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Galaxy Tab 10.1 Judged 'No Match For iPad'
tripleevenfall writes "Clayton Morris reviews the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and finds it lacking, especially at the $400 price point, saying 'I can't in good conscience tell you to go out and spend $400 on this half-baked experience when the fully baked iPad experience can be had for just a few dollars more.'"
Who is Clayton Morris?
Of all the different reviews of the 10.1 on the net why is this short, incomplete article from some-one i've never heard of so important?
My favorite part was how he said he didn't like it. I also liked how all 65,000 apps were junk. Methinks there's an apple in his pocket.
Any reviewer who can say "Samsung has included about six apps of their own on top of the standard Android package. Subtract them and you're left with a bunch of shoddy applications that aren't really made for Honeycomb" and then never even discuss these apps is either a moron or an Apple fanboy. Since the review is on Fox News, I'd tend to the former. But I do tend to see this crap when ever somebody compares something to the iPad. One reviewer once said that the Blackberry pad was too small at 7" and then turned around and said another pad (I don't think it was the Tab, maybe the Zoom) was too large at 10.1". I do think Honeycomb is too soon and not ready, but these reviews are worse than useless.
This article sucked even by my nuthugging standards.
Ars Technica has a much more detailed review. All and all, it sounds like a nice device if you don't want an iPad.
The thing that struck me reading the review (and they commented on this very well) was just how much work seemed unfinished. A couple of times they mentioned "(blah blah blah) but Samsung says that will come in a future update." The amount of "it'll be here later" on the products launching lately seems horrible. How many features on the iPad were listed on the box and in the marketing material but didn't come out until a later software update? How many were there on the BlackBerry tablet? Even the Nintendo 3DS did this.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
If you want an iPad-like experience then OBVIOUSLY iPad is the way to go. Vice versa, if you want an Android experience Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a very good, solid choice.
Sheer flamebait article.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-review/
They griped about no SD card slot, but gave it a 8/10. I'd trust them a hell of a lot more than Clayton Morris...
"Slashdotters reviews the Clayton Morris review of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and finds it lacking, especially at the 400-word word count, saying 'I can't in good conscience tell you to go out and spend 14 seconds on this half-baked experience when the fully baked experience can be had for just a few seconds more.'"
No, I didn't RTFA, I just read the first 10 comments on this story and felt like being a little snotty.
they see me trollin
they hatin
Coincidentally, I was just playing with one at Best Buy today, and I have to say that it doesn't suck nearly as much as other iPad competitors. But that's somewhat damning it with faint praise. The interface is still much more sluggish and choppy than an iPad. The screen still doesn't feel nearly as precise. Given that the price is the same as the iPad, there really isn't any reason not to get an iPad, unless you really just hate Apple. Yes, it does run Flash (and the Flash ads work very well), but other than that, I didn't see anything it did that the iPad didn't do better. And they STILL haven't figured out that widescreen sucks for this form factor because it makes portrait orientation useless.
That said, it doesn't give nearly the "They have got to be kidding me with this piece of crap" feeling that previous attempts at iPad competitors give (like the Playbook, for example. My GOD what the hell were they thinking? Absolute garbage.)
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
He is just saying that Android's tablet app ecosystem sucks compared to Apple's, which is hard to argue against.
A fair review would compare hardware and how each OS performs. If the hardware and OS can compete with the iPad, it will attract the developers to give Android an experience competitive to Apple's.
Anybody noticed that text under their logo on that site? The review was like the very opposite..
and why is this a Slashdot story?
I can read the specs off the box and do a better review then this. this review (if you can call it that) is based more on the software "andriod" then on the hardware.
FTFR:
...Samsung has included about six apps of their own on top of the standard Android package. Subtract them and you're left with a bunch of shoddy applications...
What the hell does that even mean? Why would you 'subtract them'? If they suck, say so. But to just toss out a part of the product and say what's left is bad is just moronic.
There are a bunch of other Android apps, of course -- 65,000 of them or so -- but very few quality ones, and there are very few application developers who are really sinking their teeth into this platform at this to date.
So, there are 65,000 apps, but few developers? Also, he keeps going on and on about apps, but doesn't give a single example of what is wrong with even one of those apps, or what critical apps are missing. Who let this guy on the internet?
Whoever recorded that that video and posted it on the internet, doesnt know what deinterlace is. Oh well what did I expect from a tv website...
