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My 3 Hour Tour With The Galaxy Tab.

I like the size of the Tab and it's portability. It would fit perfect for my plans and work.

I'll wait to see how it runs on 3.0 and if they lower the price on it. I know they're coming out with a Wifi only model but my problem is that Android doesn't see AdHoc networks, so i wouldn't be able to use MyWi when I'm on the go. I'm not signing a 2yr contract for data when I already have one my phone.

Also maybe 3.0 will smooth the UI out. I'm wanting to see the PlayBook by RIM also and if it'll be able to tether to my iphone via MyWi. Last night was the first time i noticed a tv commercial from RIM talking about their App store, guess I should watch more tv.

If nothing else suits me then I guess the iPad 2 will get my vote. It'll do everything I need. I just would like it in a smaller size but that's not going to happen :(

Although LG is coming out with a 8.9" tablet so that may be a compromise between the Tab & iPad
 
Meever said:
Galaxy Tab.

Awesome: Flash, widgets, front facing camera, back facing camera, CMDA and GSM

Not very awesome: Laggy, graphics don't quite feel right on Android, it's thick, wide screen aspect ratio is kind of weird in portrait mode.....


Overall..... it's a good start but needs polish.
Click to expand...

Everything u listed as awesome are all paper and everything you listed as negatives are what really counts. So basically this is just a paper product. Its feature list makes it look good on paper but it actually isn't that good.
 
I also tried a Tab in a Best Buy. I found the Tab's form factor, size and weight very appealing in the hand. I can see why people are attracted to this option. But then I turned it on and played with it for a while, and I found all the same drawbacks that others have pointed out.

I realize it can work quite well for people with specific needs like e-reading. But the thing is $600 (or $400 with a 2 year commitment). While the iPad is polished enough and versatile enough (given the decent selection of tablet-specific apps) to warrant the large purchase of a new device category for many people, I don't see that at all with the Tab.

Sorry, this is a nice start but not at all an iPad killer.
 
Isn't that sort of a summary of iOS versus Android in general? The Android can technically do more but it doesn't do the core functions nearly as well or as smoothly. And Apple products always have hardware that is cooler looking and has a much higher quality feel. Android fans scoff that looks don't matter but obviously consumers think it does.

Actually... Can't all of the above be said about OS X versus Windows also?
 
Playing with something, even for a few hours, isn't the same as learning how to use something.

The best example of this is WebOS, which can take a few days of constant usage before people suddenly have a gestalt experience and understand how best to utilize its advantages. After that, they become vocal fans of its UI. Android is a bit like that.

--

I bought a Tab off eBay Sunday night, and got it in the mail today. Turned it on, used the not-so-secret button presses to bypass activation with Verizon, and started downloading our favorite apps like Pulse for me and Angry Birds for my daughter, and of course customized the wallpaper immediately.

So far, it's been fast and smooth. My daughter absolutely loves the larger screen (as compared to the development smartphones I let her play with), which surprised me a bit. Even old apps look nice (albeit a little elongated sometimes), because they scale up naturally instead of being scan-doubled, shadow-boxed and pixelated like the iPad does with iPhone apps in large view.

For me, the Tab is a nice size for one-handed use in bed, for my daughter in the car, and to carry in my jacket pocket when I go to an office. (Note that I usually don't carry gizmos around. For example, I have refurb'd, leather-cased iPod touches stored in in every bathroom so I don't have to remember to carry one - lol.)

Note that I like the iPad size as well. Still, after years of reading the web on a relatively small iOS device screen, I don't need to leap to a 8.5x11" page size to be happy :)
 
I just played with the tab at Best Buy. Way smaller than I thought! Its thin and light. Way lighter than an ipad and slightly heavier than my EVO. It looks to be the perfect ereader size tho, and one handed operation is way better on it than on an ipad(obviously)

Software was quick, open and closing apps was smooth. The screen itself was gorgeous, slightly more vivid than an ipad and my EVO.

Played Angry Birds on it, no lag very smooth.

Opened the browser it was responsive, it opened alot of the mobile site(i was on sprints network) I went to this forums and everything worked fine, pinch zoom worked well(not as smooth as ipad)

Keyboard was responsive, didnt use swipe so I cant comment.

When it gets more apps and is not tied to a data plan, which would make it cheaper, then I would pick one up in a heart beat.
 
Remember the time when people saying that the iPad is just a big iPhone? It rather seems like Galaxy Tab actually is just a big android phone.
 
