Samsung Galaxy Tab - The AnandTech Review
by Vivek Gowri on December 23, 2010 9:48 AM ESTSamsung Galaxy Tab - The Software
To anyone who’s played with a Galaxy S phone recently, or really anything running Android 2.2, the Galaxy Tab’s software should be pretty familiar. And if you hate TouchWiz, you should stop reading right now, because the Galaxy Tab comes preloaded with Samsung’s TouchWiz 3.0. It’s not bad, but after a few months with the G2, it’s hard to go back to a skinned version of Android. The skin works about as well as one could expect; it doesn’t change a whole lot to the core functionality of Android beyond adding a very handy task manager, but adds a nice glossy UI layer over Froyo. I noticed some stuttering in some of the menus and animations, though it didn’t significantly detract from the UX. I don’t know if that’s a fault of TouchWiz or the higher resolution display, but I wasn’t expecting it given the 1GHz Hummingbird inside.
There’s two keyboards - Samsung preloaded Swype in addition to their own keyboard. I’m not much of a Swype guy, though I did try it out on the Tab (it’s an interesting concept, but I’ll stick to typing for now); both keyboards work pretty well. There’s not too much to note here beyond saying again that the 7” form factor made the keyboard perfect to use in portrait mode, whereas in landscape mode it was a bit too wide for comfortable typing.
The familiarity of the OS raises an interesting question - other than the larger screen, what is different here versus a regular Android smartphone? Unfortunately, on the OS side of things, the answer appears to be “not much”. Now, there really wasn’t much that Samsung could do about that - Froyo simply isn’t a tablet-centric OS. That’s what Gingerbread and Honeycomb are for. So until that update, the Galaxy Tab is going to feel like an overgrown Galaxy S.
Not that it’s a bad thing - the iPad’s version of iOS makes it feel like a supersized iPhone, and that hasn’t hurt it one bit as of yet. What made the iPad different were the hundreds of applications designed specifically to exploit the comparatively huge XGA screen. That’s the level that Android tablets are going to have to get to, and in my opinion, they’re not there yet. Not by a long shot. There’s not much in the way of tablet specific apps in the Android Market - I found the New York Times Android Tablet app, a Mediafly beta for Tablets, and Verizon’s VZ Navigator for the Galaxy Tab (which came preinstalled on our review unit). Other than that, not much. Now, NYT’s app is nice, but it’s got nothing on their iPad app, and it’s the only marquee application that has a specific tablet version. Normal smartphone apps scale pretty well, but it’s just not the same.
Samsung bundled the Galaxy Tab with some of their own custom applications that were designed to make use of the tablet form factor. Their email client works well enough, splitting into a dual-pane view in landscape mode and doing its job in general. The calendar app is attractive and well designed, with a two pane view in both landscape and portrait modes to show the calendar as well as any upcoming events. The contacts, gallery, and media apps are all pretty satisfactory, and thankfully Samsung saw fit to preinstall an alarm clock app. (Apple, take note. Apparently people like to wake up on time.)
But as you use it, you can tell that Android just isn’t ready to be used on tablets. It’s not “there” yet, not as far as first-party apps, third-party app support, or overall system polish. Even at launch, bugs and missing functionality notwithstanding, Apple made sure it had all three - they put a lot of thought into optimizing the core applications for tablet use, and until Google does the same and gets third party devs on board, Android just won’t be a very good tablet platform.
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VivekGowri - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
Dude, I have enough problems typing normally, without having to worry about drawing lines between the keys. I will admit, I got the hang of it quicker than I thought I would, but as a G2 user, I must say that nothing can beat a good HTC hardware keyboard (unless Dell can manage it with the Venue Pro).vision33r - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
I have an Android phone and my wife uses the iPhone. But we both use the iPad. For many years, I've compared my Android phone to the iPhone.Google keeps improving the performance of Android but have done very little to make the OS more user friendly.
Apple has improved the performance of iOS and their UI. The implementation is much more mainstream with a minimalist approach vs the Android's muddy and convoluted way of stuffing the OS with tedius configs.
The iPad stands for all those Apple design cues, easy, accessible, and everything works philosophy.
The Galaxytab represents all the problems with Android. Lack of standardization, poorly executed and flawed ideas. The lack of standardization has hurt the ecosystem greatly. The Dev community can't find leadership or direction in this "Open" Android market. They don't know which direction Google wants Android to go.
Bottomline, Apple has won the Tablet market. The industry mainly film, print, media, have all signed on to embrace the iPad "format."
OldPueblo - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
They own it except for those that don't want to be forced into Apple's ecosystem and those that want a tablet that actually fits in a pocket and doesn't belong mostly on a coffe table. The iPad hardly wins the tablet war on many fronts. "Stupid easy" doesn't make something better, it just means there are more stupid people parting with their money.medi01 - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
Mentioning "lack of standardization" in "Apple vs Anything" as a pro-Apple argument is one of the most idiotic statements I've ever seen.Paladin1650 - Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - link
Those same arguments would apply to Macs vs. PCs, yet PC dominates. What actually happens is that Apple's user-friendly approach dominates the EARLY stages of a new market. Users don't know how to use a new device, so of course they gravitate to those that are most polished and easiest to use (Apple). Once everyone becomes familiar with how the device works, and once UI conventions become more or less standardized, then the general consumer population can see the more open PC/Android approach for what it is: Superior.OldPueblo - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
I mean you knock it for it's interface, but what should a tablet interface be like? I mean how much simpler can you get? You can set it up the way you want with icons to tap to open things. What's not "made for a tablet?" Just because it's the same/similar to arguably the best smartphones on the planet, why is that bad on tablet? Why does it HAVE to be different?medi01 - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
I guess if they don't invent such "problems" with Galaxy Tab it would have been much harder to come "iPad is still better" conclusion.VivekGowri - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
Direct quote from another comment I posted:If you read my software section, I said exactly that - having a scaled up OS never held the iPad back, so it's not something I can hold against the Galaxy Tab. What I can hold against the Galaxy Tab is that there are basically no apps, first party or otherwise, that take advantage of the larger screen size, other than the three or four apps that Samsung put in afterwards (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, etc). Apple basically changed every core app on the iPad to use that screen real estate, and they had more than a few high profile 3rd party apps out for the iPad - ABC player, NYT, BBC, etc etc. I don't doubt that Google will get there, probably with Honeycomb, but until then, it's a legitimate problem.
If the OS is the same and the apps are the same, why would I get a Galaxy Tab instead of a Galaxy S or any other Android device? I'm a day-in, day-out Android user (T-Mo G2), and I love the platform, but it really isn't ready for tablets right now.
Hrel - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
Didn't you guys already review this? I'm pretty sure I already read about this on anandtech...kadaj - Friday, December 24, 2010 - link
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