Many thanks to Jeff Kent (Mobile Barbarian) for sending us this detailed review of his Eee Slate EP121 from real-life business scenario perspective. Remember, this is a 2.6lb device containing a 12 inch screen and Core i5 processor. Not quite a handheld but in some respects, still an ultra mobile device.
I recently purchased the Asus Eee Slate EP121. As the term “slate inch indicates, the EP121 is a slate (as opposed to convertible) tablet. While slate tablets these days are multiplying like rabbits, the EP121 is a rarer bird:
Its OS is not the typical Android or iOS, but Windows 7 (Home Premium, 64 bit).
Its screen size, 12.1 inch, is much larger than the typical 7 – 10.1 inch range.
Its screen is not just capacitive, but includes an active digitizer for digital inking!
Its specs are muscular: Core i5 (U470) processor + 4 GB DDR3 RAM + 64 GB SSD.
You also may need to be more muscular to hold it: 2.6 lbs.
There already are video reviews by professional bloggers whose video and picture taking skills far outstrip my amateurish efforts. One in particular is this review by MobileTechReview (“MTR inch), which is the source of most of the pictures in this review, and also includes a very thorough 15:21 video (referred to as the “MTR Video inch). Even Microsoft has gotten into the act with promotional videos featuring the EP121. So instead I thought I would discuss the EP121 from my perspective as a user. So you have a context for my usage, before we get to the EP121, let me introduce myself.
Who I am
My name is Jeff Kent, though my students have affectionately (?) nicknamed me Genghis Khent, and one created my avatar shown here. I live in the Los Angeles area. I have dual careers. I am a Professor of Computer Science at a local community college. I also work at a law firm as an attorney and network administrator. Additionally, I teach computer programming classes online, both for my community college and also privately for a national consortium of community colleges. In my spare (?) time I have a blog, Mobile Barbarian, that is devoted to my favorite hobby (and expenditure of discretionary funds), mobile gadgets like phones and tablets. My wife, who also is a Professor of Computer Science but is not enthralled with gadgets, tolerates my hobby because, as my blog motto states, “Mobile devices are cheaper and safer than mistresses. inch
However, mobile gadgets are a tool as well as a hobby. My job(s) duties require me to be always connected. I also am mobile, going from one job location or meeting to another. Hence, I need to be connected and do tasks when I am not tethered to my home or office base.
But this isn’t a review of me, but instead of the EP121. So let’s get to it!
Why a Windows 7 tablet?
Particularly for business users — and I’m one — there are mission-critical Windows applications that have no iOS or Android equivalent. For example, wearing my attorney hat, I heavily rely on software like CaseMap, which creates a database of a case’s facts, issues and documents, and TextMap for storing, indexing and searching deposition transcripts. There’s nothing I’ve found for iOS or Android that would fill their role. Additionally, even if some iOS or Android equivalent existed, there would be an issue of converting from one application’s format to the other.
There’s also the matter of digital ink. While tablet these days seems to equal touch, I’ve always regarded digital inking as the essence of what makes a tablet a tablet. I cringe at the over-use of the term “killer app inch, but OneNote is a killer app for business.
An active digitizer makes a big difference in inking. Windows 7 tablets commonly have active digitizers. The EP121 is no exception, with an active digitizer in addition to a capacitive touch screen.
By contrast, on my iPad 2, which has no active digitizer, inking feels more like drawing, if not finger-painting. Ditto with Android, except for the HTC Flyer, which does have an active digitizer, albeit N-trig, not the Wacom digitizer (which I regard as superior) on the EP121.
But is a good tablet experience possible on Windows?
OK, I’ve justified the need for a Windows 7 tablet. But I still want the touch to be as smooth and responsive as possible. No offence to our canine friends, but performance on a Windows 7 Tablet PC can be a dog.
