Galaxy Tab 10.1 750 Review: Am I holding the best Android tablet ever?

Introduction

We all know the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from its release in rest of the world ages ago (Sigh!). The recent release by Samsung in India – the Galaxy Tab 750 is nothing but the G Tab 10.1. Ever since (read August 10th) the Korean launched the 750 aka 10.1 and the 730 aka 8.9 in India for Rs.36200 and Rs.33900 – there have been excitement among tech enthusiasts in India. We held the product in our hands and know why!

Packaging

The 750 comes in a box reserved for something much bigger. We like the careful packaging here. Unlike the netbooks, which has a flat box, this one is much squarer. Accessories “literally” came out of box were the standard USB cable with the proprietary Samsung connector on the other end, the power adaptor and the manual – apart from the tablet of course.

Design and built

The moment I held it, I knew I was holding the lightest tablet around! It is lighter than the iPad 2 by about 40gms and thinner too at 8.6mm. You can actually make out the thinness when you stack both on top or side-by-side. Don’t let the tapered end of the iPad 2 fool you here.

The 750 adopts a widescreen 16:9 form factor (see the photo below) and you can make that out while comparing it with the squarish 4:3 display aspect ratio of the Apple toy. Although the iPad 2 is tapered and hence looks sleeker, hold both and you’ll know the 750 feels much lighter and more comfortable thanks to that extra meat around the circumference.

Build quality, unlike the Galaxy phones, is of Aluminum material. You can see polished brushed metal back. The built quality is very refines and of high quality. There is a white model around but not yet available in India.

There is nothing on the front except the webcam on top when you hold the device in landscape mode. On the back is a 3MP camera within a nice little area bathed in lighter shade than the rest of the backside.

Display

The 10.1” 1280 x 800 pixels wide-screen is brilliant, now we will go greedy and wish it was the mind-blowing Super AMOLED! What we have here is actually a WXGA TFT LCD. Nevertheless, you have a clear vision with bright view, darker blacks and decent viewing angles. TFT will drink excess battery but we have that taken care of by a monstrous battery (come to that later).

The glossy display will make you wipe it every 10 seconds. Check out some of our pics to see how full it is of our decently clean fingerprints.

Interface

The 750 has Android 3.1 and there are rumors of 3.2 coming shortly. You know the clean Honeycomb interface, and Samsung has done it well to make it jazzier with the new TouchWiz UX. You can now make you favorite widgets appear live on the homescreen and they will refresh periodically to show you constant updates. The swiping around is fast, seamless and fun. Tap the top right App button to bring up the full menu in a nice subtle animation. Tap the + besides it to customize – Honeycomb basics. The stock browser looks light and fast, as the keyboard. I will like the SlideIT or Swype installed and activated though. Pinch zooming does not lack at all. There is that Taskbar below like all Honeycomb tablets with the three usual hotkeys on the left and the notification bar towards the right.

Most of the Google native apps are left mostly as in the stock Honeycomb – we like it that way! But Samsung provides you with a few too like the AccuWeather, Samsung Mail and Calendar etc. The icons are like those we are so used to mistake for those of the iPad. There is a feature exclusive to the G Tab – you can customize app placement and the zooming etc. with gesture.

All in the entire cleanest and most non-pretentious Android interface I’ve seen yet.

I/O ports

While holding in landscape mode with the webcam on top – on top side, you have the headphone jack, volume rocker and the power button. The bottom has the dock connector with both left and right sides content with stereo speaker apiece. No USB ports, No mini HDMI, no micro USB port, no microSD card slot (so no external extension of memory). Get the multimedia dock for the HDMI out of 1080p.

Connectivity

Our Wi-Fi model supports 802.11 a/b/g/n. The 3G Tab supports HSPA +21. No problems here – all good. Wi-Fi sync is awesome.

Performance

The 1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor is snappy, and along with 1GB RAM – it should be enough for any tablet-related tasks. This might not sound like much on an x86 platform, but enough on a tablet. Honeycomb 3.1 as I told above behaves seamlessly almost without lags (the iPad is still faster though). It is when you load the apps on the tablet, combined with a feature-heavy TouchWiz – the tab starts to get slower. In fact a review in NDTV says it is slower than the Xoom.

Battery

Battery life – are you kidding me? While most tablets stop at sub 4k, this one has a mammoth 7000mAh battery. We went on for about 10 ½ hrs with Wi-Fi switched off, and about 8 hrs 46secs with Wi-Fi on.

Verdict

Looks – it is the best Android tablet. Power – it is at par with the others. Battery is one of the best in the industry. Feels lighter and more streamlined than any tablet out there. Costs Rs. 36200 for the 3G model. Although Iconia Tab and Transformer each goes for about 10k less, they don’t have a 3G option, and in India where you don’t have Wi-Fi hotspot in every five kilometers – 3G is a must.

Now how it fares against the You know who? You know this is the first tablet we can truly show to an iPad 2 user and say “Hey, I got something you don’t have”. It is thinner and lighter than the iPad, for me it looks better as well. I personally prefer the wide-screen design, and the non-tapered ends let me hold the tablet more firmly. Performance is not as snappy as the iPad 2 I must tell you but it comes closer than any other tab. The display is brighter. The 3G iPad 2 starts at Rs. 36900 so there I save 700 bucks that can go into a multi-media dock. But the biggest of it all – It supports Flash, Yes!

iPad 2 is a revolutionary device, the Galaxy Tab only follows the trend. But if you give me a choice, with my hands on my heart – I would seriously go for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750!

Ratings

Packaging : 8/10

Design : 9/10

Built quality : 7/10

Display : 8.5/10

Performance : 7.5/10

Battery : 9/10

Price : 7/10

(10 is what an ideal Android tablet should be)