When we met with Samsung in late May, company representatives didn't seem
entirely sure that the company would meet the rumored June 8th ship date here in the US, but lo and behold, it's done just that.
The tablet's launching at noon today at the Best Buy in New York City's
Union Square, and if you can't make it up to the Big Apple, it'll hit
the rest of the nation on June 17th. But here's the real question: is it
worth making an effort to snag it on either date? The Galaxy Tab 10.1,
much like its Limited Edition sibling that we reviewed last month, is ever-so-slightly thinner than the iPad 2, a slate that most sane individuals (and competitors, for that matter) would confess is the market leader today.
Naturally, everyone and their sister is gunning for Apple in this space,
and Honeycomb's the first mobile OS we've seen that has the potential
to put any sort of damper on Cupertino's ongoing rave. By and large, the
consumer version of the Tab 10.1 is the same as the device launched at Google I/O,
but there's two key differences that we'll focus on here: the tamed
design, and the thoroughly different OS version (v3.1 here versus v3.0
before). Head on past the break for an in-depth look into both of those,
but be sure to first take a gander at
our Limited Edition review to wrap your noodle around the basics.
Hardware and design
You're going to hear this a lot throughout the review, but every opinion
we drew from using the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition applies here. Every.
single. one. Why? The consumer model is is a spitting image of the LE
variant, save for the motif on the rear; the one you'll pick up this
month has a glossy white plastic rear, while the LE model had a glossy
white plastic rear... with an Android army adorning it. Weight's the
same, size is the same, build quality is the same. It's a tremendous
thing to hold, and it truly oozes quality from corner to corner.
Outside of the color scheme on the rear, nothing is different this go 'round. We promise.
Performance and battery life
While the internals remain the same here as on the Limited Edition build
(1GHz Tegra 2, 1280 x 800 resolution display, front- and rear-facing
cameras), something's changed with Android 3.1. Google claimed that the
newest build of Honeycomb would perform even faster than 3.0, and in
practice, things
did seem to operate at a subtly brisker pace.
Animations were a pinch quicker, and transitions were ever-so-slightly
faster. Web browser performance was noticeably better, although we did
see a few videos load up in a smaller window while the same video
expanded out to fill the screen within Android 3.0.
But that said, we're having a difficult time aligning our real-world
experience and our benchmarks. The Tab 10.1 Limited Edition (which
shipped with an admittedly wonky version of Android 3.0) managed to hit
an average of 1,970 within Quadrant benchmark -- a standard benching
tool that was also used in our G-Slate and Xoom
review. You'd expect the streamlined Android 3.1 sibling to perform
better, but alas, that wasn't at all the case. After running the same
test five times on the Tab 10.1, we hit an average score of 1,540. The
highest we saw was 1,546. That's off of a fresh reboot with nothing
spinning in the background aside from the occasional widget update. It's
as baffling to us as it likely is to you; we're guessing that Quadrant
just reacts dramatically different to v3.1 than v3.0, and we're
obviously eager to see if future Android 3.1 slates score lower across
the board than the 3.0 devices that came before.
When we sat down to our video loop test, with WiFi on and display
brightness at about 65 percent, we scored just under ten hours (again!).
That's second only to the iPad 2, and by merely half an hour. Jack that
brightness down a bit, and you could probably squeeze 11 hours out. The
upside is that Android 3.1 doesn't seem to have a negative impact on
battery life; the downside is that Android 3.1 doesn't seem to be any
more power efficient than Android 3.0.
As for audio and video playback? It's what you'd expect; Music Beta
streamed our cloud library sans issue over a home WiFi network, and the
audio output is on par with every iDevice you've ever tested. It's not
quite up there with Cowon
or anything, but then again, neither is anything else in this field.
Flash, DivX, MPEG4 and H.264 files all played back exceptionally well.
