Posted by N on August 20, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Software As an Android/Galaxy S owner, it was super easy to set up the Galaxy Tab. The tablet was released right as their phone was spreading across the carriers, largely as a response to the iPad. Running vanilla Android (Froyo, if you must know) with Samsung’s TouchWiz “skin”, it feels very familiar, but honestly, a throwback. It literally felt like my phone, but on a 7″ screen instead of a 4″ one. There are some quirks in the presentation between the two devices, though:
- While the S sports a DroidSans typeface as standard, the Tab uses Helvetica, the same used on the iOS. Given that Apple is currently suing the bejeezus out of Samsung for ripping virtually every design cue from them, would it have hurt to just put another font on there? That issue aside, Helvetica is also a far more generic typeface for what’s supposed to be a cutting edge device, making the whole venture feel far more like a boring upgrade than a genuinely exciting standalone device.
- The dedicated home screen buttons are give and take. On the S, there are four (including the obligatory Applications button), but they’re permanent residents. On the Tab, there are three (including the obligatory…) and two are customizable. The only problem is that the visual real estate could handle five, but for some bizarre reason, they decided against it, leaving you with less dedicated options across your home screens. And, of course, there’s absolutely nothing filling those spots anyway to compensate for it. Why, Samsung, Why?!
- Most Android phones use the “middle” page as the starting home screen, but this one oddly decides to use the first page as a starting point, meaning if you utilize a lot of widgets, you don’t have an easy ‘left’ page to access. It sounds like a strange complaint, but having less accessibility from the get go is never a plus.
- The larger screen gives you an extra column to put icons/widgets/whatever in, but virtually all Android app widgets are optimized for 4-wide spaces, not 5. On top of that many assets, like the new Android Market, sprawl off the screen on the tablet.
For many, these would probably be non-issues, but it highlights a greater truth here: Froyo just wasn’t designed for a tablet, despite how much Samsung has stretched it. The most glaring example is probably the on-screen keyboard. When you’re holding the tablet in Portrait view, it feels a little too big and the single-thumb-friendly Swype keyboard is difficult to use. In Landscape view, it’s a nightmare as the keyboard sits just out of range of any of your digits. (Microsoft figured this out by demonstrating a ‘split keyboard’ variant in Windows 8.) UPDATE: Only the Swype keyboard looked like this, the stock Android ‘board stretched out just fine. Still not ideal.
The Tab also utilizes a ‘black on white’ theme, that’s probably in place to hide much of the backlight bleed common on TFT LCD displays (more on that in a bit). But you also can’t change it to the ‘white on black’ theme common to the phone version, so be prepared to look at a lot of bright fields, (unless you crank down the brightness, natch).
The larger screen also allows for some interesting applications, but not many. This thing was obviously marketed as an e-reader killer, so it comes bundled with Amazon Kindle, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times apps from the get-go. Maps also works much better with a larger screen as well. In my case, reading mostly as I’m falling asleep, I found it uncomfortable to have to crane my head to read the page instead of just turning my eyes. On the flip side, there’s something really cool about being to manipulate the tablet while it resides on the corner of your desk, rather than pulling it up to your face.
Hardware
The first thing you’ll probably notice about the Tab is the size. Not as big as an iPad or Xoom, but considerably larger than a phone, the tablet tries to strike some strange middle ground. It was something I was initially optimistic about, but then not so much. For one thing, the device is heavier than I expected, making extended periods holding it sort of a pain. Another big problem is the glossy white backing that allows the Tab to slide right out of your hands. It was hardly ideal for reading as various corners kept slipping away. On the plus side, battery life held up fine, although even on Wi-fi, standby time was only about two days.
On the front face, you’ll find the four standard capacitive buttons (List, Home, Back, Search) common to Android devices. Aside from those, the Tab only has three hardware buttons: Power and a volume rocker. Oh, and you can insert your own MicroSD card in addition to the 16 or 32GB on-board flash memory.
The first thing you’ll probably notice about the Tab is the size. Not as big as an iPad or Xoom, but considerably larger than a phone, the tablet tries to strike some strange middle ground. It was something I was initially optimistic about, but then not so much. For one thing, the device is heavier than I expected, making extended periods holding it sort of a pain. Another big problem is the glossy white backing that allows the Tab to slide right out of your hands. It was hardly ideal for reading as various corners kept slipping away. On the plus side, battery life held up fine, although even on Wi-fi, standby time was only about two days.
On the front face, you’ll find the four standard capacitive buttons (List, Home, Back, Search) common to Android devices. Aside from those, the Tab only has three hardware buttons: Power and a volume rocker. Oh, and you can insert your own MicroSD card in addition to the 16 or 32GB on-board flash memory.
The tablet connects via proprietary wide-connector USB, much like iOS and Zune devices do. The port is flanked by the speakers, which do well, producing decent sound, but were often unintentionally blocked when resting the bottom of the tablet against my stomach. (The speaker on the S points outward, avoiding a lot of that malarkey.)
The top left corner supports the obligatory headphone jack and a microphone for when you’re doing video calls. Despite the inclusion of a front-facing camera, there didn’t seem to be any apps that actually used it, aside from the camera. The included Qik app said it was unavailable and Skype wouldn’t work with it (or my S) either. Hrm.
Cameras The Tab feature the aforementioned 1.3MP front-facing camera, but also a 3MP shooter on the back. There really aren’t any tablets with drool-worthy cameras, but both work well in decent lighting. They come with Samsung’s standard suite of camera tools that I enjoy. These are probably the Tab’s best feature. One aspect that got me was the fact that the camera app is locked into Landscape, but the image preview was locked into Portrait. Guh? Also, the lack of a dedicated shutter button is a bummer.
The following pic was taken with the 3MP shooter.
Screeen
The following pic was taken with the 3MP shooter.
Perhaps because of issues with SAMOLED production last year, the Tab loses a major point against the S in only having a TFT-based LCD. While I enjoyed the size and pixel density here (although not as high as on other devices), the uniform whitewash over the screen, much like we saw on the Arrive, and lack of ‘pop’ in the colors is a drawback. With even ISP displays in the mix, TFTs looks relatively old school and it’s a shame Samsung went with them for this. To their credit, they were probably available much more easily.
Source: http://www.flesheatingzipper.com/tech/2011/08/hardware-review-samsung-galaxy-tab-7-model/
Source: http://www.flesheatingzipper.com/tech/2011/08/hardware-review-samsung-galaxy-tab-7-model/
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