Indeed, much has been written that touch is not as smooth and responsive on Windows 7 as it is on other operating systems that are tablet-optimized (iOS, Android Honeycomb). Yes, Windows 7 is fundamentally a desktop, mouse and keyboard OS. Consequently, the touch experience may not be as good as with a tablet-optimized OS. But need it be bad? I think not. In this regard, the MTR review comments:
“[T]he bigger problem is Windows’ somewhat unearned reputation for being a poor tablet platform…It hasn’t helped that several small manufacturers (generally Asian companies whose products arrive here online or through importers) went with underpowered Intel Atom CPUs and screens that are too small to work well with Windows. inch (Emphasis added).
I think this comment hits the proverbial nail on the head. So let’s see how the EP121 addresses these two critical issues.
Brute force uber alles
I’ve owned other Windows 7 slates, once upon a time the Motion LS 800, later the Viliv X70, more recently the HP Slate 500. The latter two have an Atom processor, and either 1 GB (X 70) or 2 GB (Slate 500) of RAM. Unfortunately, not enough processor muscle. Often I’d have to wait a not insubstantial amount of seconds for an operation to complete. Worse, sometimes the tablet would freeze, requiring a reboot.
This waiting and freezing is at least an inconvenience. Sometimes it’s more than that. The interruption can disrupt the flow of a business meeting and make you look like you don’t have your act together. Worse is when this happens in court before Judges who — how shall I say this — are not renowned for their patience. Indeed, reliability in Court became such a concern that I had paper backups of everything, which sort of defeats the purpose of bringing the tablet.
Brute force usually solves such problems. So it is here.
The processor is a ULV (ultra-low voltage) Core i5 470UM. It’s Intel’s currently latest and greatest ULV processor. It’s quite powerful. Per Intel, its clock speed is 1.33GHz, with Turbo Boost 1.86GHz, and has 2 cores and 4 threads with 3MB cache. So from the standpoint of brute force, mission accomplished.
However, it’s not a Sandy Bridge ULV, as these are just coming available. The difference is not power, but battery life, an issue (and problem) discussed later.
The EP121’s 4GB of DDR3-800 RAM also is plenty of brute force. Theoretically the processor (and the 64 bit OS) can support 8GB, but there’s only 1 SODIMM slot, and I don’t believe any 8GB sticks are yet available (and even if they were you’d probably have to mortgage your house to buy them). Nevertheless, 4GB is plenty.
The 64GB SSD is large enough and fast enough. Per the MTR review, the SSD is of SanDisk manufacture with a mSATA form factor, looking like a mini-PCI card. Of course, the SSD could be upgraded to one of the larger, speedier ones becoming available (but see my comments later regarding upgrading).
The bottom line is I haven’t experienced on the EP121 the hiccups I’ve experienced on lesser-powered Windows 7 devices. This is very important in settings like Court where reliability is not a matter of convenience but instead mission critical.
We’ve got the Motorola Xoom [tracking page] on hand and have a nearly 30 minute-long overview session for you on video. You’ll be taken around the hardware of Motorola’s first slate and then we’ll dive into Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).
WARNING: please turn your volume down around 0:30, 16:06, and 17:24. My phone vibrated during recording and it came out very loudly on the video, my apologies!
Google’s Nexus phone program aims to combine top-end hardware and the latest Android software to create a flagship Android smartphone (and arguably, a developer phone). The first phone from the Nexus program was the Nexus One (HTC). Just recently Google has partnered with Samsung to bring the intuitively not intuitively named Nexus Two Nexus S to market. Does Google + Samsung = Success, or is the Nexus S being quickly superseded by other devices, even if they aren’t yet running the latest Android built? Step inside to find out.
All About Updates
There’s one thing we should talk about up front. Google’s Nexus phones offer updates to the very latest Android built right as it’s released regardless of the carrier or manufacturer. On pretty much every other Android phone/device, updates are pushed through the carrier or OEM. This means that if users want the latest enhancements for Android (and who doesn’t?) they have to wait for a middle-man to get around to setting everything straight before they get the update. Unfortunately promised updates have failed to come to fruition in a number of cases, leaving users without important feature updates and performance improvements. And even when promised updates do eventually come through, they aren’t always as simple as upgrading right on your phone, making updates unobtainable for those less versed in the computer world.
