back to article Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

10.1? The impression I get with the naming of this much-anticipated grown-up version of last year’s Galaxy Tab is that it has psychological hangups about (ahem) ‘size’. I imagine it loitering down the pub, boasting of its prowess: “It’s not just TEN inches, Al, it’s TEN-point-ONE!” It wants to be the Spinal Tap of Android …

COMMENTS

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  1. VinnyR
    FAIL

    Please do not comment on personal tastes

    There are too many issues of personal taste in this review, especially at the beginning.

    E.g. you don't like haptic feedback , I think it's good though so why is this a bad point of the device especially as you can turn it off.

    I can also see that a swish noise when turning a page is annoying, but it may not bother others.

    Also you have started off the review with what seems to be a negative point of view regarding the name "10.1". It's just a name!!!! Andto then criticise the use of Android 3.1 is then just plain ridiculous.

  2. Piloti
    Thumb Down

    Linux and the Linux fork....

    ""Later, I found that I needed to download special Samsung drivers to my computers to enable a USB connection with the tablet. ""........

    So, does this mean that a machine that run a Linux fork will not connect to a Linux box ? A little short sighted I would have thought.

    Even my Creative Zen will connect to my Linux box, because Linux just sees it as 'storage' with direct access to the file system. I drop an album, or a folder of albums in the Zen, direct from the Linux machine, and when I disconnect, the Zen 'synch's with itself and hey presto, my music is there.

    You'd think a 400 quid-ish device would do the same, especially one that is built on Linux, albeit, a fork.

    1. Robert E A Harvey
      Thumb Down

      Depressing, ain't it?

      I want to connect to linux desktops too. Inability to do so is a major FAIL as far as I am concerned

    2. Paul Shirley

      may be user error

      The USB driver thing is a bit of a red herring. In principle you don't need them just to mount the sdcard on a PC. But you may need to fiddle with some settings on the Tab and it won't mount automagically, you have to explicitly tell it to. Whether Samsung cocked that up is hard to say but I'd suggest user error is as likely!

      In practice if you want to debug or use Samsungs sync tools the standard USB storage device doesn't do enough and you need drivers. Its not spectacularly hard hacking the standard SDK installer for new devices on Windoze - which is good with how often some clown changed the USB identifiers in 3rd party roms for my phone - I believe it's even easier on Linux.

    3. No, I will not fix your computer
      Thumb Up

      My guess...

      And it is only a guess, is that the USB port is a standard USB port, but it's in host mode (i.e. you connect clients to it by default not the other way round), I wonder what would happen if you plugged a USB flash card into it? This would make total sense if it was for a docking station default (keyboard/mouse/printer/external storage etc.).

      1. handle

        I don't think that's right

        I don't think drivers can be used to convert a USB host into a device - the hardware limits it to one or the other. That is, unless you have USB On-The-Go, which the computer you are connecting to is unlikely to have.

    4. M Gale

      Special Samsung Drivers

      I'm wondering if the reviewer even looked properly. My Tab 7 is the same when you're using the "Kies" USB mode. However, you can also select "Mass Storage Mode" on the tablet, and it instantly works with no extra drivers required.

      Kies is bloatware on the scale of iTunes and just as awful, but you need it IF Samsung is ever going to update the device. Emphasis on "IF".

    5. Neill Mitchell

      Honeycomb is MTP instead of USB disk now

      The problem here is for some bizarre unfathomable reason, Google have ditched bog standard works with anything USB disk support in favour of Media Transfer Protocol. Very Windows oriented now :( MTP is very much in it's infancy on Linux.

      Why not support both MTP and USB disk modes, or better still give the user the choice? Having a Linux based OS that can't easily talk to Linux boxes is utter madness.

      1. M Gale

        MTP?

        Eww.

        More reason to stick with the "underpowered" (hahahahaha) 2.x I guess.

        1. Xtreame96
          Thumb Up

          Yup love how he claims speed or power is an OS thing,

          Whats funny is the 7" can run honeycomb. and you can make the 10.1 act as a standard usb device if you want.

          And its not like there is much difference it all runs the same apps, there are very few honeycomb specific apps in the market less than 5% of all apps.