Even 720p content seemed to cause no strain whatsoever on the system,
though we'd still probably recommend transcoding any of those files
you've got sitting around in esoteric containers. Again, this isn't a
Cowon, so it ain't going to support everything you throw at it.
Software
At long last, the primary differentiator between the Tab 10.1 LE and the far-less-limited Tab 10.1:
0.1. Android 3.
1
brings along widgets that can be resized vertically and horizontally,
access to the newfangled Movies section of the Android Market, improved
overall performance and support for a host of USB accessories.
Unfortunately, the Movies department is only open for Android 3.1
tablets with 3G radios, hence, our 16GB WiFi test unit still showed it
as unavailable. That said, we've already tested that particular aspect
with a Motorola Xoom, which can be seen here.
The performance improvements, however, are here. They're subtle, sure,
but you won't find us kvetching about extra speed, regardless of how
minor it is. Granted, we didn't have any real qualms with performance on
the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition, but it's safe to say we've even
fewer
qualms here. Resizing widgets worked, and worked well, but it's mildly
annoying that it only supports a smattering of 'em right now -- we're
hoping to see more apps updated soon to take advantage, and when that
happens, homepane tweakers will no doubt find these remarkably useful.
It enables each pane to be full of useful, glanceable information -- a
sizable calendar prevents you from having to load the app each time, for
example.
Outside of that, the software's largely unchanged from where Honeycomb
began. Those anticipating a significant overhaul will be sorely
disappointed, but we're thrilled to say that Google's polished up an
already excellent foundation. Unfortunately, the Android Market still
isn't home to many tablet applications; Apple just announced at WWDC
that the App Store is home to some 95,000 tablet programs. El Goog
hasn't shared its numbers in this regard, but it doesn't take an awful
lot of poking around to see that it's nowhere near. Honeycomb still has a
lot to prove, and it's up to developers to prove it. For now, those
looking for a wealth of options will have better luck wading through the
App Store, but hopefully things will be drastically different as the
year churns on.
We'd also like to point out a huge, huge issue with using the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in conjunction with OS X. For whatever reason, Android File Transfer
still hasn't been updated to support this slate, which means that you
cannot (easily) use your Mac to transfer files onto your device. We have
to wonder what Google was thinking when it fundamentally changed how
Macs could interface with Android; our Nexus One (Android 2.3) simply
pops up as an external drive on the desktop of a MacBook Pro, while
Honeycomb devices require a dedicated piece of software that may or may
not work. Blech. We're hoping Google updates AFT in the hours ahead;
otherwise, you can expect the forums to come alive as Mac owners
struggle to make contact with the $500+ slate they just bit on.
Camera
No shocker here -- the 3MP rear camera on the Tab 10.1 impressed us just
as much as the camera on the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition. We still aren't
sold on using a slate to take photos, and we still aren't overly
impressed with the image quality here. It's hard to knock something that
most folks aren't going to take advantage of, though, so we'll just let
the below sample shot gallery speak for itself.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 camera sample shot gallery
Wrap-up
The conclusion we came to after using the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition
mimics the conclusion we've drawn here: this is the best Honeycomb
tablet to date, and lucky for you, the one's available to purchase! Only
time will tell if the Android Market will prove to be as well-stocked
as the App Store, and if you're willing to wait, this here slate
provides a world-class Gmail experience, better handling than the iPad 2
(in our humble opinion, anyway) and a higher resolution display.
The 16GB WiFi model will hit for $499 -- exactly in line with the iPad
-- while the 32GB variant will demand $100 more (we're still awaiting
word on 3G prices). If you're sold on Android, and you aren't too
concerned with having an LTE radio in your tablet, there's really no
need to look elsewhere. Of course, the impending release of iOS 5 makes it awfully hard to ignore just how good the iPad 2 will be this fall, but who's living in the future, right?
We'd still prefer Music Beta to be more more like iTunes in the Cloud, and we'd
love
a microSD slot, but we can't help but applaud Samsung for pushing
Android tablets to a level they've never reached prior to now.