Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
I don’t even know why you are wasting your time with the other 10.1 inch tablets on the market right now. Seriously. The newest tablet from Samsung is firing on all cylinders.
- Processor: a respectable 1GH
- RAM: a balanced 1GB
- Internal Memory: 16GB
- Expandable: Why yes, with a microSD card!
- OS: Android 4.0.3 with the TouchWiz overlay
- Price: a reasonable 399!
I have heard some reviewers (Engadget) criticize this tablet for its lack of an LED flash, and their decision to downgrade the rear camera. Let me ask you this question: When was the last time you took quality pictures with your tablet? or even quality video? I am going to guess…. Never…? The problem I always run into with pictures and video taken with tablets is that they are just too heavy and large to be useful for that. With pictures, they mostly turn out blurry, and videos are too shaky (Bourne Identity shaky).
Software:
Well, most of us have some experience with Ice Cream Sandwich, so I wont go into that, but the TouchWiz interface adds some nice bits. For example they made an easy way to add more home-screens by pinching while on the home-screen. You can also get rid of them by dragging the screens up to the trash icon.
Also, when scrolling through the home-screens you don’t hit the end, it just loops you back to the beginning. This coupled with the quick status change options in the pull-up menu make for some welcome optimizations to the already great android 4.0 OS.
Hardware:
As mentioned, the hardware is almost exactly like its predecessor, except they are using the TI OMAP 1GH processor instead of the Tegra 2 processor. The welcome addition of a microSD slot is the last of the changes made.
Battery Life:
Samsung has once again used their 7,000 ma battery which means that you should have a very full day of use ahead of you.
The following figures show how much of an impact 100% brightness and WiFi on will impact your battery per hour.
- YouTube: -16%
- Netflix: -16%
- Standby: -1%
- Charging: +22%
- Browsing: -14%
Naturally anything below full brightness will impact your tablet for the better.
Final Thoughts:
Yes, Yes, and yes. Keep it up Samsung.
When I reviewed the first 10.1 inch Galaxy Tab, I longed for expandable memory, and lamented the nearly 500 dollars that Samsung wanted for their well built tablet. I know that it is just a $100 price drop, but it feels like a price drop right into the Goldilocks zone of tablets.
On the Torino scale, I would have to rate the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, 10.1 inch at 8.97.
Everything about this tablet is drenched with WIN.