      2. James Henstridge
        Boffin

        MTP

        Well, there is one very good reason to use a protocol like MTP over mass storage mode: it means the tablet can continue to use the file system while making it available to the PC.

        When enabling mass storage mode on my phone, the memory card (and any applications stored there) is unavailable to the phone itself. This makes sense when you think about it: the file system drivers expect exclusive access to the memory card when they mount the file system, so to give the PC block access to the card the phone needs to give up access.

        With a protocol like MTP, operations are done at the file system level instead of block level so there is no reason why the tablet can't access the storage while connected.

  3. petur
    FAIL

    75%

    The review and the quotation marks don't quite match up. Seeing the 75% I was expecting a bit of negative comment (on stuff that matters, not booklets or missing links for unreleased products), but no.

    It seems to be as good or rather even better than an ipad2 - did that get 70% then?

    1. DZ-Jay

      Re: 75%

      I think the author was going out of his way to avoid comparing it to the iPad 2. My guess is to avoid suggestions of bias or accusations of "fanboyism" from commentards.

      However, realizing that the Apple iPad 2 received a 90% rating, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 only received a 75% is very telling indeed. Especially when you consider that all other Android tablets reviewed by El Reg had yielded mostly similar ratings.

      This reinforces my first comment: if you completely ignore the iPad 2 (to avoid starting a religious war), then any other tablet is "good enough," and this one in particular is "better than others."

      -dZ.

      1. Xtreame96
        Thumb Up

        spot on

        This article was written by a fanboi almost as bad as that brooke boi over at Cnet.

        I have an Ipad2 and the Samsung, and I love the samsung more. For many reasons, plus flash support ;)

    2. coolius
      Facepalm

      90%

      Actually the iPad 2 got 90%!!

      and it also has no "memory card slots and comms ports", go figure

      1. Mark 65

        @Coolius

        This is just a thought regarding the rating of iPad2 relative to the Android tablets...

        If I create a device, the market leader, and it offers certain functionality that people seem to like I then get a 90% review score.

        Subsequently a whole series of me-too tablets come out that offer much the same functionality at much the same price.

        Do these tablets deserve the same rating for offering the same functionality (some would argue more, some less) or do they deserve a lower one for having seen the first one and yet offering nothing better, i.e. still leaving off the option of simple storage via SDHC?

        I don't know what the answer is but I suspect it may be the reason for the numbers. Does a me-too design really deserve the same score?

        Be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

        1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

          Equally good products deserve equal rating. But ratings rust.

          There's a sort of built-in depreciation, due to technological progress. A device that scored 9 out of 10 at launch six or twelve months ago doesn't deserve that rating now, because you can expect that something better is available now or soon.

          So a competitor device that launches now and is only equally as good as the older product doesn't deserve 9 out of 10 now, either.

          But if the two devices somehow are announced at different times but come to the market at the same time, then, being equally good, they should be equally rated.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Incredible

        How so many people are biased by Apple products. Where is the objectivity that we need from an IT rag? I have my favourites, you have your favourites, but keep them out of the discussion / review.

        For example the latest ASUS tab is very good functionally with a great snap-fit keyboard. I have not yet checked to read if it is reviewed in this rag, but I can already anticipate the level of personal opinion in to such a review.

        1. Alastair 7

          Uh

          "How so many people are biased by Apple products. Where is the objectivity that we need from an IT rag?"

          Err, they're comparing it to the iPad because its a competing device. Are you suggesting they ignore it?

          1. cloudgazer

            Elephant in the room

            The reason that the iPad scores so much more than all the alternate tablets (or as I like to call them alt-tabs) is pretty simple: ecosystem. You can't ignore the fact that the iPad is both better at running apps designed for the phone and has orders of magnitude more apps designed specially for it.

            Will that change in future? Presumably, but reviews are about right now, and right now the alt-tabs don't have nearly as much to offer.

  4. Rebajas
    WTF?

    Thanks...

    Thanks for the review of the manual and the Samsung web site - I'll keep an eye out for the device review at a later date shall I?

  5. Andy Watt
    Meh

    10.1 == not right first time...

    So the auto-brightness is annoying... there's less real estate on screen than the iPad... and this is their version 2, version 1 being a half-arsed 7 inch tablet-megaphone. Did you test much Flash browsing? Wonder if the battery life survives... ;-)

    Proprietary USB drivers? Tch! I thought this was AndroidWorld, where you're never locked down!

