Samsung Galaxy Tab Review

Also see Brennan JB7 review and updated Galaxy Tab Usage

My customised Home Screen. Click on it to see actual size 1280 x 800 plus my labels = 1280 x 1024.

 

 

October 2011. I've had my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for just over a week now. This model is in the news as it's been banned in Australia and Germany pending the outcome of a few court cases involving Apple. Here are my thoughts regarding its performance.

I bought it over the counter from Argos, the 32GB WiFi model number GT-P7510 for £479 including 20% VAT. I connected its charger which delivers 2 amps of current via the supplied USB cable, 4 times as much current as the standard 500mA from a normal USB port. Although it charges via USB it won't charge without the supplied charger. I switched it on whilst it was charging and it prompted me to set up local settings e.g. country, time and WiFi.

Once it was charged up I was initially confused by the padlock symbol on the screen. Dragging it to the circle surrounding it let me in again. On my Windows 7 computer I downloaded the Kies software from Samsung. This is vaguely like Apple's iTunes and its prime function is to transfer media to the tablet. At first I used it to copy my Pictures folder containing over 26500 edited images. I declined Kies' offer to shrink all my photos down to what it considered appropriate because they were already edited for the screen and were separate from my unedited 15Mb originals.

Kies seemed to finish the job quickly but it hadn't copied all the subfolders. I deleted what it had copied and then just double-clicked on the GT-P7510 Portable Media Player icon in Windows Explorer. Joy oh joy! No walled garden (or orchard) here. Various tablet folders appeared in Windows Explorer including Alarms, Android, backups, DCIM (digital camera images), Download, media, Movies, Music and so on.

I right-clicked to create a new folder called Pictures then dragged and dropped the contents of my Pictures folder into it. 8Gb of data was transferred, preserving my folder structure correctly. Apple's iTunes, which I have on my Mac Mini and iPod Touch, would have taken forever and would have locked me out, insisting on making low-resolution copies of everything.

The included software is rather good. The browser is fast and efficient and plays Flash perfectly fine. I've subsequently installed Firefox, Opera (and Chrome's utility to import bookmarks) but the native browser is hard to beat. Polaris Office shows my old .doc files ok, as well as other formats like PDF, HTML and others. The book reader is happy with .epub formats and Kindle can be installed to read other formats.

Media Transfer Protocol or MTP is used by Windows for USB, rather then the older USB Mass Storage method. The Samsung Kies setup installs the necessary drivers. During installation you'll be prompted for a location on your PC to create a few default folders.

For more details about USB MTP see:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol>

At first I used the pre-installed Social Hub for Twitter and Facebook, as well as the discrete apps, but am now using Tweedeck which works just fine. It starts in portrait mode but rotates to landscape mode if that's how the Tab's orientated. Tweetdeck is currently making a little sound once there's 12 updates. Small icons appear at bottom right to show updates from apps e.g. Twitter or Gmail.

Other icons show battery state, time, and WiFi signal strength. My router puts out G and N simultaneously but, as expected, G travels further through my house. Web pages and app downloads seem quite fast even if I move to the furthest point, with the WiFi at a single bar out of 4 in the icon.

Because Google customised the Android OS you'd expect Google Earth to run well on this dual-core machine - and you'd be right. From the startup image of Earth it zooms in smoothly to my default location of Holy Corner, showing me the 3D buildings and where the satnav says I am. Multi-touch is easy and intuitive: spread 2 fingers to zoom in, pinch to zoom out, drag 2 fingers up/down to tilt the view, twist 2 fingers to circle round and rotate the compass. The image shown here is an exact copy of the screen. Any screen can be captured with one touch and saved automatically.

Google Sky Map shows you exactly what the rear facing camera might see. It knows exactly which way you're facing. If you want to identify stars or planets just point it at the sky. The built in compass and gyro pans and tilts the display accordingly, showing you the horizon as a thin brown line. Neptune is currently the most prominent item on my screen, below the horizon unless I tilt the tablet up to show Vega.

The cameras take remarkably good pictures especially the forward facing one. Video is good too, though maybe a bit overexposed. Shadow detail is good at the expense of washed out highlights. The 2 sample images on the left are straight from the camera at 2048 x 1536 pixels. HD movies are good at 1280 x 720 in MP4 format. If you drag and drop a movie from your PC to watch on the tablet, the drivers intercept this and you're asked if you want to convert it to ensure playback. I tried it with one and it converted it to WMV format.

The games I have installed all use the full screen though Orbital (a favourite on the iPod Touch) has to be in portrait orientation. I recommend Angry Birds Rio and Seasons, Speedx 3D, Sprinkle.

I've experienced the occasional apparent freeze / hang. There's a Task Manager to shut down any apps that stay open. Tapping the power button to invoke Standby then again to waken up can be a quick solution. I've only had to hold the button down to reset the tablet maybe 3 times in the last 9 days of fairly intesive use.

It's very easy to customise the various Home screens. For example, if you want a shortcut icon for a favourite app, touch Apps at top right, hold your finger on the app until you feel a little feedback nudge, then drag the app to one of the miniature home screens that appear at the bottom. You can rearrange the icons and widgets similarly.

The voice recognition seems to work well. When I spoke my surname Google suggested the town of Henniker as well as my website. I tried out the SatNav using Tracks to record a 4 mile walk. It's light enough to pop in a rucksack but it won't fit in a pocket with its 10.1 inch screen. Update next page

Also see Brennan JB7 review