When we met with Samsung in late May, company
representatives didn't seem entirely sure that the company would meet
the rumored June 8th ship date here in the US, but lo and behold, it's done just that.
The tablet's launching at noon today at the Best Buy in New York City's Union
Square, and if you can't make it up to the Big Apple, it'll hit the rest of the
nation on June 17th.
But here's the real question: is it worth making an effort to snag it on either date? The Galaxy Tab 10.1, much like its Limited Edition sibling that we reviewed last month, is ever-so-slightly thinner than the iPad 2, a slate that most sane individuals (and competitors, for that matter) would confess is the market leader today.
Naturally, everyone and their sister is gunning for Apple in this space, and Honeycomb's the first mobile OS we've seen that has the potential to put any sort of damper on Cupertino's ongoing rave. By and large, the consumer version of the Tab 10.1 is the same as the device launched at Google I/O, but there's two key differences that we'll focus on here: the tamed design, and the thoroughly different OS version (v3.1 here versus v3.0 before). Head on past the break for an in-depth look into both of those, but be sure to first take a gander at our Limited Edition review to wrap your noodle around the basics.
But here's the real question: is it worth making an effort to snag it on either date? The Galaxy Tab 10.1, much like its Limited Edition sibling that we reviewed last month, is ever-so-slightly thinner than the iPad 2, a slate that most sane individuals (and competitors, for that matter) would confess is the market leader today.
Naturally, everyone and their sister is gunning for Apple in this space, and Honeycomb's the first mobile OS we've seen that has the potential to put any sort of damper on Cupertino's ongoing rave. By and large, the consumer version of the Tab 10.1 is the same as the device launched at Google I/O, but there's two key differences that we'll focus on here: the tamed design, and the thoroughly different OS version (v3.1 here versus v3.0 before). Head on past the break for an in-depth look into both of those, but be sure to first take a gander at our Limited Edition review to wrap your noodle around the basics.
Hardware and design
You're going to hear this a lot
throughout the review, but every opinion we drew from using the Tab 10.1
Limited Edition applies here. Every. single. one. Why? The consumer model is is
a spitting image of the LE variant, save for the motif on the rear; the one
you'll pick up this month has a glossy white plastic rear, while the LE model
had a glossy white plastic rear... with an Android army adorning it. Weight's
the same, size is the same, build quality is the same. It's a tremendous thing
to hold, and it truly oozes quality from corner to corner.
Performance and battery life
While the internals remain the same here as on
the Limited Edition build (1GHz Tegra 2, 1280 x 800 resolution display, front-
and rear-facing cameras), something's changed with Android 3.1. Google claimed
that the newest build of Honeycomb would perform even faster than 3.0, and in
practice, things did seem to operate at a subtly brisker pace.
Animations were a pinch quicker, and transitions were ever-so-slightly faster.
Web browser performance was noticeably better, although we did see a few videos
load up in a smaller window while the same video expanded out to fill the
screen within Android 3.0
Software
At long last, the primary
differentiator between the Tab 10.1 LE and the far-less-limited Tab 10.1: 0.1.
Android 3.1 brings along widgets that can be resized vertically and
horizontally, access to the newfangled Movies section of the Android Market,
improved overall performance and support for a host of USB accessories.
Unfortunately, the Movies department is only open for Android 3.1 tablets with
3G radios, hence, our 16GB WiFi test unit still showed it as unavailable. That
said, we've already tested that particular aspect with a Motorola Xoom, which can be seen here.
The performance improvements, however, are here. They're subtle, sure, but you won't find us kvetching about extra speed, regardless of how minor it is. Granted, we didn't have any real qualms with performance on the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition, but it's safe to say we've even fewer qualms here. Resizing widgets worked, and worked well, but it's mildly annoying that it only supports a smattering of 'em right now -- we're hoping to see more apps updated soon to take advantage, and when that happens, homepane tweakers will no doubt find these remarkably useful. It enables each pane to be full of useful, glanceable information -- a sizable calendar prevents you from having to load the app each time, for example.
Outside of that, the software's largely unchanged from where Honeycomb began.
Those anticipating a significant overhaul will be sorely disappointed, but
we're thrilled to say that Google's polished up an already excellent
foundation. Unfortunately, the Android Market still isn't home to many tablet
applications; Apple just announced
at WWDC that the App Store is home to some
95,000 tablet programs. El Goog hasn't shared its numbers in this regard, but
it doesn't take an awful lot of poking around to see that it's nowhere near.
Honeycomb still has a lot to prove, and it's up to developers to prove it. For
now, those looking for a wealth of options will have better luck wading through
the App Store, but hopefully things will be drastically different as the year
churns on.
We'd also like to point out a huge, huge issue with using the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in conjunction with OS X. For whatever reason, Android File Transfer still hasn't been updated to support this slate, which means that you cannot (easily) use your Mac to transfer files onto your device. We have to wonder what Google was thinking when it fundamentally changed how Macs could interface with Android; our Nexus One (Android 2.3) simply pops up as an external drive on the desktop of a MacBook Pro, while Honeycomb devices require a dedicated piece of software that may or may not work. Blech.
Camera
No shocker here -- the 3MP rear
camera on the Tab 10.1 impressed us just as much as the camera on the Tab 10.1
Limited Edition. We still aren't sold on using a slate to take photos, and we
still aren't overly impressed with the image quality here. It's hard to knock
something that most folks aren't going to take advantage of, though, so we'll
just let the below sample shot gallery speak for itself.
Wrap-up
The conclusion we came to after
using the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition mimics the conclusion we've drawn here: this
is the best Honeycomb tablet to date, and lucky for you, this one's available
to purchase! Only time will tell if the Android Market will prove to be as
well-stocked as the App Store, and if you're willing to wait, this here slate
provides a world-class Gmail experience, better handling than the iPad 2 (in
our humble opinion, anyway) and a higher resolution display.