    I'd hope that Bluetooth keybaords would work, instead of needing to use an adaptor. And why on earth has the camera got a flash? Bizarre... how often are you going to hold up this monster to take a snap at a party??

    Good moves on the stereo speakers though, although how is the quality?

    Your take on the manual had me giggling. The lack of quality there makes me worry a little that they've rushed this tablet out too - the whole buying experience should be as seamless as your eBook experiments. The user manuals should be easy to find and the quick start should be so easy to use a 5 year old can start using the device ASAP - from "ooo! Shiny!" to "look! my email" in under 5 minutes is good to keep user engagement high from purchase point.

    When will electronics manufacturers realise that people didn't program their videos for a reason? It was a baffling mess! People wanted phones which only did "texting and calls" because the alternatives being thrust in their face (mostly running god-awful Series 60) were too complicated, fiddly and arse-backwards for them to be bothered to understand. The manuals should be just as well designed.

    Here's hoping the competition keeps the rivals improving, because this is getting there, by the looks of it. Thank god they've raised their game on build quality.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      I smell.....

      ...fanboi... cleverly disguised as a disinterested commentard.... yup, fanboi...

      we can tell.

      1. sabroni Silver badge

        I smell....

        anonymous pussy....

        Ewwww!

    2. ratbert
      FAIL

      a minor point...

      " there's less real estate on screen than the iPad" ....

      iPad resolution = 1024 x 768 = 786k pixels

      GTab 10.1 resolution = 1280 x 752 = 962k pixels

      Since when is a 22% increase in pixel count a reduction in real estate?

    3. Michael Kean
      Thumb Up

      Here's why there's a flash...

      Until you've owned one, you tend not to realise just how handy the camera and flash are. These little bastards make great photocopiers!

      As the owner of a 7" one, it's really handy just being able to reach behind a device and go click. Bang - you've got the model and serial number on your screen and you can zoom in to buggery.

      Also handy for reading tiny details - a SIM card blown up to 7" is easy to read... And they copy an A4 page in under a second. (Phones do too of course, but they're a bit of a scroll-fest) The LED flash helps of course, but sees equal utility as an LED flashlight.

      I still reckon 7" is the ideal size for most convenient portable use, and accept that almost nobody agrees.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Bigger, better, thinner, lighter

    Shame the word missing is "cheaper".

    If they can get these things to sub £300 they'll be, for my wallet anyway, a lot more tempting.

    1. 404
      Happy

      Ah! But they are!

      Acer Iconia A500 was out, what? a month? Staples had it on sale last part of the month for $399, then sent out a $100 ObamaBucks coupon for any tablet in the store (other than HP), which brought the A500 16GB version down to $299. That's like what? 150-175 pounds real money? (where the hell is that damn 'L'? funky 'E' for that matter).

      Wait a month, rinse and repeat on the Samsung.

      Right now I'm at the 'something, something, Darkside. something, something, Complete' point of my A500 love - might have to wait until 3.2 for a usb->ethernet adapter. Then I can retire the Win7Ultimate HP laptop from work. Oh Yeah....

      ;)

  7. Simon 26
    FAIL

    I stopped reading the review...

    ...when it said there was no SD card slot - without that what *exactly* is the shiny thing for ?

  8. Natalie Gritpants

    One handed

    I find that with the right website I only ever need to 20 seconds of one handed holding.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Given your name...

      ... I would have thought you could just walk around a bit and use no hands.

  9. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    FAIL

    Wot no 3g model and How much?

    And the price is £500+ before discounts. WTF? Eh? If this is the Android bees knees then why is it being discounted so heavily already. Yep £389 was about the cheapest I could find using Google.

    Ok, this competes with the iPad on price etc but remember that this is the discounted price.

    (http://www.simplyelectronics.net/mainproduct.php?pid=14103&setcurrency=gbp)

    There should be a 3g model as well IMHO.

    for sure, this aint no iPad killer. Where is it then. In the words of the Goddess Delia, 'Let's be having you'.

    I don't own a fondleslab of any make(yet). I am looking. This one looks attractive on the surface but my wallet will be staying put for the time being.