Vice versa, if you want an Android experience Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a very good, solid choice.
What is the "Android Experience"? Since so many vendors customize it, how can you say there even is one?
Or is the "Android Experience" a euphemism for a monk-like desire for a tablet with only a browser and contacts and nothing else to distract the mind?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Facebook chat has pretty much replaced IRC.
Sad fact, but that is the reality now. The number of people on IRC are dwindling fast.
I'd be happier if I could run windows 7 on it, and I'm sure there's a way
It's not as hard as you think. Just take the Windows 7 source code and recompile the whole thing for ARM. Sit back and enjoy a glass of root beer and let the compiler do the rest.
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
I've had an iPhone since the first one came out. .... It's just a phone with some extra features.
You make calls on your iPhone?
paintball
I thought IRC was for people who couldn't figure out torrents...
Kidding. I was around before both, and still remember what IRC stands for.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
Nice troll good sir.
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
I have nothing against Apple, in fact I love the Macbook Pro, but this is definitely a biased review. I bought a tablet a few months ago, and I set out for the store fully intending to buy an iPad2. After comparing all the tablets on hand, I came home with the Motorola Xoom. Honeycomb is awesome, and the hardware kills the iPad in every department. It also runs Flash, very well. You can jump on the bandwagon and bash Flash and pretend you don't need it, but the fact is that Flash is a very useful tool when used properly by competent developers, and there are plenty of things online I enjoy that require it. Now, I understand that the Xoom and the Galaxy are different devices, but the Xoom was SO much better than the iPad, that I find it really hard to believe that the Galaxy is as bad as this review tries to make it out to be.
Being a big iPhone that can't make phone calls?
Which is different from most Android tablets how? You can always use Skype, Facetime or one of IM clients that support video conferencing?
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
well, you were right up until that last bit. I do love me some fried chicken.
Exactly what I was thinking.
As someone who was looking for a tablet at the same time as the Galaxy Tab came out, I was not won over at all by it. Worse screen, plastic enclosure and higher price, no thanks. I went with and iPad and am quite happy with it. No way Samsung can win if they are going to play this game.
Interesting story. Sounds like pure FUD since you are suggesting that you could not find a free FTP client under 20MB in size? Really? If you did not completely make it all up then it sounds like the network connection on your Nexus One kept on crapping out before it could finish the download. Blame your shitty carrier or your shitty android phone that cannot maintain a stable tether.
BTW, were you trying to get photos off the iPad? You don't need FTP for that, just email them from within the photos app.
I would guess that your post was pure fiction.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Without Flash iPad is half-bake and half working. Who in the right mind buy an iPad just for game when it already available on phone, and who would buy an iPad for surfing when you can not watching flash in Facebook or Youtube.
Without apps, the android tablets are half baked. You might as well just get a cheap e-reader if apps don't matter to you.
Facebook and Youtube videos work very well. You can browse to a page on Youtube and the video will play just fine on the iPad. No flash needed.
The iPhone/iOS system has had a dedicated app for Youtube from the very beginning.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Are Fox reviews any more reliable than Fox news?
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Why are you on /.? Windows 7 on ARM? Hand over your geek card, and good luck trying to get Honeycomb to run on your obsoleted Galaxy Tab.
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
I'd rather drag an ancient phone box around on a trailer all day than install anything made by Apple Inc. (specifically iTunes and QuickTime) on my computer.
Many of the Android tablets are having trouble decoding H.264 at main profile without dropping frames. There seems to be some real systemic problem with these (iPad and even iPhone 4 have no such trouble).
Ah, that would explain why a shedload of Google and Sun employees use Macs. Or wait, it doesn't, it's just an AC spouting the usual stereotype ridicule.
I am sure an IRC client is bundled with some of the Gopher and Usenet News apps...
Stop your Adobe worship. Flash is dying a well-deserved death, Facebook will be targeting HTML 5 in the future and the YouTube app deals with the other part.
"Oh noes, I do not get annoying ads on my iPad, it must be broken!"
Personally, I think far too many people have got lost in all the hype & marketing over tablets without stopping to think about the possibility that maybe they're just gimmicks anyway, whether iPad or Galaxy Tab.
Smartphones provide a lot in the way of communications, IM and playing music, their weaknesses are down to the screen sizes if you want to play a reasonably good game or watch some video.
