Author Topic: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Lonestar_1 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-review/

Not bad. I am still going to wait and see what is around towards end of year though.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
I've been back and forth between this and the Transformer.

I own a Transformer right now. It's my second Transformer. The first had a screen defect and eventually had to return for a refund because the retailer was constantly out of stock. A couple weeks later I saw one in stock and decided to give the Transformer another try. And there is a lot I do like about the Transformer. Unfortunately this second unit also has a screen defect. And again the retailer has no inventory to exchange with.

For a while I planned to keep the Transformer once I got one without any defects. Because I really do like having the micro SD slot. And I think the netbook style dock and spare battery is pretty handy as well. But an issue with the Transformer that is starting to bother me more over time is it's speakers. They are weak and the right side is louder than the left. The off balance audio issue is so common that I don't believe exchanging will help, though ASUS says you can RMA the tablet and they'll fix it.

Been watching Galaxy Tab 10.1 reviews. And apparently the speakers are pretty nice and loud. Also seems to have a bit more bass where the Transformer sounds really flat.

The PLS display has really nice colors. I thought the IPS display on the Transformer was nice, and it is, but a video review showing the two together you could see a difference in the color quality, the colors really pop more on the Samsung.


I'm starting to think the Galaxy Tab 10.1 might be worth the extra $200 I'll need to spend on the 32GB model due to it's lack of micro SD.


Another thing I'm a little bothered by is the thundering lack of accessories for the Transformer. There is the epic netbook dock from ASUS. But almost no third party accessories. The tablet has been out almost a month and a half, it's still a bit early, but I expected some. I think this will be different with Samsung, I think the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be more mainstream successful, so will probably have a lot more accessories from third parties, lots of cases and such. And the dock connector in the 10.1 is the same as on the 7 inch tablet, so apparently Galaxy Tab 7 accessories should work with the 10.1 dock connector.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
I returned my Transformer a week ago because of the screen defects and poor speaker quality.

Today I just got back with my new Galaxy Tab 10.1. I haven't even played with it yet. I'm still just admiring the shiny right now. happy

 

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Lonestar_1 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
I feel there should be a Gollum quote in there. Post some thoughts about it after you done admiring it happy .


I waiting to see how visio's tablet works out. With an IR Blaster it might just be the ultimate home theater accessory grin . But besides that, the GT10.1 has my full attention.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Looks like the Vizio 8 inch tablet is 6 weeks out according to a leak from Walmart.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/17/vizio-tablet-fits-walmart-into-its-hectic-schedule-shipping-in/

Regarding my precious...


Very briefly. I am loving the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

First let me get this out of my system one last time. Was really sad Samsung didn't include the micro SD slot. Many tears have been shed. So this did prompt me to buy the 32GB model. I'm sure that'll be plenty of space, but ended up spending a tad more than I wanted.

Despite that, I'm really happy I returned my $400 Transformer and bought this $600 Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a true tablet in it's feel. It's surrounded by a rounded bezel and very thin, so is just an absolute pleasure to hold, something I couldn't say about the Transformer.

There is a white and dark gray model. I got the dark gray one. The dark gray has a lighter gray trim and the plastic back feels nice and has a brushed aluminum looking texture. The white model has silver trim and the back is smooth and glossy. I picked the dark gray with the texture because I think it will hide any scuffs and marks that might occur easier than the glossy white.

The screen is great. It's very smooth to the touch, much more than the Transformer. I think Samsung must of put some coating on it, because it has an iPad feel. Google IO limited edition owners said they didn't have any coating, so this seems to be just on the production models. Finger prints wipe off very easily, it took some deep rubbing to get some finger prints off the Transformer.

Samsung uses a Super PLS display and it looks great. It's based on IPS, so has very good viewing angles like the Transformer. But the colors are more vivid. It might be up to the individual if it's too vivid or not, but I how it looks. And the contrast looks a bit better too. Love the display.

Auto brightness though is wonky, keeps changing the brightness way too frequently, so I can't use the feature. My Transformer didn't have this issue, though it wasn't much use either since it defaulted to a setting too dark for my taste.

The speakers sound good. Loud enough for a tablet and the balance is good. Transformer just didn't get loud enough and the balance was way to the right, still not sure if that's hardware or software problem on the Transformer. Was really enjoyable watching videos on YouTube and having that nice stereo effect.

A pair of ear buds were include, which has a mic and stop/play button. It's the same ear buds that came with my Galaxy S Vibrant phone, they are okay.

