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Video: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Hands-On
This is the one.
Recently re-tooled, made skinny and lighter (566g) than the iPad 2 (603g), this is the first anticipated Android Honeycomb tablet. Sure, the Asus eee Transformer has been getting some great press, but mostly for its low cost. The Galaxy Tab 10.1, launching in July in Canada, will sport either a white plastic backing or a more metallic-looking silver (though still made of plastic).
Upon first impression, the tablet disappears; it is a wide screen with a modest bezel and a small 2MP camera staring back. Around the side, Samsung simplified: no microSD slot, no USB. Less is more. Charging, HDMI and USB connectivity is done with the proprietary slot on the bottom. Around the back the design is more of the same: the chrome around the side expands to a thin line that encompasses the headphone jack, 3MP camera and LED flash.
Clearly a cost-lowering maneuver, the 3MP camera replaces the original 8MP sensor of the gargantuan-seeming Galaxy Tab 10.1v, but everything else from that first version seems to be in tact. The upgrade to Android 3.1 has done wonders to the overall smoothness of the OS, and though our test unit doesn’t have it, the shipping version will include TouchWIZ. Rather than a full skinning, tablet TouchWIZ will mostly be about value-add widgets and custom Samsung apps.
But can the first real Android-based iPad competitor really make headway in the marketplace? Unlike Asus’ Transformer, which undercuts the iPad 2 by $100, the 16GB and 32GB versions of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 are being released in America at $499 and $599, respectively, identical to their iPad equivalents. It will come down to two things: how well Samsung markets Honeycomb as a differentiator of iOS and how Canadians embrace the Galaxy Tab brand.
Samsung is hoping with TouchWIZ to extend your stay on the homescreen. With the expansion of scrollable widgets in Android 3.1, they are taking full advantage of Honeycomb’s five homescreens. Even with the announcement of iOS5, Google still runs circles around Apple’s ability to disseminate information quickly from the homescreen. Now we see vendors like Samsung capitalizing on that open space. News, weather, stocks, Twitter, books, YouTube. This information is all available without opening a single app.
But the real triumph here is the hardware. No seams, no creaking. This is the first 10.1″ tablet you’ll be able to comfortably hold in one hand. And since it’s narrower and thinner than the Transformer, the Xoom, the Inconia, it doesn’t feel wrong holding it in portrait mode.
When it is released in July it will have a ton of momentum behind it, both from reviewers, Samsung fans, and the company itself. And it’s clear Samsung is not competing against Asus, Acer, Motorola, LG, Toshiba et al. It is competing squarely with one product, the iPad, and we can confidently say it will compete.
Discussion
33 comments for “Video: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Hands-On”
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Video is Private…
Also Yay you mentioned the transformer =D So many sites just seem to think the only honeycomb tablet is the Xoom
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i hope this will be the ipad killer. the ios on ipad is just horrible imo. so bland compared to the galaxy tab/honeycomb.
if people choose an ipad2 over this, our society is officially f****d up
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I can’t watch the video because it is set as private…
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So other than it’s size, what’s so good about it? No usb, no HDMI, no SD slot, crappy camera, high price and since it’s a Samsung device, updates will be few and far between.
The reviewer said the OS is light, but then mentions that the Samsung bloatware isn’t installed on his particular unit. If my Asus didn’t have all it’s bloat services running all the time, it would be way faster too!
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No usb, no HDMI <= didn't you see the Apple keynote? the time of câbles is over. It's time for the cloud and AirPlay-like technologies…
no SD slot <= with 32 GB built-in, you don't really need and extra SD card…
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But 32GB tablets are always more expensive than 16GB + a 16GB micro SD card.
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Mathieu is correct: Cables are history. The Galaxy Tab will have Samsung’s version of DLNA (AllShare TM). Stream 1080p, with 5.1 surround sound, MHL (no compression loss). Pair with DLNA TVs, Blu-Rays, HTIB, digital cameras, photo frames, PS3, XBox 360, and Windows. No proprietary iCrap. Pair it and go.
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I agree with Dan. What’s so great about this other then the weight and size? No sd and you have to use a proprietary samsung dongle for the other stuff. I would rather go with something without the samsung bloatware.
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I still think the best Honeycomb tablet on the market is the Xoom (US Version updated directly by google)…even with all the bad press it got over the price and lack of wifi at launch it is the true vanilla (nexus style support) tablet. A little heavier but seriously for me its not the killer feature. Its the fact i’ll get ice cream sandwich and all other updates before any other tablet does!
Now Motorola Canada is another story!
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“What’s so great about this other then the weight and size?”
That’s all this tablet needs to compete with the most successful tablet out there (aka. the Apple iPad).
Seriously, I have this 10.1″ Galaxy Tab since may 10th and the size and weight of the tablet is more important that I thought it was before actually using one on a daily basis.
