Galaxy Tab anyone ?

M

Mafoo

Veteran
 Cardiff
I have a Samsung Galaxy tab winging it's way to me under the Christmas tree this year. It won me over an iPad after a short play in PC World as it :-

1. Is more compact/lightweight so truly portable unlike the iPad.
2. Supports Flash
3. Can transfer my micro SIM from my phone so no second contract (can also pick up messages as the Galaxy is a fully functioning (Trigger Happy) phone)
4. Escapes the clutches of Apple who come across as a bit militant in what they allow onto their OS.
5. Works as seamlessly as the iPad which can only be a good thing
6. Memory can be expanded

Has anybody here stumped up the cash for one/had a good play and what are peoples views on the Android invasion into the revitalised Tablet Market?
 
I personally think that the more companies that start producing these the more competition we will get and at the end of the day products will get better and cheaper.

Looking at your post you seem to be trying to justify having bought one of these over an ipad, I'm not sure if this is what the saleman has said to you or what you have convinced yourself?

To go over your below points,

1: The device has to fit in a briefcase/satchel bag/rucksack so I see no benefit in having anything any smaller than the ipad as then the screen will be smaller, lighter is lovely, but are they compromising on quality to achieve the desired weight?

2: Excellent as at least they give you the option, however I agree with apples stance as flash really isn't brilliant at doing what it does (high power consumption and resource usage). But quite a few websites still don't have HTML5 alternatives so this is a +.

3: That truly is a great feature, I don't see why we should need two contracts if you fall below the FUP when using both phone and tablet.

4: Militant, but reliable and ensures greater security, it also still has the largest amount of apps for a mobile platform.

5: This is very subjective, I wouldn't list it as a + personally.

6: Very nice, I assume this is SD card or some such device.
 
Not got my hands on any android tablet but am eager too. I love the android phone I've got, but as with most things I wouldn't be the first to buy, or buy the first of an item. Android provides an opportunity to be so much more cost competitive once there's a few of them around from different manufacturers.
Got to admit, I'd go for the iPad screen size over the Galaxy tab though otherwise why not just buy a smart phone. Having flash though is so much better. When all is said and done, yes Flash is crap for performance but you cannot deny that so much of the web uses it that support for it's a necessity.
I still couldn't justify the price though. I suppose if your looking at it to buy as an alternative to a netbook then it makes sense, but then I like having the keyboard if it comes to actually typing. tablets become 'viewing only'.
Given it's a Samsung, I'd seriously doubt that being lightweight is going to compromise quality. The first iPad I picked up I have to admit my first thought was bloody hell it's heavy. It looks like it should be less.
And user-friendly-ness? Again, subjective. Android does some neat things that are far superior to Apple, but Apple have made their money by both incredibly good marketing and the ability to make things very easy and intuitive to use - ie they just work.
All in all, I'd wait to see what Android tablets follow.
 
I am certainly not trying to justify the purchase and was certainly not influenced by a pushy salesman.

To be honest, to me it was a no brainer. I still cant see the point in the iPad due to it simply being too big if being used as an everyday portable device. I have seen train users with them in hand and it simply looks too cumbersome to be portable. To me, the iPad is simply a gimmick that - on speaking to the majority of users - wears off pretty quickly (most of my mates have sold theirs on quoting that they only tended to use it at home but quickly reverted to starting up their laptops due to better accessiblilty to the net). The Samsung is to me an ideal medium between the iPad size and a Phone (about 3 times the screen size - much better on the eyes). Plus it is stacked with more features and an app library that is catching up with Apples extensive library.

I am pretty sure that if Apple released an iS**t it would sell by the steaming bucketload.

Not knocking Apple. The iPhone is a wonder, iPod is by far the class leader and the Mac is far superior to the PC. I just think that the iPad had not been properly thought though in regards to how it was going to be used.
 
I only went with the iPad because I already had a lot of apps for the iPod/iPhone and it wouldn't cost me any more to use them on the iPad.
That and the fact that I was offered a better deal on the iPad than on the Galaxy Tab, and didn't fancy having something that was too small for proper web-surfing/book reading.
 
I was really keen on getting one, but the pricing is just too much I thought. I just wanted a wifi-only product so not bothered about 3g etc.

Steve Jobs wrote this a few weeks back, which I have to agree with TBH -

Pointing out that a 7-inch screen is only 45 percent as large as the iPad's 9.7-inch display, Jobs argued that a smaller display "isn't sufficient to create great apps" because "users cannot reliably tap, flick or pinch" elements on the screen, according to the Seeking Alpha transcript.

And while you could always boost the resolution of a smaller tablet screen, such a measure would be "meaningless, unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size."
Click to expand...

For me the ipad screen is about as small as I would like, otherwise I'd rather just use an iphone.
 
I have an iPad 3G and love it. It's only a 16gb model but for me that's more than enough when I also have 10gb of data allowance with a 3 contract. I've not really had a chance to play with a Galaxy (apart from a couple of minutes in Tesco) but Android hasn't really impressed me so far. Although the iPad may be a little big, I have actually started to find it almost invaluable in work. In particular apps like NetNewsWire and Papers are an absolute godsend.

I bought an HTC Hero a year ago and used it for less than a month before I reverted back to my iPhone 3G at that point. Yes, it is more open but I found this a good thing and a bad thing. A lot of the Apps I downloaded were utter crap (thank god for the 24 hour refund policy) and the different skins that different carriers/phone companies put on Android make it less of an enjoyable, easy to use system (in my experience). I still like the concept of Android and think it's the only real OS likely to give iOS a run for its money which will be surely good for everyone - Android and iOS fans alike.
 
I'm certainly an Android fan and after using a Samsung Galaxy S phone for the past few months I'd certainly be looking at a Galaxy Tab if I was in the market for that sort of thing. I'm not anti-Apple, but I certainly don't appreciate the limitations they impose regarding software, etc. I've also never found the smaller number of apps on Android to be an issue - I mean, do we really need them all anyway?!
 
Agree with a11y regarding the apps - a large portion of usage is the web via a browser, even more so on a tablet than a phone, as the regular sized versions of most sites work, so less need for apps. Facebook a good eg.

I'm a developer and spend enough of my time messing with software, servers etc at work - so when its something outside work, i just want it to work. Not looked into tablets, but on the phone Apple so far seem to have this nailed about 10x better than anyone else. I've had an iphone 3g for 18 months or so, and never any problems, no effort spent setting anything up etc - which certainly isn't what I've heard from people who own Android devices (including some that own both). As examples, know people who have android phones (N1, Desire) and have to occasionally reset to factory, spend time changing the keyboard software putting different versions of the OS on etc ... which isn't for me!

So I'd still be wary about getting an android based tablet over an iOS based one just yet. But it depends on your priorities. Certain that go back 5 years when I worked less and had more free time, I'd definitely have wanted android because its less closed, easier to mess with etc!

Also, its moving really fast and I think its approaching tipping point for me on phones - can see it being android time next time, and sure tablets will follow if its not true already!

Hope you like it :)
 
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