Samsung’s first entry to the tablet market, the Galaxy Tab, was pretty successful, just like their many smartphones, although the sales weren’t as good as everyone expected (but then again, even the Xoom didn’t sell a lot of units despite being loved by Android fans and tech reviewers).
When Apple launched their iPad 2, Samsung had already been developing a new Android tablet, and it seems like they hit the spot with the ultra slim Galaxy Tabs 8.9 and 10.1 – these models are much better built and faster than anything from the competition, so they’re pretty successful in sales.
The first Galaxy Tab was left alone in the 7 inch niche, and with its weak specs it was quickly overwhelmed by the likes of HTC Flyer and other new dual core tablets that can run circles around it in any apps. But now Samsung is finally bringing out the successor, and it looks like the Galaxy Tab 7.7 (I seriously think they’re running out of names 🙂 can be the best Android tablet yet, at least for the next half of the year.
The Galaxy Tab 7.7 looks simply great: it has a very nice aluminum cover on the back with the top and bottom parts being made of plastic, presumably for the antennas to get a good reception. The whole thing feels solid, and it’s certainly THE thinnest tablet in the world at only 7.8 mm – I doubt that even the iPad 3 can beat that, as even if it’s possible technically, it’d just look ridiculous and feel bad in your hands.
The screen is the main attraction, however: Samsung finally decided to spice up the game a bit and used a non-standard 7.7 inch Super AMOLED display with a 1280×800 pixels resolution – the highest in class. I don’t even have to tell you that Super AMOLEDs look amazingly well, with vivid colors, great contrast and brightness and deep black levels – the iPad 2 has nothing on it, and neither does any other tablet on the market. The size of the device makes it perfect to hold with two hands in portrait and landscape modes – it makes it very easy to type on the virtual keyboard.
The slim profile and excellent display didn’t come with a compromise in power or battery life, either. Samsung’s new Android device runs a dual core 1.4 GHz processor with the latest Mali 400 multiprocessor GPU, and has 1 GB of RAM to back those units up. The storage space differs by model, with 16, 32 and 64 GB models available, and it can be easily expanded through the integrated micro SD card slot. The battery is a huge 5100 mAh unit – it seems like Samsung has quickly put into production the new technologies that allow more watts per hour to be crammed in smaller spaces, and that’s a great thing since the new Tab can last 10 hours in continuous video playback.
Obviously, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 has all the other specs you can think of, including Wifi N, Bluetooth 3.0, a gyroscope sensor, HSPA+ support (up to 21 Mbps download and 5.76 Mbps upload), GPS and all the other stuff that’s vital for a mobile device.
Android 3.0 Honeycomb will be powering the new leader initially, and I have no doubt there will be an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich and even whatever version comes afterwards – this thing is not going to get old fast, and few people will replace the brilliant display with anything else, unless it’s a Super AMOLED Plus :-).
The price will probably be set according to the specs, and seeing as this tablet is the best on the market, it will be high. But the performance and especially the display are completely worth it if you want the best of the best.
