Tab 10.1 achieves perhaps the greatest design compliment an Android tablet
Also missing so far: any mention of a HP KU533AA Battery version, which was previously announced. The Tab 10.1 supports Adobe Flash, but I was surprised to find my test unit came without Flash preinstalled.
Nor did it have a shortcut on the desktop linking directly to Adobe’s Flash Player on the Android IBM ThinkPad X60s Battery Market, as other Honeycomb tablets have handled the Flash installation conundrum (since it’s not native to the Android OS).
And yet, other file support surprises abound. The Tab 10.1 actually comes with support for Windows Media audio and video files (including .WMA, .WMV, and .AVI); these files are not Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Battery natively supported by Android 3.1, so it’s impressive that Samsung jumped in to the fill the void. It also can read Xvid, another format not noted on Android’s official list.
The Tab 10.1 comes pre-loaded with Quickoffice HD, for reading and editing Microsoft Word, Excel, and Lenovo ThinkPad X61s Battery PowerPoint files as well as serving as a functional file browser. (Interesting observation: files I downloaded via Gmail appear only in the Download folder, even though the images and videos appear directly in the Gallery app, and the music shows in the Music app.)
As initially shipped, the Tab 10.1 comes with stock Android 3.1 on board, and very little to distinguish it. It’s the first Honeycomb tablet to ship with Google’s facile Android Movie Studio (the Google answer to Apple’s iMovie on iOS). And it does have a customised HSTNN-Q35C keyboard from Nuance, with trace typing capabilities.
This keyboard is the default keyboard, although you could switch to the native Honeycomb keyboard if you prefer. I found I liked the Samsung keyboard; it’s grey, with black HSTNN-I71C letters, large keys and mostly useful shortcut keys (for example, @, .com, and
in the email keyboard).
Apple’s attempt to erase the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the history books is a compelling reason to take a long hard look at this Compaq Presario 1400 Battery tablet - UPDATED 25 AUG 2011
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi is the first Android tablet to effectively challenge Apple’s iPad 2 at what Apple does best: design. Let’s face it, when it comes to tablets, Compaq Presario B2800 Battery design is the attribute that’s squarely at centre stage. And the Tab 10.1 has that in spades. In fact, its design, together with its Android 3.1 operating system, vaults the Tab 10.1 to the head of the Android pack.
The Tab 10.1 achieves perhaps the greatest design compliment an Android tablet can hope for; namely, it was often mistaken at first glance for being an iPad 2. Even by Apple iPad users. This is remarkably understandable when you see and hold the Tab 10.1 for the Compaq 116314-001 Battery first time. The Tab 10.1 has a slim profile, 8.6mm - a hair’s breadth slimmer than the iPad 2 (technically, 0.2mm slimmer for those keeping the scorecard).
From the side, the two tablets look very similar. The Tab 10.1 has a more rounded edge, though, to the iPad’s tapered edge. The tablet comes in two colours: shipping first is white, which couples a silver-painted plastic edge with a white plastic black (identical to the limited edition Google I/O Compaq TC1000 Battery version of the Tab, sans the Android graphic imprint); available on June 17, when the Tab 10.1 ships in volume, you can choose a Metallic Grey, with edges and back that more closely match.
I actually preferred the grey variety, even though that model would be less likely to be mistaken for Apple’s ultra-hip tablet. I liked the feel and texture of the dark backing, as opposed to the more chintzy feeling plastic white backing.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 edges the iPad 2 on weight, too: 570g, to the iPad’s 600g. And IBM ThinkPad X60 Battery stands slightly taller and narrower than iPad, dimensions you’d expect simply by virtue of its 10.1in display. It measures 260×175mm, compared with iPad 2’s 240×185mm.
All of this is meaningless, though, compared with the reality of actually handling the Galaxy Tab 10.1. The Tab 10.1 feels lightweight and extremely well-balanced in-hand. I found ThinkPad R60 Battery conducive to hold in one hand or two, and found it lightweight enough that I hardly noticed it was in my bag.
I’d still like to see the weight on tablets of this size get closer still to the one pound mark, while adding even more built-in functionality (like additional ports), but this is a good start ThinkPad R60e Battery towards that goal. Especially considering the Tab 10.1 is Samsung’s first mass-market tablet of this size (I’m not counting the region-specific, heavier and thicker 10.1V).
The Tab 10.1’s overall design takes a minimalist design cue from Apple, as well. Beyond the docking port, you have a power button and volume rocker at top (horizontal) or along the right side (vertical). Also along the right top is the headphone jack; it’s awkwardly situated if you’re holding the laptop batteries horizontally and video chatting at the same time, since the jack is just off to the right above where the camera is.
But if you flip the orientation to put the jack at the bottom of the horizontal display, or hold the ThinkPad Z61p Battery tablet vertically, with the jack running along the right side, the jack’s location works fine).
The stereo speakers are situated a little more than an inch down from the top, along the left and right horizontal edges. This position proved a good one, since my hands didn’t get in the way of the speakers. The speakers sounded surprisingly good, among the better I’ve heard on Lenovo Thinkpad W500 Battery Android tablets, far better than iPad 2’s single rear-facing speaker. But that’s not saying much; audio still sounded too tinny on my test tracks.
The 1280×800 pixel resolution display looks bright and brilliant, two characteristics we’ve come to associate with Samsung displays on its phones and tablets. Like the 7in Galaxy Tab before it, the display also has over-saturated colours. On a colour chart test image, most of the colours, including reds and blues, were blown out. In our test images of sights and scenes, this tendency translated to images that popped, but had a bit too much red ThinkPad T60 Battery and blue thrown into the mix. In side-by-side comparison, the Apple iPad 2 generated better colour reproduction, especially when it came to the soft browns for skin tones.
However, the Tab 10.1 rendered images with terrific sharpness and detail. This is the first Android tablet to ship natively with Google’s Android 3.1 update. And images clearly benefit from the updated OS: Images were crisp, with no signs of the fuzzy rendering issue that plagued earlier the earlier Honeycomb ThinkPad Z60m Battery versions.