That Perfect Tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

3 years ago, I blogged about the emergence of netbooks or mini laptops. Although it did create a buzz and an insight into future computing in terms of size and cost, it did not achieve worldwide success and is slowly fading away. Reason being it is still not free from the keyboards, relatively thick and heavy while missing the touch screen feature. Then came the iPads which took the world by storm. iPads are actually copies of the Tablet first introduced by Microsoft in the early 2000s. However back then, it was very costly and its use limited to high end businessmen and hospitals. When Apple came in with their iPads, the market was ripe for such technology and since then, it has dominated the market until the emergence of Android tablets to take the fight head on.

I had resisted the move to such technology especially when the iPads were introduced 2 years ago. The pads were to my opinion just an oversized iPhone and its use very limited and restricted by the annoying iTunes. There is also no USB port which makes file transfer a hassle, not to mention very limited files supported by the pad. Even to transfer and watch a movie, you have to go through iTunes and convert the file first into whatever crap format it is before it can be read by the pad. Then came the Android tablets which broke the iPad dominance. The early versions of the tablets did have their  fair share of bugs and laggyness. But in terms of feature and file format support, it is already way ahead of the restrictive iPads. Now the second generation Android tabs take the fight to Apple with their much improved responsiveness while adding even more features and hardware upgrades.

I'm a man of sentimental values. So I had been sticking to my mini laptop loyally while many sexy tablets out there failed to tempt me. But my girl is getting old and running crankily so I have been looking for a new replacement. I got my first taste of tablet experience when I bought the Samsung LED TV which throws in a free Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 tablet. After just one day of usage, I fell in love with the tablet which does everything a computer does, minus the weight and of course gives me mobility. Few days later, I was so happy with the tablet that I traded in for the bigger size tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. There is no regret and I'm happily using it everyday while I spend less time now with my monster gaming desktop.

Having the chance to use both, there are pros and cons between the two sizes. While the 7.0 gives me excellent grip and mobility, it sacrifices the screen size and only comes in WSVGA display. But this small sized tab allows me to lie comfortably on my bed and with one hand gripping both sides of the tab just like a handphone, my other hand is free to manipulate the screen. The 10.1 on the other hand, is almost perfect in everything and with its WXGA display, it renders pictures and movies beautifully in higher resolution. But the sheer size means I have to lie the tab on my palm or table to use it. I can still grab one side with a hand but the thumb will leave dirty fingerprints on the side of the screen or even interfere with the touch screen process. Now talking about file format support, my tab reads almost every mp3 or movie files without having to go through iTunes or conversion. It also streams directly from my desktop computer wirelessly so no storage is needed in my tab. It can also do so many other things that made the iPads like a child toy. And do you believe it, the tab comes equipped with GLONASS which is the Russian equivalent of GPS. With both GPS and GLONASS in your tab, you can be assured almost 100% map and location coverage even if you bring it to the Arctic or deep jungles.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

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