With the Nexus program, Google provides access to the very latest Android software. Updates always come as soon as they’re released from Google, and they install straight through the phone. This gives any of the Nexus devices an advantage over most other phones. The Nexus S is one of the only [perhaps the only] devices on the market today that comes out of the box with Android 2.3 installed. And, even then after powering it on, the phone will ask to install several incremental upgrades that have been made since the initial Android 2.3 release.
And now back to our regularly scheduled reviewing!
Hardware
Let’s has a quick look at the specs of the phone and a tour around the device. As usual, you can see detailed specs, links, photos, and even compare devices with the Nexus S at it’s tracking page in our device database.
Briefly, before we get to the aforementioned, you might be interested in having a look at our Nexus S overview video:
Specs:
Android 2.3
Cortex A8 (Hummingbird) CPU @ 1GHz
4 inch curved Super-AMOLED capacitive touchscreen @ 800×480 (1.67:1 aspect ratio [non-standard])
512MB of RAM
5MP rear camera (only capable of 720×480 [DVD quality] video recording) with single-LED flash
Microsoft wants to get in on the modern mobile OS action, and after the inevitable fall of their previous version of Windows Mobile, Microsoft has sought to restart their mobile offering, thus Windows Phone 7 was born. The HTC Surround pairs WP7 with well-built hardware and an interesting approach to phone audio, but will Windows Phone 7 be able to catch on, or is it too little too late from Microsoft?
Hardware
Here’s a quick rundown of the HTC Surround’s specs, follow by a hardware tour of the phone:
Windows Phone 7 OS (as reviewed, version 7.0.7004.0)
Qualcomm QSD 8250 CPU @ 1GHz
576MB of RAM
8GB of built-in memory (no expansion)
3.8 inch capacitive touchscreen @ 800×480
WiFi b/g/n & BT 2.1
5MP camera with single-LED flash (records up to 720p video)
Slide out speaker with Dolby Mobile and SRS audio technology
165 grams (5.82 ounces)
Hardware Tour
Design
Let me start by saying that the HTC Surround feels great in the hand. It’s been too long since I tested a phone that had some real heft to it (in a good way). Recent phones (cough*Samsung*cough) have left me with a feeling of cheapness. The Surround however feels like a premium device right out of the box.
Metallic accents are found all around the phone . The front is a combination of brushed and polished metal and has a wide ear-piece that fits the look of the phone well. The back is rubberized much like the Droid X [review], and it has just a hint of metallic sparkles in it that you’ll see if you hold it in just the right light. The back is also home to a polished HTC logo, and above that is the 5MP camera and single-LED flash, both of which are encased in a metal accent piece with small radial ridges that emanate from the lens.
But this is all before sliding the device open which reveals a speaker bar that comes about 1/3 of the way out of the side of the phone. I’ll talk more about the speaker bar below, but on the design side of things I wanted to mention that the sliding mechanism could be better. I’ve definitely seen/felt worse, but the Surround’s sliding mechanism could use a bit of work to make it slide more evenly and have less wiggle.
Despite the premium feel of the phone (considering the materials used and the weight of it), the buttons didn’t seem to receive too much attention. All physical buttons on the phone, except for the camera button, don’t provide very good feedback. It’s hard to tell when you’ve pressed the power/lock button. The volume rocker is a bit better with slightly more feedback, but the camera button is the only one that has enough “click inch for my taste.
The bottom of the phone has a pry-slot to pull the back cover off, but it generally feels like you’re on the brink of ripping the phone into it’s two sliding halves. I haven’t found a good way to get the back cover off without stressing the sliding mechanism in a way that it wasn’t design to move. If you are a road warrior who relies on swapping batteries during road trips, be weary of this fact on the Surround as repeated removals could lead to breakage.
On general aesthetics of the device: I think it’s a good looking phone. When you make the investment to purchase a phone that will be with you for, perhaps several years, people should expect more than a piece of plastic. The Surround would feel even more solid if they rid it of the sliding segment, but despite this extra hardware, the Surround isn’t much thicker than many of it’s contemporaries.
