Samsung Galaxy Tab

Reviewed By: Engadget

Samsung Galaxy Tablet

After a week of painful teasing, Samsung has come clean about its Galaxy Tab 7-inch Android tablet. We got the nitty gritty specs, along with some quality time with the device, and we like what we’re seeing on both fronts. Follow along after the break as we break it all down, including some hot hot video of the thing in action!

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab Hardware specs

* Android 2.2 running TouchWiz 3.0 * 7-inch TFT LCD with 1024 x 600 resolution (WSVGA) * Weighs 380 grams * 1GHz Cortex A8 processor * 16GB or 32GB internal storage * microSD expansion for up to 32GB additional storage * Front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera and rear 3 megapixel camera with flash * 4,000mAh battery * 3G data / voice (there’s a speakerphone and Bluetooth for phone calls, but no earpiece) * 5GHz dual-band 802.11n WiFi * Standard back color is white, carriers might offer different colors * Full HD video playback * There’s a 30-pin dock connector on the bottom that allows for HDMI, USB, and docking accessories (a car dock at least is plotted)

Launch details

Lots of question marks. The tablet will be out in Europe first, possibly with Italy as the first to nab it, and the US will come later down the line. Also, while the version we played with is obviously GSM, we don’t have any confirmation on a CDMA version, or which carriers might be scoring the device on either side of the pond. We’re also completely in the dark on price.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Hardware impressions

There’s hardly a surprise to be had when it comes to the hardware. It’s excellent looking (though a tad on the “safe” side), solidly built (none of the seeming fragility of the Galaxy S here), lightweight (but not Kindle light), and glossy to the max (your iPad would be proud). The screen is fantastic, though Samsung has managed to make this LCD look just as oversaturated as its AMOLEDs, and we’re particularly enthused at the relative pixel density the screen gains over its iPad competition and the multitude of WVGA 7-inch Android tablets out there. Capacitive touch response is just as brilliant as the iPad’s, and the processor doesn’t seem to have much distress keeping up with the UI. There is a feeling of relative chubbiness due to the screen to thickness ratio, despite the fact that the Tab is just as thin or perhaps thinner than the iPad — we suppose the new Kindle has terminally spoiled us on this front. Still, it’s a device that’s much better suited to supporting with a single hand than the iPad, and seems to squarely best that competitor when it comes to all things e-reading.

Software impressions

By all accounts Android isn’t really “ready” for tablets. It’s still a phone OS being questioned to do a huge screen job, but while we could see room for improvement, we’d say Samsung has shored up enough of Android’s deficiencies with its own custom skin and apps to make the OS thoroughly palatable in this form factor. TouchWiz 3.0 still does have a bit of a “iPhone for kids” flavor to it, but props to Samsung for the depth and consistency of its UI layer.

What’s more impressive are the apps Samsung built specifically to take advantage of the screen size and resolution, including a very attractive calendar app, an email app that has a dual pane view in landscape (of a style that seems unapologetically borrowed from the iPad), a similar messaging app, a Media Hub music store and player (not aimed at the US, most likely), an e-reading launcher app (that points to PressDisplay for newspapers, Kobo for e-books, and Zinio for magazines), and more. A custom dialer app includes fancy contact browsing and a video call button right up front. Samsung supports the UMTS video calling standard, but since that’s not a thing in the US, we’ll have to look to third party providers such as Qik to get our video calling on.

On the third party front, Samsung says that apps which were developed within Google’s UI guidelines should scale up correctly, but others might need to be reworked. We’ll have to see for ourselves how well Joe the Plumber’s apps handle the new resolution, but we don’t have much reason to dread it so far — the few apps we saw that looked to be scaled up instead of 1024 x 600-specific looked and worked just fine.

Wrap-Up

We’ll have to see if a non-Apple company can convince consumers to buy something once viewed so frivolous as a tablet, and the right usefulness of Android in this form factor will require more time with the Tab to really discern. A lot rests on the shoulders of developers, as usual, to make or break this quasi-new platform, but for Samsung’s part we reckon the company has set the gold standard for Android tablets, and might have just enough differentiation, quality, and moxy to set its 7-inch contender up against Apple’s 9.7-inch juggernaut.

The excellent: The Samsung Intercept has Android 2.1, a 3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, a colorful show, and a fantastic QWERTY keyboard. Call quality is excellent. The terrible: The Samsung Intercept’s task manager can be a bit sluggish at times, and the photo quality could be improved. The bottom line: The Samsung Intercept is a suitable Android alternative for Sprint customers on a budget. Review: Nearly a year after the release of the Samsung Moment, Samsung is finally adding more Android phones to the Sprint lineup. Though most data-hungry professionals might want to wait for the Samsung Epic 4G (which is also one of Samsung’s Galaxy S series of handsets), the Samsung Intercept is geared more toward the budget-conscious consumer. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of the Epic 4G–it doesn’t have an AMOLED show and only has EV-DO Rev. 0, for example–but it still packs in plenty of features for Android lovers. The Intercept is available for just $99.99 with a new two-year contract and a mail-in rebate. Design Samsung has a tendency to stick with similar designs for most of its phones, and that is right with the Intercept. Indeed, if you didn’t pay close attention to the details, the Intercept looks similar to the Samsung Acclaim, and also to the aforementioned Samsung Moment. It measures 4.43 inches long by 2.19 inches wide by 0.59 inch thick, and it has rounded corners, smooth chrome-plated sides, and a soft touch material on the battery cover that gives it a comfortable feel in the hand. We like the design well enough, but its similarity to other phones does give us an unfavorable sense of déjà vu.

