Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review: The Sleekest Honeycomb Tablet
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 13, 2011 5:07 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Samsung
- Tegra 2
- Galaxy tab 10.1
- Android 3.1
- Mobile
- NVIDIA
The Hardware
The 10.1 is light enough to wield single handedly without fatigue, assuming you're holding it in portrait mode. In landscape there's some basic physics that comes into play, the long side of the 16:9 display pulls down and wears on your wrist after a while. In portrait mode the Galaxy Tab is remarkably comfortable. After prolonged usage I either orientation can be a problem, but I honestly believe Samsung's 8.9-inch variant may be the answer to all of our problems when it ships later this year. Unfortunately by that point you may as well wait for a Kal-El version rather than jump on what will most definitely be an aging Tegra 2.
Around the 10.1's perimeter are the usual suspects, just rearranged. The upper left edge is home to a subtle power/lock switch and a volume rocker. Neither are terribly pronounced nor are they impossible to find. With the Galaxy Tab's symmetrical industrial design it's very easy to lose your bearings and hold the tablet upside down. The subtle buttons do little to help avoid any confusion. Luckily Honeycomb, like iOS, can be oriented in any direction.
A curved 1/8" headphone jack also graces the top edge. Because of how thin the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is part of any stereo plug is going to be exposed when fully inserted into the jack, however I didn't notice any issues with the connection in my testing. Samsung ships the 10.1 with a pair of in-ear headphones with integrated mic. The mic has a single button that can be used to pause/skip songs (click once to pause, twice to skip). The headphones look expensive but the audio quality isn't anything to be impressed by.
The left and right edges are home to two individual speaker grills. The speakers are high enough on the sides that they typically aren't covered by your hands when holding the tablet.
Finally along the bottom edge of the 10.1 there's Samsung's proprietary dock connector, oddly reminiscent of Apple's iPad dock connector but just slightly narrower. If you wanted to, you could definitely get the iPad's dock cable stuck in your brand new Galaxy Tab (ahem, don't do this).
Three different, far too similar dock connectors
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 draws too much power to be charged while running off a standard USB port that doesn't implement the USB charging spec. To quickly charge the tablet you'll need to use Samsung's supplied USB to AC adapter which is a bit larger than what you get with the iPad:
Unlike the Eee Pad there are no microSD card, HDMI or USB ports available on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. This is a Honeycomb tablet in the strictest sense, it's a device for consumption not something that's going to transform into a netbook alternative. Samsung does advertise a "full size" keyboard dock, however it's only available from Samsung's website ($69.99) and it is currently out of stock.
The missing HDMI support is a bit unusual for a Tegra 2 based Honeycomb tablet, but presumably Samsung could coax a digital output out of its custom dock connector via an adapter if it wanted to.
Samsung offers the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in white and dark grey versions at the same price points. Also pretty standard are the Galaxy Tab 10.1's two cameras: a rear-facing 3.2MP (2048 x 1536) sensor and a 2MP (1600 x 1200) front facing sensor complete the package.
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fteoath64 - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
I doubt if Samsung knew very much detail about the physical shape (although they could guess and many have done), panel size and dot-pitch yes, processor no, camera no (its Sony's part), but that hardly constitute "blatant copying" as Apple has accused. One cannot deviate much from a rectangular shape. But the thing that cannot understand is no manufacturer has built rocker switches (like in PocketPC days) that does vertical/horizontal scrolling. This allows the single holding hand to scroll pages which EVERYBODY wanted!!. Samsung are you listening ?. One for landscape use and one for portrait use. There is plenty of space for it. Touch is not everything.Lucian Armasu - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
"Remember Kal-El won't really change single threaded performance"I think I know what you meant - that it would still be Cortex A9. But that doesn't mean performance won't improve. Every core will be clocked at 1.5 Ghz.
And you're right, ARM chips seem to improve 2.5x every 12 months, or about 4x every 18-24 months. That's 2x as fast as Moore's Law. Can't wait until Nvidia unveils their Tegra 4 next year - 2.5 Ghz quad core Cortex A15 ;)
mo.hasan - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
Anand. Very thorough review as always. Great job.Here is a list of accessories available for Samsung 10.1. Currently they are showing up on european websites. Landing in USA soon I suppose.
HDMI cable adapter
SD Adapter
Charging Dock with sound bar
USB Connector Kit
Keyboard
More...
Yes you can have all these ports built in like an Acer Iconia or some in Asus Transformer. Personally I will take the weight savings and slimness versus all those ports built in. In a tablet that is. Notebook however is a whole different story. Plus Samsung's superior display is a slam dunk for me versus any other android tablet at the moment. Kal-El is not worth waiting for unless you are buying a tablet to play games only. Damn you Bestbuy, here is my pre-order.
Mumrik - Tuesday, June 14, 2011 - link
Anand, why does Apple keep having a sizable advantage in battery life? It's the same in tablets and smart phones...The hardware seems to similar to blame, so does Google just do a comparatively bad job at managing power in Android?
