Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and new Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/22/samsung-galaxy-tab-8-9-and-new-galaxy-tab-10-1-thinner-than-the/

by dave1619 • 15 years ago

49 38 15 years ago

engadget.com

ctdonath3• 15 years ago

"The models we saw weren't final -- in fact, they didn't even power on"

Stopped reading.

dave16192• 15 years ago

But June 8 release date. I think they'll pre-release these to folks at Google I/O in May (at least the 8.9" model) and we'll see lots of happy developers.

ugh2• 15 years ago

I think pre-announcing tablets at this point in time is a clever thing to do, it makes sure that nearly every article talking about iPads or tablets in general will mention that comparable products from Samsung are coming very soon.

CountSessine• 15 years ago

Ummm...who cares? There's always something coming out very soon.

DougBTX• 15 years ago

That's a good way to get "thinner" out the door in a hurry. Take out the battery?

JoelSutherland• 15 years ago

Are you suggesting that the final product won't be that thin?

This isn't Duke Nukem Forever -- doesn't Samsung have a pretty good reputation for shipping?

bandushrew• 15 years ago

I think he is suggesting that they dont even exist in a usable form yet.

If they did, surely they would have been delivered to the reviewer in a usable form?

ctdonath3• 15 years ago

Followup: Engadget writes today "Pocket-Lint has heard that the UK won't actually get the new thin version, although we're guessing that could always change in the future. As for the thicker 8.9-inch model pictured above, Samsung was making it quite clear at its booth that it wasn't planning to release that product to the public." http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/25/samsungs-original-galaxy-...

cryptoz• 15 years ago

> The WiFi 10.1 will hit on June 8th -- the 16GB version will cost you $499 and the 32GB $599.

Awesome! The Xoom's pricing is hard for many consumers to swallow (personally I can't wait to buy one myself as soon as they come to Canada). But the Tab 10.1 looks like it will be the first awesome Android tablet that's truly competitively priced with the iPad.

MatthewPhillips2• 15 years ago

The prices are the same, but Xoom just doesn't have a 16gb model.

initself• 15 years ago

Why do engagdet.com urls always seem to create 2-4 additional urls in browser, so that clicking back once keeps me on the same page?

austinB2• 15 years ago

My biggest complaint with the article was just that. I cannot think of a legitimate reason to do this.

BobSacamano• 15 years ago

If you look at all the photographs in the gallery relating to the article, you must click back the amount of images you looked at. Plus there is no back-to-article button. Bad navigation, Engadget. Use jQuery, it would make things much easier.

rhizome• 15 years ago

They use a ghetto gallery that requires a pageload to change images.

dave16192• 15 years ago

Competition just heated up. Slightly thinner and slighter lighter than the iPad 2, and at the same price. Wow!

Samsung makes so much of the internals of the iPad 2, I think they might be Apple's biggest hardware competition. Too bad Samsung makes only slim margins on the hardware while Google and Apple make lots more off of the apps and browser.

timdorr• 15 years ago

This includes their "TouchWiz" UI customizations, so there's definitely the chance for them to make some money from the software side of things or cross-promote more profitable products. Example: Functionality could be bundled in that pushes content to only Samsung-brand TVs.

tjarratt• 15 years ago

Please, let's not give manufacturers any more ideas on how to lock down their functionality to specific hardware.

nuclear_eclipse2• 15 years ago

I was really looking forward to getting the 10.1, but the addition of TouchWiz onto the stock Android makes me very hesitant. I'm hoping it will feature the same unlockable bootloader found on the Nexus One, Nexus S, and Xoom; if so, then I can just reflash it with a stock image if I don't like TouchWiz. I refuse to be at the mercy of Samsung to get updates for my $500 devices...

austinB2• 15 years ago

I'm inclined to say the TouchWiz may not be all that bad, in fact some of the tweaks they made and features added could be quite welcome, but I cannot say I am a fan of Samsung getting into the OS realm even if they are trying to differentiate their tablets from other Android based tbls.

oconnore• 15 years ago

You would prefer to be at the mercy of Apple for your updates?

Software written for a specific piece of hardware can be a very good thing.

rbarooah• 15 years ago

Apple's track record for updating iOS devices is hugely better than Samsungs.

nuclear_eclipse2• 15 years ago

I would never buy a mobile Apple device for myself. I have a Nexus S, had a Nexus One before that, and won't be buying a tablet until I can compare the Xoom and the Tab 10.1 (or any other wifi competitor) and be sure that whichever I choose, I have the ability to reflash the device with custom firmware.

jokermatt999• 15 years ago

Stock Android update timing tends to be much, much worse than iOS update timing, especially when custom firmware is involved. I say this as someone who borders on being an Android fanboy. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to prefer Android, but guaranteed on-time updating is not one of them, unless you've got a custom ROM. But if you're going to mention custom device images, aren't there similar options for jailbroken iPhones anyway?

dsuriano• 15 years ago

In regards to competing with Apple, I feel like a lot of people forget the advantage that Apple's retail stores give them. The Apple retail stores give people an opportunity to use iPads preloaded with software in a nice shopping environment.