So I played with one at Future Shop this afternoon (when I dropped in and almost bought an iPhone 4). The hardware looks pretty nice. Good weight, good feel to it. The fact that there's a camera is a plus. The software, however, just didn't feel very polished. That's something where Apple shines. The home screen that was configured on the display model was an absolute hodge-podge of icons everywhere across 9 different swipeable pages. (Granted, people were probably messing with it all the time.) Swiping across home screens seemed a tiny bit laggy and choppy.

The screen simply snaps to a new orientation when you tilt the device, there's no animation (not a bad thing, just comparing it).

I tried to open up some photos and found that the user input was lagging just slightly. I'd swipe at a photo, and it took a moment before it would respond. It wasn't clear to me in the camera app whether I was supposed to swipe or tap the next/prev arrows on the screen. I'd pinch-zoom a photo and find that it both took a moment to respond and also only updated the screen at discrete intervals so the zooming effect was markedly choppy.

I didn't do a whole lot with the unit. I'm sure it will be compared well with an iPad, but you can definitely see where Apple has been polishing its UI.
 
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VespaMatt said:
I've posted in detail elsewhere on here about my experience, but to keep it brief - I sold my 3G iPad because I needed something more capable. I got a 13in Air and picked up a Tab for e-reading, quick web browsing in coffee shops, videos in bed, etc... the ability to tether was the deciding factor for me.
Click to expand...

I love tethering with the iPad 3G. MyWi makes it incredibly easy to start an ad-hoc wifi network that anyone can connect to (assuming they know the key).

As far as I know, the Galaxy Tab cannot wifi tether.
 
vant said:
I love tethering with the iPad 3G. MyWi makes it incredibly easy to start an ad-hoc wifi network that anyone can connect to (assuming they know the key).

As far as I know, the Galaxy Tab cannot wifi tether.
Click to expand...

Android can't connect to ADHOC. I think there is some type of hack you can do though.

That's one thing that's really holding me up and hope is solved in 3.0. My plan is to use MyWi and tether, be it an Android, iPad2 or PlayBook.

If data plans weren't so outragous it wouldn't be so bad.

Android also doesn't have a Netflix app so that's another negative. I know some people don't like watching on a small screen but at work it works and also when I go to sleep instead of leaving my TV on and having to remember to set the sleeper, I can just stream something on my iPhone and once it's done it automatically turns off.
 
Froyo is not optimized for Tablets. Samsung rushed. It clearly shows.

Also, I talked to bestbuy Rep and they told me if you return Samsung Galaxy Tab, there will be a restocking fee. You might want to double check that return policy. It is considered as tablet and it is considered as laptop.
 
hcho3 said:
Froyo is not optimized for Tablets. Samsung rushed. It clearly shows.

Also, I talked to bestbuy Rep and they told me if you return Samsung Galaxy Tab, there will be a restocking fee. You might want to double check that return policy. It is considered as tablet and it is considered as laptop.
Click to expand...

Just tell them you had problems with it, then the restocking fee will be waved(defective products do not incur penalty), let's face it by the reviews here it does have problems-main problem is it's not a iPad :)
 
I like my iPad but I certainly will be considering a 7" Android tablet sometime next year. I don't subscribe to the Scriptures of Jobs which claims that the perfect size = Apple's size (funny how they would say that).

iPad IS unweildy and clumsy to hold at times. I still think it's awesome, but I know full well how versatile and useful Android can be because that's what's on my phone :D
 
I was reading on XDA people have discovered unlocks
and are changing the firmware to allow it to be used as a phone.

That is one big phone :)

I think a Wifi only version at $379 might do well as a lower cost iPad alternative.

Tried 3 flash sites on it.
Video on TSN.ca played but a noticeably lower frame-rate.
One flash game site would not load as the keyboard would not display for username entry,
the other suffered from the 600 line display height.
 
It's interesting now people can have such different experiences of the same device. "Fast" was definitely not the first thing that came into my head when I had a play with a Galaxy Tab at one of my local shops. Scrolling in the browser seemed to be very slow and juddery, to the point where I'd almost say it was unusable. It would definitely drive me crazy as I know now much better the iPad is.

Now it is possible that one of the previous users had screwed something up and that was causing the slow down that I was seeing. However if that was the case then I'd suggest that this is a major disadvantage of the Android platform. No matter what I've done with my iPad it has always stayed responsive. I did try switching Flash to load-on-demand and that seemed to help to an extent although the performance still wasn't great.
 
I watched the Best Buy Associate demo one for me, and he had trouble just getting the screen to move when he did the swipe motion. My main thing against the size is that the iPad is much closer to a standard 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper, and therefore closer to what you are used to seeing. It requires less swiping left or right or up and down, and the font size is close to what you would see on a normal size piece of paper.

