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Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category

iRefuse: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 Makes Life After Apple Easy

August 8th, 2011 by AV Flox in Gadgets

With Samsung at the Galaxy Tab 10.1 booth at BlogHer '11

Almost six months ago, I upgraded my phone from an iPhone to a Motorola Atrix 4G, with AT&T. I was tired of the terrible service and, having been an AT&T consumer since I moved back to the United States in 2007, I knew that the problem wasn’t the carrier. I was right.

Annoyed with the treatment users received from Apple despite our excitement, support and evangelism — from Steve Jobs telling us that the problem with our devices was how we held them instead of taking responsibility for how they were made, all the way to the attitude of people working at the various Genius Bars I approached when I had one problem or another — I quit iTunes in favor of Pandora, Amazon and WinAmp, and ditched my iPad.

Admittedly, letting go of my iPad was a difficult thing to do, as I’d grown fond of reading the Wall Street Journal on it every morning. I spent the coming months without a tablet considering those that were on the market, especially the Xoom, as I already had another Motorola product, but the negative reviews kept me from taking a leap.

And then there was Samsung. I didn’t know about the Galazy Tab 10.1 until I read about Apple’s lawsuit against them. You know the saying — any enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine. When Samsung contacted me about trying out their tablet, I was all too eager to accept.

Even so, the tablet they sent sat on my counter for a day without any interaction. I’d read that the visual display had beat even Apple’s iPad 2, but what if it was otherwise a failure? I realized immediately that I was emotionally invested at this point: I hate the way Apple does business. I hate the way they treat the people who brought them their success. I hate their closed, secretive, litigation-happy market-hoarding. It’s bad for innovation and it’s bad for the consumer. If Samsung, which is quickly becoming a contender, couldn’t step up to the plate, I wouldn’t just be disappointed in the product; I’d probably throw up my hands and give up.

I’m happy to report that I wasn’t disappointed.

The tablet is 10.1 inches by 6.9 inches (hence the name Galaxy Tab 10.1), and is 0.33 inches thick. For those of you that prefer a more visual illustration, you’re looking at something a little smaller than a copy of your favorite magazine, perfect to throw in most handbags, unless you’ve gone back to clutches this season. The screen has a 1280 x 800 LCD display, which presents images beautifully at 149 pixels per inch — a plus if you use your tablet as an on-the-go photography or modeling portfolio.

It weighs about 1.24 pounds – less than the iPad 2, and what a difference do those extra grams make when you’re holding the tablet for extended periods while reading or recording. It also enables me to type one-handed while holding the tablet without needing to rest it on my lap, or fearing that I might drop it. The more prepared may not think this sort of thing matters, but when you travel as much as I do and don’t always have the luxury of your stand and keyboard, or even your knees on which to rest the tablet on, you quickly find out that it does.

Being an Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab supports Adobe Flash and has access to a large marketplace of apps, and for those of us who still read, the Samsung readers hub offers 2.3 million ebooks, 2,000 newspapers and 3,000 magazines.

For music listeners, you have surround-sound speakers, and a system that accepts mp3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, and RA. The HD camera doubles for video recording on the back as well as on the front-facing camera.

I was recently at BlogHer ‘11, a huge conference for women bloggers in San Diego, where I put the tablet to work for long hours of continuous activity. Verizon never blinked despite the number of people present, and the battery held me over each day so I never needed to fight for an outlet.

It’s everything one could want from a tablet — and Samsung will never tell you to hold it differently if something doesn’t work. They make their components (and up until recently quite a few of Apple’s chips as well), so when something goes wrong, they’re interested in hearing about it so that they can ensure it is addressed as quickly as possible.

My only concern with the tablet was the apparent lack of auto-complete and spell-check, which I am told will be made available with a future update that will also implement Samsung’s own keyboard, in the event that the Android keyboard is too clunky for your liking. Once I have all the details about this update, I will add the information to this post. But don’t let that be a deterrent for you: if you are tired of the way Apple is doing things, this tablet is the most effective, comfortable and efficient way to join the resistance.

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