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Archive for November, 2010
Galaxy Tab Vs iPad
Nov 24th
With the Samsung Galaxy Tab having just been released, more than 6 months after the iPad you would expect it to be better than the iPad in almost every way. So, is it?
Storage
The Galaxy starts with 16GB of storage just like the iPad but it has the addition of a MicroSD slot which means that simply by carrying a couple of tiny cards with you it can be expanded infinitely. This is one of the biggest gripes with Apples iPad (and iPhone for that matter) and it makes the Galaxy a winner on the storage front.
Build
In contrast to some of Samsungs recent mobile phones the Galaxy Tab actually feels really well built, it’s contrasting black front and white back looks good and although slippery on fabric surfaces it sticks nicely in your hand and feels solid enough to not worry about knocking it off the table, that doesn’t mean you can go chucking it about though.
Screen
The Galaxy has a beautiful LCD screen, it’s bright and vibrant and looks fantastic, although the resolution is lower than that of the iPad because of the smaller screen that means that the ppi is actually higher and you can tell. The Samsungs screen looks clearer and definitely more crisp and watching video on this device is a delight.
The problem however is that the 7″ screen is simply not the right size for a tablet. When browsing the web you still have to zoom and scroll as you would on a smart phone, don’t get me wrong, it’s better than a smart phone but a 10″ screen shows so much more of the page that this just feels like a compromise.
Price
This is where the Galaxy really fails, Samsung don’t have the desirability of Apple so the Galaxy needs to offer something more than the iPad as the price is roughly the same as the iPad 3G. It does have dual cameras, can display flash websites and can make calls however it also has a smaller screen, the software lags at times and it simply can’t compete on the app front, the built in apps are so similar to the iPad as to feel like a cheap knock off and some of the current Android apps don’t seem to scale particularly well to the larger screen. In contrast the iPad already has a vibrant app store of native apps and is only going to get better.
Software
A tough one, I think iOS is a bit limited on the iPad, still no multi tasking and no flash but iOS does work smoothly and is definitely easy to use. The built in apps are good and the ones available on the app store range from awful to awesome and everywhere in between. As Android isn’t built to work on devices with a 7″ screen it doesn’t seem to be at its best, some of the apps seem stretched but as more 7″ Android devices come and developers start building apps specifically for the Galaxy I can see the apps catching up with the iPad in the not too distant future.
Conclusion
It seems a confused device to me, is it meant to be carried everywhere in place of your phone or is it meant to be like a netbook to be carried around when needed as an addition to the phone? The 7″ screen is obviously easier to use than a smartphone and can have much better apps due to having more screen real estate but currently those apps simply aren’t there and the Galaxy suffers because of it.
Whether or not you buy this over an iPad is going to largely depend on your use of the device. If you plan to carry the device everywhere and maybe even replace your phone with it then obviously it has to be the Galaxy Tab but if you plan to sit on the couch surfing the web, keeping in contact via facebook or take it on the road as and when needed then I think the iPad is still the one to have.
iPad 2 rumors
Nov 10th
We’ve been hearing a lot of talk about the second iPad so we thought it might be a good idea to chuck all the rumors that we’ve heard into one page and see what you guys think.
1) 7 inch version.
It’s not going to happen, Steve Jobs has already come out and said that Apple did extensive testing on the screen size and 9.7 inches is the size, apparently 7 inches is just too darn small.
2) dual dock connectors
We really hope this one is true, it’s a pain if you need to dock the thing and then use it in horizontal orientation whilst docked, below is the Apple patent application with the dual dock clearly visible. Unfortunately this was registered before the release of the original iPad leading many people to speculate that it’s simply something that Apple decided not to run with, fingers crossed that they simply decided to leave it out to announce it as “one more thing” in the new model as Mr Jobs is fond of doing.
3) Cameras
We can’t believe that the new iPad will be missing a front facing camera for face time, the question for us is whether or not it has dual cameras and if so what MP will they be. My guess would be similar to the current iPhone 4 cameras with a VGA front facing camera for face time and a 5MP rear camera for HD recording, they could easily leave this out though.
4) More power
A no-brainer, of course it’s going to be beefed up a bit, most likely it will be placed just ahead of the current iPhone but should at least be in line with the current iPhone 4 specs of 512MB RAM and the 750MHz A4 processor.
5) More Storage
This ones a bit more tricky to asses, It makes sense to upgrade the top model to have 128GB of storage but then do you ditch the 16GB model and start at 32GB or do you make 4 different models?
We’re not sure what the percentage of sales is per model but we’re pretty sure that the 16GB one is the most popular so unless they plan on bringing the price of the 32GB one down to that of the 16GB now then we could find it staying at 64GB for now.
6) Retina Display
Many people think that the Retina Display on the iPhone is going to find it’s way into the iPad, We can’t see the iPad getting >300ppi as the resolution would need to be huge to make that work and the CPU/GPU might not be able to cope, let alone the increased drain on the battery. We’re reasonable sure that the iPad will get a bump of some sort though.
7) Pre Christmas release
Can’t see this one either! Apple likes to have a yearly refresh on it’s devices so why break the habit of a lifetime? It’s not like the other tablets that are out are far in advance of the iPad technology wise or feature wise, the current iPad still has the best apps and still has the Apple desirability so expect the second generation iPad to be announced in January and released in April / May as with the original.
That’s it for the rumor mill for today but if you hear of any rumors then please do not hesitate to leave a comment and let us all know about them, we’ll give our opinions on anything you mention.