Mar 8, 2011

Posted by in Featured, General, Head to Head | 17 Comments

Why the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is Better than the iPad 2

The iPad 2 was announced last week by Apple and there has been a lot of buzz about it on the internet and blogosphere. Undoubtedly if you are in the market for a tablet in the next month or two, you will want to know if the iPad 2 or the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the right choice.

Operating System

Apple’s iPad uses the same stale OS that has hardly evolved since the origin of the iPhone in 2007. You get a grid of icons. They did add the ability to have a wallpaper in the past year, but that is the extent of the customization. Android on the other hand is evolving left and right. Honeycomb, Android 3.0, is a complete redesign of how Android looks and how you interact with it, while still feeling like the operating system you have grown to love.

Every year I keep expecting Apple to announce widgets with their new version of iOS, but I am left disappointed year after year. Android on the other hand has widgets galore. In fact there is a section in the Android Market specifically for widgets.

Another aspect of iOS that I keep expecting to be updated is the notifications. They are the most obtrusive and terrible notifications on any of the major phone/tablet operating systems. Android has always dealt with notifications wonderfully. With Honeycomb, they really raised the bar to how notifications should be done.

Display

The iPad 2 uses the same 4:3 aspect ratio display found on the original iPad. Apple seems to forget that the world has moved towards widescreen 16:9 or 16:10 ratios. For a company as innovative as Apple, it is surprising that they are acting like it is the year 2000. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a proper 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio perfect for HD video viewing. As well as for content viewing, the widescreen display is much better at inputting text via the onscreen keyboard. Since it is wider, it can be used more comfortably like a real keyboard in landscape mode. Also two thumb typing in portrait mode is much easier and more comfortable on the Galaxy Tab than on the iPad.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 10.1 inch screen, which is 0.4 inches larger than the iPad 2′s 9.7 inch screen. The difference is nominal but worth noting nonetheless. The difference in resolution is more significant though. The iPad’s display has a sub-HD resolution of 1024 by 768 while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has an HD screen with a resolution of 1280 by 800. That brings the iPad’s total pixels to 786,432 while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 commands 1,024,000 pixels.

Cameras

Both the iPad 2 and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 have both front and back facing cameras. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has an 8 MP rear facing camera with LED flash that is capable of capturing full HD 1080p videos. The iPad 2 on the other hand likely sports less a camera with less than 1 MP, no LED flash, and only 720p video capture. The iPad 2′s front facing camera is also likely far inferior in terms of MP to the 2 MP shooter found on the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

These are just three aspects of these two tablets. Based on them, it seems clear that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is far superior to the iPad 2. Honestly at the end of the day the iPad 2 is a good device, but I would pick the Galaxy Tab 10.1. What about you?

About Kyle Dornblaser

Kyle Dornblaser has written 616 posts.

My name is Kyle Dornblaser and I love technology. I am into gadgets as well as website development. Combining the two was obvious to me and that is why this website exists today!

  • Anonymous

    Big difference, tomorrow I will be able to walk into a store and purchase an iPad2. I haven’t seen a Galaxy Tab 10.1 for sale anywhere. Have you?

  • Agraco

    what about the 32GB vs. 64 GB? does it matter for the average user?

    • http://www.galaxytabs.com Kyle Dornblaser

      Does it matter to you?

  • Dynamismind

    65000 apps for ipad, 100 for android tablets,I like to have an app for everything do you?

    • Babak_sun2007

      who says there are  only 100 apps for android os?
      on google play market 45000 games and apps are released.
      I prefer android tabs to ios because the nice interface of android and the boring interface of ios(widget-home screen-live wallpaper…).

      • http://www.galaxytabs.com Kyle Dornblaser

        There were 100 apps that were available for Honeycomb. This doesn’t count apps that were only designed for 2.x. Now there is much more. Still, I think the iPad has more apps with a tablet interface than Android tablets have with a tablet interface.

  • Dynamismind

    there isn’t neither price for galaxy tab 2; i really like the design and hardware but for the moment ipad win because of apps, pionner and price. it seems to me that purchase a product to reduce the buying of the competence and neither to say the price it is a big foult by samsung

    • Dynamismind

      there isn’t neither price for galaxy tab 2; i really like the design and hardware but for the moment ipad win because of apps, pionner and price. it seems to me that to launch a product to reduce the buying of the competence and neither to say the price it is a big foult by samsung

  • Dangerous195

    Why do all these suckers go for ipads?The tablets main strength is to browse the internet anywhere and you cant view 30% of web pages on ipads because of a lack of flash support.Why anyone wants something to browse only part of the internet is beyond me.Apple say there will be no flash web pages in 2 years but if I buy an pad now I dont want to wait 2 years until I can view all web pages,I will go for a fully flash supported Galaxy with a proper Android OS

    • Jimwaln

      30% of the web is flash build?

      Even if that number is true (i would like to see the reference from where this magical number came from…) that doesnt mean they wont work on an ipad.

      A LOT of sites have made either apps for their content or a mobile version of the content.

      Flash is slow and isnt really that good for mobile use (meaning 3g is too slow for flash to have a nice browsing experience)

    • Jimwaln

      30% of the web is flash build?

      Even if that number is true (i would like to see the reference from where this magical number came from…) that doesnt mean they wont work on an ipad.

      A LOT of sites have made either apps for their content or a mobile version of the content.

      Flash is slow and isnt really that good for mobile use (meaning 3g is too slow for flash to have a nice browsing experience)

  • User

    I agree about the OS, but I (and i’m sure most people would agree with me) disagree about the screen aspect ratio. 16:9 is a terrible screen size for a tablet and for web browsing. Maybe if i was using it solely as a DVD player, it would be good. but for web browsing, 4:3 is FAR superior

    • Gspout

      Depends on the screen size I guess. How about viewing in portrait orientation?

  • Guest

    A 4×3 aspect ratio 9.7 inch screen has a greater surface area than a 16×9 10.1 inch screen.The difference is nominal but worth noting nonetheless. The iPad has a larger screen than the Tab.

  • Asyerramilli

    Though galaxy tab 10.1 screen size is 10.1 inch, the actual screen are is smaller compared to ipad2 ie around 44 inch against 45 inch. Do the computation.

  • Asyerramilli

    Though galaxy tab 10.1 screen size is 10.1 inch, the actual screen area is smaller compared to that of  ipad2 ie around 44 Sq.inch compared to around 45 Sq.inch for ipad2. Do the computation.

  • Agrt4321qe

    The screen areas indicated by asyerramiili are correct if aspect ratio for galaxy tab 10.1 is assumed as 16:9 but the actual aspect ratio of galaxy tab 10.1 is 16:10 not 16:9 ie 1280/800. In fact, the screen area of galaxy tab 10.1 is more than that of ipad2 albeit by a mere fraction.