    Fail because Samsung really missed a chance here.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      False economy

      Other tablets don't have to have an RRP lower than the iPad to compete, because it is possible to sell other tablets at prices lower than the RRP.

  10. Wang N Staines

    Hmmmm

    It seemed Apple had been rattled by Samsung for nothing.

    Going by this review the iPad still is the king.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      ..dont

      the answer is dont go by this review.

      honestly, the standard and impartiality of some recent reviews on The Register has been

      very poor.

      given the capabilities of the 10.1 , its price, is features, its size/weight etc it should

      have scored at LEAST the same amount as the iPad2 - especially as its got Flash support !

      but no, some Apple fan was forced to do the review - hence narky comments about .1 in the first two paragraphs rather than actual review material. add to that the stupid comment of not being able to use it without extra software - hey, i've got an ipad and I cant recall being able to use it until i installed itunes on my PC or Mac!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        re: don't

        "given the capabilities of the 10.1 , its price, is features, its size/weight etc it should..."

        Have you actually used it? It might be a great machine, but until I get my mitts on it, I'll reserve judgement and not just go on what's on paper.

      2. DZ-Jay

        Wow!

        I'm sorry, Alistair. I was wrong: commentards will still accuse you of Apple bias no matter how much you try to avoid talking about fruit.

        dZ.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: Hmmmm

      "It seemed Apple had been rattled by Samsung for nothing."

      You clearly don't get it. Unlike Apple, this isn't Samsung's big performance for the year: they'll have "refreshed" this at least once by the end of the year along with the 7" tablet offerings, possibly putting out more gadgets in different form factors to boot.

      Meanwhile, Apple has to sue Samsung because it thought it had the playground all to itself.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    This is a real Fail for me ...

    Why should i have to fork out for additional bits of hardware to connect USB and HDMI devices when these come as standard on the competition?

    I'm completely baffled as to how any Android device can need to have specialized drivers in order to connect to the desktop, I want a device I can plug in anywhere and not have to carry around loads of additional bits of hardware just to get the connectivity I consider should be there as standard after all this is 2011 not 1995!

    A real shame as I love the form, size and performance but the above is a deal breaker at this price.

  12. LPF

    To be fair...

    I thought that the 10.1 referred to the screen size as well and I reckon a lot of people will think the same thing as the Tab 7 referred to the 7" screen. If it doesn't then its a pretty crappy marketing trick

  13. Samuel Penn
    Unhappy

    USB

    Android 3 seems to have dropped support for USB mass storage. Apparently, it's not reliable enough and they've gone for some other standard (MTP). Which is strange, since USB mass storage has always worked without any problems at all for me, and yet my ASUS tablet won't talk to my Linux box at all using MTP.

  14. Robert E A Harvey
    FAIL

    Snore, zzzz, yawn

    Another Me Too which is only that.

    With no convincing reason to buy this or the HP, I may very well be going for the iPud3 when it emerges. or going back to look at the convertables.

  15. GazP
    FAIL

    iPad owner perchance?

    Literally burst out laughing when I read "In landscape mode, that gives it less vertical resolution than Apple’s current iPads, which offer full-screen 1024 x 768 at either orientation".

  16. K
    Mushroom

    Got mine..

    Love it, highly recommend it.

    The reviewer should keep personal opinions such as "God I hate that" to himself, while he may dislike some features, others may require them.. so I'd this review is very highly skewed.

  17. DrXym

    How to ruin an Android tablet

    Seal in the battery, remove all the useful ports, prevent memory expansions and use a proprietary cable which requires special drivers, and price it the same as an Apple product. Way to go Samsung, you've created the Samsung iPad.

    1. Arctic fox
      Happy

      Ah yes, that's it!

      That explains it. Apple aren't really suing Samsung because of product appearance or anything like that at all. They're suing them for nicking their business model!

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds a bit rubbish compared to the Transformer

    However, the kitten remains very cute.

    We need a 'Look! Kittens!' icon.

  19. LPF

    @K sorry but..

    All reviews have some sort of personal baised whther overt or not .

    However in the case of the screen estate comparision the reviewer is stating a fact not an opinion so I can't see the problem.

