Samsung Galaxy Tab: Hands On

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the first Android tablet I can take seriously. It's well-built, elegant, and fast. No, Android 2.2 doesn't fit as perfectly onto a tablet as Apple's iOS does. But at the right price, this may provide the first real challenge Apple has had in the U.S. tablet market.

I received a few minutes with the Galaxy Tab at its launch event Thursday, and I was impressed with its performance. The hardware feels solid and comfortable to hold. The edges are a bit squarish, the corners are rounded, and the metal back is smooth. At 13 ounces, it didn't bend my wrist, at least in the short time I got to use it.

Android isn't made for the tablet form factor, so tablet manufacturers have generally resorted to hacking the system. Samsung's hacks are elegant, at least. They don't remove the Android Market; if you download apps that don't fit the 1024-by-600 screen, they just appear with a black border around them. Since many apps are designed for the 854-by-480 screens of Motorola Droids, the border isn't all that huge.

Most of Samsung's software work seems to have gone into changing the PIM apps and Web browser to better use the 7-inch screen. The calendar app looks a lot like a day planner, the contacts app makes heavy use of tabs, and the browser's UI has been subtly and pleasantly altered.

I had more mixed feelings about Samsung's Media Hub video store. The good news is that it worked quickly, and downloaded video looked very sharp. But the selection wasn't that great, prices were pretty high, and the app's interface generally looks like a beta—lots of white space and default fonts.

Unfortunately, Samsung left out one very important mystery: the price. The Samsung Galaxy Tab might be a great seller at $299 plus data for $20 per month, with no contract. But I think it's safe to say that it wouldn't do so well at $599 plus $60 per month for data. Samsung was so coy about pricing, in fact, that I started to believe the carriers haven't set their pricing yet. But that doesn't excuse Samsung for not giving a price for the Wi-Fi model, which will be sold without a wireless carrier.

I'm looking forward to getting units into PCMag Labs to test. Tim Gideon, our tablet expert, will do the review, but I'll be looking over his shoulder.

Tim Gideon contributed to this story.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 11:15am Eastern to clarify the Tab's weight.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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