With the original Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung had a pretty good thing. You can have up to seven apps in the system bar, but you can't use it for. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes as close as any Android tablet has to matching Apple's iPad, and even does some things better.
You don't have to sift through the legal filings to get a feel for Samsung and Apple's mobile war — all you have to do is take a look at Samsung's latest entry in the tablet market. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the company's first Android Honeycomb tablet, and well, it was born in direct response to Apple's iPad 2. No, it actually was. Samsung tossed out the original Galaxy Tab 10.1, which was unveiled in February at Mobile World Congress, after Apple released its thinner iPad 2 a month later. Samsung VP Lee Don-Joo even publicly stated that the iPad was 'very thin' and that the company had to improve its 'inadequate' wares. By the time CTIA rolled around in late March, Samsung had an entirely new 0.33-inch thick Tab 10.1 that could compete with Apple's slab on both price and size.
Yes, the new Galaxy Tab is a minute 0.01-inches thinner than Apple's tablet, but more importantly it's the first tablet on the market to give the iPad 2 a run for its rail thin form factor. On top of that, the $499 slab packs a dual-core Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, two cameras, and 16GB of storage space. Indeed, Samsung has been nimble enough to react, but the time has come to find out if the Tab 10.1 has what it takes to really challenge Apple's popular tablet and the slew of other Android 3.X tablets. Hit the break for our full review.
Hardware / designHardware / design
According to Samsung's measurements it's even thinner than the iPad 2
I think the point is fairly clear: the Tab 10.1 is thin. Like really thin... at least in comparison to the other Android 3.X tablets out there. And yes, according to Samsung's measurements it's even thinner than the iPad 2. However, as you may have guessed, the difference isn't noticeable to the naked eye, and if you didn't have a measuring tape on you, you'd probably never know one was trimmer than the other. Where you will notice the difference between the two is on weight. The 1.24-pound Tab 10.1 feels lighter in hand than the 1.33-pound iPad; in actual use, however — holding it up to read, etc. — I'd say that weight difference isn't all that obvious. Still, in comparison to the Xoom or ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, the Tab 10.1 is much easier to manage while laying in bed or lounging around. But yes, sacrifices are made to achieve that thinness. The only ports you will find on this tablet are 3.5mm headphone and proprietary charging jacks. There is a volume rocker and a power button, but forget that microSD card slot or micro-USB port.
It's the good old plastic versus metal debate
Beyond all those numbers and details, the Tab 10.1 feels pretty great in hand, and I actually prefer the curved edges of the Tab to the iPad's sharper sides. The tablet's white plastic back isn't actually all that plasticy, and to appeal to the less-techy audience, Samsung's ditched the Android motif that adorned the Special Edition Tab 10.1. However, the aluminum back of the iPad gives it the upper hand in terms of build quality — although, as we just went through, it also results in it weighing a tad more. It's the good old plastic versus metal debate. But I don't want to stray from the point here: the Tab's hardware is well-made, well-designed, and yes, it is absolutely a real iPad competitor in terms of form factor.
Screen and speakers
Samsung's not using an expanded Super AMOLED Plus or IPS panel here, but the quality is still top-notch. The 1280 x 800-resolution screen has superb viewing angles; there's no color distortion at any angle and images appear bright even off axis. I didn't have the Transformer to compare it to, but brightness seemed on par with the iPad 2's panel. In fact, while looking at this very site, the orange box looked a bit brighter on the Tab's display.
The Tab 10.1's two small speaker slits were louder than I anticipated, but still sounded relatively tinny. There's no question that the Warblers' version of 'Soul Sister' (don't judge me for loving Glee!) sounded much fuller and balanced coming out of the iPad 2's rear speaker grill, although to compensate, Samsung includes a set of earbuds in the box. And they're actually surprisingly comfortable.
Brightness seemed on par with the iPad 2's panel
Cameras
It's actually one of the better shooters I've seen on a tablet
The 3 megapixel camera and its LED flash are positioned on the on the top rear of the slab, and it's actually one of the better shooters I've seen on a tablet. I realize that's not exactly saying much, since most of the cameras on these tablets have been downright horrendous, but the lens has at least taken some decent shots over the past few days. Most of them have been clear, which I cannot say of any of the extremely grainy images I've taken with the iPad 2. That said, the auto-focus still feels slower than most smartphones and caused me to miss quite a few moving shots. The 720p video was similar to what I've seen on other Android 3.X tablets; the footage just doesn't look all that HD and looks washed out. Sadly, there's no zoom option in either mode.
