Earlier at a Samsung event, we were able to briefly play with an actual unit of Samsung Galaxy Tab’s big brother, the Tab 10.1. This is not the first 10-inch Honeycomb tablet we laid our dirty hands on, the Acer Tab A500 was the first but we love the slimmer and more polished look of the Tab 10.1.
First thing we noticed was the slim profile of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. At 8.6mm it’s a teeny bit slimmer than the iPad 2. Then there’s the gorgeous 10.1-inch display making it slightly larger than the iPad 2 and it boasts of a crisp 1280 x 800 display resolution. There are no physical buttons on its bezel. Everything’s done onscreen. Frankly, I didn’t like the look of the persistent Android buttons at the lower part of the screen. Didn’t check if I could hide it when playing games or videos.
On the right side you’ll see the SIM slot, 3.5mm audio jack, microSD slot, the sliver of a volume rocker and Power button. On the left side is the charging and data port similar to the original Galaxy Tab. There’s nothing on the top and bottom side except for small speaker grills.
Samsung retained the Tab’s white back plate on this one although they added a metallic portion on top where the 3.15 megapixel camera lens and LED flash are situated. There’s a 2 megapixel front-facing camera too by the way.
We didn’t see any hints of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI and a rep told us that there’s none. It’s just pure Google Android Honeycomb experience which is not bad at all. Response was very speedy thanks to a dual-core 1GHz processor and navigation was intuitive. I couldn’t find a video that I can test with but Angry Birds looked really good on a bigger screen.
I think I saw one of the glitches of Honeycomb. As I was playing Angry Birds, I pressed the multitask button but it won’t show the open tasks. It just paused the game and I was stuck at the menu. I had to press Home to see my open tasks and when I tried to go back to my game, it started all over again. Don’t know if it’s Honeycomb or Angry Bird’s compatibility with the new OS.
Even without any changes on the UI, Samsung included the Music Hub and Reader Hub which are pretty self explanatory. We were also told that they will be partnering with an online music content provider so you can buy your music with your Tab ala iTunes. Social Hub is not needed as the Honeycomb’s Contacts app pretty much does the same thing, aggregate social network status and info of your contacts which you can access in one page.
It’s important to note that unlike the original Galaxy Tab, you can’t make calls with your 3G plan here. It’s a drawback you must live with when choosing to go with Honeycomb.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is expected to be available by the first week of June end of July with a price tag of less than Php30,000. WiFi version is still in the works so don’t look for that yet. Overall, the Tab 10.1’s design really reminds me of the iPad sans the “œHome” button. But I love the slimness, the huge screen and the speedy UI on this one.
UPDATE: The final version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes with Honeycomb 3.1 and Samsung TouchWiz 4.o.
24 comments
is it better than the ipad2?…overall?
well it’s bigger… specs wise almost the same. had to ask about hdmi out kasi wala akong nakitang USB or hdmi port.
Wala talagang usb and HDMI port ang samsung tab..seen and already used one. Its a nice gadget even for the budget a little bit cheaper than ipad2.
Yap.. wala poh .. pero pde nmn ata card reader? if kelangan maglipat ng files?
well may microSD card slot sya. or baka maglabas sila ng accessory to read flash drives and other usb powered readers.
oopps di pala microSD slot yun. it’s for a microsim.
Nah, I’ll stick to the original Galaxy Tab. No 3G calls is a big drawback for me
Not to be too picky, but the Acer tablet you’re talking about isn’t the W500, it’s the A500. Acer designated their Android tablet with “A” (as in A500) and their Windows tablet with “W” (as in W500)
yikes! thanks for catching that sir. it’s fixed now.
sale ang optimus 2x at black
http://www.technobaboy.com/2011/05/13/lg-optimus-2x-and-lg-optimus-black-on-sale/
yup… saw that this afternoon lang. thanks!
Sure na po ba na may sim card slot, and microSD slot yung irerelease dito sa Philippines? Kasi sa mga video na napanood ko sa internet, wala daw SD and Sim slot. (Pero kung meron, maganda nga) And kelan po kaya ang release nito? Is it also upgraded to Honeycomb 3.1 already?
Thanks!!
I waited for two months for this product, hahaha. I really hope they release it as soon as possible.
walang microSD slot pero merong microSIM slot so it’s going to be the 3G version.
does it support SMS messaging like P1000?
yup. thanks to honeycomb 3.1, it can do SMS but not calls.
Hi, nakita ko yung demo units ng Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 sa Rockwell kanina. May microSD slot akong nakita so tinanong ko dun sa nagbabantay kung meron talagang microSD slot na lalabas sa retail version. Sabi niya meron daw. Ano ba talaga?
well yung nagamit ko walang microSD slot. di kaya sim slot yun? yung katabi ng audio jack?
hmm oo nga ano. yung picture ko sa taas may microSD slot. pero unit na pinahiram sa amin ni samsung wala eh. i’ll ask.
pero check mo rin site ng galaxy tab. walang microSD. http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxytab/
from the latest updates, is there a way to connect the tab to a vga projector? i only heard about the hdmi one. If samsung is not offering it, are there third parties selling this or is there another way that has been tested that we can do this. I really need it in my class.