June 15, 2011 at 19:16Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9: Millimeter
Curious: this material is dedicated to the Samsung tablet, but I start it with the words about the Apple tablet, because if it weren't for the iPad 2 from Cupertino, we might not have seen the new Galaxy Tab in the form in which it is now!
What is what?
At the beginning of this year, Samsung introduced a pair of rather interesting tablets, on which many had high hopes. And our team, at one of the exhibitions turning them in their hands, was generally satisfied with the gadgets. But on March 2, Apple showed the world the second version of the iPad, and then it turned out that the most critical attitude to Samsung products is not journalists, not analysts, and not consumers, but the company's management itself, up to the point that it was decided to postpone the release date of new tabs until the summer and completely redo them so that they can truly compete with the iPad 2.
Design
Perhaps, it was not for nothing that Samsung did not chase the deadlines, since the developers of the new Galaxy Tab 8.9 managed to surprise us. The tablet has become thinner. And not only its prototype, but also its main rival - the Apple iPad 2: 8.6 ”versus 8.8”, respectively. And in my opinion, this gadget lies in the hand better than the "apple", as it is made entirely of glossy plastic and practically does not slip in the hands, and there is no nasty feeling that you can cut yourself with an edge.
On the other hand, literally in a minute of use, gloss is covered with ugly fingerprints, so this solution, of course, is not ideal. But thank you for making the back cover white - so, at least, you get the feeling that in the "fingers" there is only a black border around the screen.
Specifically, this model - with a diagonal of 8.9 inches - is more suitable, probably, for girls. It is no longer as small as the seven-inch first Tab, but not as large as the new 10.1, it will fit into almost any handbag and will not pull your shoulder, because it weighs only 470 grams.
And, probably, it is worth reassuring those who care about the issue of strength. Despite the fact that the case of this model is made of plastic, it is really durable - I tried to bend and twist it, but it does not give in, damn it! And at the same time no sounds are made - not a single creak. I put five for the assembly.
There is almost nothing to say about the built-in cameras. They are, yes. They can fix some funny moment, but no more. Anyway, shooting on a tablet is akin to perversion :)
Display
The diagonal size of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 screen is reflected in its name. Otherwise, I can’t say that the display is particularly remarkable for something. The usual TFT-matrix, moderately bright and contrasting, but after the Super AMOLED Plus display literally oozing with color in the Galaxy S II, is, of course, not that ... However, if Samsung had decided to embed displays based on organic LEDs in tablets, prices they would fly up to heaven, since in this case they grow in proportion to the increase in the diagonal.
Iron
Despite the fact that Samsung has its own dual-core Orion processor, Galaxy Tab 8.9 used NVIDIA's development - Tegra 2. This chipset, as was already understood by smartphones based on it, allows the Android operating system to work without brakes. And indeed, the tablet is not at all inclined to think about the tasks. Unless there is some delay when scrolling through the desktops, but I attribute it more to the imperfection of the screen sensor than to insufficient processor performance.
It is strange that this tablet scored only 1,654 points in the Quadrant test. Usually gadgets based on NVIDIA Tegra 2 show at least two pieces with a trifle ...
Software
Samsung is one of two tablet manufacturing companies that today produces tablets with customized Android. HTC, perhaps, had no choice - few would want to buy a seven-inch tablet running bare-metal Android 2.x. But Samsung could easily not bother and roll out a gadget with the third version of Android to the market, since, in my opinion, the tablet version of this OS is really a convenient thing. But the company decided to fix those minor flaws that still exist in the version of Robot 3.0.
In addition to the standard Android chips, the TouchWiz tablet shell offers the user a button for capturing screenshots (hooray!), An additional panel with widgets that can be moved around the screen regardless of what happens “below” them, and the so-called hubs - applications that aggregate information of one type. The Social Hub collects information from all social networks connected to it, and the Readers Hub collects subscriptions to books, magazines and other reading materials. And the Music Hub music service, unfortunately, doesn’t work in our country yet, so this label on the tablet is more likely to be beautiful, or maybe because I even had the final sample of the tablet on my test, but it’s far from “selling ".
Battery
The 6000 mAh battery built into this Galaxy Tab is enough to drive the tablet literally all day. At me, he began to ask for an outlet only after 11 hours of active testing. In fact, not so much, but this is enough if you use it in tandem with a smartphone. In this case, one and the other calmly begin to work in the subway on the way to work and "live out" until late at night, when they can already be put at home to recharge.
Competitor
The rival of the Galaxy Tab is, of course, the Apple iPad 2. On the apple side there is an established ecosystem, millions of high-quality applications and popular love. And Samsung offers less weight, a gain of two tenths of a millimeter in thickness and a highly customizable, promising operating system.
Summary
Samsung did it. Galaxy Tab 8.9 is the first tablet that can really compete on equal footing with the second iPad. But this is in a vacuum, that is, purely technologically. And in the real world, competition is not only between gigahertz, megabytes and millimeters, but also between prices. So, in pre-order on the Euroset website, Galaxy Tab 8.9 costs 25,990. For this (and sometimes even less) money, many potential buyers will prefer to buy a more hyped fashionable Apple tablet than they decide to try Samsung. There is only one way out - to reduce the price.
TTX
OS: Android 3.0 + TouchWiz shell
Processor: ARMv7, 2 cores, 1 GHz
Chipset: NVIDIA Tegra 2
Memory: 16-64 GB (no memory card slot)
RAM: 768 MB DDR-II
Display: 8.9 ", 1280 x 800, TFT
Communication: 3G, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA, GPRS, GSM900 / 1800/1900, Wi-Fi 802.11b / g / n, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR,
Navigation: GPS, A-GPS + accelerometer, gyroscope, electronic compass
Connectors: branded USB, 3.5 mm
Cameras: 3 megapixels, 2 megapixels
Battery: 6000 mAh (11 hours of operation)
Dimensions: 230 x 158 x 8.6 mm
Weight: 470 grams
Price: RUB 25,990
