Samsung Galaxy Tab - The AnandTech Review
by Vivek Gowri on December 23, 2010 9:48 AM ESTSamsung Galaxy Tab - Performance
The Galaxy Tab’s internal hardware feels pretty familiar. As with the Galaxy S phones and the newly launched Nexus S, there’s a Hummingbird chip underhood. Samsung’s proprietary SoC bundles a 1GHz Cortex A8 with Imagination’s PowerVR SGX540 GPU and 512MB of LPDDR1.
Performance is about expected, given how the Galaxy S devices performed. The second generation 45nm Snapdragon chips are really nipping at the heels of Hummingbird, even surpassing it on the CPU side in our benchmarks. Snapdragon has always had strong FPU performance so the Linpack score is expected, but in SunSpider’s JavaScript benchmark, we see the 1GHz myTouch 4G basically beat everything this side of the Cortex A9/Tegra 2 combo. We talked more about how A9 compared to A8 in our Tegra 2 performance preview here, so look at that to see how the Galaxy Tab stacks up against the tablet platform of the future.
On the graphics benchmark side, we only have two tablets to compare head to head - the Galaxy Tab and the Viewsonic G Tablet that we used in the Tegra 2 preview. The Galaxy Tab handily won out in Neocore - the 54 fps figure is basically capped by the vsync - but the Tegra 2 exhibited slightly faster performance throughout the rest of our smartphone graphics benchmarks. We initially had some issues with Quake 3 on the Tab, as detailed in our Tegra 2 performance update, but overall, SGX 540 is definitely competitive as far as graphics performance goes even if it isn't the clear cut leader anymore.
Our Galaxy Tab unit was a Verizon model, but for some reason the 3G data was very slow. I’ve tested it in multiple regions in the Seattle area and I have yet to break 700 kbps down and 500 kbps up. I haven’t had a Verizon device to test before, but even so, speeds around 600 kbps are not what I was expecting. I later talked to some Verizon employees and was told that such speeds are normal for Verizon 3G in Seattle, so their LTE rollout really can't happen fast enough.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
97 Comments
View All Comments
VivekGowri - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
Dude, I have enough problems typing normally, without having to worry about drawing lines between the keys. I will admit, I got the hang of it quicker than I thought I would, but as a G2 user, I must say that nothing can beat a good HTC hardware keyboard (unless Dell can manage it with the Venue Pro).vision33r - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
I have an Android phone and my wife uses the iPhone. But we both use the iPad. For many years, I've compared my Android phone to the iPhone.Google keeps improving the performance of Android but have done very little to make the OS more user friendly.
Apple has improved the performance of iOS and their UI. The implementation is much more mainstream with a minimalist approach vs the Android's muddy and convoluted way of stuffing the OS with tedius configs.
The iPad stands for all those Apple design cues, easy, accessible, and everything works philosophy.
The Galaxytab represents all the problems with Android. Lack of standardization, poorly executed and flawed ideas. The lack of standardization has hurt the ecosystem greatly. The Dev community can't find leadership or direction in this "Open" Android market. They don't know which direction Google wants Android to go.
Bottomline, Apple has won the Tablet market. The industry mainly film, print, media, have all signed on to embrace the iPad "format."
OldPueblo - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
They own it except for those that don't want to be forced into Apple's ecosystem and those that want a tablet that actually fits in a pocket and doesn't belong mostly on a coffe table. The iPad hardly wins the tablet war on many fronts. "Stupid easy" doesn't make something better, it just means there are more stupid people parting with their money.medi01 - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
Mentioning "lack of standardization" in "Apple vs Anything" as a pro-Apple argument is one of the most idiotic statements I've ever seen.Paladin1650 - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
Those same arguments would apply to Macs vs. PCs, yet PC dominates. What actually happens is that Apple's user-friendly approach dominates the EARLY stages of a new market. Users don't know how to use a new device, so of course they gravitate to those that are most polished and easiest to use (Apple). Once everyone becomes familiar with how the device works, and once UI conventions become more or less standardized, then the general consumer population can see the more open PC/Android approach for what it is: Superior.OldPueblo - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
I mean you knock it for it's interface, but what should a tablet interface be like? I mean how much simpler can you get? You can set it up the way you want with icons to tap to open things. What's not "made for a tablet?" Just because it's the same/similar to arguably the best smartphones on the planet, why is that bad on tablet? Why does it HAVE to be different?medi01 - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
I guess if they don't invent such "problems" with Galaxy Tab it would have been much harder to come "iPad is still better" conclusion.VivekGowri - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
Direct quote from another comment I posted:If you read my software section, I said exactly that - having a scaled up OS never held the iPad back, so it's not something I can hold against the Galaxy Tab. What I can hold against the Galaxy Tab is that there are basically no apps, first party or otherwise, that take advantage of the larger screen size, other than the three or four apps that Samsung put in afterwards (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, etc). Apple basically changed every core app on the iPad to use that screen real estate, and they had more than a few high profile 3rd party apps out for the iPad - ABC player, NYT, BBC, etc etc. I don't doubt that Google will get there, probably with Honeycomb, but until then, it's a legitimate problem.
If the OS is the same and the apps are the same, why would I get a Galaxy Tab instead of a Galaxy S or any other Android device? I'm a day-in, day-out Android user (T-Mo G2), and I love the platform, but it really isn't ready for tablets right now.
Hrel - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
Didn't you guys already review this? I'm pretty sure I already read about this on anandtech...kadaj - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
Halo Admin ^_^,I finding your website by Goole and I think this is really informative site and I can get the information that I'm looking for here, oh yeah hope you can check also the website about <a href="http://www.KampoengTI.com">Teknologi Informasi</a>.
Thank u