Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

I only just recently became a tablet convert thanks to HP’s firesale. I now understand the appeal of having a dedicated “media consumption” device, and I especially love the battery life my phone gets when I do most of my computing from a tablet.

Since, I’ve had the pleasure of playing with Xooms, Transformers, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Out of all the Android tablets, I think Samsung has the best combination of sexy hardware and smooth user experience, and the GTab10.1 is the best of the breed. Mitchell got hands-on with one a little while back.

Well Samsung is waging war on screen sizes, and along with releasing 10.1, and 7 inch screen sizes, they have also released an interesting in-betweener.

The Galaxy Tab 8.9.

First things first.

Dammit this thing is thin.

No really. This thing is a fraction of a millimeter thinner than the Epic Touch (Galaxy S II). We’re getting to a point where the devices on Star Trek: The Next Generation look comically bulky.

Within this pencil-thin shell you’ll find the exact same guts as its bigger brother:
1280×800 screen resolution
Dual core 1GHz Tegra 2 CPU
1GB RAM
2MP front facing camera & 3MP rear camera
Support for 2.4GHz and 5GHz wifi
Android 3.1 OS

The Tab8.9 has a smaller battery (6100mAh vs the 10.1’s 7000mAh battery), but the slightly smaller screen should help offset some of that battery draw. The 8.9 does include Bluetooth 3.0 instead of the 10.1’s 2.1+EDR, but I’m not sure how many people will really notice the difference.

I just can’t state enough how thin this thing is. It’s almost half the thickness of my Touchpad. It’s insane. The 8.9 is just enough smaller overall to hold in the hand easier than any other “large” tablet I’ve ever used. Even its super thin big brother feels a little heavy in the hand. This is the first tablet since the iPad 2 that’s really made my jaw drop.

The front is dominated by screen (of course), and the back is a matte finished plastic. At first I was a little bummed that a higher quality material, like aluminum, wasn’t used; but this should handle abuse better. I’m just happy Samsung fought the urge to use a glossy material like the Touchpad. At least the back of the tablet wont be a fingerprint magnet…

The bottom of the Tab in landscape features pretty incredible stereo speakers, and a 30-pin dock connector–bummer that it’s not a more standard micro-USB. Samsung is so dedicated to using the device in landscape that the volume rocker on “top” of the device functions “backwards” from a phone’s volume rocker. This is confusing when using the device in portrait as “down” increases volume and “up” the opposite. A little disappointing that there are no other ports. HDMI, USB host, or a MicroSD card slot would’ve been appreciated, but would’ve made the device thicker, probably.

The cameras are a bit average. The front facing cam is great for video conferencing. The rear camera feels about two generations behind the camera in the Galaxy S II. It’ll be fine for the odd snap shot, or to shoot a little video, but this isn’t really the kind of device you’re going to rely on for photography. This high contrast pic of Biggelow fared well.

The screen is a little slice of fantastic. It’s not SAMOLED, but it’s genuinely one of the better LCD’s I’ve ever used. Bright, crisp, it has great saturation, and some of the best viewing angles you’ll see this side of a Kindle. Resolution is higher than the iPad’s, so pixel pitch is fantastic. Text and fine detail look incredible.

Even though the battery is smaller than that of it’s big brother, all day use of the device hasn’t been an issue. I’ve been hitting it pretty hard, streaming movies from Netflix, 3D gaming, and it’s lasting till bed time. That’s good enough for me.

Android 3.1 is something of an odd duck. Having seen the early hands-on videos for Ice Cream Sandwich, Honeycomb really does look and feel a little half-baked, a missing link OS. Performance is actually very good, it just doesn’t “feel” very good. Those used to the buttery experience of an iPad, or even the slick transitions of webOS, will probably be disappointed here. Sliding between home screens, pulling up the app drawer, they all suffer from choppy transitions. The job is getting done just as quickly as on high end phones, but it “feels” laggy.

Touchwiz is loaded on the tablet, but thankfully it’s less intrusive than on Samsung phones. I like softening up some of the “Tron” feel of stock Honeycomb, and the extra widgets are certainly appreciated.

Once in an app, performance is generally excellent, and the app catalog is getting more tablet friendly day by day. Google’s apps are pretty fantastic, and we’re starting to see more apps prepped for ICS, with side panels and sliding transitions. Gaming performance is almost Galaxy S II good. No small feat considering how much higher resolution the screen is. I would highly recommend picking up ShadowGun to show off the Tegra’s graphical prowess.

So here it is.

The most refined Honeycomb experience to date. It lacks many of the features of other tablets, things like crazy keyboard docks and memory card slots, but as a standalone device it’s head and shoulders above any other Android tablet I’ve used. The 8.9 inch display and super slim form factor are an ergonomic dream.

Thanks to the app situation, I’m already using the GTab more than my Touchpad. It is a more capable device, but I can’t help but feel it’s not quite as polished as it should be. I’m never one to support buying a device for what it might do in the future, but Samsung’s recent announcement that it will be getting ICS makes the GalaxyTab 8.9 a much safer recommendation. I’m fairly confident that the support for graphics acceleration in Android 4 should help smooth out some of the OS choppiness. I can’t guarantee that of course, but it seems likely.

If you’re in the market for an Android tablet, this is the one I would recommend, even over the also great GTab 10.1. Now hopefully it gets a software update soon to help it live up to its gorgeous hardware…

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