I'm very happy with the tablet. This is what I really wanted all along. The Transformer was cool, but in hindsight, I really didn't want a netbook/tablet hybrid that failed to excellent at either task. If I'm in a situation where I really need a keyboard or output video to a TV/monitor, I think I'm much better off taking out my laptop for that task. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a pure tablet and it does it very well.

 

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Nakal 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
In 3 days Ravyn will post  his "I returned my Tab" Post haha*runs from Ravy*

 

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Blisteringballs 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
I wish I could just test drive one for a few days to see if it's a good fit. I've been waiting to replace my first gen iPad.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
One day down, 14 more to go during my return period. We'll have a little party for me on the 15th day if I still have this. happy

Some criticisms so far.

The volume buttons are upside down. Kinda weird, design decision.

Second is the stock browser.
The 3.1 update created a lot of keyboard lag with the stock browser, but I don't think it's just the keyboard, the browser just doesn't feel as smooth as it did with 3.0.1. I saw this first on the Transformer and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 seems to suffer from the same problem. This is Google's screw up, so I won't blame Samsung.

There are some options missing from the stock browser that the Transformer had. The User Agent string is missing (have to enable debug mode to get to it). And the new page recent visits page (forget the exact name of it) is missing (along with the entire Labs section).

Also this is bizarre, but when I visit a bookmark, that bookmark get moved all the way to the bottom. So basically I'm finding the bookmarks I used the most are being moved to the bottom of my bookmarks list, forcing me to always scroll down to visit them. This is very backwards (must from the same guy that installed the volume button).

They are all minor issues (uh-oh, that's how it started with the Transformer) though.

Nah, I'm still really happy with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 so far. I'm pretty sure I'm finally keeping this one. The only reason I might return it is if I just get tired of how buggy Honeycomb is. The 3.1 update sure has been a huge fat disappointment from Google. But I think I'll stay on the wagon and hope more updates come soon and that this tablet eventually gets Ice Cream Sandwich.

 

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Blisteringballs 
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That bookmark behavior sounds ultra annoying. Why would they do that?

 

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-Mithan- 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
My problem is that I can not buy it in Canada. I wish I could send it to a friend in the US and have them ship it but whatever.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
*sigh*

*shakes head*

I already returned my first Galaxy Tab 10.1. It was having some wifi issues. The wifi would drop sometimes after the display goes to sleep. This despite the wifi policy set to never sleep. I thought maybe it was an isolated issue with that tablet, because I don't believe I've ever had the issue with any other Honeycomb tablet I've owned.

I got a second Galaxy Tab 10.1. Sadly it's still doing the same thing.

The main impact is I can't use streaming music services or perform long downloads. As long as I'm keeping the display awake the wifi stays fine, if I'm listening to Pandora or something and let the display go to sleep, it will eventually drop the wifi and kill the Pandora app, or anything using the wifi.

And sometimes when the wifi gets killed while the display is asleep, it won't immediately reconnect, so I turn on the display and go to Market or the web and get a network connection error. I click retry and the wifi reconnects and then all is fine. Both tablets have done this.


This might be a deal breaker. I'm going to try the wifi lock app and see if it helps.

 

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-Mithan- 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
I got the ipad2 on wednesday instead. Love it.

Does everything I wanted to do (browse lol).

Only issue now is that I am hearing all these rumors of a new version coming out in the fall with a retina class resolution.

sigh.

 

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heiromancerdrackus 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Ravynmagi posted:
*sigh*

*shakes head*

I already returned my first Galaxy Tab 10.1. It was having some wifi issues. The wifi would drop sometimes after the display goes to sleep. This despite the wifi policy set to never sleep. I thought maybe it was an isolated issue with that tablet, because I don't believe I've ever had the issue with any other Honeycomb tablet I've owned.

I got a second Galaxy Tab 10.1. Sadly it's still doing the same thing.

The main impact is I can't use streaming music services or perform long downloads. As long as I'm keeping the display awake the wifi stays fine, if I'm listening to Pandora or something and let the display go to sleep, it will eventually drop the wifi and kill the Pandora app, or anything using the wifi.

And sometimes when the wifi gets killed while the display is asleep, it won't immediately reconnect, so I turn on the display and go to Market or the web and get a network connection error. I click retry and the wifi reconnects and then all is fine. Both tablets have done this.


This might be a deal breaker. I'm going to try the wifi lock app and see if it helps.