    As for the personal dislikes, he states how to turn the said features off, so I can't see the problem with stating that he personally did not like them.

  20. IPB

    For ~ that money you can get an Asus Eee Pad Transformer

    and get HDMI out and and an SD card slot and it's bloody lovely.

  21. ratfox
    Thumb Up

    Quite impressive

    IIRC, this is the first Android tablet to not suffer from the comparison with the iPad 2.

    1. Jedit Silver badge

      Others may disagree

      I find this comment deeply ironic, given that Apple have just had the courts bar the sale of the Tab 10.1 in Europe because they compared it to the iPad 2.

  22. nederlander
    Flame

    a post

    This is obviously designed as direct competition for iPad hence the otherwise strange decisions regarding interoperability and upgradability. Its hard to see who this will appeal to though, since those idiots will look no further than momcorp.

  23. Tom Chiverton 1
    Linux

    Oh

    Oh, I was going to get one, then got the part on the 2nd page about it not just showing up as a USB mass storage device, so it needs magic drivers. FAIL right there, good and hard.

  24. dotdavid
    Facepalm

    Tablets

    I think it makes a lot more sense if you read about the current crop of Android tablets while playing the Benny Hill theme in the background.

    They'll make a nice slim device, then charge an eyewatering £500 for it. They'll then try and charge you extra for cables. The USB port won't charge unless you use the cable you get in the box and there are no spares available to buy. It won't talk to your PC either, and certainly not in mass storage mode. They'll recommend you download a Facebook app but the Android Market will say it's not available for your device, for some reason.

    No the annoyances are more than oversights - I reckon someone in charge at Motorola and Samsung *really* wants to make their final months with the firm amusing, or something. How hard is it to take what Apple have done and do it cheaper at the very least? They can't even get that bit right.

    1. DrXym

      A combination of greed and stupidity

      Samsung probably looked at Apple's product and wrongly concluded if they aped it in every respect including price, form factor, proprietary connectors and other arbitrary restrictions they'd produce some amazing selling device. Problem is, anyone who wants an iPad will just buy an iPad. There is nothing about this thing aside from the OS to justify buying it. So to me it seems more likely people will shrug their shoulders, say meh and favour one of the competing Android tablets which DO offer these things, and DO offer reasonable price discounts over an iPad. I really think Samsung have really screwed up here.

      Next on the batting line is Sony with their S1 / S2 devices. I wonder if they'll strike out too. At least their devices look innovative even if they may not be cheap.

  25. M Gale
    Mushroom

    I don't need no steenking title

    "too big to be a phone, too small to be a netbook, and sporting an underpowered operating system in Android 2.2."

    As well as a load of bollocks about a grainy screen. What? Maybe in your universe, people have invented TARDIS pockets and can fit that bloody huge thing in them. Personally I think the Galaxy 7's screen brightness and size is absolutely fine. I don't want to have to put welding goggles on to use a fondletoy, and if it needs to fit in a bag then it might as well be a netbook.

    If I ever get a 3.x device, the first thing I'm going to try and find is some way of ripping that UI out and replacing it with something closer to 2.x. Mind you, I'll also try and get a device that has something other than just a touchscreen as input methods.

    You could have picked on Samsung's awful update schedule, or their consistent overpricing. But no, you try and say that 7 inches is too small (who are you, King Dong?), 2.x is underpowered (hahahaha), and that retina-searing brightness is "dark". Were you trying to use the thing on a bright Summer day with the sun at your back or something? No wonder it looked dark! I challenge you to use an iWotsit in the same conditions.

    Didn't read past page one of the review. If there's so much bull in the first couple of paragraphs, I don't want to go any further!

  26. LPF

    The question that I want to know...

    Are all these tablets going to be OS upgradable??

    Becuase say what you want about the iPads at least they are still getting OS updates from the manufacturer and dont rely on jailbreaking , or plain old voodoo to get an OS update.

    Apple keep their harware OS updated as long as its practical and as an owner of an HTC HD2 I know what it feels like to have the manufacture just drop support for your Device.

    1. 404
      Pint

      OS upgradable -> so far

      Acer Iconia A500 Android 3.0->3.1 about two weeks apart. Transformer and Zoom got 'official' 3.2 recently. Fixed wifi, usb, and sdhc card issues, and some performance tweaks.

