too! Who has pockets big enough for a 5.3 inch screen? MC Hammer, sure, but who else? As Dell can tell you, after their failed Streak 5 experiment, pretty much nobody.

The Note does have a stylus and built-in software for scribbling, which may be a saving grace but probably not? I suppose Samsung’s trying to aim it at business folk who want to take notes on the go. Using a stylus on a hard, slick capacitative touchscreen isn’t generally the easiest thing in the world, and it will be interesting to see if Samsung has come up with some software to improve the experience. The other significant feature is that it’s the largest device to rock Samsung’s new HD Super AMOLED display. I’m a big fan of Super AMOLED Plus, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the HD brings. It runs Gingerbread with Samsung’s TouchWiz over it, it has a 1.4GHz single-core processor (which may eat your battery), and will be available state side in the coming months.

The Galaxy Tab 7.7 actually looks really good. It’s similar to their original Galaxy Tab’s size (this one is 7.7 inches), but it runs Honeycomb (3.2, I would assume) with TouchWiz. At the same time, the build quality looks much more like the sturdy and lovely Galaxy Tab 10.1. This combination might be a winner for those who want a commuter tablet that’s light and less cumbersome. And it is light! At only 340g that like carrying a can of soda (if you could read the NY Times on your soda). Samsung says the Tab 7.7 is the thinnest tablet out there, too, at 7.89mm thick, for those who prefer their mobile computer katana-ish. It’s also the first tablet to use a Super AMOLED Plus screen, which is bright, vivid and gorgeous, and it’s packing a blistering 1.4GHz dual-core processor.

While the Galaxy Note appeared to be the cooler one, I’m suddenly way more interested in the in the Galaxy Tab 7.7. Mostly to see how Samsung’s bounced back after their terribly unfortunate previous foray into 7-inchers. Both are tentatively set to be released later this year, no word on price yet.


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