The lens has at least taken some decent shots over the past few days
Naturally, the front-facing cam didn't take as sharp images, but they seemed quite a bit less grainy than shots captured with the iPad 2, Transformer, and Acer Iconia A500. Similarly, video was smooth and clear when chatting with a friend over Google Talk. Samsung's also tweaked a few of the software camera controls. Conveniently, it has exposed a number of the settings – including white balance, resolution, etc. – on the left hand side of the screen, so you don't have to go digging through the menus. You can also apply different scene modes as you're shooting.
Android 3.1
The software story on the Tab 10.1 is actually fairly interesting. Back at CTIA, Samsung demoed TouchWiz UX for Honeycomb, which included a new app shortcut tray and some retooled menus. However, the Tab 10.1 of the present comes with stock 3.1. That's right, it's basically a clean Google experience here, or at least it is for now, since Samsung plans to roll out some 'enhancements' in the near future. When those will arrive is unclear, but Samsung has told us that it will be an optional update.
Stock AnDROID for now
By and large, the Tab 10.1 runs an untarnished version of 3.1, but Samsung's made some small tweaks. In addition to the aforementioned camera controls, it's also redesigned the keyboard. The keys are easier to read and the white background makes it easier to type on than the stock Honeycomb layout, if you ask me. Other than that, Samsung preloads a few apps, including QuickOffice HD, Pulse news reader, and Samsung's Music Hub and Apps. The latter is Samsung's very own App Store — something that seems to be a trend on these tablets — but it's incredibly half-baked at this point. There are only six apps in the storefront and that 'Android, Samsung Apps Open' banner (pictured above) just seems like some tacky afterthought.
LACKING APPS
The first part of that issue — the lack of tablet optimized apps — is really Honeycomb's Achilles' heel right now. While Google has fixed a number of the stability issues and even began to polish up the interface with resizable widgets, etc. the platform still seriously trails iOS in terms of app selection. To be honest, it's not just numbers for me. I don't care about having 65,000 apps at my disposal, I care about having a selection of quality tablet apps available to me when I sit down with my tablet. The selection has gotten somewhat better, but for me personally, there's still a lack of solid news, Twitter, and general tablet apps that can compete with the ones I have on my iPad.
Performance / battery Performance and battery life
Compared to the iPad 2, the experience doesn't feel as fluid and parts of it are stuttery
As I mentioned in my initial 3.1 hands-on, the new version brings a lot of stability and speed improvements to Honeycomb, and the Tab 10.1 certainly reaps the benefits. The 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM pushed things along smoothly and allowed for a solid amount of multitasking. Scrolling in the browser was fluid as was playing HD games like Dungeon Defenders and Contract Killer. However, compared to the iPad 2, the experience doesn't feel as fluid and parts of it are stuttery. Flash is one of those parts — performance was what you'd expect: it slowed down the browser a bit, but videos played back smoothly. As with most of these tablets, local and streaming 720p video purred along.
Battery life has been somewhat of a mixed bag in my testing. While in actual use I have been able to squeeze out about seven to eight hours of runtime, the Tab 10.1's 7000mAH battery didn't fare as well in our video rundown test, which loops the same standard definition video at 65 brightness and WiFi on. It only lasted five hours and 33 minutes, which is about three hours shorter than the Transformer and five shorter than the iPad 2. Engadget claims to have gotten ten hours on the same test and Laptopmag got about 8.5 hours on its web surfing test, but AllThingsD got a similar 5.5 hours on a video rundown test. It seems a bit all over the place, but based on actual usage, I'm confident that the tablet will push out close to eight hours of juice of basic browsing and application use.
Video ReviewVideo Review
Editor's note: Thanks to the release of recent, high-quality tablets, the overall score of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (Verizon) has been adjusted down from 7.7 to 7.0.
From a design perspective, no Android 3.0-based tablet has matched the iPad 2's no-nonsense aesthetic. The iPad 2 is sleek, sexy, thin, and light, with a minimalist design that eschews extra ports. Every Honeycomb tablet released so far has struggled to match that appeal.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the first Honeycomb tablet that is not only as thin as the iPad 2, but is actually lighter.