Samsung previously piqued my interested with it’s Galaxy S Fascinate [tracking page][review], so I’ve been excited to give the Continuum a try. The Continuum is much like the Fascinate except it has a 1.8 inch 480×96 AMOLED “ticker inch display underneath the main screen for notifications and quick access to info like time/date/weather/twitter/facebook/etc. Does the extra display equal extra functionality or is it merely a monotonous novelty without much depth? Read our full review to find out!
We’ll start out with the classic hardware tour, but before that I want you to know that, as I mentioned, the Samsung Continuum is very much like the Samsung Fascinate that we reviewed a little while ago. It’s pretty much the same device in a slightly different body and without the Continuum’s extra display. We aren’t in the business of boring our readers so I’m not going to hit you with information that we’ve already covered. I’ll point you to the Fascinate review if need be, but for the most part this review is going to focus on the Continuum’s unique aspects (ie: the ticker display) and it’s particular performance. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…
Hardware Tour
Here’s a quick visual rundown of the Continuum to get you familiar with the device:
secondary 1.8 inch capacitive Super-AMOLED @ 480×96
Android 2.1 (custom Samsung overlay)
ARM Cortex A8 CPU @ 1GHz
PowerVR SGX graphics
366MB of RAM
5.0MP auto-focus camera with single-LED flash (capable of 720p HD recording)
WiFi b/g/n & BT 3.0
Design
The Continuum is lightweight (125g) and fairly thin (12mm). It’s not as thin as the iPhone 4 or Fascinate, but definitely close. The entire phone casing is made of plastic; coupled with the lightweight nature of the device, it ends up feeling somewhat cheap compared to some of its contemporary devices. Still, it’ll slip into a jeans pocket with no problem and won’t bother you while it’s there.
The aspect ratio on the Continuum is nearly 16:9 (as with most modern Android devices) which makes the device quite tall and thin to begin with. Slap the extra display below it, and you’ve got a phone that feels peculiarly tall. This feeling will fade eventually though, and the height doesn’t hinder usage of the phone at all, unless you’ve got ultra-shallow pockets!
As with most of the other Galaxy S phones, the Continuum doesn’t have a lot going on aesthetically and it’s materials don’t feel premium. The front is bland with little more than an ear piece and a Samsung logo to break up the black bezel.
The back of the device has a camera and LED-flash housing that is centered horizontally. The camera housing has a chrome accent and is raised up just about a millimeter or so from the back of the device. The lack of sliding lens cover leaves it susceptible to scratches..
Other than the camera, there’s a Galaxy S logo and a pair of speaker vents for speakerphone and media playback on the back. The rear plastic grabs fingerprints readily. The back of the phone wishes that it had some texture as the color is actually made up of a bunch of little black dots on top of a grey background. Sadly they are so small that it just looks like a plain color unless you have great eyesight and are inspecting it closely.
The rear panel is indeed removable, but it’s terrifying when you do so. It always feels like it’s about to break in half as you are pulling it off, but so far I haven’t managed to do that (yet…).This is a plus for road-warriors who carry extra batteries on them, but a negative for the average consumer who won’t be happy if they suffer a crack in the thin plastic after a drop.
Samsung removed the sliding cover over the Micro-USB port that was on the Fascinate. I think this is a good move as it didn’t feel like it would last very long before breaking off.
JKK, Sascha and Chippy with show number 62 on Jan 12th 2011. Happy New Year and welcome to a special CES review edition where we’ll focus on the important mobile computing news from Las Vegas. Don’t forget to rate us if you’re listening on iTunes.
Samsung has now launched 5 phones under the “Galaxy S inch brand. They are all quite similar with 1GHz Samsung hummingbird CPUs, 512MB of RAM and running Android 2.1. The only outlier being the “Epic inch which has a slide out QWERTY keyboard and 4G service from Sprint, while the others all lack a physical keyboard and 4G radios.
We’ve got the Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate (the Verizon version) on hand for review and dare I say, it might be the best Android handset that Verizon is currently offering.
Hardware
As usual, we’ll look at the device’s important specs and show you a quick hardware tour. For more detailed specs and info, check out our Samsung Galaxy S Fascinate tracking page.
