With Apple having lost its High Court bid to block the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, Samsung's flagship tablet has finally gone on sale here officially – but how does it actually stack up? We received our review unit of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the online retailer MobiCity, which imported the tablet into Australia even while Samsung was banned from selling it – and, generally, we were quite impressed. Apple claimed that Samsung had ‘slavishly copied’ the iPad 2 and at first glance, the similarity between the two is undeniable, with the black gloss bezel and silver edging, and both exceptionally thin. Side-by-side, however, there are clear differences.
The dimensions and aspect ratio for a start are different, with Galaxy Tab using the default Android ratio of 16:10, compared with the iPad’s 4:3 ratio. And despite its 10.1in screen, the Galaxy Tab is lighter than iPad 2, weighing just 564 grams. The Galaxy Tab’s stereo speakers are another positive point of differentiation. However, like the iPad 2, the 10.1 lacks ports other than the basic 3.5mm headphone socket and USB/power dock.
Like most Android tablets, the Galaxy Tab features the 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 and doesn’t play 720p video as smoothly as the iPad. We tried both the on-board player and MoboPlayer with no noticeable improvement. Samsung has also added a new user interface layer called TouchWiz over the top of Honeycomb (Android 3.1), and while it looks great, it seems to make the tablet less responsive so we’re not sold on it yet.
The Galaxy Tab's recommended retail pricing is exactly the same as the iPad's: A$579 for the 16GB WiFi version and A$729 for the 16GB 3G. At these prices, we think the iPad is the better option with its responsiveness and unmatched range of apps and games. If you'd prefer an Android tablet, Motorola's Xoom 32GB WiFi is currently better value at $399, though it's significantly bulkier than the Galaxy Tab.
