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Why The Samsung Galaxy Tab Is Better Than The iPad

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is touted as an iPad rival. Many wonder whether this 7-inch tablet really has the potential to take on the iconic 9.7-inch Apple iPad. And now that the price of this Samsung tablet has been announced, many are unhappy that it is costlier than the Apple tablet. However, here are a few reasons why the Galaxy Tab is a better tablet than the iPad, and why its price is justified.

Samsung Galaxy Tab vs. Apple iPad

Multi-tasking

The Apple iPad, which runs the iOS, cannot truly multi-task. No applications can run in the background, when the user is at work on another application in the foreground. Even if the iPad gets an update to iOS 4, which supports multi-tasking, this will be limited to native apps only. Third party apps (like Facebook, Twitter, or music apps like Pandora) cannot run at the same time when another app is being run. On the other hand, the Galaxy Tab, which runs Android 2.2 or Froyo, is capable of multi-tasking. This includes running 3rd party apps in the background too.

Flash Support

The Apple tablet does not support Adobe Flash. Instead, it uses HTML 5, to play certain online videos. The Samsung tablet is compliant with both Flash (10.1) as well as HTML 5.

Camera

The iPad lacks a camera. In case the user requires camera functionality, then a separate camera dock has to be purchased, which allows connecting to an external camera. The Galaxy Tab, on the other hand, has 2 cameras. A 3MP one on the rear for capturing videos and photographs; and a 1.3MP one in the front, for video calls.

Making calls

The Apple gear cannot make calls. The Samsung gear allows making calls, both voice and video. For voice calls, the integrated loudspeaker or Bluetooth headsets can be used.

MicroSD card storage

The iPad is available in 3 internal storage configurations – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. They do not have microSD card storage. Whereas, the Galaxy Tab, offers just 2 internal memory configurations – 16GB and 32GB. There is however a microSD card slot which can hold cards of up to 32GB capacity.

Portability

The Samsung tablet weighs just 380g, when compared to the 730g of the iPad. Plus, it is smaller in size, which makes it more travel friendly, than the iPad.

Ergonomics

Finally, coming to something that is not very obvious at first sight. When it comes to entertainment, the iPad definitely does a brilliant job. But, when it comes to doing work, it is quite uncomfortable. If the user needs to prepare documents, presentations, or work on spreadsheets and more on the iPad, he would find it quite inconvenient to use. Consider the following ways of holding and working on the iPad:-

• Putting the device on a desk, flat on its back – The user will not be able to rest his hands comfortably, as he will need to continually keep lifting them to work-with or touch something present on the top of the screen. So he’ll have to keep his wrist suspended in the air, in-order to use the entire screen. And this is not ergonomic when working for long hours. Another thing to be noted is that, the iPad has a curvature on its back. Hence, the user will have to hold it steady as well, when working on it.

• Holding the tablet in both hands, while resting them on the desk, and using the thumbs to work on it – In this case, the hands are more relaxed, but since the tablet is too large in size, the thumbs might not be able to cover the entire surface of the touchscreen.

• Keeping the tablet on the lap – This might seem comfortable, but only for a short duration. The user might not be able to rest his elbows comfortably when working in this manner.

On the other hand, the Samsung gadget, can be put on the desk, flat on its back, to work upon. It has a flat back, that can rest stably on the table. The screen is smaller in size, and hence, it will be more convenient to touch any point, without having to continually lift the hands. Plus, when it is held in both hands, while resting them on the desk, the thumbs can be used to operate it, more easily, than the rival.

The Galaxy Tab can do almost everything that the iPad can

• The Samsung tablet is suitable for entertainment. It can play 1080p videos. It is as well compatible with a large variety of music file formats.

• It can also double as an eBook reader, like the iPad. Samsung is developing a new eBook store for this tablet too.

• One can even play games on this device. There’s support for augmented reality.

• Speed-wise as well, the Galaxy Tab is expected to match the iPad, as it is driven by a 1GHz processor, just like the latter.

• Multi-touch ability is offered by the smaller tablet too.

• Apps and games can be downloaded from the Android Market. The Apple App Store is definitely much bigger in size, but the Android Market does have a great collection of apps and games too.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab price has been published in some online stores. It costs £620 approximately, which is lesser than the £699 of the WiFi+3G+64GB Apple iPad. This iPad configuration is the one that comes closest to offering all features that are available in the Galaxy Tab. Then again, with this Apple tablet, you’ll need to pay an extra £25 for the camera kit.

