Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Review

Samsung has done a pretty fine job in challenging the supremacy of iPad in the tablet market and now it has come up with Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb tablet which is not only lighter but also slightly thinner than Apple iPad. Not only this, combined the tablet also connects to Verizon’s 4G LTE network thereby offering almost 10 times data speeds of 3G only iPad 2. Go through our exclusive Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review to find whether this tablet is worth investing or not.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 inch Case/Design

Galaxy Tab 10.1 is one of the slimmest tablets you will find in the market. We were easily able to grip the tablet with one hand and could read the texts for extended period. At 8.6mm, it is 0.2 mm thinner than iPad 2. It is much lighter than rival Honeycomb tablets such as Motorola Xoom and ASUS Eee Pad Transformer. The screen sits in black bezel and there are a couple of speakers located on the left and right side of the tablet. A headphone jack and the SIM card slot occupy the top edge of the device. The back of the device is made up of brushed metal which gives it an elegant look. Overall we were quite impressed by the design and looks of Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G Display

The tablet sports a 10.1, 1280 x800 WXGA display which is great to behold. The colors are quite vivid and eye-catching. The wide viewing angles of the tablet also ensured that a couple of persons could easily sit and view movies together. Watching Youtube videos of movies rendered good results. The screen has highly glossy surface which easily attracted fingerprints and smudges.

Samsung 10.1 Galaxy Tab Apps

The tablet has been packed with the familiar list of Google apps such as Gmail, Latitude, Navigation and Talk. One gets a Movie Studio for quick editing of videos and then there is a free version of QuickOffice HD which allows users to read and edit documents. It is the first tablet which features Google’s new Market app. Though at the moment the tablet has few apps designed for tablets, yet it is a positive development.

Samsung 10.1 Galaxy Tab Features

Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses a great portable form factor which gives every tablet in the market a run for its money. The tablet is compact, easy to grip and not as bulky as other Android 3.0 tablets in the market. Let us check out some of the other features of the tablet.

Software and User Interface

Tab 10.1 runs on Android Honeycomb 3.1 which is one of the latest versions of Google’s tablet OS. There is an unlock screen which displays time and date. Honeycomb worked pretty well on the device and switching between several dozen running apps was quite smooth. On the right, you will find software keys for Home, Back and recent apps.  On the top users get shortcuts for voice commands, search etc.

Keyboard

Galaxy Tab 10.1 features the similar virtual keyboard, the layout of which is similar to that of Samsung’s original 7 inch Galaxy Tab. The keys are quite large and they are easy to hit. There are some keys which perform double duty and act as symbol button and punctuation characters.

Memory

The tablet offers internal memory storage choice of 16 GB, 32GB and 64GB. However, much to our disappointment there is no way to expand the memory as there is no card slot.

Audio

The tablet is equipped with twin stereo speakers which provided pleasing sounds. In our test, the audio was quite crisp. But we witnessed the lack of bass and this marred the audio quality to some extent.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Camera Quality

Tablets are not great camera devices. Tab 10.1 has a 3MP rear-facing camera which does provides some helpful features, but overall the quality of the pictures looked a bit washed out and in some cases it looked a bit fuzzy. Though the camera does not have any sharp pixel count when it comes to competing with high-end smartphones yet, it captured images quite fast. The LED flash did a decent job in exposing subjects located closely.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Video Quality

The 720p videos we shot were quite smooth but they were not as smooth as the one we shot with T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide which captures videos at 1080p HD. The tab also has a 2MP front facing camera which handles video chats pretty well. In our test we successfully made Gtalk video calls with our Gmail contacts.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Web Surfing

Web surfing is a delight on Galaxy Tab 10.1. Thanks to the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor along with Verizon’s super-fast 4G network, we saw an average download speed of 13.5Mbps. Upload speed were also quite fast.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Battery Life

It is a well known fact that Verizon’s 4G LTE phones fail to deliver the best battery life and Galaxy Tab 10.1 falls in the same category. In our laptop battery test, the battery of the tablet lasted for just over 6 hours which is a couple of hours short than iPad 2. We wished that the battery life of Tab 10.1 could have been better.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Release Date

The tablet has been released sometimes in June 2011.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Price

Price In USA

Price of the tab let in USA is approximately $ 530.

Price In UK

Price of Galaxy Tab 10.1 in UK is approximately £400

Price In India

Price of the tablet in India is approximately Rs 36,000.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Verdict

Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a lot to like about itself. The slim profile, great display and spectacular set of features do make Galaxy Tab 10.1 a good purchase.