This hands-on review has now been superseded by our full UK Samsung Galaxy Tab review.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet might not have been the best kept secret in the world, but its arrival at IFA still saw a lot of excitement and clamour.
The dinky device, which has a 7-inch screen and weighs in at only 380g, is meant to be the portable and pocketable answer to the heft of the iPad, and certainly feels that way when you first play with it.
Running Android 2.2, the Galaxy Tab is certainly a cutting-edge device when it comes to the specs - svelte chassis aside, it's also packing a 1024x600 WSVGA screen, making it much higher resolution than Apple's iPad in terms of pixel density (PPI).
It sits nicely in the hand, with one-handed operation easy thanks to the seven-inch screen, and the rear of the Galaxy Tab (which comes in black and white) is smooth plastic but easy to grip.
There's a 3.5mm headphone port, for media and handsfree kit connection, with a 30-pin plug on the bottom rather than a microUSB adaptor.
Samsung says the reason for the 30-pin is two-fold: firstly, the 4000mAh battery wouldn't be charged fast enough on a standard microUSB, and the data transfer to get HD movies onto the screen would be too slow.
You can slot a SIM card into the side of the screen, and also expand the storage with a microSD card (up to 32GB) with easy to open covers.
The front of the device - well, it looks like an iPad. There's no other way of saying it when you see that thick black bezel around the side, but the size of the screen helps make it seem like a very different device.
There are four touch sensitive buttons on the front, for menu, home, back and search, and these are easy to press and provide some nice tactile feedback.
However, a 3MP camera is a little under-powered in our opinion - admittedly the iPad doesn't even have a camera, but we'd have thought a 5MP option with flash would have been an obvious choice.
Your comments (15) Click to add a new comment
phila
September 20th 2010
15. "The music player is similarly average - we need to investigate the sonic ability of it, but overall we think the interface could be a little bit better."
Being Android, you can (wait for it) download another one and use the one you prefer - on my Android phone I have tried 2-3 different players, and stuck with the one that suits my needs the best.
For the comments about "looking stupid while making a phone call", have you never heard of a Bluetooth Headset? Amazingly they've been around for years, and they mean that you don't have to hold your phone to your head... I know that's a shocker, but it's possible!
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bubbahotepuk
September 9th 2010
14. @xmb: the current iPad will be equally forgotten by next year, when iPad 2 comes along with an improved feature set.
What is similar is that your Android apps will work just as well on Galaxy Tab 2/ HTC Pad 1 as your AppStore apps will be certain to work on iPad 2.
Such is the annual upgrade cycle the public has bought into.
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corroded
September 8th 2010
13. @nimishdubey
That's some nice quote haxery there, but actually that's not what is said. Learn what PPI is.
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sanderton
September 8th 2010
12. I felt it was a solid product, but the processor is a little under specced; compared to the iPad there was a noticeable lag between starting to swipe and the screen moving, for example. I think you'd get used to it, but the Apple feels crisper and more responsive.
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xmb
September 7th 2010
11. This is just an overgrown smart phone. Forget it as it will be forgotten by Samsung, and everyone else, by next year!
Move along nothing to see here!
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garethtbeavis
September 5th 2010
10. @d-dappa and @majikall - have fixed those points, thanks for raising them.
Here at TechRadar we pride ourselves on quality articles, but at these trade shows we have to publish an enormous amount of material at a very high speed, leading to the odd mistake.
This year alone we published over 80 articles from IFA, although we do strive for accuracy at all times.
This is outlined in our reviews guarantee - but we always hate mistakes, which is why we revisit articles later on to check for accuracy (which is where comments sometimes help :))
Thanks for feeding back, hope you enjoy the rest of the site.
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d_dappa
September 5th 2010
9. @nimishdubey - I think it means high resolution in the same way that the iPhone 4 (960x640)has a higher resolution than the iPad (1024x768)- pixel density. The iPhone 4's screen in so small (3.5")that the resolution of 960x640 is much sharper than the iPad's(9.5" screen) 1024x768.
By a similar token the Galaxy Tab's screen is 1024x600 but its only 7" so the pixel density will be higher giving the smoothness of a relatively higher resolution.
This probably should have been stated a bit more explicitly to avoid confusion.
This article could use a bit of editing. Its embarrassing- reputation is everything and it only takes small slip ups to lose credibility with some people.
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majikall
September 5th 2010
8. "The Samsung Galaxy Tab's Super AMOLED screen is one of the best we've seen on a portable device, and the Super TFT LCD on offer with the Galaxy Tab doesn't seem as impressive."
Does anyone actually read through the article before allowing it to be published. I think you meant Galaxy S with Super AMOLED
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nimishdubey
September 5th 2010
7. "it's also packing a 1024x600 WSVGA screen, making it much higher resolution than Apple's iPad"...ermm...pardon me, but isn't the resolution of the iPad 1024 x 768, so how can this be "much higher"? Sheesh!
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dyonas
September 3rd 2010
6. @tfawcett I wouldn't be too quick to believe rumours spread around like that. Prices haven't been set so far and I've seen that eye watering price being mentioned. The Galaxy Tab looks really nice and I do want one but any company that produces a product that makes Apple look like a cheap alternative is priced too high. I really hope it's just rumour and the real price is around £350.
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tfawcett
September 3rd 2010
5. Having seen the price for the 16GB version as £679.99 (CoolSmartPhone) I think Samsung have priced it too high. The most visible difference between the iPad and Tab is the physical size. People will still think they're being charged more for a smaller device than the closest variant on offer by Apple. Shame.
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amol.mujumdar
September 3rd 2010
4. It makes sense to wait for Android 3.5 Honeycomb to arrive next year as Samsung has said that they wont upgrade the OS in the Galaxy Tab to Honeycomb, but rather launch a new device for the Honeycomb.
Android 3.5 Honeycomb is supposed to be made only for tablets unlike the current versions (2.1, 2.2 and even Gingerbread) which are optimised for smart phones.
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alcam
September 2nd 2010
3. Reading elsewhere, it is a phone too. U can use it glued to head but using a wired or BT headset & the screen to dial might seem quite cool... maybe if drunk after dinner though!
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netutgamer
September 2nd 2010
2. 1 sim card for data connection
1 micro SD card for memory expansion
There's no mention of the Galaxy Tab being a phone. It's a tablet 'iPad' clone. Whilst a phone this big wouldn't be completely out of the realms of possible, you'd look very silly stood at the bar making a quick call to order a cab ;)
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alkeygs01
September 2nd 2010
1. Can anyone explain why this needs 2 simcards? Or why not having the the same number on 2 simcards might be a problem? Also I am thinking of using this as my main phone device...am I the only one?
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