A notebook or netbook has the bigger screen to do that, plus it has they have tactile keyboards so you can do serious work on them - something a tablet is not very good at.
So whilst a tablet would fit somewhere between a smartphone and netbook, it clearly is unable to replace either which means it just becomes a third device to carry around with you. And I thought the whole premise behind portability was being able to carry around less.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
it seems the reason he doesn't like it, is he doesn't like android. many people do, so I assume if you like android devices, you'll like this
That's rather exactly the problem he's highlighting in the tab... The iPad has lots of apps tailored to it, much grander affairs than the iPhone versions (if such things even exist). The tab has a bunch of android apps that don't quite work right on it.
You're right – both phones and netbooks are better than tablets in some respects. But that doesn't mean that there's no niche a tablet fills.
Here's a few: ...
Meetings. If you go and sit behind a screen in a meeting you'll get ostracised from it. You'll not really take part in the meeting because of the barrier between you and everyone else. A tablet lying flat on the desk makes it easy to take/look up notes, but doesn't separate you out from everyone else.
Lectures. A netbook with its physical keyboard is great to take notes on, but the onscreen keyboard on a tablet is almost as good, and what happens when you want to draw the diagram your lecturer just drew on the white board, and what happens when you want to take a photo/video of the way the lecturer is explaining things.
Jobs where you're on your feet, and used to need a clipboard. People taking surveys (shudder), pitlane reporter for motorsport (the BBC's F1 reporters all have iPads, and I can honestly see the use of it),
Basically. Anywhere you used to need a big ring binder or book, now a tablet suffices instead, and I don't believe a netbook or a phone does.
Wow, the article seemed a bit biased, but your comment has convinced me that the tab doesn't compete with the iPad at all.
If the experience is so bad that first you modded it, and then you thought "actually windows on this would be better", there's something seriously wrong. The thing that made the iPad a thousand times more successful than its predecessor tablets was that it didn't use windows (or any desktop OS), and wasn't handicapped by its UI being designed for people with mice, and accurate pointing devices.
If honeycomb is so bad that you'd rather go back to that shitty world, the iPad must be a long way ahead.
I think your third example is the strongest one and I really cannot argue with that as a clear advantage of a tablet over anything else.
Lectures? I think I have to give you that one, I've not been in educational classes for more than a quarter of a century, I've grown up with a keyboard and am probably too old now to ever think a touchscreen is any where near as good - but the young whippersnappers of today seem to have lightning fingers when it comes to phone texting where I thinks it's much easier to make a phone call, so they are also a lot faster than I am on a touchscreen keyboard. So I can't speak for their preferences, for me a touchscreen would be slower.
Meetings? I disagree on that one - whether you're using a laptop or a tablet, your attention on the device is no different. Plus I frequently come across scenarios where someone else is presenting on a projector, a discussion results about a topic, one member of the audience says "Here, have a look at this" then plugs his laptop into the projector to show to the room - something you can't do with a tablet directly.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Meetings? I disagree on that one - whether you're using a laptop or a tablet, your attention on the device is no different. Plus I frequently come across scenarios where someone else is presenting on a projector, a discussion results about a topic, one member of the audience says "Here, have a look at this" then plugs his laptop into the projector to show to the room - something you can't do with a tablet directly.
The issue is more about having all the documentation you need there. Many people go into a meeting needing folders and folders of information on the stuff they're discussing. They need to be able to quickly drag it up and reference it, but not be separated from the meeting with it. And yes, at least the iPad can be plugged into a projector, you need one of these, but honestly, anyone going into a meeting with an iPad will have one, and any company that uses iPads regularly in meetings will likely have one attached to the projector.
Actually in every other country then US you can call with the Galaxy. They only took it out because carriers in US sux ;)
I think we have to just agree to disagree on that - it's interesting to see that an iPad VGA converter exists but then I could also argue why would I pay more money for a cable that converts to something that already exists on my laptop/netbook.
I think it really comes down to the fact that I see mobile OSes as precisely just that - ideal for working on small touchscreens, whether Android, iOS, Blackberry, whatever.
But anything bigger than that then I'm faster and more comfortable with a mouse and keyboard GUI and don't see why having to re-learn a new graphics interface just to do stuff that I can already do on a traditional laptop or netbook justifies the expense of a tablet.
