Samsung Galaxy Tab review

With the Galaxy Tab, Samsung is hoping to prove that Android can make a tablet computer that’s as slick and easy to use as the Apple iPad. It could be a tough initial sell, particularly as Steve Jobs has recently hit out at 7in tablets, saying that they’re simply not big enough to compete with the iPad. Glance quickly at the Galaxy Tab and you might think he’s got a point: it doesn’t quite look big enough to be better than a smartphone nor small enough to be carried everywhere.

However, as soon as you pick it up and start using it, this misconception soon disappears. In fact, in many ways, the 7in screen actually makes the Galaxy Tab more comfortable to use than the iPad. The Tab is just small enough to fit comfortably in one hand while you use the touchscreen with the other. This tablet is a touch thicker than the iPad, but the extra bulk arguably makes it easier to grip. Spin it to landscape mode and it’s just as comfy to hold and doesn’t need to be put on your lap like the iPad.

In terms of resolution, the Galaxy Tab’s screen is very similar to the iPad’s. At 1,024×600, it’s 168 pixels narrower than the iPad’s 1,024×768 resolution, but this is because the Tab has a widescreen display with the same resolution as most netbooks. The difference between this tablet and netbooks is that while Windows feels cramped on a screen resolution like this, the Android operating system is designed for lower resolutions, so feels spacious.

In terms of quality we found that the display was every bit the equal of the iPad’s. It’s very bright, while colours looked accurate and vibrant. The glossy finish helps boost contrast, but also picks up reflections easily, so keeping it out of direct light is essential if you want the best quality.

There’s little else to cause any controversy over the hardware, with Samsung packing the Galaxy Tab with the latest hardware, including a GPS receiver, Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G (an easily-accessible SIM-card slot sits on the side of the device). It’s powered by a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, while a PowerVR SGX540 handles graphics. There’s also plenty of storage on board with 16GB of internal memory and a Micro SDHC slot that will take a further 32GB of RAM. Plus, there 2GB of internal phone storage for apps.

One of the main points of comparison between the iPad and any would-be-competitor is the quality of the OS, and it has to be said that Android on the Galaxy Tab is at least as good as iOS4. In some ways it’s actually better. The home screen is more customisable, both with application shortcuts and widgets, which the iPad doesn’t have. Dive into the full applications menu and you can customise and reorganise all of your applications in a similar way to moving the icons on an iPad.

As you’d hope, the Galaxy Tab runs Android 2.2 (Froyo), the latest version of the operating system. However, Samsung has optimised it to make it work better on a tablet, rather than smartphone. The tweaks are for the most part minor, so anyone familiar with Android can pick up the Galaxy Tab and start using it straight away.

The main changes are that the screen can be shifted from portrait to landscape modes on a wider range of applications and screens, including the home screen. In fact, the tablet can be put in any orientation, including upside down, and the image will rotate to match. This is much more important on a tablet, as you don’t want to keep having to shift orientation when you want to load a different app.

Samsung has also added power controls to the pull-down menu, so you can quickly enable or disable WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and sync, and adjust the screen’s brightness (there’s also an automatic brightness setting).

Web browsing is better, too, thanks to the updated browser, which puts shortcut buttons for bookmarks, browser windows and forwards and back navigation at the top next to the address bar. Thanks to the 1GHz processor and PowerVR graphics chip, browsing is very slick and the transition from portrait to landscape is silky smooth. As Android 2.2 supports Flash, you can view pretty much any web page using the Galaxy Tab – something that can’t be said for the iPad. If we’re being overly critical, we’d say that scrolling through web pages and zooming in isn’t quite as smooth as on the iPad, but the Galaxy Tab is far from jerky or difficult to use.

It’s this quick processor and graphics chip that makes the Tab a joy to use with Android 2.2. Everything is slick and smooth, from flicking through photos in a gallery to zooming into text. Playing video’s no problem, either, with HD videos from YouTube playing with no judder or skipped frames.

Typing is also incredibly easy, as the comparatively high screen resolution means that there’s plenty of room for the keyboard. Admittedly, you wouldn’t want to type a long document on it, but that’s true of every tablet we’ve used.