Paladin1650 - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
I don't understand the fixation on 10 inch tablets. That is too big to be easily portable without carrying a bag everywhere, and if I'm toting a bag, I might as well bring a laptop with a bigger screen, real keyboard, 300gig+ hard drive, real operating system, real processor, etc. Not to mention the built in stand. My 15 inch laptop is not much thicker or heavier than an iPad.Its too big, bright, and heavy to use like a portable game console or an e-reader (Note: Nintendo never came anywhere close to a 10 inch screen on any of its 50 million plus selling portable consoles). Sure you can goof around on it and have unique experiences...but those experiences aren't going to be lasting dozens of hours like a novel or a serious video game.
Are people actually trying to replace their laptop with a tablet? That is the only usage scenario that makes sense to me for a 10 inch tablet. If you are somehow able to actually type and be productive on a tablet, more power to you.
Now, what DOES make sense to me is a giant smartphone. Smartphones are incredibly useful, more useful for everyday tasks than a laptop, since it has GPS, camera, camcorder, barcode scanner, phone, email, MP3 player etc all rolled into one. However, a 3-4 inch screen is really too small for video content consumption, and doesn't allow much room for touch. Solution? A 5-6 inch jumbo smartphone that behaves exactly like a smartphone, but with a bigger screen. That is what I want (the original galaxy tab comes close, but a bit too large to be pocket sized). So why are we only seeing those from Dell and Samsung, and why does Samsung seem to be switching to larger form-factors? Why is "its just a giant phone" a bad thing? I think in 10 years we will see this size range emerge as the standard for the all-in-one pocket device, and the 10 inch tablet will remain a very niche product.
fteoath64 - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
@Paladin1650: When you look at the kindle, it gives a strong clue. Besides to consume 720p video, 10 inch is about the ,minimum needed to appreciate the quality of the video. Anything smaller, 720p is not going to matter much. For eBook reading and that goes for webpage reading as well, that physical size is really optimum for most people young and old. My only beef is the screen resolution should be 1366X768 and make that IPS at least.Laptop usage is different from tablet significantly from the holding distance from your face to the screen. On a tablet, you hold it much nearer to your face. This means 10inches could instantly equal to 15inch laptop distance. Plus the weight advantage and not frying your lap scenarios, it could be compelling for some.
As to phones going to 5inches, thats already too big for many. iPhone size is about right, and going to 4 inches might be pushing it. I like to see 1680X1050 resolution in 4 inches.
One size fits all does not exist unless thats a body implant using our body fluids as its electrical source. Get that from your friendly grey alien Paul.
araczynski - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
but no point in buying until the second gen comes out later this year, especially since ipad3 will hopefully share some info by then.i'm heavily vested in the itunes app store (i use my ipad1 95% of the time for just gaming), so whatever other neato features the android tablets have are meaningless to me. especially since if i read those last 2 benchmarks the gaming on the android doesn't compare to the gaming on the ipad2.
i still think they're stupid to price it at the same level as the ipads though. you're going against an entrenched/established and in many cases fanatical base of apple users (i have no love for apple, but do love the ipad), you deliver something similar, and you charge it the same, why the hell would i bother to switch? offer me something BETTER.
not to mention 16/32gb of storage is just measly. this IS the digital age after all, we like to dump movies/etc onto these devices. my ipad/64gb is full all the time, and i'm sick of that fact. no way in hell would i downgrade storage.
ps2 - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
So, having read this review, it sounds like I would best wait another 6 months to own a tablet. I am getting a galaxy S2 phone in about 6 weeks when it is released, so i probably should wait, but my partner has an IPad 2 and I could have a tablet by tomorrow (I think that's when the 10.1 is being released). Is it worth 5 or $600 to have a tablet for the next six months? I know it's my decision, but I welcome some brilliant geeks advice.ps2 - Thursday, June 16, 2011 - link
So, having read this review, it sounds like I would best wait another 6 months to own a tablet. I am getting a galaxy S2 phone in about 6 weeks when it is released, so i probably should wait, but my partner has an IPad 2 and I could have a tablet by tomorrow (I think that's when the 10.1 is being released). Is it worth 5 or $600 to have a tablet for the next six months? I know it's my decision, but I welcome some brilliant geek's advice. And if I am likely to upgrade in the future (if I buy a tablet now, I won't feel an urge to buy a Kel-al device the second it comes out), should my purchase be an IPad 2 or Galaxy 10.1 (or should I wait two months for an 8.9)?emmib - Friday, June 17, 2011 - link
Would Kal-El seriously make it to market, in an Android tablet, within the next 4-5 months? The best scenario I can see is an announcement in 4 months time, in the fall, then release either by the holiday season, or within a couple of months after that.What's truly best? Wait, or get a tablet now? I don't really care for graphics performance as not many games and such are available in my region anyway.