Considering that you get WiFi, 3G ability, Bluetooth 3.0, camera functionality, voice and video calling, multitasking, better ergonomics and more for £620, the deal seems worth it.

Image courtesy
Arvid from Flickr

About the author
This guest post has been contributed by Trinity Nick from the UK. Being a techno-freak, she enjoys reviewing mobile phones and laptops that are released in the UK market.

9 replies on “Why The Samsung Galaxy Tab Is Better Than The iPad”

No problem with the author liking the Galaxy Tab, the iPad facts need a bit more research. The iPad runs built-in applictions in background from day one. The iOS4.2 update will exactly allow third party apps such as Pandora to run in the background as well.

Cheers!

Great story, but just that: a story. With 25,000 iPad specific apps, many of which amazingly useful in business, a 9.7″ screen and 64GB memory I say that my iPad 3G simply blows the Galaxy away, regardless of price. Multitasking is around the corner, as is printing and better file management. These days when I travel, which I do a lot, I don’t even take a laptop anymore! I was a hardcore Windows guy, starting with 1.0, with a short detour into Solaris, but then came iPhone, next came iPad, then a Macbook Pro, and now I am going to switch my whole company to Apple; they simply have the best completely integrated computing and communications solution out there.

Btw, I have yet to see a useful app actually demonstrated on an Android pad.

Haha the ipad is gonna kick this chicken tab away , come on 7″ and 800×480 res …isnt the galaxy S a better choice then? Pointless doing just 3″ bigger display then the galaxy s phone and with the same res.. In my oppinion there are several things why you should get an ipad instead of this. And whats up with the ” the galaxy tab is more travel friendly” ye because its so fuckin small to be a worthy tablet! its just a shame rather then a good thing in this case!

And the camera talk… Come on really? Whats the point of that discussion? Who da fuck will use a friggin 7″ camera to take pictures with? Buy a galaxy s instead, it has 5mp camera with better quality and you can call phonecalls with it I kinda foolish to say its better then an ipad because it has cameras (front & back) if you are into cameras buy a travel friendly cellphone with better cameras instead!

And multitasking you guys havent heard of p0ison jailbreak for iOS 3.2.2 then, and the upcoming offical release of the 4.2 will have multitasking built in and much more great things.

I have to agree with that the ipad is a better device. #1- the ipad is bigger and therefore it is easier to handle and work your way around on. #2- The ipad has countless apps that are multi-user friendly whereas the tab doesn’t even have a 4th of the # of apps. #3- An ipad is an entertainment deivice, not a phone or camera, so therefore it doesn’t need a freaking phone or camera, who would want to carry around a 10in camera anyways? And lastly, #4- The ipad was an original idea. The tab is obviously an eager copy off of the ipad with a whole ton of needless shit thrown on it to make it seem a technological masterpiece, when in actuality, the tab is just a stolen idea off of the ipad.

Wow, the Apple fanboys are really juicing out teh hate on teh interwebz.

Tablets have been around LONG BEFORE Apple got their grubby little claws into the market.

If Apple spent as much money on creating innovative, NEW products as they do on I/me/my product is myself-lifestyle-marketing, they would not be the laughing stock of the industry.

Time for them to come up with something new instead of leeching off ideas that were already present and then having the balls to base their ENTIRE marketing campaigns on the lie that THEY were the ones who invented such “revolutions”.

Ugh.

I am madly in love with Steve Jobs!! He invented technology and changed my life forever! If the whole world would be an iDouche like me then we’d never have anything bad happen. We could just live our lives super duper happy and make excuses for every poorly engineered, feature lacking product just like I do for crApple! Im super happy about how Apple deliberately leaves out obvious features from their first generation products and then spoon feeds me a couple at a time with the next 10 revisions! I mean, if they put everything we wanted into the first device I wouldn’t be able to donate to the Holy Church of Jobs anymore and then I’d be so sad! Well, gotta run now, this website for my cat won’t build itself! (Typed on my Galaxy Tab but only cause I’m outside and my awesome, killer, perfect, revolutionary, groundbreaking, never before conceived iPad overheated….)

o these guys are just really obsessed with apple ipad they really dint realize how wonderful is the tab rather than that old ipad.hahaha;-)
sent through my galaxy tab p1000

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