Battle of the Budget Tablets - Nook Color vs. Galaxy Tab
by Vivek Gowri on May 25, 2011 12:52 AM ESTRound 3 - Display
And here, the Nook starts winning back points. There’s no way around it, the Nook screen is gorgeous, almost worth the $250 on it’s own. It’s an IPS panel, so the viewing angles are great, and the 909:1 contrast ratio is actually better than the iPad 2. Both in terms of numbers and in daily usage, this is a screen that is in the same conversation as the iPad and Asus Eee Slate as far as best screen on a tablet.
This isn’t to say that the Galaxy Tab has a bad screen; with a 733:1 contrast ratio and generous viewing angles, it’s a very good display, just not on the same level as the Nook. I really appreciated Samsung putting in a solid panel in the Galaxy Tab when I first reviewed it, because on a hardware level, the display is probably the most important part of a tablet. Both contrast ratio and viewing angles are huge factors in how usable any given tablet is, and it looks like B&N recognized that and pushed for the best 7” panel they could get, whereas Samsung used the same tried and true LCD panel they had previously. All indications are that Samsung will be moving to AMOLED for their next 7” tablet, so it’ll only get better, but for now, B&N wins the screen conversation.
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MossySF - Monday, May 30, 2011 - link
The specs for Archos 70 say:• High resolution screen, WVGA 800 x 480 pixels, 7'' TFT LCD, 16 million colors
• Capacitive multitouch screen
Yes on the resolution. No on resistive.
medi01 - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
" Overclocked kernels, custom skins and launchers, updating the ROM to the latest nightly build, anything you could possibly dream of. That's something you just won't get with the Samsung..."Samsung Galaxy Tab was rootable even back in 2010.
ironmb - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
I will never understand this new fad of tablets.. to each is own i guess.mi1stormilst - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
Bought one for my wife, rooted in about 15 minutes she uses it for reading and gaming and surfing. Not everything works perfectly, but the battery life is more than decent and it is very much a usable product. We read from both the Kindle App and the B&N App with no trouble. I got it during the Ebay B&N sale for $199 enough said :-)IdBuRnS - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
My wife uses my rooted CN all the time for playing Angry Birds. loldukepeter - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
It seems like the WiFi-only Galaxy Tab packs OMAP3* as well, not Hummingbird.this was reported here: http://www.thegalaxytabforum.com/index.php?/topic/...
can anybody confirm?
DanNeely - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
Did you read the article before posting this? It does so.Stanil - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
In the original it said Hummingburd and PowerVR 540, they changed it post factum :) Thx for the specs, I wasn't sure if the castrated version was only for Europe.dukepeter - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
yes, i read the article, and i remember clearly it said Hummingbird and PowerVR SGX540.But yes, they have changed it now. i wish i had been wrong =|
VivekGowri - Wednesday, May 25, 2011 - link
Yeah sorry, I had changed it on my document file but apparently not the actual article engine before posting - sorry guys, that was a big time proof-reading error by me.It felt very bait-and-switch to me, I never noticed it was SGX 530/OMAP3 until I ran the gaming tests and went o_O. I don't mind too much about downgrading the Bluetooth, but the SoC downgrade is pretty terrible.