Samsung Galaxy Tab - The AnandTech Review
by Vivek Gowri on December 23, 2010 9:48 AM ESTSamsung Galaxy Tab - The Software
To anyone who’s played with a Galaxy S phone recently, or really anything running Android 2.2, the Galaxy Tab’s software should be pretty familiar. And if you hate TouchWiz, you should stop reading right now, because the Galaxy Tab comes preloaded with Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0. It’s not bad, but after a few months with the G2, it’s hard to go back to a skinned version of Android. The skin works about as well as one could expect; it doesn’t change a whole lot to the core functionality of Android beyond adding a very handy task manager, but adds a nice glossy UI layer over Froyo. I noticed some stuttering in some of the menus and animations, though it didn’t significantly detract from the UX. I don’t know if that’s a fault of TouchWiz or the higher resolution display, but I wasn’t expecting it given the 1GHz Hummingbird inside.
There’s two keyboards - Samsung preloaded Swype in addition to their own keyboard. I’m not much of a Swype guy, though I did try it out on the Tab (it’s an interesting concept, but I’ll stick to typing for now); both keyboards work pretty well. There’s not too much to note here beyond saying again that the 7” form factor made the keyboard perfect to use in portrait mode, whereas in landscape mode it was a bit too wide for comfortable typing.
The familiarity of the OS raises an interesting question - other than the larger screen, what is different here versus a regular Android smartphone? Unfortunately, on the OS side of things, the answer appears to be “not much”. Now, there really wasn’t much that Samsung could do about that - Froyo simply isn’t a tablet-centric OS. That’s what Gingerbread and Honeycomb are for. So until that update, the Galaxy Tab is going to feel like an overgrown Galaxy S.
Not that it’s a bad thing - the iPad’s version of iOS makes it feel like a supersized iPhone, and that hasn’t hurt it one bit as of yet. What made the iPad different were the hundreds of applications designed specifically to exploit the comparatively huge XGA screen. That’s the level that Android tablets are going to have to get to, and in my opinion, they’re not there yet. Not by a long shot. There’s not much in the way of tablet specific apps in the Android Market - I found the New York Times Android Tablet app, a Mediafly beta for Tablets, and Verizon’s VZ Navigator for the Galaxy Tab (which came preinstalled on our review unit). Other than that, not much. Now, NYT’s app is nice, but it’s got nothing on their iPad app, and it’s the only marquee application that has a specific tablet version. Normal smartphone apps scale pretty well, but it’s just not the same.
Samsung bundled the Galaxy Tab with some of their own custom applications that were designed to make use of the tablet form factor. Their email client works well enough, splitting into a dual-pane view in landscape mode and doing its job in general. The calendar app is attractive and well designed, with a two pane view in both landscape and portrait modes to show the calendar as well as any upcoming events. The contacts, gallery, and media apps are all pretty satisfactory, and thankfully Samsung saw fit to preinstall an alarm clock app. (Apple, take note. Apparently people like to wake up on time.)
But as you use it, you can tell that Android just isn’t ready to be used on tablets. It’s not “there” yet, not as far as first-party apps, third-party app support, or overall system polish. Even at launch, bugs and missing functionality notwithstanding, Apple made sure it had all three - they put a lot of thought into optimizing the core applications for tablet use, and until Google does the same and gets third party devs on board, Android just won’t be a very good tablet platform.
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thartist - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
seriously? we're gonna bring all that FAIL thing to Anandtech? go elsewhere.JohnCarney - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
Really? How did you do that?http://www.amazon.com/Tron-Blu-ray/dp/B001AQT15I/r...
therealnickdanger - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
The Tron Blu-ray was delayed by Disney due to fears that their target Tron Legacy audience would see it and laugh at the bad old CGI and then not want to see the new one.The HD master of Tron used to create the Blu-ray has been aired on HDNet and other HD channels. So while it isn't technically a Blu-ray rip, it is most definitely HD. If you didn't have the luxury of seeing it broadcast, there are a couple torrents out there if you feel so inclined.
MeanBruce - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
So Cool, I love Tron, thanks for giving us the info! 1982 Jeff Bridges. Are you the User?Aloonatic - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
I was just thinking, as these tablets are often little more than bigger versions of what many of us have in our pockets already......How hard would it be for a company to make a large touch-screen device with a big battery that one could simply slip their smart-phone into and use that way? Probably requiring something in the phones OS to recognise that it is plugged into such a device, allow it to display at a higher resolution and maybe even change it's processor/GPU power/performance profile, as it could be plugged in somewhere, or at least know that it has a larger battery power supply at hand?
Just a thought.
kmmatney - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
Damn good idea. I'd love to be able to pop my phone into a device to give it a larger screen, especially when just browsing on the couch. However the cost to build something like that probably isn't that much more than just making a whole new device.VivekGowri - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
The original Palm Foleo waves hello. I dunno if that type of thing would be any better now with the updated technologies, but the Foleo crashed and burned so badly that I think people are scared to even try.baba264 - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
To be honest, 6 month after the ipad launch, I still have a hard time figuring out what it is exactly that's pulling people to the tablet market.I honestly don't see much use for these tablets except as a very occasional gadget with a terribly high price tag. Or alternatively as a fashion statement, but being on a hardware site I don't think that should really apply to us.
Guspaz - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
There are a few things I can see people using an iPad (or equivalent device) for, but the general gist of it is that you take a smartphone's easy usability and portability, but use a larger screen to address some of the shortcomings or limitations of a smartphone. For example, browsing with touch controls can be pretty intuitive, but a smartphone's screen is small enough that it's a compromised experience. Give it a 10" screen, however, and you can get that same user experience with a device that can actually display a full website like a PC would. Or take the case of portable video playback. It's convenient to be able to watch a movie or TV shows on a smartphone, but a 3.5" screen is kind of tiny. But make it a 10" screen, and it's a completely different experience.Most other use cases are similar. Take something that was intuitive on a smartphone but had the experience compromised by the small screen (or was missing features due to it), and a tablet can solve that. E-mail works nicely on a smartphone, but the small screen means there isn't room to get both the E-mail message and the inbox open at the same time; a tablet enables that.
So you sacrifice some portability (although tablets are still more portable than a netbook or notebook), and get a lot more usability. As for price, tablets have prices on par (or lower than) with smartphones; it's hard to argue that they're expensive or overpriced without saying the same of smartphones.
mrd0 - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
You can use a tablet to do much more than browse the web. Our law firm, and many, many others, are starting to move to the iPad instead of laptops because they are such much more friendly in the court room and on the move. I can actually write a brief and submit it, whereas, that is nearly impossible on a smart phone...certainly painful. I don't need a full computer most of the time, so the iPad, or another 10" tablet, is ideal. It's so useful that some large firms are starting to give every associate a new iPad.Now we just need a great 10" android tablet to get away from all of Apple''s limitations/restrictions.