Introduction
This is the second Generation Android tablet made by Samsung, which is predicted as the toughest rival iPad 2 when it was released the other day. As promised, this review can I give to the second Android tablet made by Samsung after I tried the other day for 5 days. Is it true that Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is suitable to be considered as best as rival Android tablet iPad 2? Hmm, let's look together, starting from the specifications.
This is the second Generation Android tablet made by Samsung, which is predicted as the toughest rival iPad 2 when it was released the other day. As promised, this review can I give to the second Android tablet made by Samsung after I tried the other day for 5 days. Is it true that Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is suitable to be considered as best as rival Android tablet iPad 2? Hmm, let's look together, starting from the specifications.
Specifications and Features:
- 10.1″ 16 million color TFT capacitive touchscreen, PLS, WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels)
- Weight 565 g (is quite mild)
- Thickness of only 8.6 mm, beat iPad 2! And is the thinnest table when released
- Gorilla Glass display
- Tegra 2 chipset: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; ULP GeForce GPU
- Android 3.1 Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX UI
- Optional quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G with HSDPA 21 Mbps connectivity
- 16/32/64 GBGB of built-in memory
- 3.2 MP autofocus back camera, 2048×1536 pixels, LED flash, geotagging
- 2.0 MP front camera for video call
- 720p HD video recording @ 30 fps
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Direct, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot
- Proprietary 30-pin connector port for charging
- Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
- HDMI TV-out (requires additional accessories), USB host (requires additional accessories)
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
- Flash 10.3 support
- GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
- DivX/XviD support (fullHD), MP4 support up to HD
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor; three-axis Gyroscope sensor
- Polaris office document editor installed
- 7000 mAh Li-Po rechargeable battery
Design & Material Quality
Cute, thin, but plastic is everywhere. Has been the hallmark of Samsung, the material used mostly made of plastic so that the impression of premium tablet is missing from this. The use of plastic also makes the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is lighter than iPad 2, which is a good thing. Although minor, carrying a tablet with one hand while the roads were still too tired to make the hand.
Cute, thin, but plastic is everywhere. Has been the hallmark of Samsung, the material used mostly made of plastic so that the impression of premium tablet is missing from this. The use of plastic also makes the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is lighter than iPad 2, which is a good thing. Although minor, carrying a tablet with one hand while the roads were still too tired to make the hand.
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| Nice looking tablet, unfortunately the body not aluminum |
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| Thinner: iPhone 4 (left) & Galaxy Tab 10.1 (right) |
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Much thinner: iPad 1 (left) & Galaxy Tab 10.1 (right)
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OS Honeycomb + Samsung TouchWiz
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is equipped with Honeycomb Android OS that has been enhanced by Samsung with their unique user interface, TouchWiz (although not much is changed). Ga I will discuss about the Honeycomb too deep here, but rather in the direction of the changes that have given the Samsung Honeycomb at this tablet.
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| Honeycomb + TouchWiz |
Resizeable Widgets
Samsung provides a widget that has been customized so that we can resize the grid to follow the tablet home screen. Resize it way too easy, just tap and hold the widget and the widget is ready to be resized. Some widgets can be resized for example widget gallery, calendar, weather, Gmail, Email, Social Hub, etc..
Quick Panel / Notification Area
Quick Panel / Notification Area can be accessed by touching the lower right area of the screen (which contained hours, battery status, 3G or WiFi). Quick Panel displays a larger clock and the date, battery status, WiFi status / internet connection, screen brightness settings, a link to Settings, and of course the notification list. Quick Panel is already in the standard version of Honeycomb, but Samsung makes it more functional by adding a few switches to enable and to disable functions like WiFi, GPS, auto-rotate, Sound, Airplane mode, etc. which usually only can we access the Settings page. Essentially Samsung facilitate access to such arrangements, because we can access Quick Panel at any time without need to go to the Settings page in advance ..
Samsung provides a widget that has been customized so that we can resize the grid to follow the tablet home screen. Resize it way too easy, just tap and hold the widget and the widget is ready to be resized. Some widgets can be resized for example widget gallery, calendar, weather, Gmail, Email, Social Hub, etc..