Specs:
Android 2.1 OS
4 inch 800×480 AMOLED capacitive screen
1GHz Samsung “Hummingbird inch CPU (ARM Cortex A8)
512MB of RAM
5.0MP auto-focus camera with single-LED flash
18GB of memory (2GB built-in, 16GB card pre-installed)
In Part 1 of the Galaxy Tab Review we looked around the hardware. In Part 2 we looked at the software. In Part 3 we want to highlight a few features, give you some idea of performance, give some thoughts on accessories, highlight the ‘bad’ and round up with a summary.
There’s something psychological that makes big-screen devices seem faster than comparable small-screen devices and the Tab benefits from that. Web-pages fill at an impressive rate, applications start up without reaching that ‘has it crashed’ thought and video playback starts and jumps without any delay at all. If there’s one thing negative that we noticed though it was the very typical ‘locking’ of a multi-tasking device. You’ll notice it the first time it happens and it will grate on you every time it happens again. The more apps you load, the more it’s likely to happen. It’s multitasking life! Android has a noticeable touch lag too it and needs to be reduced to match the class-leading touch ‘physics’ of the iPad. Electronic musicians will probably want to stick with the iPad for the time begin. Overall we’re happy that we’ve got a device that performs to its class-leading price although it won’t be long before multi-core platforms make this seem out of date. Our initial tests on Tegra 2 devices show a big step-change in CPU and graphics performance but for the first half of 2011, the Galaxy Tab should remain competitive.
Quadrant
One of the most-used all-round tests for Android devices is the Quadrant application.
The Galaxy Tab scores 1050 in this result (we saw results range from 900 to 1100) and there’s a good CPU score from the stock firmware. 3D performance also seems good although I/O performance is on the low side. We’re hearing that there are some hacks that improve this.
Linpack
Linpack measures floating point performance in Mega-FLOPS (Millions of FLoating point OPerations per Second.) The Galaxy Tab measured 14.1. For comparison, our Toshiba AC100,a dual-core Cortex A9 device (Tegra 2) scored only 11.27 but we suspect it was running only a single thread (one core used.)
Sunspider
The Sunspider test is a browser-based Javascript test. It gives a good indication of CPU performance and browser optimisations and is useful to see how quickly AJAX / Web-based applications will be processed. Remember, this is not an indication of browser speed, just the processing of Javascript within web pages. The score of 8455 here is respectable for an ARM-based device. We have seen 9000ms on an iPad, 2000ms on a netbook and 4800 on a Tegra-2-based AC100
Benchmark Pi
The commonly used Pi test was completed in 1387ms which is a good score for a Cortex A8 implementation at 1Ghz
3D Performance (NeoCore)
The Neocore result of 53.5 FPS is very good and highlights that the PowerVR SGX540 in the platform is one of the most powerful out there at the moment. We tried to run the Neocore test on the AC100, Tegra2 platform, but the test is clearly not supporting the Tegra2 graphics.
3G Performance
We’ve had no issues with 3G connectivity since we got the Tab over 3 weeks ago. Reception is always strong and our data throughput rates always good. In a cellar-based test of three phones, the Galaxy Tab was able to train to the HSDPA (3.5G) standard. A Nokia N82 got UMTS (3G) but our Sony Ericsson X10 could only train to the GSM standard. Our cellar-based studio is a tough test for any 3G radio and we rarely see any devices getting 3G. In a second test we saw the Galaxy Tab drop to the GSM standard while the Nokia N82 retained 3G so clearly the Tab is not class-leading but in general, it gives respectable results.
3G video calling (European UMTS standard) worked well with the front cam providing a fair experience. We haven’t extensively tested GSM voice performance but we certainly haven’t had any problems either with loudspeaker use or headset use. We tested the Tab as a primary phone for a week. Note that the Galaxy Tab can’t be used against the ear because there is no low-volume earpiece. Speaker at low volume can be used with the device rotated through 180 degrees.
Note that the SIM card (GSM/UMTS versions) can be live-swapped but removing a SIM sends the device into a (graceful) reboot. Inserting a SIM does the same.