My Android phone has always done this. Always.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Well I'm gonna return my second Galaxy Tab 10.1 and try a third. Besides the wifi, the tablet (the second one) has randomly rebooted three times so far. That's annoying.

I really don't think I'm that hard to please. I just want a tablet that is comfortable, find a few stable apps, has no wifi problems, and wont reboot. Is it too much to ask to have all this at once (and not buy an iPad 2)? happy

The sucky YouTube app and no Flash at the moment have prevented me from considering the iPad 2 more seriously. Not too thrilled about it only have 512MB of RAM either. But if I keep having this kind of bad luck with my Android tablets, I just might switch teams again.

 

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heiromancerdrackus 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Ravynmagi posted:
Well I'm gonna return my second Galaxy Tab 10.1 and try a third. Besides the wifi, the tablet (the second one) has randomly rebooted three times so far. That's annoying.

I really don't think I'm that hard to please. I just want a tablet that is comfortable, find a few stable apps, has no wifi problems, and wont reboot. Is it too much to ask to have all this at once (and not buy an iPad 2)? happy

The sucky YouTube app and no Flash at the moment have prevented me from considering the iPad 2 more seriously. Not too thrilled about it only have 512MB of RAM either. But if I keep having this kind of bad luck with my Android tablets, I just might switch teams again.


Honestly, yeah, it is. You know how sketchy Honeycomb and, by effect, Android tablets are right now. I doubt you are going to see a tablet worth a damn come from Google's camp that can compete with the experience the iPad 2 offers until ICS comes around. Honeycomb is just too half baked. Not to sound like a fanboy, but why is the ram at all relevant? The machine has NO speed issues at all. It could have 256 megs of ram and as long as it ran like butter, why would it matter?

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
heiromancerdrackus posted:


Honestly, yeah, it is. You know how sketchy Honeycomb and, by effect, Android tablets are right now. I doubt you are going to see a tablet worth a damn come from Google's camp that can compete with the experience the iPad 2 offers until ICS comes around. Honeycomb is just too half baked. Not to sound like a fanboy, but why is the ram at all relevant? The machine has NO speed issues at all. It could have 256 megs of ram and as long as it ran like butter, why would it matter?




I can't multitask for crap with my 256MB iPad 1. I start ClassicFM and then go load another app and then ClassicFM shuts down because it ran out of memory. Same thing for web browsing, I load a page in the browser, switch to another app, then come back and the page has to reload again because it ran out of memory.

I have a lot of multitasking problems with the iPad, which makes me nervous that Apple only went 512MB on the iPad 2.

 

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Blisteringballs 
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That wifi issue would be a deal breaker for me too. I like to have simple background tasks, like Activesync, do it's thing while my tablet rests. I also occasionally download massive crap to this thing.

 

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IvanDF 
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Hey Ravi, is the OS modded like on their phones, or is it pure google 3.1?

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
IvanDF posted:
Hey Ravi, is the OS modded like on their phones, or is it pure google 3.1?


No TouchWiz, right now it's mostly a pure Google experience.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Seemed like things just kept getting worse the more I used the tablet. So I finally decided to do a factory wipe (hate doing this because you can't backup apps if you aren't rooted, so much is lost).

After the factory wipe, Google began restoring my apps. I launched Opera Mini and there is a post install process that happens after installing it from the market, it takes just a couple seconds. Well this time it freezes up on that installing part. I force closed the app, same thing. Rebooted the tablet, still not working.

Haha... It's like the tech gods are just ****ing with me now. My favorite browser won't even install.

 

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Lokkie_the_Fierce 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
much love for my iPad2

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
I took a trip down memory lane and scrolled up in this thread...

18 days ago: I can't decide if I want to keep my Transformer or get the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
10 days ago: My precious! I love my Galaxy Tab 10.1 so much!
9 days ago: I'm happy, but this software has some weird ass quirks.
2 days ago: WTF! Google sucks at making software.
1 day ago: Andy Rubin must die!

Ya'll had a first hand view of my happiness being crushed in less than 10 days. happy

I got a bit over dramatic and got worked up over these Android glitches I've been trying to solve the past few days. Spent probably too much time working on the problem without any success.

But if I take a step back, the tablet is actually still pretty good, so long as I'm not streaming audio for too long. I went through the same drama with my iPad a year ago, trying to figure out what I could and couldn't do or do well. Same thing here. The wifi issue is a new hiccup and I still hope I can solve that. But I still love the tablet for surfing the web, watching videos, YouTube, reading news, books, some games, and such. So it's not all that evil.

