Monday, April 18, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Tab

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Samsung Galaxy Tab is one of the contenders for being the bet Android tablet out there. Credit goes to Samsung, for keeping it light in weight and unnecessary customizations. So does it stand out among a galaxy of Android tablets?

The moment we laid our eager, dirty hands on this tablet, we left smudges on its glossy back and screen. A bad start, but the tablet has a near perfect build besides this. It is light yet solid, thanks to the high-grade plastic build. You can comfortably hold the tablet for quite a while, through we would have liked it to be a few millimeters thinner. The screen is protected by the scratch resistant Gorilla glass and has just enough bezel for a comfortable grip.

The first impression when switching it on was that the Android OS is much more stable on Galaxy Tab, than it was on little brother Galaxy S. The hardware seems well juiced and the device showed no lag whatsoever in UI or applications. The screen (TFT, not S-AMOLED) is decent, with good brightness levels.

The onscreen keyboard is little better than the stock Android keyboard, but presence of Swype in Android 2.2 helps.

Multi-touch and a good looking screen made it easy to love surfing on the device. Add to it Fro Yo’s new Flash-trick and that almost completes their tool on the device, it device handled ‘almost’ every site we threw at it.

The usual Google apps are accompanied by a few bundled apps by Samsung. Task Manager is the most useful of lot, a feature that the Android OS still lacks. Reader’s Hub is a one stop solution for reading newspaper, magazines or books. The bundles office suite is very basic, but seems enough to do minor editing on the go. Android 2.2’s stock email application is good, with multiple inboxes and easy configuration for common mail servers.

The GPS navigation software is bundled by Google and works only in online mode, as it uses Google Maps service for maps. The lack of voice-guided, offline navigation might force you switch to a paid alternate, something people shouldn’t need to do after spending Rs 38,000 on a tablet.

Watching videos (upto 1080p) on the devices is a pleasure, but the smudges are a pain, especially in bright sunlight, where the screen itself does a good job.

The loudspeakers and bundled headphones churn out good sound, but no cable has been bundled for TV-out.

We often say, the magic of these new OSes lies in the app markets and awesome apps they bring. Galaxy has “Samsung Apps” in addition to Android Market. At the time of writing, only one app was available in Samsung Apps: ‘Need for Speed: Shift’.

The tablet also has a 3.15 MP back camera and a VGA front camera. The video and photo quality is good for just casual clicking or video calling. The captured videos can be shared on Twitter, Facebook or Picasa directly through the Android gallery. Videos can be uploaded to YouTube equally effortlessly.

The battery life of the tablet is decent, unless you are a heavy gamer, in which case the device also gets a little warm. Also, if you are one to use your USB port to charge your gadgetry, you might as well stay away as the Galaxy Tab refuses to suck any sort of power fed through USB port, charging about 10 percent in the three hour we plugged it in.

On a whole the tablet is impressive but could repel potential buyers with its hefty price tag. And could the smudge-loving screen haunt it? Not until we have an alternative.

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