Posted by Kyle Dornblaser 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?

Posted by Kyle Dornblaser in News | 0 Comments

CTIA Invitation Teases an 8.9 Inch Galaxy Tab

Remember the 8.9 inch Galaxy Tab we told you about? Well it looks like there is even more evidence that it is in fact real. Samsung started mailing out invites to their CTIA event in Orlando, Florida on March 22nd.

As you can see on the invite (to the right) it has a Galaxy Tab with the numberes 7, 8, 9, and 10. The seven represents the original 7 inch Tab. The ten represents the recently announced 10.1 inch Tab. And the eight and nine represent the unannounced 8.9 inch Galaxy Tab. This is just conjecture, but there is a reason that Samsung decided to put those numbers on the invitation.

Also you can see in the bottom right hand corner of the Tab in the picture a honeycomb pattern. Which means that the Galaxy Tab 8.9 will have Android 3.0 Honeycomb on board. We did not expect anything less from a tablet made in 2011.

According to a recent poll taken on this website, it appears that people are still in favor of the 7 inch form factor. Which size do you prefer?

Posted by Kyle Dornblaser in General | 5 Comments

List of apps optimized for the Galaxy Tab

Recently I made a post about apps that do not scale up to the Galaxy Tab’s resolution. One of the comments on the post recommended a list of apps that are optimized for the Galaxy Tab. Unfortunately this list is short, but hopefully you can help me find a few more apps optimized for the Tab.

BlinkerTab
Financial Times
NYTimes for Android tablet
Popular Science+ Top Tech 2010
SiMi Clock Widget
The Wall Street Journal

I should also mention that these are not necessarily good apps. As always use your own discretion when downloading apps.

Posted by Kyle Dornblaser in News | 2 Comments

Opera teases a new version of their browser for the Tab

Opera recently teased a new version of their web browser built specifically for Android tablets. They demonstrated it on the Galaxy Tab, so it will work perfectly on it.

The video below looks way faster than the default browser and just as smooth. If this video is anything like the real-life performance, there is a good chance that it will be my new default browser.

Posted by Kyle Dornblaser in News | 0 Comments

Amazon to show some love to the Galaxy Tab, other tablets

I tuned into Engadget this morning a post about Android tablets getting a better Kindle application. The Kindle application seems fairly robust to me, but I never use it as I’m not a big reader.

They don’t really spill any specific details on how this app will be different from the one already available on the Android Market. It is safe to assume though that is will have a better UI that takes advantage of larger screens.

Are you excited about a new Kindle app, or do you not use your Tab to read books either?

Source: Engadet