The Samsung Intercept looks like a lot of other Samsung touch-screen phones.

It’s not AMOLED or anything special, but the Intercept’s 3.2-inch WQVGA show is still pleasing to the eye and is bright and colorful overall. The text does seem a tiny bit fuzzy, but that’s a minor quibble. It has a smooth and responsive capacitive show, and thanks to Android 2.1, it supports pinch-to-zoom as well. The latter comes especially handy when using the Web browser. The accelerometer kicks in only in certain applications, like the browser and the photo gallery. Underneath the show are the usual Android sensor hot keys laid out in a row. They correspond to the pop-up menu, home, the back key, and search. If you hold down the home button, a task manager will appear showing recently opened applications. This lets you multitask quite easily. But, we found that the Intercept often suffered quite a bit of lag when opening and closing the task manager. It didn’t happen all the time, but when it did, it was annoying. Like the Acclaim, the Intercept also has a square select button that doubles as an optical trackpad. This works as an alternative to the touch screen, especially if you’d rather use just one hand to navigate the phone. To the left and right of it are the Send and End/Power keys. The volume rocker and microSD card slot are on the left spine, plus there’s a charger jack on top. On the right side are the 3.5mm headset jack and camera key. The camera lens and self-portrait mirror are on the back.

The Samsung Intercept has a spacious physical keyboard.

Slide the phone’s show to the right, and you’ll find full four-row QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard is fantastic–it’s roomy with keys that are well-spaced apart, and we like that they’re sufficiently raised above the surface for quick and simple typing. The arrow keys are highlighted in gray. If you’d rather not use the physical keyboard, you also have the option of the virtual QWERTY keyboard in both landscape and portrait modes. Features The Samsung Intercept comes with Android 2.1 right out of the gate, which is fantastic news if you want a modern Android OS smartphone. You get voice-to-text capabilities, Google Maps Navigation, and the option for live wallpapers. We’ve always questioned if the Samsung TouchWiz interface fit well within Android, and thankfully the Samsung Intercept just has the standard Android UI. Motorola W375 Black (Unlocked Triband) + FREE SHIPPING and $25.00 OFF With Coupon Code BLKMOTO375

HTC DROID INCREDIBLE : Android realizes its full, heart-warming potential

Aesthetically, HTC’s Droid Incredible lacks the neo-industrial panache of the iPhone 4, but it does have a sturdy, nearly ruggedized feel. The brain is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC, which, in conjunction with 8GB of storage and 512MB of RAM, provides for peppy multitasking. We tried to saturate the Incredible’s CPU and memory by simultaneously running and downloading apps and web pages, and it never broke a sweat. The show is a vibrant, 3.7-inch, 480×800 AMOLED touch screen that will please just about everyone—except iPhone 4 owners. HTC’s 252ppi pixel density comes close to matching Apple’s 326ppi, but when you place the two screens next to each other, the disparity is clear. One of the Incredible’s finest attributes is its 8MP camera, which out-pixels every other phone in this round-up. Like most smartphone cameras, it’s particularly well-suited for daylight, and it has a quick shutter response and some honestly flexible focusing options. Like all tasks within the Android OS, sharing photos is easily accomplished through a few simple button presses.

The Incredible isn’t the most tricked-out Android phone around, but it represents the sweet spot of the family.

The Incredible lacks a front-facing camera, which shuts down the video-chat option. Our hunch is that while most of us won’t miss it now, we’ll all wish we had front-facing cameras in about a year when they’re a standard feature and software support is ubiquitous. Ironically, the only other “pure” smartphone we’ve seen that does have a front-facing camera is Nokia’s N900 outlier. (The Dell Streak? Not a pure smartphone!) Much has been made of Android’s multi-tasking environment. While we appreciate it—particularly the ability to download data while performing other tasks—where the Android OS really trumps the competition is on the home screen. In addition to directory shortcuts, you can place functioning widgets for everything from applications to data feeds to settings screens directly on your desktop. Furthermore, if you don’t like the way your home screen, keyboard, or virtually any other element of your phone looks or feels, you can change it by either modifying the settings or downloading alternatives from the Android Market. The Incredible currently runs Android 2.1, but HTC has implemented a modified version of the standard Android interface known as HTC Sense, which works quite well. Key differences include several customized apps and widgets for mail, social networking, and more. We particularly appreciate the Backup Assistant, which we set to automatically back up our contacts to Verizon’s servers every evening. The default touch-screen keyboard is squarely average and offers up useful, intuitive and customizable auto-right options. Nonetheless, you’ll be more pleased downloading a third-party keyboard, such as Better Keyboard or Swype. If you’ve been using a BlackBerry for years, expect a honestly significant learning curve, and know that you probably won’t ever type as quick as you did on a BlackBerry QWERTY. Our largest concern with the HTC Incredible is its meager battery life. With mostly default settings (except show time-out, which we always reduce to the minimum) and four email accounts running, we found ourselves draining the battery in less than 24 hours. That’s unacceptable, but at least we were able to extend battery life to close to 36 hours by reducing the frequency of email checks, downloading a third-party power manager app, and turning down screen brightness. And let’s not forget how much network service matters: Verizon’s speedy network data rates give the Incredible a huge advantage over AT&T and the iPhone. We consistently, unfailingly, found the Incredible pulling down web pages and other data at rates up to three times quicker than the iPhone. This was reviewed by: Maximum Tech