<em>Disclaimer: As of recent, I have been chosen as a MENA Samsung Galaxy Tab Ambassador and have tested out the device for over 2 weeks. The following is my personal unbiased evaluation of the product. More importantly, this is my first product review…ever!</em>
<em></em>I’ve been “in bed”/”in the loo”/”on the couch”/”in the office” with the Samsung Galaxy Tab for some time now. At first I really didn’t know what to think, I was kind of against the whole tablet thing for a while. Back when the Apple iPad hit the market, I had mixed feelings. It seemed cool but the lack of a proper operating system turned me off. What would I do with a big iPod? I strongly believed that between my laptop and my iPhone there was absolutely no place for another device in my life – I was already in a deadly love triangle and it would just be another device that I would have to lug around. I was wrong…tablets are damn cool.
To put it modestly, I believe that the Galaxy Tab is the first post-iPad tablet device that actually counts, because it is the only tablet on the market today that aims to be legitimate competition. It’s a pretty ballsy move on Samsung’s part and the device does aspire to break a lot of ground. Operated by a customized version of the iOS’s strongest contender, Google’s Android v2.2, I think the tab is a symbol of what the next generation could bring on. In the short term it is about half the size of anything out there today and our only chance to get a feel for a 7-inch tablet. If you haven’t noticed yet, a lot is riding on the Tab’s back already.
With tablets, I am inclined to believe that size is everything. It is directly what enables good reading, browsing, sharing and typing to be better on a tablet versus a phone, even if the exact same software was on both. Surprisingly, the majority of Android apps do scale beautifully for the Galaxy Tab; you get Twitter, Facebook and even Angry Birds right out the App Market. Sadly this isn’t the case with the iFamily. The Galaxy Tab wins here because it is simply small enough to accommodate apps that are blown up a little and have them fundamentally work. On the other side of the coin, this also suggests that there is no added benefit to using the Tab over a smaller phone. It’s not big enough and web browsing lacks its grandness – even with flash enabled. I can’t imagine having a social magazine app (like FlipBoard for iPad) as it would just be congested on the display. In terms of media playability, I do enjoy watching videos on the Tab – it’s far better than a phone screen, but for the most part – bigger is better.
As awesome as it may be, the seven inch Tab is no silver bullet. It’s tough to avoid feeling awkward when using the Tab as a phone (especially if your Bluetooth ear piece’s battery had just died). Perhaps holding up a device the size of my face is not the most ridiculous thing I have done in my life, but let’s be reasonable here. Sound quality is great, but the conversation goes everywhere. Holding up the Galaxy Tab for photos draws attention as well. Typing on the Tab isn’t the most convenient thing in the world either. As you would with most phones, you’d still have to thumb type but your fingers have to stretch further in landscape mode and the type entry space engulfs the screen altogether. The small problems of phones today are only amplified a more here, but they are all ones that you can live with or possibly neglect altogether depending on your taste in tech.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is surely a representation of the company’s stellar intentions and strong attempts to sit at the mainstream Tablet table. It feels sturdy, dense and well assembled; some may say that it is the best constructed device by Samsung ever. The screen is impressive; the 7-inch display packs a dense 1024×600 pixel resolution which makes everything from reading to watching videos a very pleasant experience. The colors are nicely saturated as well, but I am truly awe-struck by the Tab’s battery life. The device provided me with around five full hours of constant and consistent usage over 3G with rich media content playing through and a 2 minute video call test. The battery life can always be extended further with the Android notification shade build into the OS to practically turn stuff on and off (Bluetooth, Wi-FI, GPS…etc.) battery guzzling services.
The Tab has every single feature you wish for in a tablet; perhaps too many at this point in time. However, I had hoped that the Samsung Galaxy Tab packed an even greater punch than it does today. Typically the whole point of Samsung’s approach was to bring together the best of two worlds; the tablet &amp; phone domains. I found that both meet in the Tab, but they sadly do not measure up to their full potential. Despite of that, the Samsung Galaxy Tab does win one race in my mind: “The run for the average tablet seeker.”