Storage/SD card performance
We tried a few SD card read/write tests from the market but results varied from a minimum of 2MB/s write speed to 6MB/s write speed on the internal memory. In a large file transfer we measures 4.5MB/s write speed to the internal storage and a 7.4MB/s rate to the SD card (Class 6 Transcend 8GB card.) Buying a fast SD card might be worthwhile for storing applications and data.
Speaker/Mic/Headphones
We don’t have the facilities to properly test the speakers or headphone output quality so we’ll have to give you our ear-test results. We can’t find anything to worry about! The built-in speakers are top quality for a device of this size and beat many laptops and netbooks we’ve tested. Our Viliv S7 is the only device we have that sounds better. As for headphones, again, the quality is good and free of any background noise.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab supports wireless printing but we haven’t been able to test this yet. If/when we do, this section of the review will be updated.
Battery life.
We’ve been testing the Galaxy Tab for over 3 weeks now and we’re confident to say that you’ll have trouble running this device flat in anything under 6 hours. Our most extreme test was in-car using 3G with the screen on running Google Navigation. The projected battery life in this scenario was 6 hours. Maybe turning on the 3G router and playing music could have brought the battery life down further but it would be an unlikely scenario.
Expect 12-18hours of usage if you’re using the device for up to about 6 hours per day with Wifi or 3G connectivity for general activities. With the occasional 10-20 minutes usage for 5/6 times per day, you can expect over 2 days use before charging. With the screen off, the device will run, connected to Wifi, for many days (Samsung quote a 3G standby time of 1500 hours) and if you’re just playing back MP3s with the screen off, we see again, multiple days usage.
Talk time is quoted as 16.5 hours which is a good indication of battery life streaming audio over 3G (screen off.)
Video playback time is estimated at 7 hours (medium brightness)
When the screen is off, the Galaxy Tab is a Galaxy S smartphone with three times the battery capacity. With the screen on you can expect significant drain. We estimated that an idle device with screen on full would drain flat in under 15 hours.
3G Router performance.
In a test of battery life we set the device up as a 3G hotspot, turned the backlight off and used it via our laptop’s wifi connection about 30cm away. After 30 mins, the battery life had dropped 4%. After 2hours with 2 external WiFi devices, radio streaming, web usage and the Tab also using the connection, the battery life dropped by 15%. We’re confident that you’ll get 10hrs out of the device in this ‘hotspot’ mode; Probably a lot more.
A bandwidth test indicated 2.5Mbps down and 1.2mbps up (indoors) which is more than acceptable. There’s no heat build-up.
In-car usage
We found a generic netbook/umpc car mount solution (see here for details) and tested the Galaxy Tab in the car. While you’ll have to be careful of reflections (mount high and angle towards driver usually solves the issue) you won’t have to worry too much about speaker volume, GPS quality and usability. We found the Tab an excellent solution with 3G and Google Navigation and made a demo video which is included below. More images in the gallery. Information about the official Samsung car mount below. We’re hoping that Samsung introduces an in-car application for the docking station but we haven’t seen any evidence of it yet.
Heat and noise.
During all of our tests we haven’t detected any significant heat on the device and as the device is free of any moving parts, it’s silent.
WiFi performance
We know the lay of the land round here in terms of WiFi so it’s always easy to see how good any WiFi antenna is. We’re seeing very good results from the Galaxy Tab in terms of reception. In a walk-away outdoor test from our hotspot we got very cold before the Wifi dropped out. (It’s very good)
Wifi connections were fast to establish.
Throughput speeds over our Wifi-N hotspot have been excellent with a speedtest clocking in at over 10Mbps. Note though that application transfer speeds depend a lot on the processing performed by the client. For example, with an FTP transfer from another continent ran well at 4mbps, the SFTP transfer of the same file from the same server was less than one tenth as fast. Encrypted IP connections (E.g. SCP, HTTPS, VPN, RDP) will be affected.
Bluetooth support.
The Galaxy Tab includes a Bluetooth 3.0 module but as this is the only device we have with BT 3.0, we can’t test the new features that include the negotiation of a Wifi data transfer. We tested A2DP, headset profile, file transfer (to the Galaxy Tab from a Nokia N82), file transfer (from the Galaxy Tab to a laptop) and saw that DUN, Object Push, OBEX File Transfer and a headset gateway service were available on the Tab. We tried DUN from our laptop but couldn’t get it to work. We’re happy using the 3G router function on the Tab to connect via Wifi though so didn’t spend much time trying to get it to work.
