218 of 239 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good tablet in 10" range, could have been better, July 7, 2013
By
This review is from: Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (10.1-Inch, White) (Personal Computers)
There are too many tablets these days, right?! Samsung's third
generation of Galaxy Tab series is highly anticipated and for this price
point phenomenal. I have been using Galaxy Tab 2 and I will compare and
contrast here. I played around with review units of all sizes and I
have since returned them. My reviews are unbiased and neutral! 7 and 8"
are ideal for plane trips, long journeys. I had used a 7" Tablet on a
long journey to listen to songs and read epub books (Aldiko) and it was a
very pleasant experience. 7" form factor is lightweight, compact and
great. If you are a bit experienced and can afford it, I recommend the
8". Samsung has made 8 and 7" almost same weight. In my opinion 8" is
the maximum value for the money and features and hence I gave 8" a 5
star. I gave 7" a 4 star (but no means undermining it). I gave the 10"
also a 4 star because of some strange feature `limitations'. In my
opinion, 8" is ideal for consumer use and 10" is marketed for specific
segments in business who use for spreadsheets, presentations, remote
desktop like Citrix GoToMeeting.Samsung has introduced 7", 8" and 10.1" of the Tab 3 series. They are entering all form factors. As I know they have something in 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10" lines. Woo.. All of the 7, 8, 10" Galaxy Tabs come in white and golden brown color. My preference is white color. Looks pretty!
Let's start off with salient points of all of the Galaxy Tab 3 series. I will later compare this specific 10.1in model to the previous Tab 2 version.
7-inch tablet: 1024 x 600, Marvell dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM and 8GB storage or ROM, a microSD card slot (upto 64 GB), Camera: 3MP rear-facing, 1.3MP front-facing and weighs 10.58 ounces (300 grams). Android 4.1.2
8-inch model: 1280 x 800, Exynos 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1.5GB ram, 16GB of built-in storage (ROM), a microSD slot (upto 64 GB, 5MP rear-facing, 1.3MP front-facing and 10.9 ounce (309 grams) Android 4.2
10.1-inch model: 1280 x 800, Intel Atom 1.6GHz Z2560 dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, a 16GB built-in storage (ROM), a microSD slot, 3.2MP rear-facing, 1.3MP front-facing and weighs 17.99 oz (510 grams). Android 4.2
I am not going into other details like accelerometer etc as they are all standard these days, Audio support - AAC, AMR, MP3, OGG, WMA/ASF, 3GA/M4A, FLAC, WAV; MP3/MP4/Music Tones; Music Player; Ringtones, Polyphonic. Video support: AVI/DIVX, WMV/ASF, FLV, MKV, MP4/3GP, WEBM; Video Player; Video Streaming. Software is current of release date, and it is expected could be upgraded as next version Android 5 Key Lime Pie. (Currently targeted for Oct 2013). Key Lime Pie's one of the main touting points is compatibility to avoid fragmentation, so I can foresee, all of these models being able to upgrade if Google keeps their promise.
The 10.1" has a physical home button so are others in the series. Also has capacitive Back and Menu buttons. 64 GB SD card is awesome! With prices plummeting for 64 GB cards, it is a great boon. Put all your music, books, photos on the SD card and you have a powerful computer in hand always! I personally use the 64 GB microSD card on my mobile devices. Get this mobileUltra (SanDisk 64GB Mobile Ultra MicroSDXC Class 6 Memory Card with SD Adapter - Retail Packaging.
I will compare the 10.1 Tab 3 with Tab 2. Big improvement in weight, I would like the 10in series to break lower 400 grams ground. This probably has to wait another 2-3 years. Another difference gtom previous gen is the processor. Intel Atom Z2560. Tablets are nowadays coming with Intel for their excellent power saving capabilities. Asus Fonepad was one of the first to come out with a Intel based chipset. I really am waiting for the day the 10" are even lightweight and holdable. The Tab 3 is 510 grams compared to 589 grams of Tab 2. Resolutions are same 1280 x 800 pixels, 10.1 inches (~149 ppi pixel density). The resolution is a same as in Tab 3 8" which means 8" will be sharper. I am disappointed with lower resolution on the 10". One big puzzling factor for me with the premium price the 10" has only 1 GB RAM. What the ?! Why can't they put a 2 GB RAM on this monster of a device. I really wonder what the design team had in mind. The Tab has - Dolby Surround sound enhancement, it does sound good! Both have Bluetooth 4.0" and have USB Host. USB Host is one of the most under noticed features of Androids and is in my opinion one of the best features compared to iPad lines. What this means you get a USB Host cable also otherwise called OTG (On the Go) cables and plug in your USB thumb drive or other USB devices and the device recognizes it. I have used it with Alfa AWUS036H for a wireless project with Android PCAP Capture from reputable Kismet wireless. Both have same camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels and 720p@30fps. Front facing is for skype. Again camera on 8" is better, obviously Samsung thinks no one will hold a giant 10" and take pictures. True and Point taken. Another much ignored feature is the TV-out (via MHL A/V link). 8 and 10.1in supports it, whereas 7in does not. You can connect Galaxy devices to a TV to make it truly a fantastic computer. Throw in a Bluetooth keyboard and it is awesome. Leo Laporte's TwIT TV which is Internet based show has one full episode in Know How on covering this topic. Battery is humongous Non-removable Li-Po 6800 mAh battery in Galaxy Tab 3. The one in previous model was 7000 mAh, this probably explains a slight drop in weight in Tab 3 10.1". GPS was spot on and I tried multiple GPS apps. It was bright outdoors (had to crank the brightness all the way up). I personally use Navigon from Garmin and have downloaded several apps.
