Comments on: Hardware Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab (7″ model)

By: Brandon Kessler

Brandon Kessler — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:00:00 +0000

There’s no need to root, for GoLauncher and ADW, but rooting and throwing on CyanogenMod would have been interesting. I’d also clarify that you were talking about the Original iPad. iPad pretty much encompasses the whole, sort of like how Playstation or Xbox is understood to mean either the originals, or the current gens. Good article, other than that.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:32:00 +0000

I totally get that the 10.1 is an ideal match for the iPad 2, but this was supposed to be a match for the original iPad and still can’t get it done.

The unit was lent to us by Samsung, so I didn’t mess with root, just the out-of-the-box experience.

By: Brandon Kessler

Brandon Kessler — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 19:31:00 +0000

The Galaxy Tab is $369 at Amazon, whilst the iPad 2 is 419 for the WiFi 16GB model. The audience that Samsung is shooting for is a very niche group, usually those who want something larger than a phone to read on, but not an e-reader, and they want it cheap.
If you are going to make comparisons, then the the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is more akin to an iPad than this is. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 features a Dual Core Processor, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, Android 3.1 (with a complete UI reworking for Tablets). The Tab 10.1 also features an AMOLED display, which is probably one of the best out of all the Android Tablets.
As far as your UI concerns go, you can replace the stock launcher with GoLauncher EX, ADW Launcher, or LauncherPro, and increase the dedicated buttons from 3 to 5, or even 3 sets of 5 (GoLauncher EX and Launcher Pro). That would also allow you to customize which screen is the “Home” screen. Those also allow you to change how many Columns are available for use. GoLauncher EX and ADW Launcher are both free, so there’s no added spending to improve upon the UI. And, generally speaking, ADW or GoLauncher are a much smoother experience the Froyo. Gingerbread stock launcher was the first to really use Hardware Acceleration.