The Samsung Galaxy Tab was unveiled yesterday and it has definitely exceeded the expectations of many. The device runs Android 2.2, gets you phone and video calling, brings Flash and extends Samsung’s impressive Galaxy series to the tablet space. So how does it compare with the market leader in this space? Let’s see.
Display : Considering that tablet computers are meant for media consumption more than creation, and also that they are also widely used by people on the go, the dimension has to be larger than smartphones but need to be sufficiently smaller than netbooks and notebooks. Samsung has got it perfect on this end. Not only does the 7″ display screen make it easy to handle, it is also portable. You can simply carry your Tab in your jacket. Not quite simple with a 9.7″ device. Also, the Galaxy Tab comes with a TFT LCD WSVGA display which is quite comparable with the iPad’s. The iPad has marginally higher resolution (1024×768) but when you take into account the larger display area of the iPad, the Galaxy Tab actually comes good here.
Winner : Galaxy Tab
Hardware : The chip processors used in the two devices are pretty comparable. The A8 Cortex processor on Galaxy Tab runs at 1.0GHz very similar to the A4 processor. However, it has been speculated in the past that Apple may have actually clocked down the processor speed in the iPad to offer a larger battery life. Considering that the iPad does not support true multitasking, this works good for the device. Besides the processor, another area where the Galaxy Tab wins is the RAM capacity which is double the iPad RAM of 256MB. Storage capacities are not too different. While the iPad offers up to 64GB flash drive storage, the Tab provides similar storage capacities through external slots. Battery life is better on the iPad though. It offers 10 hours of media playback in comparison to the Tab’s 7 hours. But as I said before, there could be a compromise with the processor performance.
Winner : None
Camera : Well, nothing to speak about for the iPad. The Galaxy Tab comes with two cameras – a front facing 1.3-megapixel camera for video calling and another rear facing camera with 3-megapixel resolution that is supported by Auto-focus functionality and LED Flash.
Winner : Galaxy Tab
Platform : The Galaxy Tab runs on the latest Android OS that comes with several exciting functionalities and is definitely a better platform than the iOS. Firstly, it supports true multitasking. Secondly, it can run most applications – including Adobe Flash.
More importantly, you can use Samsung Galaxy Tab’s Wi-Fi hotspot feature to offer your iPhone friends Wi-Fi coverage if they will ever need to use FaceTime on the move.
Winner : Galaxy Tab
Connectivity : Again, the Galaxy Tab does not miss out anything that the iPad has – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,etc. In addition to this, the Tab also includes a 30 pin dock connector to support microSD support.
Winner : Galaxy Tab (marginally)
Applications : The iPad wins here by numbers – 250,000 vs. 50,000. But seriously, how many apps does one need? A survey shows iPhone users have not more than 65 apps on their device. Even if you are going to assume that the numbers are going to double or triple on the iPad, it is still insignificant. 50,000 is a large enough collection and these should suffice most of your everyday needs.
Winner : iPad
So what did we miss out on? The price. There are no official numbers for the Galaxy Tab, but rest assured Samsung should be pricing the device comparable to the iPad and so expect not too much of a deviation.
Overall, what do you think? Is it safe to assume that the Galaxy Tab is miles ahead of the iPad?