Samsung Galaxy Tab - Review

“Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has enough high-end multimedia, internet and app features to seriously tempt iPad buyers - Tab can also make telephone calls. Just watch out for niggles like its poor battery life and low-quality camera”

A tablet PC with a telephone

Galaxy Tab is smaller than Apple's iPad

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the major rival to the famous Apple iPad, both technically mini PCs known as “tablets”.

But why is Mobilechoices.co.uk reviewing a tablet PC?

Because Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has one major advantage over the iPad - it can actually make telephone calls - just like a normal mobile phone or smartphone.

Tab let me make telephone calls in three ways:

1. While connected to a Bluetooth headset
2. By talking into its microphone
3. While holding the tablet to my ear.

Chatting to friends while Tab was wirelessly connecting to a Bluetooth headset was ideal because it offered good voice quality and handsfree freedom - useful when there’s washing up to do.

Tab itself can also multitask while making telephone calls. This meant I could rest the tablet on my lap, chat to friends and simultaneously play videogame Angry Birds.

Call quality diminished slightly when talking into Tab’s microphone, but I was more put off my how silly and similar I looked to comedian Dom Joly in the giant phone sketch.

Using it to listen to music also provides a fair level of the embarrassment factor.

Imagine standing on the bus and having to pull a 7in screen from your pocket or bag each time you want to change tracks - it quickly gets tiresome.

A 3Mp camera for stills and videos

More colour options would be nice

Galaxy Tab runs Google’s Android operating system, so operates in much the same way as popular Android-based smartphones including the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro and HTC Desire HD.

Many popular Android apps come pre-installed on Galaxy Tab and many more can be downloaded from Android Marketplace.

My favourite was Google Maps because browsing unfamiliar locations on a 7in screen - compared to my iPhone’s 3.5in screen - made navigation far easier.

When it comes to surfing the internet, Galaxy Tab is a viable alternative to smartphones and laptops because the tablet’s large touchscreen made tapping on tiny hyperlinks much easier. I didn’t need a mouse, either!

It’s worth noting that Galaxy Tab supports Flash - very handy if you play videogames and watch videos online. The iPad, famously, doesn’t support Flash.

Tab’s pre-installed web browser occasionally momentarily froze up. This was a pain because it meant the browser couldn’t keep up with what I was doing, like typing in a URL. Better web browsers are available from Android Market.

Samsung claims that Galaxy Tab has a seven-hour gadget battery life and, on the whole, the tablet met this claim.

Store files to the HDD or memory card

Ok from a distance, but dull close up

However, I never got more than four hours of movie playback time from the battery. Even then I had to switch off all wireless connections, such as wi-fi, and significantly dim the screen’s brightness.

Videos looked lovely on the Tab, I thought, with its screen proving just the right size for movies stored on its (albeit small) internal hard drive or TV shows streamed from BBC iPlayer.

Just don’t expect great quality still pictures and videos from the Tab’s rear-mounted camera, because at 3Mp - quality wasn’t mind-blowing.

A useful and free piece of software - known as Samsung Kies - is also available for Tab that makes the process of moving multimedia content onto the tablet from your PC pretty painless.

Find your perfect Samsung Galaxy Tab deal

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