And hopefully Samsung is speedy with the 4.0 update. I feel optimistic that will help a lot.

 

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Caoilin 
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i love android but.. i can't see getting an android tab over the ipad atm. provided you want a tab that is.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Don't see the Pope using a damn Android tablet. Nope, he got himself an iPad 2.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/pope-sends-first-tweet-does-using-ipad-2-012623462.html

He knows what's up. His Holiness was all like, "That damn Android keyboard lag, I can't tweet with dat. Word!"

 

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Lonestar_1 
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You could try running ubuntu heh.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/29/ubuntu-demonstrated-running-on-galaxy-tab-10-1-summarily-dubbed/

 

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Ah-Schoo 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review

Since you guys actually have the Galaxy, here's some questions from my bro-in-law for you:

"I need to be able to run apps like MS Project 2007/2010, MS Word, MS Outlook, Excel, and Powerpoint.
If I cannot run these apps I need to have viewers that can open .mpp, .doc/.docx, .psd, .xls, and .ppt/.pps files.
Oh yes,... and .pdf files.
Is that too much to ask?
"

 

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Lonestar_1 
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Well there are some android apps out there that work with some if not all of those, do not know how well. Just google around for android apps for the various doc types.

 

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heiromancerdrackus 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Ah-Schoo posted:

Since you guys actually have the Galaxy, here's some questions from my bro-in-law for you:

"I need to be able to run apps like MS Project 2007/2010, MS Word, MS Outlook, Excel, and Powerpoint.
If I cannot run these apps I need to have viewers that can open .mpp, .doc/.docx, .psd, .xls, and .ppt/.pps files.
Oh yes,... and .pdf files.
Is that too much to ask?
"




I don't know of an android suite that offers those things.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Ah-Schoo posted:

Since you guys actually have the Galaxy, here's some questions from my bro-in-law for you:

"I need to be able to run apps like MS Project 2007/2010, MS Word, MS Outlook, Excel, and Powerpoint.
If I cannot run these apps I need to have viewers that can open .mpp, .doc/.docx, .psd, .xls, and .ppt/.pps files.
Oh yes,... and .pdf files.
Is that too much to ask?
"




It comes with Quick Office HD which I've been able to open and edit Office 2010 files with. It supports Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. There is an Exchange client available for download in the Market called Touchdown. I've had zero luck actually getting it to work with my Exchange 2003 server though, so YMMV with it. And there are multiple good PDF readers available.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
So I picked up an iPad 2 today...

I read about the light bleeding issue. I was kinda hoping that months after launch the issue would be mostly in the past or at the very least I'd get lucky. Nope. This iPad 2 has the most atrosious light bleeding I think I've ever seen on a tablet. I don't even need to go into a dark room to see it. *sigh*

Tablet gods hate me.

 

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Lonestar_1 
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lol

Should we start taking bets how long it takes you to cycle through all the tablets currently available?

 

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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
I'm really disappointed with Android 3.x and the pace of tablet optimized apps. Honeycomb has been out since late February, but the number of apps is still disappointingly small and even quite a few of them are poor ports from iOS with fewer features or just Android 2.x apps tweaked for a larger display with poor UI. Not to mention lots of stability and performance issues.

There is speculation the developers are skipping Android 3.0 because it's only for tablets and they don't want to have to do more work for a tablet app and phone app. So are waiting for Android 4.0 which unifies the phone and tablet OS and the developers won't have to do extra work.

And on the hardware side, the Tegra 2 already feels old. It has poor video decoding performance is and already easily beaten by Qualcomm and TI OMAP processors already available. Android 3.0 was such a rush job that it was intially only optimized for Tegra 2, so that is why everyone is using it. Android 3.2 coming soon does add support for more processors (at least TI).

I kept trying different tablets, I guess foolishly thinking if I find the perfect piece of hardware it'll somehow help me overlook all the software problems. But all these tablets are essentially using the same internals, Tegra 2 and 1GB of RAM. And it's the software I end looking at the most and I just can't overlook it as much as I try to pretend I can.


Android 4.0 is coming this fall, sound like around October. The Tegra 3 quad core processor will be out around that time. The extra cores may not do much initially for CPU performance, but the GPU is suppose to be 5 times more powerful and should be much more capable of decoding HD video smoothly. Android 4.0 will also support a wider variety of processors right away, so we should see more diversity.