Stability.
Over the last three weeks we’ve seen a few lock-ups that have lasted more than 10 seconds. Most of these resulted in an error message and an offer to close the offending application. We saw one lock-up which needed a reboot. This occurred after some testing of the haptics and sound settings for notifications. Reset requires a long, 10-second, press of the power button. In comparison to other phones and computers, we don’t see the Galaxy Tab as having any major stability problems. As we mentioned before, the more applications you load, the more change you will have of bugs, lock-ups and other issues.
Memory and process management.
The Galaxy Tab has 512MB of RAM with 440MB available for use. We’ve never knowingly had any sort of memory problem on the Galaxy Tab and the RAM manager always seems to show 100MB free at any time. Note that Android aims to keep as much in memory as possible so don’t be alarmed at the 340MB usage rate. Samsung’s application manager application permits the user to free up memory in two stages. We tested it but haven’t had an cause to use it yet.
More critical is CPU availability, especially when running multiple applications. Again, the Samsung application manager gives you a good indication of usage with the widget turning red when it detects what could be runaway CPU usage. Viewing and killing foreground applications is a simple process.
Boot-up speeds.
You’ll rarely have to boot-up the device although a SIM swap does require two of them. We powered up to the homescreen on a 3-week old build in 40 seconds.
Firmware upgrade
We’re not quite sure how firmware will be updated on the Galaxy Tab. There doesn’t appear to be an over-the-air configuration so we can only imagine it will be done using PC-based software.
Accessories
At the time of writing, none of the official Samsung accessories are available but pricing and images are.
We suspect that many people will be looking at the docking station which provides HDMI and analogue audio out, charging and a USB connection for connectivity with a PC. We don’t see any USB OTG support but we’ve ordered a docking station just to be sure! Street price: 37 Euro.
The keyboard dock will solve the problem of adding a Bluetooth or USB keyboard but at a price of about 90 Euros, doesn’t come cheap. The dock can charge the Tab, provide 3.5mm audio output and has a USB port for PC connectivity.
For the car, you’ll be looking for a mount and a 12V adaptor. The mount, at a street price of 52 Euros, includes everything you need including a 12v adaptor. There’s also an audio out port. Considering how good our experience was with Google Navigation (above) we’d certainly recommend this for people in countries with Google Navigation coverage and a suitable data connection. (Note: Google Navigation can be used offline, without a data connection, as long as the route is planned and started before leaving a Wifi hotspot connection. No re-routing is possible when offline.)
The leather case, at 35 Euro street price, looks good too.
During the final stages of writing this review a silicon case turned up from Handy Heaven (via Amazon Germany here) at €5.99 including delivery, we think it’s a must-have. It fits well, has cut-outs for ports, protects the vulnerable back-side and provides a huge improvement in grip. Quite how long it will last before it gets dusty, dirty and stretches we don’t know but at this price, order a few of them! There are plenty of other 3rd-party solutions coming into the market though so have a look around.
Before we summarise the Galaxy Tab and draw a line on this three-part review, let’s talk briefly about the things we think that aren’t so good about the Galaxy Tab.
Slippery finish The plastics and finish on the Galaxy Tab are top-class and there’s a useful fingerprint-rejecting layer on the device too. You’ll still need to wipe it down occasionally but thanks to the coating, it’s easy. The downside of this super-smooth surface is that if it’s cold and dry, the Tab is very slippery. The silicon case mentioned above solves the problem.
USB OTG Bluetooth keyboards and mice are good but when the battery runs out on these accessories, it would be nice to be able to plug in a standard keyboard and mouse using USB On-The-Go support. Plugging in USB or powered hard drives for extra storage would have also been nice.
Micro USB charging The 30-pin connector keeps the port count low but considering that mobile phones, in Europe at least, are moving towards the micro-usb standard, we would have liked to have seen it on the Galaxy Tab. Buying a second charging cable is almost a must although we like the idea of using the docking station as a charging point.