      Ever been to that Alibaba site? Serious Chinese entrepreneurs over there with unknown names that do some wild-azz shiite with Froyo and up. Scary wild west shit, and they are my best bet on getting a usb->ethernet adapter here in the States any time soon.

      I'm enjoying the ride thus far - I know what to expect with Apple, this is more amusing and fun.

      :)

    2. David Paul Morgan
      Boffin

      Calculon Doing Fine.

      My Transformer upgraded to 3.1 after switching it on.

      It went to 3.2 yesterday.

      Several people have asked about my Asus Transformer & have enjoyed my demo.

      they are also more impressed when i demo the plug in keyboard, swype & Grafitti. This choice of input is something they did not know was available as they'd only seen onscreen QWERTY.

    3. cloudgazer

      the 10.1 is updatable

      but ... first you have to take the update to Touch-Wiz UX, which I believe is so far only out in New York ( yeh, weird huh? ). There was an article about this on ThisisMyNext, and there was a wailing and gnashing of teeth from the stock android lovers in the comments section.

  27. Hardcastle the ancient

    Have the PR people been here?

    There seem to be a lot of unnecessary downvotes here to sceptical remarks. Someone sponsoring votes?

    1. M Gale

      Fortunately this is not Slashdot...

      ...and you cannot be downvoted to oblivion, regardless of how many fanbois you piss off.

  28. This post has been deleted by its author

  29. Ojustaboo

    shame about the sd

    I've gone from an Iphone touch, which I liked a lot, but my eye sight isn't all that great and long periods gave me eye strain headaches, to a Galaxy 7".

    I have never looked back. I love my tab. I have nothing against apple either, I also loved the touch.

    While having flash has sometimes been very useful for me, it's not a deciding factor.

    The main thing that made me look at the tablet rather than the ipad was simply the freedom to add memory. Might not be the killer point to others, but this one ability is what swayed me to try the Galaxy Tab out.

    I was looking forwards to the 10.1 and was thinking I may well upgrade next year. But if they've missed off the one thing that made me buy the 7" over the ipad, I'm, afraid they will loose me as a customer and come the time I want ti upgrade, I will go to one of the competitors.

    Why leave out something so important to many?

  30. Chris D Rogers
    Megaphone

    I'm a Apple fanbois

    I hate to say, but being an Apple fanboys has not stopped me looking at the Android market and in particular the Motorola Xoom, on most counts it beats the iPad2, particularly in connectivity and expansion - two important areas to a dinosaur who can't buy in to the cloud nonsense.

    My only concern, which I've yet to investigate, can you upgrade the OS in these Android devices, basically, whats after Honeycomb?

    Having never utilised the Apple App Store or iTunes for that matter, choice, freedom and expansion are my key motivators - however, I'll not jump in until after Apple releases iOS5, but its looking more and more like a used Xoom once Apple releases the iPad3.

  31. Brian Sturridge
    Stop

    my Galaxy Tab Arrived arrived

    after a long drawn out delivery through amazon i finally got my hands on the tab! and ive got to say im a bit miffed.. The getting started booklet is useless ! and the charger is shady to say the least. Hope it improves from here on !!

    http://www.reghardware.com/Design/graphics/icons/comment/alert_32.png

  32. tonyoung
    Mushroom

    Why not just pay £19 extra ...

    ... and get an Asus Transformer - complete with a keyboard, great battery life, IPS screen and 3.2 etc etc?

  33. juice

    I saw this...

    "There is no mini-USB port, no mini-VGA, no HDMI and, incidentally, no SD card socket. As with Apple’s iPads, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not designed to support user-upgradable/removable storage"

    And that's when I stopped reading.

    The lack of USB/VGA/HDMI isn't particularly problematic, but the lack of an SD-card slot is a complete failure, as it seriously limits what can be done with the device. For instance, a tablet this size is ideal for reviewing photos when away from home (even a 16gb card doesn't last too long when you're at a festival and mixing photos/video) - and if you're travelling long distances, it's nice being able to load up several cards with media to supplant the internal storage.

