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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.'"
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?
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.
Per Wikipedia:
"Clayton Morris (born December 31, 1976) is a current co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend on Fox News Channel and a former co-host of the syndicated The Daily Buzz. In addition to his work at FNC, Morris runs a media consulting company called Action Now Consultant Group. Morris has also appeared as a guest host of CNET's Podcast The 404. Morris co-hosts a weekly podcast with childhood friend, professional wrestler Mike Quackenbush called The Grizzly Bear Egg Cafe. Every Friday Morris hosts Gadgets & Games on Strategy Room on the Fox website."
In other words, a guy who has no credentials except media wanker. And he likes iPads.
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.
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...
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.
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?
I haven't read the article and don't care to. But I'd like to note, my guy wanted to avoid the iPad and was all for Android. He tried some Viewsonic tablet. He had problems with the screen quality and the pressure-sensitive screen instead of a capacitive screen. And other general problems. Then he tried an Archos 70. He had problems with the sound and viewing angles, and some weird overheating issue. Then he got a Motorola Xoom. The memory card slot has an I-O-U on it, promising it will work one day even though the package says it has a memory card slot now. He also said it was slow to respond and had a dark screen. Finally he got an iPad. While it's not perfect, he's finally happy. All the while, his Android phone is flaking out.
So maybe the article is bad. But it is possible Apple has the best tablet, at least for some people, even if they're biased in favor of Android.
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.