Samsung’s done a great job making sure that the Galaxy Tab comes kitted out with a similar range of built-in applications to the iPad. For reading, there’s the Readers’ Hub, which gives you access to News powered by PressDisplay, Books powered by Kobo and Magazines powered by Zinio.

News gives you access to a wide range of newspapers including, in the UK, The Telegraph and Guardian. Magazines gives a similar excellent range of UK titles including Computer Shopper. We like the Books app, too. If you’ve bought any titles from Kobo for your eReader, they’re automatically downloaded to the Galaxy Tab so that you can read them there.

It’s fair to say that reading books on this tablet has all of the benefits and drawbacks of reading on the iPad. The good points are that the screen is bright and displays images well, but the downsides are that the constant backlight can make it a strain to read, while the screen is unreadable outside.

If you don’t want to use Kobo, you can instead use the eBook application and copy over your own titles. The popular ePub format is supported, although you can’t copy over DRM-protected titles as the Galaxy Tab isn’t recognised as an eReader by Adobe Digital Editions.

On top of these, you’ve got access to the full range of applications in the Android Market. There’s a huge variety and Google is rapidly catching up with Apple in terms of the breadth of titles available. We found that all of the applications available would install on the tablet and most take advantage of the screen’s high resolution. However, inevitably there are a few that look a bit blocky and pixelated, such as the Weather & Toggle Widget, which gives you a flip clock and a current weather report.

In addition, Samsung has provided its own App stores for Galaxy Tab-specific apps. Samsung Apps includes utilities, such as the Financial Times app, but it’s a bit buggy and refused to connect unless we installed a SIM card, even though we were connected to a network via WiFi. Currently, there are only three apps available. Samsung Games lets you download new titles to play, such as the first-person shooter Nova, which shows the tablet’s full processing and graphics capabilities off.

For entertainment, there’s the Samsung Movies app, which lets you rent and buy movies online. Prices are similar to the iTunes Store, although the range of titles is narrower and they’re not so up-to-date. Still, it’s early days yet and the range of apps and media is bound to increase in-line with Android’s increasing popularity.

A 3-megapixel rear-facing camera lets you take photos. The quality isn’t particularly good, with shots lacking detail and noise evident even in well-lit areas. An LED flash lets you take pictures at night, but again they suffer from noise.

Video can be captured at 720×480 at 30fps and the LED flash can act as a torch. Quality is acceptable, but it’s hard to hold the tablet steady. Again, noise and a lack of detail mean that the Galaxy Tab isn’t going to replace a dedicated video camera.

For video calls there’s a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. This can be operated when you make a standard phone call using 3G, but we couldn’t find a way of enabling it in the Android Skype application. Hopefully, this feature will come with an update to the app. Standard phone calls can be made as well, although the only mode is speakerphone, so you’ll need to plug in a hands-free kit (wired or Bluetooth) if you want to make private calls.

Battery life was pretty good from the device, lasting most of a weekend for web browsing and other apps. Switching to video, we got just over seven hours of battery life out of it, which is most of a long-haul flight. Battery life is shorter than on the iPad, but then again Apple’s device has more room for a larger battery.

There are a few minor niggles about the Galaxy Tab, too. We don’t like the proprietary USB connector underneath, which looks like a clone of the Apple Universal Dock connector, as it means you need to buy a second data cable if you want to charge the device in two locations, such as at home and at work. However, the dock connector will be used to for accessories, too, so you’ll be able to add things like a keyboard, docking station with USB, and in-car charger should you want to use this device as a giant sat-nav.

Then there’s the price. At £529, the Galaxy Tab is the same price as the 16GB 3G iPad, and a similar price to a decent ultra-portable laptop. This could be hard to justify for a lot of people, given that most will probably still want a laptop for writing long documents, photo and video editing, and other general work.

Still, if you’re hankering for a tablet, the Galaxy Tab is a great bit of kit. It’s super-smooth to use, incredibly comfortable to hold, and has a wide-range of apps and entertainment to download. In pretty much every way it’s the equal of the iPad if you can justify the high cost.