How will Samsung (and others) reach the average consumer with these new tablets? Will Best Buy just stick them in the middle of 4 other tablets with price tags?

bryanlarsen• 15 years ago

Sounds like an opportunity for Best Buy competitors. There's no reason stores other than Apple can't deliver a nice shopping experience.

Not an easy problem, though: people will just browse and evaluate at your store, and then order online.

Solution: aggressively charge for shelf space, just like grocery stores do for end cap placement.

gxs2• 15 years ago

I find engadget reviews a bit too quick to praise. While this is actually a problem with most review sites, I notice it an awfully lot with engadget.

I'd like for them to actually use the device, load it with data and let data from regular use accumulate, and THEN make an assessment.

For example: they gave the HTC evo spectacular reviews. And the phone is actually pretty nice. But after a few thousand text messages, a few apps installed, email, etc., the device is very sluggish - not quite what your led to believe from reading their reviews.

MatthewPhillips2• 15 years ago

Strange that you brought up the Evo, which after almost a year has held up as a top 3 phone for 2010.. I think high praise was deserved, regardless of whether it had a few issues.

gxs2• 15 years ago

Interesting, do you have an Evo that you've used for the past year or are you anointing it top 3 status based on reviews alone?

If you actually have one, It would be interesting to know how it's held up after heavy use.

Personally, my experience with it, and those of people I know that have it has been less than stellar, though by no means awful.

ChuckMcM3• 15 years ago

Its nice to see well funded competition to the iPad.

As with most technologies, we can describe the 'killer' product which would cut off the iPad at the knees:

* Tegra 3 [1] quad core mobile processor

* 2400 x 1800 10.1" screen (300 ppi) with 'real' pixels (which is to say every pixel can be every color)

* Combined capacitive touch and wacom equivalent stylus control.

* 2 GB low power DDR3 ram, 64GB flash

* Wifi, LTE, Bluetooth wireless stacks

* Micro SD, Sim, micro hdmi, usb2 (or 3) port

* Android OS with FOSS drivers for all peripherals.

* $400 / $600 / $800 price points

* 10 - 12 hr Battery life

If one started shipping that device today, I would bet my 401k that it would outsell the iPad2 by the end of the year.

Of course you can't ship it today, nVidia won't commit to a ship date on Tegra3, No one will commit to the 'high def' glass for the LCD (ideally OLED so no backlight to add thickness), Android isn't yet good enough at managing the battery to get that sort of efficiency, and the Wacom equivalent near field stylus interface will need a new driver and API to integrate with the rest of the stack.

Which is why Steve Jobs can make an iPad and most people can't. Steve would say (as legend has it) "Don't tell me what you can't do, tell me when you'll have it done or I'll find someone else who can." (and since really there isn't any new physics here, just engineering work, he'd be right) So far none of the players in the field seem to have shown that sort of attitude, which is unfortunate.

I'm also on record saying that Android is too heavy weight for this type of thing. I suspect that hiring 150 smart people who were told that after every checkin the total number of lines of code in the android build had to be less than it was prior to their checkin, and that the feature set had to remain the same. Let those folks run for a year and it might get close.

[1] http://blogs.nvidia.com/2011/02/tegra-roadmap-revealed-next-...

ctdonath3• 15 years ago

...and not a word about user experience.

This is why competitors are playing catch-up.

Flow• 15 years ago

"People would line up to buy our tablet if we only had zero-wait-state memory" :)

ChuckMcM3• 15 years ago

I don't dispute that user experience is a factor, but I did not include it in the above based on the following reasoning; If Apple's UX was sufficient to keep an equivalent product running Android with equal or better technical performance off the market, then Android phones would not currently outnumber Apple phones.

Manufacturing a technically competitive tablet form factor device is not something that can be taken on by a small start up. Creating a better UX is well within the reach of a wide variety of shops from small to large.

The G1->N1->N2 evolution is a nice empirical example of the presence of competitive hardware allowing for a rapidly developed competitive UX.

Android based phones aren't playing 'catch up' any more, once we have a reasonable execution of Android in a tablet form factor I reason that they will catch and surpass iPad volume and sales. If a technically superior platform was released ahead of an iPad refresh then I reason that platform would take substantial share from current and future iPad sales.

alecco• 15 years ago

Nvidia PR on a future product. What's real, independently tested and shipping right now is PowerVR SGX:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4225/the-ipad-2-review/5

zrgiu• 15 years ago

noooooo.. Samsung screwed up a perfectly good OS again. Welcome to the tablet compatibility hell.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and new Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on

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