Quick Panel / Notification Area
Quick Panel / Notification Area can be accessed by touching the lower right area of the screen (which contained hours, battery status, 3G or WiFi). Quick Panel displays a larger clock and the date, battery status, WiFi status / internet connection, screen brightness settings, a link to Settings, and of course the notification list. Quick Panel is already in the standard version of Honeycomb, but Samsung makes it more functional by adding a few switches to enable and to disable functions like WiFi, GPS, auto-rotate, Sound, Airplane mode, etc. which usually only can we access the Settings page. Essentially Samsung facilitate access to such arrangements, because we can access Quick Panel at any time without need to go to the Settings page in advance ..
Mini Apps
Mini Apps can be accessed by tapping the arrow icon is pointing up at the bottom center of the screen. There are 6 applications available in the Mini Apps, and as the name implies, it is a version of "mini" of the standard applications. Called the mini, because in contrast to standard applications when running full screen will be displayed first, Mini App is displayed only in a small panel, on the homescreen, application, video, game, or whatever it is we are open. Mini Panel App can we drag and move around its position by means of drag, similar to windows panel in Windows or Mac. Unfortunately, drag the small panel is not running smoothly, laggy. Mini Apps is the same as Quick Panel, can be accessed anywhere. Applications contained in this Mini Apps is: Task Manager, Calendar, World Clock, Pen Memo, Calculator, and Music.
Pen Memos
Memo application with doodles features. We can write with your finger or stylus. Color and brush size can be changed, so did the theme of the paper. When they want to edit the notes that have been made somewhat confusing because there is no "Edit" button or the like, but only with a double tap the file. Not to mention when you're editing, for some reason often occur on the "Done" are touched by accident (too sensitive). The point is somewhat less user friendly.
Social Hub
Applications Samsung friendship style. Instead of having to access Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Message in each separate application, Social Hub gathers them all together. Practical! But there is a side minus that I find here, namely the "missing gap" of social timeline. For example, last time I refresh Social Hub is today at 12 am. Then I was busy all day so the new Social Hub last refresh time at 17:00 pm. Well, Social Hub does not show the entire timeline in 17 hours that have been overlooked, but only a few hours before it, for example from 12 noon. So the timeline from 12 pm to 12 pm is not known.
Printscreen / Screenshots Shortcut
Samsung provides a shortcut for us to do printscreen / take a screenshot, with the touch of a button on the screen. This button is located on the 4th position of a collection of icons on the left of the screen. Probably not many people who think this printscreen function is important, but for I (and the other reviewer), of course, a function that is very helpful. Unfortunately, in some parts of this printscreen button we can not access, such as Mini Apps tray and Quick Panel is active.
Applications Samsung friendship style. Instead of having to access Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Message in each separate application, Social Hub gathers them all together. Practical! But there is a side minus that I find here, namely the "missing gap" of social timeline. For example, last time I refresh Social Hub is today at 12 am. Then I was busy all day so the new Social Hub last refresh time at 17:00 pm. Well, Social Hub does not show the entire timeline in 17 hours that have been overlooked, but only a few hours before it, for example from 12 noon. So the timeline from 12 pm to 12 pm is not known.
Printscreen / Screenshots Shortcut
Samsung provides a shortcut for us to do printscreen / take a screenshot, with the touch of a button on the screen. This button is located on the 4th position of a collection of icons on the left of the screen. Probably not many people who think this printscreen function is important, but for I (and the other reviewer), of course, a function that is very helpful. Unfortunately, in some parts of this printscreen button we can not access, such as Mini Apps tray and Quick Panel is active.
Overall Performance Homescreen Less Smooth Operation
One thing that is jammed in the operation of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (and various other tablets Honeycomb Tegra 2) is still the discovery of lag here and there. On paper Galaxy Tab 10.1 already has very good specs: dual core processor and 1 GB of RAM. Period just to make the transition between screens in the homescreen just still like laggy? Of the five existing homescreen, I only fill 3 homescreen, and it was not full of widgets. If you operate in portrait mode (vertical), wah lag worse. But about the lag in the vertical mode because he said the problems in OS 3.1, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 I still try to use Honeycomb OS 3.1, while the latest (3.2) has been improved. Galaxy Tab is not one, but more toward the still premature Honeycomb OS resource is wasteful and unstable. Other evidence will be discussed in later sections. Update: Yesterday was a check Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already using OS 3.2 and it is true, it is more smooth, especially in vertical mode. However, the lag was found.
