It’s time to go hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Tab for Verizon. It has been quite an inaugural year for tablets thus far and as the second generation/newer tablets make its way to public. We wanted to talk about the only tablet at the time that was a competitor to the original iPad. The Galaxy Tab sports a 7inch touchscreen w/ 1024 x 600 resolution, powered by a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, running Android 2.2 OS w/ TouchWiz UI, 1.3MP front-facing & 3MP camera w/ autofocus + LED flash, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage (VZW’s model comes as a microSD card), accelerometer, DLNA support, Wi-Fi b/g/n support, 4000 mAh battery, and weighs in at about 13 ounces. Let’s delve into how the Tab handles in a TGSB atmosphere.
Now that you are caught up with the full specs on this Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab is Samsung’s answer to the ever-popular iPad. Most of the tech insiders wanted more out of the Tab but on the consumer side of things, may generate the opposite opinion.
Upon the launch of the Verizon Galaxy Tab the pricing was far from attractive as it was only available as a contract-free option of $599.99. I know of several people who may have been interested in the Tab when it was released said the same thing, “It costs too much, I might as well buy an iPad.” As time moved on, different pricing options have arrived and you could now pick one up for $299.99 w/ a two-year contract or still go for the same contract-free pricing. VZW offers the monthly options of 1GB of data for $20, 3GB for $35, 5GB for $50, and 10GB for $80. The current pricing would have helped when the Tab was first announced. Things are a little different now but not by much. The contract and monthly data pricing on the Tab varies, depending on which of the four major US carriers you plan to buy one from.
As much as I loved the Galaxy Tab, I would have loved to see how the current tablet wars would be if Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) was ready at the time of its launch. I wanted to see Android take advantage of the space on the screen like the iPad did rather than have the Android on your phones on a 7inch screen. This is not a deal breaker but that, in our opinion, would have made the Tab the perfect tablet. The Motorola XOOM (which was rushed to release) is now out and like the Galaxy Tab it is overpriced (like really overpriced) at $599.99 with a two-year contract and $799.99 contract-free. The iPad 2 is available today at various retailers. Samsung has other versions of the Galaxy Tab on the way: 8.9inches model & 10.1inch model. With all of this going on the original Tab may fade into the background while these dual-core processor tablets begin to pop-up all over the place. Although it is no longer in its prime, the Tab still gets thumbs up from us here at TGSB. The Samsung Galaxy Tab for Verizon is a great Android tablet that can serve as an iPad alternative despite its very minuscule shortcomings.