Incidentally, I'm mostly a Linux person and whilst I've never used Ubuntu as my main distribution, I did quite like messing about with it occasionally until they brought in the Unity interface on the latest 11.04 release which, if you don't know, mimics Android and iPhone interfaces. I tried it and hated it immediately because it just doesn't work as a better replacement for a traditional keyboard and mouse on a "standard" sized computer screen.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I RTFA,
And can summarise it quite easily.
This new tablet is better, but it doesn't have iPad apps, therefore don't buy it.
Anyone see the problem here?
tablet + bluetooth keyboard == netbook with touchscreen
Which really means that whatever line is inbetween a tablet and a netbook is fairly blurry.
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
It was funny, but obviously full of b/s - the kind of b/s no one can be fooled by - makes it even more fun!
Being a big iPhone that can't make phone calls?
How about being a slimmer netbook that is designed to minimize the "I'm typing on a phone that can't make phone calls" laptop experience?
Just guessing, never used an iPad. I've always argued that it would be awkward for me, if others don't find it so and want to pay for it, why not? This story is Galaxy Tab vs iPad, so I think a much better question is what's the iPad experience that makes it different from a great Android phone vs an iPhone, translated to a tablet. I've never for a second felt I've missed out not having an iPhone with my Android phone, why should the iPad make me feel different?
Personally, I think far too many people have got lost in all the hype & marketing over tablets without stopping to think about the possibility that maybe they're just gimmicks anyway, whether iPad or Galaxy Tab.
Smartphones provide a lot in the way of communications, IM and playing music, their weaknesses are down to the screen sizes if you want to play a reasonably good game or watch some video.
A notebook or netbook has the bigger screen to do that, plus it has they have tactile keyboards so you can do serious work on them - something a tablet is not very good at.
So whilst a tablet would fit somewhere between a smartphone and netbook, it clearly is unable to replace either which means it just becomes a third device to carry around with you. And I thought the whole premise behind portability was being able to carry around less.
I'm sure people will have given specific reasons where a "tablet" fits in, but let's be honest: it's a gadget. If you have the money and desire, it takes little effort to find a way that it fits into your life. How many of us need $80-$90/mo cell phone plans? Speaking for myself, I didn't need a laptop, but the sofa and bed are more comfy than my desk (at least after sitting at my desk for long enough).
If you pull the "do we need this" argument, then there's not much to argue. I live with 7 irresponsible housemates (at my age, it's embarrassing but true), and no one wanted to take responsibility for PG&E, which is gas and electricity for those not residing on the US west coast. I warned power would go out eventually, and it did. Unfortunately no one learned a lesson in paying bills, but after a weekend without power, I learned that almost every power source we leave on (every light but the lamp next to anyone included), really isn't necessary. When power was restored, it almost felt wrong to turn any lights on.
The ONLY valid point he makes is that the iPad has better applications - and it's a good one but he also spent a lot of time mocking the Galaxy like you would expect from an Apple fan boy. FWIW: I was excited about the iPad 2 until I read about the camera that was worse than my iPhone 4. It just soured me to the device because it felt like a deliberate move from Apple. (Save the iPhone quality camera for next rev, it'll be a crowd pleaser) I can see Jobs now touting it's amazing picture quality. Not sure why this article was worthy of the front page, I'm sure if you spent 30 seconds on Google you could find a number of other fan boys ranting about the Galaxy.
unlike the iPad, many of the android tablets have HDMI ports. so yes, plugging in to a projector is easy.
Wait, an insistence that anybody cares about a niche geek feature AND a compulsive reference to an flaw in a consumer product as rape? Marry me!
Oh look! Someone, somewhere, has x opinion!
...posting crap stories on trashdot seems to be the norm these days.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Of course, TFA is about the new Galaxy Tab, which has a bigger screen.
My problem even with the bigger screen, though, is that it has the widescreen form factor, unlike the iPad. It's probably great for watching widescreen movies, but I never do that on a tablet. So as it stands, the onscreen keyboard takes up too much space in landscape (sideways) mode, and the screen feels too long and skinny when in portrait mode. The iPad's screen is more balanced.
Breakfast served all day!
unlike the iPad, many of the android tablets have HDMI ports. so yes, plugging in to a projector is easy.