For me the big downer has been screen resolution and RAM Size. Intel chipset has some weirdness as not all apps works properly. Firefox does not work on Inten based Android tablets as of June 2013. All apps are written for ARM processors. So for Intel, a layering has to be added to convert apps to work. This causes some apps to crash and has some weirdness. This is definitely not to alarm, but you should be aware of this. If an app works in 8" and not on 10" it is most likely due to the chipset difference. I would have waited for Intel to come out with their own chip based tablets, markets to stabilize on Intel chipsets and them Samsung to introduce it. I am sure Intel and Samsung struck a sweet deal.
Believe me, but don't get mired in the spec game. Samsung is creating markets for all form factors and I would consider this as an exploratory stage. Just like Ford or Toyota has cars in different shapes. Sizes and price range, so are the tablet vendors now. Remember the laptop wars, 10", 12" 13", 15, 17 and even some 19" if I remember right few years ago. We used to debate endlessly which laptop sizes are better, which has better speakers and so on. The time has come to fight it out for tablets! I would say go from budget and size. If budget is not a concern, I would say go for Samsung Tab 8". 8" is a sweet spot. If budget is a concern, Tab 3 7" is awesome, otherwise get the Tab 8. If you are business user, most likely the company will give the 10" tablet.
I tried following apps and they just worked awesome. A tablet is only as good as the apps you have how productive it makes you. It's almost like the camera/lens analogy in the DSLR space. What good it is to have a great DSLR body if you have no good lens? Same with Tablet body and apps you have.
WolframAlpha (I can go on for hours praising this. This is a truly genius app powered by hundreds of supercomputers in the background. Wofram is a computational genius). Well worth the $3 price.
Withings HealthMate. (Another remarkable app great UI/UX). I am getting the Pulse device as soon as it hit stores. I have been using Fitbit and just itching to get the Pulse as I like the integrated weight/track runs in one app)
Aldiko Book Reader Premium (absolutely love it)
Amazon Mobile
Android Status
Android Central app (great and must have for Android users)
Androidify
Angry Birds (Space/Seasons)
Asphalt 7
Amazon App Store
Battery Monitor Widget Pro (a great app)
BeyondPod (excellent for podcasts, I haven't used Pocketcast, some friends say it is very good too)
Box
Car Maintenance Reminder Pro
Chrome
CloudShark Upload
CNET TV
Despicable Me Game! And weather widget (cute for kids)
Dictionary M-W Premium
Dragonvale
NAVIGON (from Garmin - offline maps)
Google Navigation/Earth/Maps using a portable MiFi box
Google Currents (nice way to read News)
Google Keep/Keboard/Drive/Search/Books/Voice/Hangouts
Draw Something
Ebay
Google Music (Awesome, I have now upto 10,000 songs halfway through Google's 20K Limit)
Tapatalk HD (awesome forum browsing app)
OverDrive Media Console: Library eBooks & Audiobooks
Microsoft One Note (legacy docs, skydrive of 25 GB is good)
Subsonic Music Streamer
Terminal Emulator (still need to use vi, yes this is it)
TweetCaster Pro for Android
Twit.Tv
Skype
Sphero (Awesome bluetooth ball game)
RealCalc Plus (Awesome calculator app)
Tweetcaster Pro (again awesomeness)
Plenty of Widgets
Ask questions, the reviews cannot do full justice. I will be glad to answer any questions and usually answer within 24 hours to any query.
source: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-10-1-Inch-White/product-reviews/B00D029NNA/ref=sr_1_2_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
