Posts tagged Tablets

When the tablet battle started last year, Samsung’s tablet made quite a hit. There were rumors about it from the start and NJTechReviews has the full review on it. We will be testing out the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Tab. We will give you a full review on it,  including the many apps available in the Android Marketplace as well. There will be a full photo gallery at the end. So lets get started!

The Unit

Overall, the Tab it self is very smooth. The back is meant to be like carbon fiber. The Verizon unit is black. You do get finger prints on the unit, a lot. The back of the unit is rounded, which  makes it easier to hold it in your hand. The unit itself has very few buttons- there is a 4 touch screen buttons on the bottom of the front. There is also the power button, and volume buttons on the side. It also is as thin as a pencil. To fix the finger-print issue just keep a touch-screen cleaner near by, this works like a charm. The unit has 2 cameras, one on the front and one on the back. The back camera also has a flash. This is great for taking photos at night. In the box it has the Tablet, power cord, wall adapter, and some pamphlets on the unit. There are 3 “ports” on the unit,an audio jack, SD card slot, and the charging dock. No micro/mini usb on the device. Charging and loading the unit is done with Samsung’s charging cord. The size of the unit is comparable to the Amazon Kindle. Many people say that a 7-inch tablet is not good enough, or it won’t cut it. Well, to be honest it is a great size. It is easy to hold it in your hands. The unit has a very nice feel to it. The weight of the Tablet is only .84 pounds, it also only .47 inches thick. It is a skinny and light weight tablet. Samsung built the tablet to be  top-notch.  It does sometimes slide off things, so you may want to get a case for it. This is because of the tablet’s very smooth back. Overall- great job Samsung!

OS (Operating System)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab runs Android 2.2, with Samsung’s ad-ons. What we mean by that is Samsung made some of the applications better for the tablet. These are very nice changes that were made to the original OS. The OS is very similar to the one on the Samsung Galaxy S smart-phone, they go hand and hand. Overall the operating system is very easy to use. The new mail and calendar apps work great, they are fit for the tablet.  The widgets that display on the different screens are great, We’ve tested our FaceBook and Twitter as widgets, they work seamlessly! We also did not find any issues with certain apps not working correctly or not fit correctly to the screen of the Tablet.

3G Speed With Verizon

This is by far one of the quickest tablets. We’re not sure if it’s the network, or the chip in the Tablet it self. Watching YouTube videos is a breeze, it is by far insanely quick. Sometimes it is even faster than our WiFi network(Verizon Fios). Verizon does have a very good network in our area as well. Using 3G doesn’t not tax the battery too much. The pricing for 3G on Verizon are as follows:

-1GB-$20

-3GB-$35

-5GB-$50

-10GB-$80

The Android Market

The Android Market has some really great apps! We did not have the problems with  apps not fitting on the screen itself. The apps that we tried all fit perfectly on the device it self. Overall there are some really great apps and there is only one that we had many issues with- Tango.

Angry Birds- This is a popular, classic game. It is rated as one of the highest mobile games in the world. It runs awesome on the Galaxy Tab. We tried both “Angry Birds” and “Angry Birds Seasons”. They both worked great. The Multi-Touch screen makes it very easy to play. We were able to beat most of the levels. For some reason the “Mighty Eagle” was unavailable for purchase in the app. Keep in mind that it is only available for “Angry Birds”. Overall gaming on the Galaxy tab works great.

Tango- The classic video-calling app. This is the one we had the issues with. Whether it was Wifi-Wifi, 3G-Wifi, Or 3G-3G. We were unable to successfully use this app. Even when it did work well, we had a slow network and in most cases it dropped the call completely. While this may just be in our area, we were very surprised about this. It also may have been the app itself. It may not have been set to work on a tablet as well as it works on a smartphone. Hopefully there will be an update int he future regarding this issue.

FaceBook- The FaceBook app is the same as all the other versions of it. The only difference is that it is much larger. This makes it much more easier to read and browse through thew news feed. Overall it is a fantastic app. The best feature about it is the widget that it comes with. This enables the app it self to be used one of the home screens, instead of launching the whole app.

Market Place- The place were you buy/download the apps it self, has a very simple user-interface. Overall it is great App store. It is filled with some amazing apps, the prices rstart as low as $0.99 . It is run like many of the App Stores that are out there. Overall the categories are split up very nicely. There are a wide variety of apps to choose from, this is always important as you want to open it up to as wide of an audience you possibly can. The developers of all the App are doing a great job to update and make new apps!

Web-Browsing

The browser it self, is very simple and easy to use. It does not have many bells and whistles. It is made for “web-browsing” specifically. If you want to watch YouTube videos we suggest you use the YouTube app, that is included on the Tablet. The browsing speeds are, 18.75mbps-download and 4.5mbps-upload. As you can see the speeds are superb! This is running on the Verizon’s 3G Network. Overall the browser is very nice. If you are looking for a browser that can do more, check out the many other browsers for download in the Market Place.

Cameras

There are two cameras on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. There is one on the back that includes a flash. There is also one on the front that is all camera with no flash. The one on the front can be used for taking photos yourself or video-chatting. The one on the back is the better of the two. There are multiple settings for the one on the back and only one for the front. Our favorite is the ability to take panoramic photos with it. To makes them it is very easy to do, it outlines the area were it needs the photo of until the panoramic is complete. The outline is boxed out with a green line. This is our favorite feature about the camera. Overall the camera’s on the Tab are first class and fun to use.

Wrap-Up

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is surely one of the best tablets that we have seen in a while. The unit it self has a very nice feel and look. The OS(Operating System) is very simple and easy to use. Samsung has made some very nice additions to the Android OS(Operating System). The speed on 3G is very fast for web browsing and viewing videos on YouTube. It works as if you are the only person using the Internet in the world at that time. The Android Market is your one-stop-shop for all of the apps you need. Web Browsing on the unit, is pretty good. The Cameras are awesome, espicially the one on the back when it is in panoramic mode. Overall the Samsung Galaxy Tab is a great device. The price point may be a bit high for people, but it is definitely something to consider if you are in the market for a tablet.  To recap the price of the Galaxy Tab is $499, with a month to month contract. You can see the Galaxy Tab On Verizon Here. Once again thank you to Verizon for the Samsung Galaxy Tab.