New 10" Galaxy Tab

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Went and saw the new 10" Galaxy tonight. Of all the non-Apple tablets I've seen & tried, I liked it the best. Still prefer the iPad 2 however this one's dang close.

Don't care for the longer, skinnier screen. Prefer the more square style on the iPad.

[LMITOUT]

I picked one up on Friday and I'm so glad I ditched the iPad2 and with their locked-down iOS. Oh, and it's nice to have Flash back again. After using the iPad2 for close to a month it just become a source of frustration.

So far no regrets. Seems to charge a little slow and it has that horribly short charging cable, just like the iPad2. Two more feet would go a long way. Battery life appears to be close to the iPad2...maybe a tad less but not enough to worry about. Nice to have everything sync'd with my Google accounts including the App Market, not to mention the browser bookmarks from Google Chrome on my PC. It's running the latest version of Android's OS, Honeycomb, and it works pretty darn good. The size is great, weight is just slightly less than the iPad2, and it has smoother edges that don't dig into the palms of your hand when you're holding it.

Obviously Apple has more apps available for their tablet, but for me I really didn't find a lot in their market that was of much interest to me. Not to mention a lot of them came with a fee which turned me off as I haven't paid for an app yet on my Android phone. It will be a bit yet before the app developers catch up and make their existing apps work with Honeycomb but they'll come in time. If you build it, they will come.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Nice choice, enjoy and report back again.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

The review I read said the phone apps scale up on it very well. No?

[LMITOUT]

Yes and no. Some will show up only in portrait mode, just like you are looking at a big phone screen. Others will flat out force close due to the compatibility with the newer OS. Others will display fine. It is hit and miss. Noticed the same thing with iphone apps loaded on the ipad.

One thing Google needs to do is create a seperate section for tablet apps in their market. Right now they have a section called "featured tablet apps" but that doesn't cover all the apps that are out there for tablets.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Still refining things, but sure taking them a long time to do so. Ipad apps are really awesome. Can you put the navionics app on it? Great app on the ipad.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I would think the galaxy tablet would go on sale more likely then the ipad. Having a hard time paying the same price as the ipad. If it were $ 75 less I would buy it today.

[LMITOUT]

Not sure about Navionics. I don't have it on my phone either.

I doubt they'll discount the Tab anytime soon and I haven't seen the XOOM on sale yet either and it's been out for a while now.

If they really wanted to put forth a solid effort as an iPad2 competitor, they should have sold it for $50 less in an attempt to convince people that hadn't decided which platform to go with. But, I think that most people already have their mind made up going in and a slight price difference probably wouldn't matter much in the long run. Might sway a few, though.

Hey, I wouldn't sweat these two costing the same...not having to deal with the Apple iOS is priceless.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

What issues did you have with the ipad? Was not having flash a huge deal, or was it other things? Interesting that you have had owned them both. Still bothers me about the lack of apps and the same price. I agree that it would have made sense to sell it for $50 less. What do you think of the zoom? To heavy and thick for me.

[LMITOUT]

Yeah, after having the iPad2 the XOOM was just too thick and heavy and didn't really interest me. The Tab is more iPad-like in its size and much less bulky than the XOOM.

I liked the iPad2 when I got it and thought it was pretty neat. I suppose it was the newness of my first tablet and I was a bit smitten, but after using it for a few weeks it was just frustrating at its inability to work with the web (lack of Flash) or opening email attachments such as .wmv's. For a while I tolerated it but eventually it just started to grind on me that something supposedly so great couldn't do these basic things.

The iPad is a great device for the average user because it's so dumbed-down. No offense to iPad owners, but it really is. Grandma and grandpa could use the thing and I think that's what they were essentially aiming for. I like to tweak and it was like my hands were tied with the iOS, compared to Android. Not to mention I already run an Android phone so getting an Android tablet just fit into place.

The lack of apps at this point hasn't bothered me too much. I rooted my phone and haven't really put many apps back on it after having a bunch prior to rooting. Goes to show what you need compared to what you download just because it looks neat, although I did download Beer Pong today.

I've had the Tab for a week as of today and been using it every night. It's really not much different than the iPad, although the iPad seems a bit smoother and polished. Still not enough to worry about, IMO.

I don't know if you've seen the stories about Apple suing Samsung, but they are bothered by the idea that the Tab is similar to the iPad. Apparently they are getting a little nervous that there really is a competitor to the iPad. Even if a company made something that blew the iPad out of the water, Apple has such a fan base and reputation that the superior product would still have a tough time competing. Apple zombies...

The Samsung Tab 8.9 is supposed to come out eventually too. I would assume it would have a lower price point if you are interested in trying something similar, albeit smaller.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Good info. Yes I would be interested to see the 8.9 size. Might be real handy. Did you lose much selling the ipad?

[LMITOUT]

Nope. Sold it for more than I paid, but the timing was right because store inventories were still limited when I put it up for sale.

Apple zombies.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Does it have a GPS chip? Didn't see that on the specs.

[LMITOUT]

Yes

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

So I'm guessing you use it mainly for email and internet? Anything else you like to do on it?

[LMITOUT]

So far that's the main purpose. An information aggregator. Catch up on news, etc. using various applications.

I've signed up with Google Music so I'm messing around with getting my music available on the Tab. Put a few movies on there to try it out, but doubt I'll use that much unless I'm away from home and need to kill some time. Haven't used it much for gaming yet, although I had to download Angry Birds just because it seems to be the thing to do.

Looking forward to taking it on trips instead of a laptop since it's obviously a lot smaller and lighter and does everything that I used the laptop for in that scenario.