Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9: millimeters

Curiously: this material is devoted to the Samsung tablet, but I start it with the words about the Apple tablet, because if it were not for the iPad 2 from Cupertino, the new Galaxy Tab in the form in which it is now, we could not have seen!


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What is what?

Earlier this year, Samsung introduced a couple of rather curious tablets, on which many pinned high hopes. And our team, having turned them in their hands at one of the exhibitions, was generally pleased 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 to Samsung products are not journalists, not analysts, and not consumers, but the company's management itself - to the point that it was decided to postpone the release date of new tabs until summer and completely redo them so that they can truly compete with the iPad 2.

Design

Perhaps, not for nothing, Samsung did not chase deadlines, as 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 - Apple iPad 2: 8.6 ”vs. 8.8”, respectively. And in my opinion, this gadget lies in the hand better than the “apple” one, since it is made entirely of glossy plastic and practically does not slip in the hands, and there is no nasty feeling that the edge can be cut.



On the other hand, the gloss, literally within a minute of use, is covered with ugly fingerprints, so this solution, of course, is not ideal. But thank you for making the back cover white - at least, it seems 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 not as small as the seven-inch first Tab, but not as large as the new 10.1, it will not fit in almost any handbag and shoulder, because it weighs only 470 grams.



And, probably, it is worth reassuring those who are concerned 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! And it does not make any sounds at all - not a single squeak. For the assembly put the top five.


About built-in cameras say almost nothing. They are, yes. They can fix some funny moment, but no more. Anyway, shooting on a tablet is like a perversion :)

Display

The size of the diagonal of the screen Galaxy Tab 8.9 is reflected in its name. Otherwise, I can not say that the display is something particularly remarkable. The usual TFT-matrix, moderately bright and contrast, but after literally oozing the Super AMOLED Plus display color in the Galaxy S II - this, of course, is not that ... However, if Samsung had decided to embed organic LED displays in the tablets, they would soar to the heavens, 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, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 used the development of NVIDIA - Tegra 2. This chipset, as it was already clear from smart phones based on it, allows Android to work without brakes. Indeed, the tablet is absolutely not inclined to think about the tasks. Is that when scrolling through the desktops there is some delay, but I write it off more on the imperfection of the screen sensor than on the lack of processor performance.



It is strange that this tablet scored a total of 1654 points in the Quadrant test. Usually gadgets based on NVIDIA Tegra 2 show at least two pieces with a trifle ...

Soft

Samsung is one of two tablet manufacturing companies that today produces tablets with customized Android. HTC probably didn't have a way out - few people would want to buy a seven-inch tablet running the bare Android 2.x. But Samsung could easily not bother and roll out the gadget with the third version of Android to the market, since, in my opinion, the tablet version of this OS is really handy. But the company decided to correct those minor flaws that still exist in the version of “Robot” 3.0.



The TouchWiz tablet shell, in addition to standard Android chips, offers the user a button to capture screenshots (hooray hooray!), An additional panel with widgets that can be moved around the screen regardless of what happens “under” them, and so-called hubs - applications that aggregate information of the same type. The Social Hub collects information from all the social networks connected to it, in Readers Hub - subscriptions to books, magazines and other reading matter. Unfortunately, the Music Hub music service in our country is still not working, so this label in the tablet is more for beauty, and maybe because I had a final tablet sample on my test, but still not a “salesman” ".

Battery

6000 mAh built into the Galaxy Tab, the battery is enough to drive the tablet literally all day. He started asking me to the outlet only after 11 hours of active testing. In fact, not so much, but this is enough if you use it in a pair with a smartphone. In this case, he and the other quietly begin to work in the subway on the way to work and “live” until the deep evening, 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 side of the “apple” is the prevailing ecosystem, millions of quality applications and nation-wide love. And Samsung offers less weight, a gain of two tenths of a millimeter in thickness and a flexible, customizable promising operating system.

Summary

Samsung did it. Galaxy Tab 8.9 is the first tablet that can really compete on equal terms with the second iPad. But it 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 the pre-order on the Euroset Network site, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 costs 25990. For these (and sometimes smaller) money, many potential buyers will prefer to buy a more popular Apple fashionable tablet than Samsung will decide to try. 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
Connectivity: 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
Sockets: company USB, 3,5-mm
Cameras: 3 Mp., 2 Mp.
Battery: 6000 mAh (11 hours of operation)
Dimensions: 230 x 158 x 8.6 mm
Weight: 470 grams
Price: 25990 rub.