Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 hits New Zealand

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5049 posts

Uber Geek

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#516282 3-Sep-2011 22:48

I went to HN today and was told they won't be getting the 3G versions in. Anyway the tablet is amazingly light and slim!

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athor

123 posts

Master Geek

#516348 4-Sep-2011 09:50

Shindig: Just wondered how owners of the Tab were feeling about their purchase?

I have the 3g version. It's a great device. Battery life is great. I charge it every night, and have never had it below 50% so far. Love using it as a e-reader. In terms of honeycomb in general i think theres still a lack of good tablet optimised apps. Also I find it lags every so often when going back to the home screen etc.

I might just be being paranoid, but I think I am starting to see the issue with the edges of the glass lifting out of the body. Its only very minor, I just hope it doesn't get worse.

I also think now after using a 10.1" device for a while, I would rather have the 8.9. I think the 10.1 is just slightly too big for my hands to be able to reach in the middle of the screen. E.g. typing with thumb keyboard I have to stretch to reach the middle keys.
Also 10.1 is just a little too big for a ereader I think. It's a lot bigger than your standard book. I would say if you will use this for movies/gaming, get the 10.1, otherwise get the 8.9 (if you can wait).

But overall I am very happy with my purchase.

Kickass

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#516471 4-Sep-2011 15:42

Noel Leeming have Galaxy 10.1" accessories

http://products.noelleeming.co.nz/search?af=&login=false&items=0&w=galaxy+tab

I have seen some of these in store as well.

Shindig

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#516525 4-Sep-2011 17:49

Went into the Auckland Queens Street North vodafone store (walk up queens, its on the righthand side) this afternoon. They have a work demo version and stock of the 3G 16Gb with the white coloured back.

So I played around with it for about 15 mins. Nice looking device, a good weight to it which gives the impression of some robustness. Nice thickness, so your not pinching the thing but actually holding it.

The animation slowdown between the 5 main screens is very noticable. I ended every app using taskmanager (from touchwiz) and scrolled though again; still the same slow down. Once in a menu, settings or an app itself the device is very responsive. The camera at the front is good quality and more than adequate for those google chat sessions.

The camera at the back is what you would expect, the video I recorded of the shop was as expected again, nothing real crisp but for those quick capture moments it would do. Although it is worth mentioning, hit record and there is that slight delay. Less than a sec, but a delay to point out.

I didnt get to play any music as there wasnt any on the device. The video I recorded played back instantly on selecting it and the mic had picked up the store music that was playing.

Browser.. er.. well its chrome!
Everything you would need is within one or two touches.

Its a nice device. Worth the $1000 for sure, altho cheaper in the UK and USA. Build quality, nice, a little plastic at the back but nothing to worry about. A slight flex but that would be expected. The glass presses in slightly but again I dont think that would be anything to worry about.

I like it, I am tempted to buy one. Interesting to see the 7.7 device and all its advertising had been pulled from the IFA stand. The issue with the patent infringement needs to be taken into account, it could have some impact.

Android tablets are on the up for sure.

The little things make the biggest difference.

timsch

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#516552 4-Sep-2011 19:52

We have had the Galaxy 10.1 for a fortnight, so time for a review.

I shall start with the (few) negatives:

it might look like the Chrome browser, but it's not and thus you don't get that full functionality that you expect. So you have Talk as an app, but you can't call other phones. Skype of course works fine. I guess that Ice Cream Sandwich will remedy this.

But our main gripe is that even though my Desire HD plays video from our NAS, the Galaxy Tab can't. Using E S File Explorer then MoboPlayer on the tablet just doesn't work. This will get fixed soon I hope.

But that's about it for the bad points. There are plenty of great things.

We paid $1000 from Vodafone for the 16 GB 3G. It seemed a pretty good deal as Pricespy was close to that and with a wait. Someone made the comment who would get a 16 GB, but since when is 32 GB big enough? Hence the 2 TB NAS.

3G? Well who knows. At the moment my phone plan includes 3GB of data a month for $45 including calls and texts. So maybe soon Vodafone might be offering lots of data for $20 a month say. But at the moment when wifi isn't available, we just connect the tablet to the internet using the phone as a hotspot.

It's so convenient. It takes way less than 10 seconds to find phone number! And that is when it's turned off.

Battery? It's fine. You just have to manage it properly.

Brightness: I like it always on max - but I had to turn it down, too bright!

But my iphone owning wife is a harsh critic, and she likes it. Stylish, (for her the most important attribute by far), light, fast, ultra portable, flash player (this absolutely made the ipad a nono), and seamless Google. On the first day, I logged in to the Google account, had dinner, came back to instal the apps, and wtf, all the apps on the phone were downloaded and installed. Wow!

So to conclude: up to now the hardware has lagged the software - needed more ram, faster cpu, bigger drives, bigger monitors. Now I guess, it's the other way round. A little over a year ago, tablets were a non starter. The software has to catch up, thus ICS will be important as the Google resources are focusing on that and not Gingerbread.

HTH, Regards

Shindig

1581 posts

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#517936 7-Sep-2011 09:25

timsch - a good review.

Really interested in the point you made about streaming of videos.
Are you suggesting its a limitation of the device?

Have you tried another movie player?

The little things make the biggest difference.

timsch

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#518156 7-Sep-2011 15:54

Hi Shindig

Yes I think it may be a limitation of the Samsung Galaxy Tablet.

Using Moboplayer (in conjunction with E S Explorer) streams video just fine with my Desire HD which like the tablet is running Gingerbread.

I've also tried the native video player.
Mind you when I first got the Desire HD 10 months ago, it couldn't stream video so I guess this problem will be resolved pretty soon.

I'll do some more testing.

Regards

Tim

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NZtechfreak

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#518246 7-Sep-2011 19:20

@Timsch: Apparently the 3.2 update is floating around (I think I saw Paul Obrien from Modaco posting about it) - sounds like it should improve performance a lot. It certainly makes my Transformer perform much better than my I/O 10.1 Tab (and my I/O Tab has been on 3.0, and then 3.1 on a few different firmwares including a TouchWiz one).

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Lambchop

245 posts

Master Geek

#522526 18-Sep-2011 02:03

my laptop died recently so think i'll pick the 16GB wifi version up ....so in welly where is the place to get this?

the HN and NL sites don't list the thing on their sites, but i'd prefer from them to get the gen-i staff discount ... and it's $799 normally?

16 wifi will do me, wifi tether to my gs2, and really i'm finding i'm streaming these days so much anyways ..

guess i'm gonna make some calls tomorrow.

Disrespective

1924 posts

Uber Geek

#522592 18-Sep-2011 11:07

Noel Leeming up Tory Street is supposed to have them. Vodafone of course have the 3G version.

heavenlywild

5049 posts

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#522607 18-Sep-2011 11:46

Does Noel Leeming not have the 3G version? Bugger!

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Disrespective

1924 posts

Uber Geek

#522609 18-Sep-2011 11:54

heavenlywild: Does Noel Leeming not have the 3G version? Bugger!

*shrug*

Ambrose_1

252 posts

Ultimate Geek

#522613 18-Sep-2011 12:12

what is the pros of the galaxy tab over the acer a500? as far as I can tell its mainly the thickness and weight?

athor

123 posts

Master Geek

#522633 18-Sep-2011 13:15

the a500 also has a pretty poor screen compared to the gal tab 10.1 or transformer.

Lambchop

245 posts

Master Geek

#522733 18-Sep-2011 19:32

i just need something with a great screen, that's thin and light ... OLED would be great but a oled screen that size would be so expensive at the moment i'm guessing

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