What’s great about Android 3.0 tablets (compared to other Android devices) is that you can literally install hundreds of apps without having to think about the device space.
I probably have installed 10 Twitter clients (to see which was the best on tablet), way more than 50 games, a lot of Pulse-like apps (News360…)
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I remember my samsung phones with that proprietary cable. It was somewhat annoying, but I got use to it. I never looked into adapters though
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@Pitrick
I was in agreement until I saw how Motorola Canada was handling updates. I had figured that their use of a fairly vanilla Android would mean that we would get updates without too much delay, even here in Canada, but obviously that is not to be the case.
Know I’m not sure which one to get, but I’m not a big fan of the Tab.
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I have a g-tablet and never use the sd slot… unless i want to transfer stuff from my phone. There is hdmi I guess from a different cable or dock or something…
I think what we need is a contest for this now
…
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Give it time … put some music on pictures maybe a movie or two and storage will get pretty thin then it comes in useful to have one or two 32GB Micro SD cards lying around
Also I agree what makes this better then other devices … Admittedly the “bloatware” on this … Pulse (One of the most useful apps) and Widgets so i doubt those would affect updates at all
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The Tablet looks gorgeous but I think the main issue is that this tablet to me seems more like an Ipad 2 running Android than an Android tablet. I felt the HDMI included, the Micro SD and the USB reader really offered something different to the table and the Acer’s Speakers are still better than the Galaxy Tab’s. Well it may be a great tablet it’s still not the tablet for me to much Ipad similarities not enough Android functionality.
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is any one else choked that its a 3mp camera? why not at least a 5 like the galaxy phones? seems a bit week to be an ipad killer when the ipads camera are better…
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No, not choked. If I want real pictures, I’ll use a real camera or a good camera phone. I doubt that I would ever use a tablet as a camera, unless some amazing event unfold before me while I had it in my hands. In fact, I am pleased to see a cost-cutting measure in there.
The lack of SD, on the other hand, seems a very poor choice.
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Consider that the iPad2 rear camera is 0.7MP. Now it doesn’t look so bad, eh?
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have you seen the pictures taken by the ipads? its garbage….. along with the videos
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What’s with these smartphones getting 8MP cameras and 1080p HD recording.. whilst the tablets are stuck with a miserly 3mp/2mp.
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Can anyone explain why there is Bell’s bloatware on the firt pictures?
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Let’s put the specs on the side for a sec. What about the Market? Noone ever talks about how limited the “tablet” apps are. Right now, it’s just a $500 web browser.
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You can say that about an ipad too. That’s all I use it for. Not everyone cares about apps, or listens to music on it. Some people listen to that stuff on their desktop or phone. I use the browser and I watch streaming sports via flash, which I can’t do on my ipad, but i can on my android tablet.
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Since this tablet is predominantly a media consumption device, how well does it play video? Early adopters have had trouble with certain video codecs at higher bit rates. Does android 3.1 fix this issue? What about music syncing? Is there an android equivalent to itunes? If one were to ignore aesthetics and just focus on features, how does this tablet compare to the offerings from acer, asus, and toshiba?
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No memory card expansion, no USB and a proprietary cable? This thing is not competing with the iPad. It’s duplicating it.
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agreed, it seems like samsung is working backwards, the galaxies are expandable, yet the nexus s was not, a major reason why i didnt get it
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I’ll stick to the Playbook (0.9 lb). The 1.05 OS release also improved the battery life substantially.
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I just want to know that this device won’t lag and stutter when you use widgets and have lots of task running like android did. Also what killed me with android was that killing tasks was almost impossible, the app killer apps where pretty useless.
This would drain your battery insanely fast. If they fixed that, then I’ll buy a Samsung if not ill get an ipad 2 as i know what ill be getting.
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SD is not officially supported on Honeycomb by Google. Some OEMs have ignored this and designed tablets with an SD card slot anyway (wonder how well they are working). I don’t blame Sammy, this is a Google issue.
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what about 3G/4G version, any ETA on that one, if any.
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I’m a happy camper with my ASUS eee Transformer. I didn’t have to wait until July to get it as well. It feels great in my hands. Screen display is second to none. It has a micro SD slot and a 5MP camera vs. Galaxy’s 2MP with no micro SD slot. The Transformer comes packed with tonnes of applications including Polaris which allows me to read all pdf files and edit MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint without any issues. Also, in reviewing benchmark performance the Transformer is by far the better Android Tablet.
I like Samsung but the Transformer has a lot of positive features, not only the price.
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Agreed. I love my transformer as well. It’s a great device.
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I have spent days looking for an operaters manual. None of the headings that I clicked were even close to explaing the operation of my recently purchased Samsung Galaxy Tablet. All day yesterday looking for help, can you please give me some guidance.
Thank You
Tony Freer
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