Design and features
The first thing that struck us upon taking the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 out of its box was its slim profile. In fact, when it's lying next to the iPad 2 we honestly can't tell which tablet is thicker and unfortunately we don't have a micrometer handy to get down into the business of microns. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs 1.24 pounds, compared with the iPad 2's 1.32 pounds.
The first thing that struck us upon taking the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 out of its box was its slim profile. In fact, when it's lying next to the iPad 2 we honestly can't tell which tablet is thicker and unfortunately we don't have a micrometer handy to get down into the business of microns. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs 1.24 pounds, compared with the iPad 2's 1.32 pounds.
Rather than several paragraphs filled with confusing numbers, I thought a chart would be much more appropriate. Here's a handy chart to illustrate the size differences between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other recent tablets.
Asus Eee Pad Transformer | Acer Iconia Tab A500 | Motorola Xoom | Apple iPad 2 | T-Mobile G-Slate | Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Weight in pounds | 1.52 | 1.66 | 1.62 | 1.34 | 1.38 | 1.24 |
Width in inches (landscape) | 10.7 | 10.2 | 9.8 | 9.5 | 9.6 | 10.1 |
Height in inches | 6.9 | 6.9 | 6.6 | 7.3 | 5.8 | 6.9 |
Depth in inches | 0.51 | 0.51 | 0.5 | 0.34 | 0.49 | 0.34 |
Side bezel width in inches (landscape) | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
Taking another page from the iPad 2's school of sexy tablet building, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has one of the cleanest designs we've seen in a tablet. From the front, its 10.1-inch screen is surrounded by its 0.8-inch black bezel and a silver aluminum outline at the edge. In the top middle sits its 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
On the top edge from left to right are the power/sleep button, volume rocker, and headphone jack. A speaker adorns the right and left sides and the universal connection port is found on the bottom edge, right beside a microphone pinhole.
There are no USB or HDMI ports. And, try as we might, we couldn't find ports for either SD cards or SIM cards. We're hoping Samsung's final release version will make finding the ports a lot easier.
The back of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 sports an 8-megapixel camera at the top and a plain white back. It's the feel of the plastic back that is the most disappointing aspect of the Tab 10.1's design. It doesn't feel as solid as the iPad 2, and as a result, doesn't feel as comfortable in our hands. Still, despite its 10.1-inch screen, the tablet never felt the least bit bulky.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a Google Experience tablet, meaning it uses the base version of Honeycomb 3.1, with no customizations to its interface; however, Samsung does include its Samsung Apps, um, app. Samsung Apps gives you access to the company's own application store.
For more information on version 3.1 of Honeycomb, check out the Honeycomb section of our original Xoom review.
Performance
This is Samsung's first tablet with a 10.1-inch screen, and it looks fantastic. The Super PLS-based display, with its 1,280x800-pixel resolution, produces a clear, crisp image, with a wide viewing angle that looks great when Web surfing or browsing the app store.
This is Samsung's first tablet with a 10.1-inch screen, and it looks fantastic. The Super PLS-based display, with its 1,280x800-pixel resolution, produces a clear, crisp image, with a wide viewing angle that looks great when Web surfing or browsing the app store.
Angry Birds Rio actually looked better on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 than on the iPad 2, with more vibrant and appropriately saturated colors. 'Toy Story 3' was vibrant and colorful--as colorful as the movie looks running on the iPad 2--and teemed with more life (yes, even in a cartoon) than on the other Android tablets. The speakers are powerful, and capable of deep, thumping bass.
The 8-megapixel rear camera took high-quality pictures for a tablet camera, with a sharpness and level of color vibrancy that was unmatched. The default camera app isn't the stock Honeycomb one. It has a slightly more streamlined interface and includes a few options like white-balance setting and a timer, but is missing a zoom function. We also noticed that when panning around, before taking a still pic, the video frame rate was noticeably laggy compared with the Acer Iconia Tab A500 or the Xoom.
The tablet includes the Nvidia Tegra 2 Dual Core processor and navigating feels just as zippy here as it did on any previous Honeycomb tablet.
