Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 15, 2011 1:23 AM ESTPerformance: A Preview of Android 3.2?
For sanity's sake, I ran the Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G through our standard performance tests. As expected, the LTE enabled model performed identically to the WiFi-only version we tested a couple of months ago, with one major exception: 3D performance.
As you can see above, both SunSpider and BrowserMark peg the 4G Galaxy Tab 10.1 as an equal to the WiFi version. Now look at the GLBenchmark numbers:
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G performs like an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer with its Android 3.2 update. In our quick preview of the Eee Pad's performance post-3.2 we found that an update to the 3D driver resulted in significantly better performance in GLBench and a slight boost in BaseMark ES2. The very same gains appear here with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G, although we're still running Android 3.1.
The only explanation I can offer is that the Android build on the 4G Tab features the same NVIDIA driver from Android 3.2. That's the only feature of 3.2 that I can find on the 4G Tab's build of Android 3.1 however.
OS X Sync - Broken Again
When the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition was given away to Google IO attendees, the Mac users in the group quickly noticed that there was no way to get content onto the tablet from OS X. Samsung eventually updated its Kies application with proper support for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LE, unfortunately the 4G model resets things once more. Neither Android File Transfer nor Kies support the Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G under OS X. Thankfully the tablet is fully recognized under Windows 7.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
40 Comments
View All Comments
jigglywiggly - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
such a useless device with the shit plansATOmega - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
At $699 on contract, there is absolutely zero reason to buy one of these things. Not to mention, data plan prices are prohibitively expensive.This device should be tops $350 and available without a contract at any store that wishes to carry it.
Android tablets will *never* take off so long as this kind of nonsense is happening.
Lord 666 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Anand,Hold that unit in both hands, twist, and watch the screen flicker. The Xoom and iPads have great torsion resistance. The Samsung 10.1 series could be snapped in half.
medi01 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
Did you try hitting it with a hammer?EnerJi - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
GTFOH!! A total, and blatant rip-off, which I suppose they feel they can get away with as the only game in town. This device will be selling for (at least) $100 less by Thanksgiving, by which time the Xoom, PlayBook, and possibly others will also be shipping with LTE. Most folks should probably wait for more options and for competition to drive down prices later this year.heulenwolf - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
I agree with earlier comments that the price of the device and plans severely limit the product offering. VZW is no dummy so I wonder whether they are, in fact, aiming for lower volume. If they keep the customer count down on their 4G LTE network while they're still rolling it out, they can delay the capital upgrade investments for the additional backhaul bandwidth that would be required and, at the same time, make their existing 4G offering a premium service because its not so busy. Were there suddenly a few hundred thousand 4G LTE devices on-line simultaneously in the Charlotte area, I wonder whether they'd all be getting the incredible bandwidth shown in Anand's results. If, instead, they keep both the device and service plan costs high, they can simultaneously limit the data load on their new network so it appears hyperfast and make a high profit. Until they have viable competition, lower volume may be the better business case.eanazag - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
I don't think it looks enough alike to justify the patent infringement. I can see some similarities on the front side, but on the back end - no. The button and camera placement is different also. I think if Samsung had went with a different color other than black (and now white) on the front bezel of the screen or some extra distinguishing mark it would have not had an issue at all. I don't agree with the sales blocking, but I can see how if someone is looking to block the device that they would have a better chance than some other devices. I don't see how the OS side could provide a "look and feel" issue. It is mostly a cheap trick unless there is something that most reasonable people are missing. I would guess Apple is just trying to buy time till the next hardware release and knock off the best competing hardware available. I have an iPad 2 and would consider this device as the best alternative in the Android environment. I like Samsung as a manufacturer.The killer feature here is 4G. After using the iPad 2 and BB Playbook I would say that 4G speeds make this type of device much more useful. 3G where I am sucks. It is adequate for some web, but the next gen uses will require 4G such as remote desktop. Remote desktop is still pretty weak because of 3G, but can be done.
I use my device for work and play.
jrs77 - Monday, August 15, 2011 - link
A MiFi I can use with basically any of my mobile devices and overall it's cheaper aswell. I'm way more flexible with MiFi and I can even have friends use it, as good MiFi allows for more then one connection simultanously.So yeah... MiFi all the way.
milan03 - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link
Just did a few tests on Thunderbolt in NYC just for testing sake. I'm sure Samsung Galaxy Tab would hit even higher here in NYC especially on the uplink: [IMG]http://i55.tinypic.com/209lrmu.png[/IMG]shenjing - Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - link
Come go and see, will not regret it Oh lookhttp://www。ifancyshop。com