Review of Samsung Galaxy Tab

The Galaxy Tab is Samsung’s answer to the Apple iPad. Samsung is known for offering high-quality consumer electronics at substantially lower prices than its competitors. For example, high-def televisions and  Blu-ray players. The Galaxy Tab is priced at $329 (click here to check current prices), significantly lower than the iPad, and you can bet the device will be a real threat to Apple’s dominance of the tablet market.

Samsung Galaxy Specs

The Galaxy is a bit smaller than the iPad – it has a 7-inch display versus the iPad’s 9.7 inch screen. But that screen is extremely high quality and the Galaxy has very good resolution at 1024 x 600. That display also offers Samsung’s touch capability -  AMOLED fingerprint-repelling, which is smooth and easy to use.

The Galaxy Tab’s smaller dimensions are intentional and were designed to fit easily in one hand so the user can type or touch with the other. The dimensions are 190.09 mm x 120.45 mm x 11.98 mm and it weighs in at 380 grams, making it very easy to hold and carry without hand or arm fatigue. That’s 7.48 x 4.74 x 0.47 inches and a lightweight 0.84 lbs in the non-metric world.

Users will find it easy to use the two-thumb technique or the more traditional 1-finger hunt and peck style. Everyone will soon get used to the SWYPE input method that lets you use finger strokes to turn pages, operate applications, and other common tasks. One of those tasks that will become increasingly common is video chat, something really easy to do with the Galaxy, thanks to both forward (1.3 mp) and rear facing (3 megapixel) cameras.

The interior components are equally impressive. Sporting a 1GHz Coretex A8 processor with a PowerVR SGX540 graphics chip, no one will have any reason to complain about speed for local app use. And, thanks to the 3G wireless capability, web browsing and data transfer will do just fine, too. The Galaxy also features 512MB of RAM – compared to the iPad’s current 256MB – and expandable storage up to 32GB.

That speed will be appreciated by gamers, as well. Tests using Glyder 2 showed that the unit performs well for this class of device. The built-in accelerometer lets users play games in either portrait or landscape mode, so no worries about orientation. Like the iPad, the orientation is lockable and the device will work at any angle.

Courtesy of the Android OS (currently at version 2.2) and the SDK available to developers, gamers can expect a lot of interest in creating ports for all their favorites. That’s true of a lot more than just games, too. With Android appearing on smartphones and tablets from a dozen manufacturers now, the apps are starting to pile up fast.

There are lots of the type of applications Samsung users (and others) expect. Calendar, Reader Hub, Music Hub, and more are already onboard. You’ll get newspapers from PressDisplay, magazines from Zinio, and books from Kobo (the Borders site). Music Hub is both a store and a player, so you have everything you need for entertainment.

Battery life depends on how the Galaxy Tab is used, of course, but with a 4,000 mAh lithium unit inside you can expect about 7 hours of movie viewing. That corresponds to a boatload of web browsing, email, text creation, book reading, and more.

No one can predict whether the Samsung Galaxy Tab will be the long-expected iPad killer. Apple makes a stellar product. But it’s got a pretty good shot based on its impressive features.