    Though if I was feeling cynical (on a Friday? Never!), I could suggest that that's the point; Samsung get far more money if you buy a higher-specc'd model than if you just grab a cheap 32GB SDHC card off Ebay...

  34. Gulfie
    FAIL

    75% - Why?

    You only give this tablet 75% but I can't see any justification for that. There are some minor design decision cock-ups but not 25% worth. We all have our preferences but, when compared to the iPad WiFi version... what is there that bugs you so much that you can't customise to your liking? And knocks 25% off the marks?

    "Do remember, though, that the Android 3.x (Honeycomb) operating system reserves 48 of those pixels along its bottom edge, in portrait and landscape orientations, for on-screen menu buttons" - I have several full-screen applications (and a lot of games, needless to say) that would differ with your assertion. By default, certainly, but not if the developer decides to do things differently. As far as 1080p goes, well the point is that the tablet can cope with playing 1080p video, rather than running out of steam and stuttering all the time. And it will play 1080p through the HDMI adaptor.

    Keyboard: Any bluetooth keyboard will work. And if you have a USB keyboard that's classed as a low-power device, that'll work too, once you've bough the USB adaptor (which IMHO should be bundled). As will game controllers, cameras...

    The video editing software is on my Galaxy Tab, so I'm not sure why you wouldn't have it installed.

    @LPF: I got my Galaxy Tab at Google I/O when it was running Android 3.0 and it was updated OTA last month to run 3.1. So Samsung are committed to upgrades. I'm waiting for 3.2 to appear soon.

    Faults - after running one for three months using it frequently for 90% of my non-work web browsing, email etc: Only charging from the provided charger is a headache, so I've had to buy a second (one for home, one for the office) because if I'm caught short, I can't plug it into any old USB socket. Not being easily mountable as a USB drive on my Mac was annoying - until I installed some WiFI sync software and now I never use the cable. Oh, and although the tablet plays video, just you try and find the application icon for the player. The software is there, but you can't launch the bundled player and select a video. Annoying.

    Personally I don't mind the missing HDMI output - I use DLNA software to stream from tablet to TV - but Samsung would have made more friends by building in the USB hub hardware instead of charging £25 extra for a small plastic lump. Think they have an ex-Apple marketing man. Bundle the adaptor, and put two power supplies in the box - and drop the price by £50 to make it less than the iPad. Then you've got a winner.

    And the reason the WiFi only version has no SD slot is because the hardware to support it is on the same chip that does the 3G... which isn't fitted. I've not found 32Gb to be too little internal storage (although I might not feel the same about 16Gb).

    1. jason 7
      Trollface

      Relax!

      On The Reg reviews, 75% is the new 80%.

  35. amywoods99
    IT Angle

    so?

    anyone actually got this yet? care to share any comments on whether it is, in reality, better/worse than other tablets like the ipad2 or transformer even? especially from a gaming perspective!

    1. Gulfie
      Go

      Re: Anyone got one yet

      Yes, I have. It's fantastic. It has its faults, but if you don't want an iPad, this is currently the go-to tablet.

      Of course, you can't currently buy them in Europe. But if you know somebody going to America, ask them to pick up a 32Gb WiFi only model at $600 (£370) instead of the list price of £600. Or... get someone to send you one. Even with VAT and the charge made to collect it, you're looking at £500 instead of £600

      1. amywoods99
        FAIL

        Re: Anyone got one yet

        so you reckon -cost considered as well, that if i wanted an ipad to start with, im better off sticking to my gut feeling here? most of the reviews seem to have scathing comments underneath especially about the charging and screen so i certainly wouldnt want to pay MORE for it...!

  36. maeve
    FAIL

    ANGRY RANT

    Hi guys, I just wanted to comment here because I bought the Galaxy pad last week, and I am having lots of problems, only 3 days in.

    The pad looks good and everything but it has some really dodgy things going on. Firstly, the charger is made up of three parts which fit together, sort of. Initially it was charging fine(though it would take about 4 hours to fully charge which is ridiculous!), but now, the thing wont charge at all! Obviously a fault with this dodgy put together thing. I have found a way to charge it by removing the USB connector and plugging that into my playstation,however, I put it on last night before bed and when I got up it was only charged 50%. So now I am faced with having to spend unnecessary time sorting it out. Has anybody got any suggestions/have the same problem?