It makes laying out the iPad to write an essay or letter etc much easier, as it is closer to true WYSIWYG.
 
kdarling said:
Playing with something, even for a few hours, isn't the same as learning how to use something.

For me, the Tab is a nice size for one-handed use in bed, for my daughter in the car, and to carry in my jacket pocket when I go to an office. (Note that I usually don't carry gizmos around. For example, I have refurb'd, leather-cased iPod touches stored in in every bathroom so I don't have to remember to carry one - lol.)
Click to expand...

Agreed about the total time on device to base any idea. I have used one in the store several times. The chain attached and the shelf at the feet don't help to get a good handle on it.

I also have older itouches in radio clock next to bed when I don't want to take the iPad to bed (upstairs). It is an incredible resource to have so handy.

But I really like the tab. In fact, I am really confused. I love my iPad...but want it to be more portable. As it is, I take it everywhere with me, but portable it is not. And I really like the camera on the Tab...but then I am a photographer and am always shooting stuff. I wish it had an 8mp camera ilk the droid...that would be awesome...and I would buy it with out any other thought.

It seemed smooth enough to me except for it wanting to constantly want to rotate. Perhaps it has a lock...I didn't dig around for an option to lock the screen. I keep the pad on lock most if the time.


nixiemaiden said:
I haven't used the galaxy tab at all but I just wanted to say that web browsing on the iPad is not that smooth. Whenever I scroll, I always get a checkered screen for a second or two before that section of the page loads.
Click to expand...

Something is definitely not right then. My pad is very smooth...with vm on...and many tabs.

NebulaClash said:
Bottom line: Apple has made the tablet market red hot after ten years of moribund sales of Microsoft tablets.
Click to expand...

You mean APPLE, again, right? Because I loved my Newton!
 
lokerd said:
(The Galaxy Tab) seemed smooth enough to me except for it wanting to constantly want to rotate. Perhaps it has a lock...I didn't dig around for an option to lock the screen. I keep the (iPad) on lock most if the time.
Click to expand...

Easy peasy. Swipe down from the top to open the notification view.

Right there, always available, are some common controls... including an orientation lock.

GalaxyTablet_new_notifications_sf.jpg
 
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The thing with the galaxy tab and all other 7 inch tablets is screen size. They really are overgrown smart phones and can't be seriously accepted as true tablets. You can't even use the keyboard in landscape mode comfortably without it hogging the whole screen. The iPad keyboard is almost full size in landscape. I think apple got it right with the size. I can't imagine using a 7 inch tablet over my iPad, especially an unpolished android one.
 
I prefer the size of the Tab over an iPad, especially when it comes to weight and one handed operation.

Now that I've had it a couple weeks, I have everything set up like how I want it. No lock screen, 3rd Party Launcher, I got a more advanced folder organizer (so I can use custom icons) and I downloaded an app to change the DPI so it fits more contents on the screen.

Browsing for me is plenty quick and (more importantly) the browser isn't always crashing on me like with the iPad. My iPad, once I loaded up a couple tabs, would always crash - not to mention the checkboarding. I experienced this with Safari, Atomic, and iCab. Dolphin HD on the Tab has been great, I usually just keep it set to full screen and browse website in portrait mode, if I need a little more space I'll switch to landscape. Speed isn't an issue although I have flash set on click to activate.

When I want a bigger screen I use my laptop.

2ylk8jr.png
 
Yours looks great. I'm tempted but just as a geek device to try android etc.:)

It's seems too big I'm thinking a 5.5 to 6 " tablet might be better , as far as pocketable. I think many buying the tab now want to try android and or hack it to unlock and allow phone use. But it's one big phone!

For those purposes it's fun, but not going to compete with the iPad unless they price it under $400. I'd imagine returns on it might be high?
 
Yeah, I keep on looking at these 7" tablets, and I ~want~ to buy one... But I just can't justify it.

When I want a small mobile device, my iPhone has better connectivity, and all the apps, cameras, etc. I have it with me when I'm out anyway.

When I want a mobile device for work, I want to be able to sit down and type out large blocks of text. (or even smaller blocks of text, like this post.) The 7" screen keyboards are just too small. They need some type of virtual/off-device keyboard or something. Maybe a kickstand setup with a laser projected keyboard.

If I want to thumb type, I'd just use my phone.
 
Don Kosak said:
Maybe a kickstand setup with a laser projected keyboard.
Click to expand...

Now that would be kickass. I can't wait to see tablets come with that. The technology is already out there and relatively cheap... But of course it would need to be "miniaturized" to something like the size of the face time camera.
 
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