The Samsung Galaxy Tab – Creating a new Computing Genre
Just when the high end smartphone markets have seen 4-inch screens on some of the flagship Android handsets out there, here comes the Samsung Galaxy Tab that dwarfs them all.
But it’s one mobile gadget that goes beyond mobile telephony to break into the tablet computing genre earlier defined by Apple’s iPad. And rather than compete head on with what looks like another successful Apple product, Samsung made the right move to create another mobile genre halfway between the tablet and the smartphone.
Running on the Android v2.2 Froyo, the Samsung Galaxy Tab has the features to give Apple a real headache, especially with about the same 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor and all the features including a 3-axis gyro sensor assisting its accelerometer.
It even has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash that the iPad lacks and while rudimentary by most high end smartphone standards, it’s there precisely to enable many Android apps that require the feature, including a 1.3 megapixel front facing video call camera. What’s best is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab is so much more pocketable than the iPad.
High End Features
The Tab is a cornucopia of radio and data connectivity features staring with a quad band GSM/GPRS/EGE on 2G and a Tri band UMTS/HSDPA/HUPA radio on 3G. Local data connectivity gets WiFi 802.11 b/g/, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0 local data connectivity support, including GPS.
As the largest mobile phone out there, it comes with a 7-inch TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen with multitouch, Swype text input, accelerometer, proximity and 3-axis gyro sensors. Its camera also supports video capture at D1 (720 x 480) resolution and 30fps.
You have a choice of two models with 16GB or 32GB onboard memory with microSD support up to 32GB while its 4,000 mAh lithium-ion battery delivers up to 7 hours of movie playback. With a TV out and a 3.5mm audio jack, the tab is one entertainment gadget that puts the iPad in its corner.