Please. It is far more common to have a projector with a VGA port than an HDMI port unless if you are only talking about "new" projectors but anyway, an HDMI adaptor is available for the iPad 2 which not only mirrors the display but allows you to plug in a charger at the same time. With the iPad, you can plug in either the HDMI or VGA adaptor. If you only have an HDMI port then you would have to have an HDMI to VGA adapter which might be harder to find if you lost it and hand to get a new one.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
"Bigger" is relative. Many of the 10.1" widescreen tables have smaller surface area of screen than the 9.7" iPad at 4:3.
Each time that I listen to Rush Limbaugh, at some point in the show, he enthusiastically mentions his iPad and/or iPhone. It always seems a bit calculated and this "review" strikes me in the same manner.
The 3G model iPads are also capable of making phone calls but it just is not enabled in the firmware. So again, what is the OP's point?
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
The point that the previous poster made was that they didn't want to carry around adapters, which makes one of the android tablets with HDMI a better option than an iPad which needs an adapter. If you want VGA, you can probably use a VGA adapter to get an Android tablet to display that way too, and still be at the same place (no worse) than the iPad. I'm not sure how you think that it's easy to loose an HDMI to VGA adapter, but difficult to loose an iPad2 proprietary connector to VGA adapter? seems to me that they are both adapters subject to the same limitations...
As for your iPad2 adapter having the great "feature" of being able to charge the device at the same time... that's not needed on a device that has separate ports for separate functions like most Android tablets.
As for what ports projectors have, you're right that old projectors have VGA, and new ones have HDMI, some (many?) new projectors don't have VGA any more, standards change even a full laptop isn't guaranteed to have VGA anymore. Give it a couple years and you may have trouble connecting a VGA port to much of anything.
Cool story bro.
Yes, but the new Galaxy Tab definitely has a bigger screen than the old Galaxy Tab.
Breakfast served all day!
The iPad and Galaxy Tab 10.1, in fact, are not competitors. iPad is targeting the "no clue" part of users, and the Galaxy is targeting the geeky type of users. And i think the reviewer falls, hard, in the first category.
The Kindle has been a huge success and has put Amazon at the front of eBook marketing.
The fact that you always think of what apple does in the best possible way really does mark you as a fanboi.
You'd have much more credibility if you said "Yeah, Jobs tried to dismiss the Kindle, but he was either being wrong or a salesman. Doesn't matter, Apple for now has conceded that market."
I'm not exactly sure that "conceded" is correct. Amazon is the 800lb gorilla; but they have huge brand recognition as a bookseller anyway. That's like saying that Microsoft owns the word-processing and spreadsheet markets. They don't even have to try.
However, it may surprise you to know that, at 100 million (dollars? units?) sales, Apple is the third-largest e-book seller, even ahead of Borders. Apple has also identified this as "a market worth pursuing", and real-world advantages for people who own more than one iOS device (buy once, read everywhere, and "bookmark syncing" between devices) which Kindle simply can't match, may soon propel Apple to the top spot, or at least a very strong second place. Prices are reportedly much lower on Apple' bookstore than on Amazon's, as well.
Well Duh! This technical wizard seems to have scored the device based on the "Apple Experience" table... No iTunes and a completely open OS is SCARY for some of these folks... having to actually understand just a little about how the device works is way over their heads... Apparently he didn't understand that you just can't compare Oranges and Apples
Guys, this guy is more mainstream than 95% of Slashdot readers will ever be, Get over it. You don't need to know how to design a car engine to know when a car is under powered. Reviews for the general population should be written by people who are from the general population, not by techies with an axe to grind.
But it's comments like these that show that he has no clue:
For instance, there are very few good Twitter clients, and very few news readers. Want to browse headlines? You'll be hard pressed here.
Why does he want lots of good twitter clients? Or lots of news readers? How many different twitter clients do need? His core example of the platform failing is that there aren't lots of duplicate apps, that's just moronic and pointless.
FWIW I have an ipad (first one) and outside of the web browser i don't really use many apps so the platform isn't really relevant to me.
-.- Get this s**t off slash dot
That was the least fact filled review ever. "There are lots of good things about the Galaxy but none of them are important, and besides, it's not an iPad."
Why the fuck is this shit even on /.?
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-Convertible-Multi-touch-Windows/dp/tech-data/B004NWL244
There are better solutions especially if you want the horsepower of a laptop while still having a decent touchscreen.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?