Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review: Droid at large

Introduction

Tablets are basking in well-deserved attention and manufacturers know they need to try hard and make their devices distinct and memorable. Truly unique gadgets are hard to come by these days - especially in Honeycomb land. Which is perhaps part of the reason why iPad is still the one to beat. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G is in for a challenge, and up for it.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 official photos

Shortly after launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was blessed with a custom user experience, called Touch Wiz UX, which literally puts more color into Honeycomb, offers a good selection of customizable widgets and most importantly tries to ease your way into Android for tablets.

Yet this tablet’s main advantage remains that it’s the most portable 10” slate to hit the market. It's thinner even than iPad 2 and good 42 grams lighter than Apple's frontrunner, while still promising to match its battery performance. And that's no mean feat since tablets are going hard after netbooks, so they need to back their portability with battery longevity.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, a bright 10.1" PLS TFT display of WXGA resolution, a premium set of connectivity options and plenty of storage space. Check out the full list of things going for (and against) the Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G below.

Key features

• 10.1" 16M-color PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen of WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels) resolution
• Very lightweight at just 565 g
• Thinnest slate to date at just 8.6 mm
• Gorilla Glass display
• Tegra 2 chipset: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; ULP GeForce GPU
• Android 3.1 Honeycomb with TouchWiz UX UI
• Optional quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band 3G with HSDPA 21 Mbps connectivity
• 16/32/64 GBGB of built-in memory
• 3.2 MP autofocus camera, 2048x1536 pixels, LED flash, geotagging
• 2.0 MP front-facing camera; video calls
• 720p HD video recording @ 30 fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Direct, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Proprietary 30-pin connector port for charging
• Stereo Bluetooth v3.0
• HDMI TV-out (adapter required), USB host (adapter required)
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Flash 10.3 support
• GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
• DivX/XviD support (fullHD), MP4 support up to HD
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor; three-axis Gyroscope sensor
• Polaris office document editor comes preinstalled
• 7000 mAh Li-Po rechargeable battery

Main disadvantages

• Non-replaceable battery
• No microSD card support
• No standard USB port
• No Android Honeycomb 3.2 yet
• No GSM voice capabilities despite the available SIM slot

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at ours

Samsung are bringing their A game in the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Not that it should be judged by sheer size but the company's biggest tablet is fit to be in charge and meet the competition head on. Whether it's watching films, browsing the web, gaming, video-calls, or imaging, this is one of the best-equipped tablets out there.

The screen quality, the added TouchWiz UX functionality, the good battery and excellent media make it a must-see. The whole package looks like the right mix of style and substance, but we just won't rush to a verdict. The Galaxy Tab had a promising start in our preview. With all the finishing touches in place, it's ready to give its best. Head on past the break to see what the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is made of.