Multimedia: Music
In addition to having stereo speakers with a pretty good quality, it turns out the default earphones of this tablet was spelled out pretty good. Not to mention supported by the audio quality which also includes a good (some say better than the iPad !).
For music application itself, Samsung has modify it so no longer use the music player application Honeycomb standard, which I think is more interesting because of congenital Honeycomb-like cover flow effect is typical of Apple. Beyond that, the rest standard and remain functional. There is a playlist, can search the song you want (very useful if our extraordinary collection of songs a lot), equalizer, and so forth. If we exit the music and there is still music being played behind the scenes, will automatically appear in the Notification Area notif at the bottom right that shows the current song title. But unfortunately the only title of the song just is not any option to control music, eg next / prev / stop / pause. We still have to go back to the music application to do so.
Music formats supported by the Galaxy Tab include: eAAC +, WMA, AAC, AAC +, WAV, OGG, IMY, RTTTL / RTX, AMR <OTA, Vorbis, MP3 and MIDI.
Music formats supported by the Galaxy Tab include: eAAC +, WMA, AAC, AAC +, WAV, OGG, IMY, RTTTL / RTX, AMR <OTA, Vorbis, MP3 and MIDI.
Connectivity
There is nothing special in terms of connectivity for virtually all of these tablets have the same class: aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, various sensors such as accelerometer, proximity, Gyroscope, and dual WiFi b / g / n. There may be unique to the dual WiFi, which makes this tablet can capture WiFi signals farther and more stable (though I did not test the truth of this). With the SIM card slot, you can surf using 3G connection, we can even make it as a hotspot (tethering).
GPS
There is no problem in terms of GPS. I quickly locked position even in the room even just using a 3G connection without WiFi. No special application is installed on the tablet navigation except through Google Maps.
Conclusion
First impressions are so tempting. That's how I feel about the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is. Lightweight and thin, plus it has a seductive quality of the screen, my poison I really made to have it soon. But there are some things that I hold to wait for the tablet is more "perfect", one of which is not a slot for external memory and HDMI port. Perhaps not everyone will need an external memory slot and an HDMI port, but hey, tablet competitors have it, and even put a cheaper price. And, precisely because of the extra ports and micro SD Card slot that usually makes Android more superior than IOS. This is a minus value of the most burdensome in the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is.
The main thing is the value minus Honeycomb worse is that the OS is still far from perfect. Force close and frequent lag are still found in the operation. Though Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already equipped with a good specification. Evidently, the lag is still found on the Asus Prime Transformer (coming soon) but have been using a quad core processor Tegra 3. This means that there are problems in the Honeycomb, not the hardware. Brain and body are not aligned. Now there is hope on the latest Android OS, the Ice Cream Sandwich which promises better performance.
If the rule is the OS that I said baby, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an Android tablet attractive in terms of both design and hardware. As long as the support and updates (which certainly would make it even better tablet) from Google and Samsung, Galaxy Tab 10.1 worth buying, especially if you do not like the custom IOS poor (but rich in applications).
First impressions are so tempting. That's how I feel about the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is. Lightweight and thin, plus it has a seductive quality of the screen, my poison I really made to have it soon. But there are some things that I hold to wait for the tablet is more "perfect", one of which is not a slot for external memory and HDMI port. Perhaps not everyone will need an external memory slot and an HDMI port, but hey, tablet competitors have it, and even put a cheaper price. And, precisely because of the extra ports and micro SD Card slot that usually makes Android more superior than IOS. This is a minus value of the most burdensome in the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is.
The main thing is the value minus Honeycomb worse is that the OS is still far from perfect. Force close and frequent lag are still found in the operation. Though Galaxy Tab 10.1 is already equipped with a good specification. Evidently, the lag is still found on the Asus Prime Transformer (coming soon) but have been using a quad core processor Tegra 3. This means that there are problems in the Honeycomb, not the hardware. Brain and body are not aligned. Now there is hope on the latest Android OS, the Ice Cream Sandwich which promises better performance.
If the rule is the OS that I said baby, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an Android tablet attractive in terms of both design and hardware. As long as the support and updates (which certainly would make it even better tablet) from Google and Samsung, Galaxy Tab 10.1 worth buying, especially if you do not like the custom IOS poor (but rich in applications).
