Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review

The first true Honeycomb tablet went on sale yesterday -- preorders for most folks and actual hardware for people lucky enough to be in New York and close to the Best Buy Union Square. I got the 16GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi late Tuesday afternoon, from Samsung for review. I highly anticipated the Tab 10.1, simply because it's not iPad, it packs Android 3.1 "Honeycomb" and has impressive hardware specs.

A Matter of Dimensions

First impressions are everything with any new product. What's it like coming out of the box? Bad first impressions and the negative buzz that followed it doomed Windows Vista. People waited too long for the OS to boot up and then they were assaulted by seemingly endless popups whenever installing software or going on the Web. Vista wasn't a bad operating system, it just had a bad rap. First impression was major reason. Galaxy Tab 10.1 failed to impress me out of the box. I don't like the dimensions. I find the Tab to be too long and too narrow. It's more rectangular than iPad 2. But I'm not making a comparison to iPad 2 here. This is about Tab 10.1, which feels top-heavy to me, even when held in both hands. It's 10.1-inches length-wise (wide when held horizontally). That also makes the tablet feel overly wide in landscape mode. I haven't handled the Motorola XOOM, but based on the specs, it's narrower than iPad 2 but about as long (wide), so the rectangular shape isn't as severe as Galaxy Tab 10.1. This size thing is subjective, and perhaps other users won't mind. But it bugs me. I haven't done the math, but it's possible the dimensions are meant to more align with the 7-inch Galaxy Tab and/or Android smartphones, which conceptually would benefit apps running on the larger screen. It's about how they scale. Dimensions aside, I like how the Galaxy Tab 10.1 feels compared to iPad 2. Tab 10.1's plastic back feels smoother and warmer to touch than iPad 2. Weight is about the same, but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is lighter when Apple's tablet is outfitted with the Smart Cover, which increases the cold, metallic feeling compared to Tab 10.1's smoothness. I may adjust to the dimensions -- this is after all a first impressions review.