    Other annoying things are that it has no USB port so I cannot put files onto it.

    Also, the touchscreen seems a bit dodgy. On both youtube and iplayer, when I want to jump to a new part of what I'm watching, it wont let me drag the timeline thing along. I have also had a screenfreeze while on googlemaps though that could be a oneoff.

    Altogether, pretty annoyed!!

    Please, has anyone else been having problems like mine?? I want to be able to tell Samsung when I complain to them.

    Report Reply Edit

    1. Gulfie
      Happy

      A few observations

      The Apple chargers I had for my iPhone came in two parts. I've three Samsung chargers and had no problems with them.

      The batteries in these tablets are BIG and they do take a long time to charge to full. That's the down side. On the up side you won't need to charge it again for several days - unless you spend a lot of time watching video.

      Putting files onto it: Install Samsung Kies onto your PC, plug in the Galaxy Tab and you can move media around. If you want to do more than that, install File Expert - this allows you to FTP to and from the tablet over WiFi. That's how I do most of my file transfers. Or, buy the USB adaptor and plug in a memory stick.

      I've not experienced the freeze issues you mention with YouTube or iPlayer. I watch most of my TV on iPlayer (not having a TV licence) so it gets almost daily use.

      BTW your tablet *WILL NOT CHARGE* from anything but a Samsung charger. It will not charge if you plug it into a USB port - the Samsung charger delivers 2A where a USB port maxes out at 0.5a.

  37. Brian Sturridge

    Getting Pissed off!

    Im realy having a bad time with this machine now! The strange 25 part charger has stopped working, which means im having to charge the Tab while plugged into the USB post on my PC, this can only be done when the Tab is turned off!!! and charges the battery at 1/8 of the power that the mains charger does! How can somthing this simple be so wrong.

    Samsung seem to have made it a difficult as possible to get files onto the tab aswell. Still havn,t managed to get any music onto it and the screen has started freezing! Its all very well making it look nice but how about some functionality to go with it !

    b

    1. Gulfie
      Happy

      Thanks for the tip

      Didn't realise you could charge the Galaxy Tab by turning it off and plugging it into a USB port.

      To do what you want with files, install File Expert - this gives you FTP access from a PC over WiFi. Much more convenient and flexible than Samsung Kies.

  38. dylanh
    Happy

    My own impression

    My wife bought one. She'd rather have got the iPad2, but as we both already have android phones, I thought it would be best to stay android.

    My positive impressions:

    lovely bright screen (especially compared to similar tablets in the shop), very smooth and fast user interface. Excellent browser. Competent email client etc. Nice feel in the hand, and really pleasurable to use for casual use.

    The lack of USB and micro SD bothered me as a techie, but honestly, as a non technical user, it would probably not matter much. If you want a more general purpose machine, then a laptop really is better for that sort of thing.

    The negatives:

    lack of video support in Skype (in fact skype seemed to bugger up rendering facebook on a web page bizarely until I uninstalled it).

    No official facebook app. The samsung supplied social hub lacks features such as not being able to read comments on facebook updates.

    No BBC news app for honeycomb.

    The browser gets served mobile versions of many websites, as they detect andriod as the user agent, and direct you to the mobile optimised version. Not the fault of the browser per see, but annoying (anybody know how to change the agent string in the browser?).

    As the browser is very, very good has a decent resolution and has flash, the need for apps is less important than on a phone, as typically the regular HTML site is fine. However, I'm pretty peeved at the absence of skype video, as the ipad2 bearing fanbois have it, and it's a natural on a tablet.

    Overall, it's a nice alternative to a laptop for casual use, and not a bad way to consume catchup TV services. If you want an expandable general purpose device, get a laptop!

  39. Jeckle
    FAIL

    Manufacturer fail....

    Device manufacturer's need to learn to depart s_xually with their proprietary cables. I think that reviewers are partly to blame as The Reg wailed at the thickness of the Transformer, but at least you can get a cable for the thing anywhere or borrow someone elses. If you forgot your iPod cable at an Android conference you're going to have to find some Apple detractor to borrow one from. The Apple guys are going to have a good laugh if you have a Samsung Tab and the roles are reversed.. " A WHAT cable!!!?"

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