Web site speed was some of the fastest we've seen. Both for low-bandwidth sites like Giantbomb.com and somewhat higher-bandwidth sites like CNET, we saw equal performance from the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the reigning tablet speed champ, the iPad 2. However, the Tab 10.1 provides consistently faster speeds when going to a much busier site like CBSnews.com. Still, that difference only ranged from 1 to 3 seconds. Look for a new video competition featuring the Tab 10.1 fairly soon.
Two apps unique to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 are included on the device: the aforementioned Samsung Apps, and Pulse. With Samsung Apps, essentially all we were able to do was download Rilakkuma pics. While we enjoy cute Japanese cartoon animals as much as the next person, this version of the app seems to still be in its testing phase and will hopefully be working as intended by the official June 8 launch.
Pulse is a news aggregator that organizes news items into small previews, categorized into news, social (with Facebook functionality), entertainment, and so on, usually accompanied with a pic. Tapping on a blurb opens the entire article. The fast performance and straightforward interface made this a welcome default app.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is set to its highest possible brightness by default, measuring 336 candelas per square meter (cd/m2) at its highest and 0.30 cd/m2 at its lowest, delivering a very good contrast ratio of 1,120:1. Here's how it compares with other tablets.
Tested specs | Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | Motorola Xoom | Apple iPad 2 | Asus Eee Pad Transformer | Acer Iconia Tab A500 | T-Mobile G-Slate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Maximum brightness | 336 cd/m2 | 312 cd/m2 | 432 cd/m2 | 320 cd/m2 | 337 cd/m2 | 424 cd/m2 |
Default brightness | 336 cd/m2 | 131 cd/m2 | 176 cd/m2 | 85 cd/m2 | 67 cd/m2 | 143 cd/m2 |
Maximum black level | 0.30 cd/m2 | 0.26 cd/m2 | 0.46 cd/m2 | 0.29 cd/m2 | 0.24 cd/m2 | 0.52 cd/m2 |
Default black level | 0.30 cd/m2 | 0.11 cd/m2 | 0.19 cd/m2 | 0.08 cd/m2 | 0.05 cd/m2 | 0.18 cd/m2 |
Default contrast ratio | 1,120:1 | 1,190:1 | 926:1 | 1,063:1 | 1,340:1 | 794 |
Contrast ratio (max brightness) | 1,120:1 | 1,200:1 | 939:1 | 1,103:1 | 1,404:1 | 815:1 |
Using the tablet at full brightness with Wi-Fi saw the battery charge drop 20 percent in the span of about 90 minutes. We'll have official battery life results from CNET Labs soon, so check back here later.
Conclusions
The Honeycomb 3.1 experience doesn't change much, whether it's on the Galaxy 10.1 or the Xoom. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer's OS was the most changed, but at the end of the day, it's still Honeycomb. So, honestly, as a reviewer, it's a little difficult to get excited about yet another Wi-Fi-only Honeycomb tablet with no truly unique software or hardware features. I know what to expect from Honeycomb and there are no surprises here. It's still a fast OS, with plenty of customization options.
The Honeycomb 3.1 experience doesn't change much, whether it's on the Galaxy 10.1 or the Xoom. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer's OS was the most changed, but at the end of the day, it's still Honeycomb. So, honestly, as a reviewer, it's a little difficult to get excited about yet another Wi-Fi-only Honeycomb tablet with no truly unique software or hardware features. I know what to expect from Honeycomb and there are no surprises here. It's still a fast OS, with plenty of customization options.
Given the level of Honeycomb tablet homogenization that has occurred, I'm more interested in the tablet's look and feel than anything else. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 impresses with its lightweight, thin, minimalist design. That, coupled with a huge and beautiful screen, makes for a well-designed tablet.
This is the iPad 2 of Honeycomb tablets. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 was actually publicly shown before the iPad 2 was, so by calling it that we simply mean that from a design standpoint it has more in common with Apple's hardware than other Honeycomb tablets. That's a compliment of the highest order. The iPad 2 still has the sexiest, smoothest form factor of any tablet.
That style isn't for everyone, though, so those looking for a tricked-out Android tablet with all the fixings won't find it here. What you will find is an elegantly designed tablet for users who don't need a ton of connection options.
Apple still has superior support for games, apps, music, and movies. So, if it's down to these two tablets, we still recommend the iPad 2; however, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be the Android tablet of choice.