USB charging from PCs is slow With a battery that is 3X the size of a smartphone battery you have to expect it to take longer over the restricted current available on a USB port. 8 to 9 hours is to be expected and if you’re using the device heavily, you’ll run the battery down faster than a USB port can charge it. The supplied adaptor provides well over 1000ma of current. We tested charging on a few battery packs with USB but neither of them managed to trigger the fast-loading that the supplied chargers is capable of. The supplied charger completes charing in about 3.5hrs
Camera quality From the screen to the CPU, everything on the Galaxy Tab feels leading-edge, apart from the camera. The 3.2MP auto-focus implementation isn’t bad but it’s behind the quality we’ve seen on Samsung phones over the last year. 5.0MP with 720p recording would have brought it up to standard. We do like the camera software, speed and huge, huge ‘viewfinder’ though.
App styling While the Samsung applications are functional and worth using, they’re not exactly pretty.
AC3 support We’re surprised to see that the Galaxy Tab can’t decode and down-mix an AC3audio track. Maybe the audio appears as raw AC3 on the HDMI port but if you’re using the speakers or headphones, you’ll hear nothing. We hope that Samsung pays attention to this because if you’re looking at the Galaxy Tab as a serious PMP, you’ll get tripped up time and time again with AC3 and AAC multi-channel soundtracks. MP3 and AAC 2-channel stereo works fine.
Incompatible applications Samsung said from day one that they expect 90% of applications to work without a problem. We’ve seen a number of applications that work in a windowed WVGA mode and some that don’t work at all. We expect slightly more than 90% of applications to work but if there’s an application that it critical to you, it would pay to have it checked out. (Our forum members can help)
Android video application support The front facing cam can be used for 3G video calling but it doesn’t seem to register well with Android video applications. We weren’t able to get UStream or QIK broadcasting working which is a shame because it would make a very compact and long-lasting low-end broadcast unit.
Price The 799 Euro recommended retail price is too high and we think there’s universal agreement about that but 2-months after the price was announced, we’re seeing prices closer to 600 Euro than 800 Euro. At the current street price of 649 Euro we think the Galaxy Tab provides enough features to justify the price but it’s up to the end-user to decide how that feature profile fits their requirements. We do, however, expect prices to drop further and expect sub 599 prices in the early part of 2011. If Samsung commit to upgrading the Galaxy Tab to Android 2.3 (we’ve heard that one Samsung representative has confirmed this) then the device will represent even better value.
Alternatives
Our Galaxy Tab product page on Carrypad always shows a list of 10 comparable devices (based on screen size) so check it out for the latest device alternatives.
It’s been 3 weeks since we started testing the Galaxy Tab for this review and in that time we’ve seen no real showstoppers. Quality is high and the extensive feature list still impresses us. It’s one of the best truly converged mobile internet devices we’ve seen and Android allows it to be used in a flexible way. We’ve also heard from Galaxy Tab customers in our forum and there’s a unanimous agreement that it’s a great device. Having said that, no-one really needs it. Like the iPad, it’s a luxury item that brings together existing capabilities from other products and combines them well in a stylish package. Netbooks and smartphones allow you to do more than the Galaxy Tab does but it’s the convenience factor that really makes it special. We’ve long been proponents of the three-device strategy [image from 2008] and we think the Galaxy Tab fits in better than any other device we’ve tested. As for price, well, you’ve got the facts now…it’s up to you.
My name is Jeff Kent, though my students have affectionately (?) nicknamed me Genghis Khent, and one created my avatar shown here. I live in the Los Angeles area. I have dual careers. I am a Professor of Computer Science at a local community college. I also work at a law firm as an attorney and network administrator. Additionally, I teach computer programming classes online, both for my community college and also privately for a national consortium of community colleges. In my spare (?) time I have a blog, Mobile Barbarian, that is devoted to my favorite hobby (and expenditure of discretionary funds), mobile gadgets like phones and tablets. My wife, who also is a Professor of Computer Science but is not enthralled with gadgets, tolerates my hobby because, as my blog motto states, “Mobile devices are cheaper and safer than mistresses. inch
