Samsung’s New Galaxy Tabs: The iPad 2 Gets Well-Priced Competition
By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 8:58 am
Greetings from the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando, where Samsung just announced two new Galaxy Tab tablets running Google’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The new version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 10.1″ display at 1280 by 800, a 1-GHz dual-core CPU, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, a 3-megapixel camera in the back and a 2-megapixel one up front. And at 8.6mm and 595 grams, it’s slightly thinner and slightly lighter than the surprisingly thin and light iPad 2. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is a similar tablet with a screen that’s a bit smaller than the one on the iPad 2 rather than a bit larger.
Both Tabs will run a custom version of Honeycomb topped off with a new tablet-specific edition of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface and a bunch of Samsung services–and as usual with modified versions of Android, I wanna try it in person before I come to any conclusions about whether it makes the experience better or worse.
The most interesting thing about these new Tabs aren’t the specs–which look like what you might expect from a thoroughly modern Android-based tablet–but the pricing. The 10.1 will be available in a 16GB version for $499 and a 32GB one for $599 and will be available on June 8th; the 8.9″ will cost $469 for 16GB and $569 for 32GB and will arrive in “early summer.” Assuming no price cuts from Apple in the interim, the Tabs will provide the iPad 2 with real competition at similar price points for the first time. It’ll be fascinating to see how an Android tablet competes when the discussion is all about software, services, hardware, and the integration thereof, rather than about pricetags.
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March 22nd, 2011 at 9:51 am
Yes! I have been waiting for a 10" Android tablet with Honeycomb and the hardware to run it well. I know I am probably the minority but I like the Touchwiz interface. The pricing is much smarter than the Xoom too.
March 22nd, 2011 at 12:07 pm
just great! time to see amazing sub 500 dollar android tablets! and it is not only affordable but the best tablet on the market! the thinnest, very light and the with the best software! may still be too big for me i guess but for the general public, it seems like the best thing ever. hopefully it will all work out when they release it !
March 22nd, 2011 at 1:04 pm
It would be dumb to get the 16 extra GB option for $100 more. UNlike the ipad, it has an SD card slot so for $50 you could add a 32GB SD card.
March 27th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
So far, no Android device can use SD storage transparently. My guess is that SD media is dramatically slower than the storage in flash "hard disks". If nothing else, the SD reader is on a USB bus. So the idea that sticking a huge SD card in a vacant slot improves your life is probably false, even if the OS actually supported it properly.
March 22nd, 2011 at 2:58 pm
This will definitely be worth following. So far there’s not been a true comparative Android device to compete with the iPad, those with similar quality and capability more expensive while cheaper ones lack the quality and reliability.
I honestly believe Android will expand the market, but I also believe Apple will lead the way–at least for a few more years. I don’t mean in total sales, but in the technology itself. Others may make something marginally better, but somehow Apple makes the significant leaps that drags others along behind it.
March 23rd, 2011 at 7:02 am
My thoughts: What's with the mock-ups this close to the announced ship dates? Otherwise, let's see what ships. People seem very quick to get excited and each time the products seem to be a big letdown. At least, we haven't seen "New Galaxy tabs: iPad killers?".
Yet.
May 9th, 2011 at 10:41 am
not sure about the ipad2 but i have used samsung tab , the android os still lag once you put in more than 50 apps, my iphone4 and ipad1 are running around with more than 150 apps seamlessly..