ASUS is rumored to have a Transformer 2 tablet coming this fall with ICS and Tegra 3. Would be really cool if it was compatible with the existing Transformer keyboard docks. Amazon has a tablet coming this fall with a TI OMAP4, being the company that did such a good job with the Kindle design, I hope their tablets are thin and light and comfortable. Motorola also rumored to have a Xoom 2 coming this year. All these expecting to come with Android 4.0.



In the meantime, I'm trying out an iPad 2. I have an iPad 1, which still runs pretty well, but sometimes suffers from it's measly 256MB of RAM and the 16GB model runs out of space pretty quick.

So far the iPad 2 with 512MB of RAM and 32GB of space gives me a bit more room, but the performance still feels mostly the same. But that is mostly because Apple did such a good job with the iPad 1, it is already very smooth and responsive, so hard to improve on that. The apps I'm using so far don't seem to need the dual core A5 processor in the iPad 2. Benchmarks showed it does improved the browser, but I have a hard time noticing any difference.

One complaint so far of the iPad 2 over the iPad 1 is the speaker. The iPad 1 was thick enough that it could be placed on the side and it sounded real good. The iPad 2 is super thin and so the speaker is on the back, same spot, but it faces more away from the user. Had this complaint with the Xoom too, for some reason a backward facing speaker, no matter how nice it is, just doesn't sound right, the sound is going away. The side mounted speakers, such as the iPad 1, just sounds better to me. Though if I put my ear directly in front of both speakers, I can tell the iPad 2 does sound better, but it's position just seems to spoil it. But I could live with it.

iPad 2 has a really solid feel, but I did prefer the feel of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 more (shame it has a crappy OS on it). And I'm kinda neutral on the 4:3 vs 16:10 ration panels. I think both have strengths. I like the 4:3 screen more for web surfing, because I like being able to rotate a page into portrait mode, hold the tablet in one hand and read like a book. And of course 16:10 is great for videos.

The main problem with the iPad 2 may be that I can't jailbreak it. Really like my jailbroken apps on the iPad 1. Going to be hard to give that up, for what so far doesn't feel much of an improvement.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
For those sticking it out with the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung announced their software update is coming soon. This add TouchWiz, toggles, hubs, live panels, mini app trays, etc.

http://www.samsung.com/us/article/galaxy-tab-10-1-updates

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
You guys know anyone with tablet commitment issues? *looks around*
Good news. Rent-A-Center is now renting an Android Acer A500 tablet for $20 a week.
http://www6.rentacenter.com/Rent/Computers/Tablets/Acer-500.html

And you can return it anytime if something else better comes out.
Though should you decide to keep it, you'll probably be paying $20 a week for 2 years and end up spending $2000 on that $450 tablet. tongue (just a guess, rent to own interest rates are usually pretty crazy high)

 

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graard 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
2 people on another forum stated they were able to purchase the new Toshiba Thrive from a local Best Buy and a third poster stated he was at Fry's and questioned an associate about purchasing one and he was told they had them in stock and were willing to sell him one. Just FYI.

 

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Ravynmagi 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
Toshiba Thrive is a cool looking tablet. I think I might even like it more than the Galaxy Tab 10.1, assuming it's weight isn't too uncomfortable.

But I've learned my lesson. It took a while. But I'm confident I won't be happy with any tablet running Android Honeycomb on it. Way too many issues with the OS and compatibility issues with the applications. I just can't tolerate the keyboard lag, crappy Market app (doesn't rotate on a tablet?), and popular applications that frequently crash or misbehave. Along with other random quirks like wifi disconnecting and random tablet reboots.

My Android 2.2 phone is far more stable and reliable (even my hacked Nook Color is).

I'm going to wait until this fall. Hope Android 4.0 brings stability to Android tablets. If not, then there is some crazy guy on the tipb.com forums that swears he's got inside information that the iPad 3 is definitely launching in October with a high res display. Not holding my breath on that, but by the time Android 4.0 is about to launch we should know if the iPad 3 rumors are true or not.

Hope there is a new official Google experience tablet that replaces the Xoom with Android 4.0. And I sure hope it isn't another Motorola tablet. Would be nice to have an official Google tablet that gets all the updates first without fear of waiting half a year for them, like with other Android hardware. Just hope the next official Google tablet hardware doesn't suck as much.

 

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Blisteringballs 
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Subject: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 review
It doesn't have a native mail client that works with ActiveSync? Weird. I don't have any issues with my Android phone and Exchange 2007. Whatever the native client HTC is using nowadays. It's not pretty but it has no problems messaging and integrates fully with the calendar.

 

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