Samsung Galaxy Tab 750
Summary
The Samsung
Galaxy Tab 750 is a 10.1-in Android Honeycomb powered tablet and uses Samsung's
proprietary Touch Wiz UX UI.
Not bad, but not quite the best either.
Pros And Cons
 Great display
 No telephony
Full HD playback
Processor heats up easily
Good front camera.
Lags a lot
Decent battery life.
No SD card slot
Highlights
- - Tegra 2
- - 10.1 Inch Screen
- - 8mp Camera
- - Honeycomb UI
- - 16 And 32 GB Variants
VS
Significantly, the
Tab 750 outdoes the iPad 2 in two significant aspects – the weight and the
thickness. Apple iPad 2 weighs 607 grams while the Tab 750 weighs only 565
grams. While the purists will point fingers at the plastic finish that Samsung
has applied on the 750, but it has done the job. The iPad 2 has an 8.8mm
thickness while the Tab 750 has a 8.6mm thickness – not much but the figures
speak for themselves!
In terms of overall build, there is a lot of difference in the materials used.
And the iPad fanboys will criticise the Tab’s plastic body, but what that has
done for Samsung is that it has given them an advantage both in terms of weight
as well as slimness – without sacrificing on build quality.
The glossy-white plastic looks pretty chic at the rear. The
cheap paintwork on the plastic bezel is disappointing though.
However, the overall look is attractive nonetheless.
As with all Samsung products, the Tab 750 sports an
impressive 10.1" TFT screen. The 1280x800 display renders HD
videos in full glory with crystal clear text. Viewing angles are wide in
the fingerprint-resistant panel. Visibility in sunlight is great as well.
The overall design makes the Galaxy
Tab 750 look much smaller than it really is — it really does not look or feel
like a 10.1in tablet.
Packaging and Content
Our jaws dropped when we first saw the packaging - a
humongous cube like box. Clearly, size does matter to Samsung. The box could
probably fit two full frame DSLR cameras. But we are not complaining! The
outsized packaging makes the device supremely secure - so secure, it would
probably survive even if thrown out of a moving vehicle. Overall, the packaging
was very similar to that of the Galaxy S II, except larger.
As far as content
went, all the standard amenities such as the power adaptor, the proprietary USB
connection cable and the tablet itself were present. Nothing revolutionary here!
We always expect brilliant displays from Samsung devices, based on
the past trend. And the Tab 750’s 10.1-inch display is much better than all
other comparable Android tablets. While the resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels is
the same as the rivals, the display is just a lot brighter and vivid. The iPad
2’s display is still a bit crisper though, despite the 750’s higher resolution.
Brightness wise, the Tab’s display does well at 50% setting. Any more, it is
just too bright for normal usage scenarios. Watching videos on this one is a
lot of fun.
The Galaxy Tab 750 does not have a memory
card slot, has a proprietary dock connector, 3.15MP camera at the back and a
2MP video call camera and 16GB built-in storage.
Comes preloaded with Android 3.1 and the UI
is exactly as we have seen on the other Android tablets recently – thanks to
the NO CUSTOMIZATION rule. We like that rule, since it doesn’t let OS
performance get sacrificed. However, it is creating a problem for the tablet
makers, since their UI card cannot be played to distinguish from the rivals.
Interface
With the launch of the Motorola Xoom and Acer Iconia
A500, Google has established a solid Honeycomb presence in India. Many people
ask us how are they different from each other, and our answer is the form
factor and the full USB port offered in the Acer Iconia. The standard reply is
in the region of 'That's it!' and all we can do is nod along as the internals
and the OS are identical. So our question to Samsung: how would they
differentiate the Galaxy Tab from their Android competitors in India on the
basis of User Experience? They fired back with an answer. It was TouchWiz UX,
the Android skin implemented on the Galaxy Tab.
We have seen
TouchWiz before on Samsung smartphones but this is the first time it makes an appearance
on a Honeycomb device. As always, Android skinning is a double-edged sword with
minor performance blips caused by the extra eye-candy, but this should not be a
major problem.
With TouchWiz UX,
Samsung adds Live Panels to the Honeycomb homescreen, which includes a
multitude of Samsung widgets such as AccuWeather, Samsung Mail and Calendar.
Samsung has also re-designed the iconography of Honeycomb with their trademark
cartoonish icons, which we hate! They look like cheap rip-offs of iOS icons and
this is one area where Samsung gets nothing but minus points.
A nifty addition to
the UI is the inclusion of a screenshot button right inside the UI, which is
placed next to the 'open apps scroller' option. Besides this, we get another
option in the bottom task bar, which opens up a dock of some handy apps. This
dock can be opened from any app as it is well ingrained into the UI.
Samsung has become
a devout supporter of gyroscope based gesture controls as seen in the Galaxy S
II. The same holds true for the Galaxy tab 10.1. We get the same gesture based
Tilt Zoom functionalities. With the gesture controls we could even flip widget
placement. While we don't know how many people will use this party trick, it is
a handy addition and,more importantly, exclusive to the Galaxy Tab for right
now.
We also see
numerous Android 3.1 upgrades of which most are 'under the hood' relating to
the operating system stability, but one has to mention the resizable widgets.
Now we can resize the widgets on the home screen according to our own whims and
fancies. Pretty cool! Where is the like button, if we may ask?
Samsung has even
added SWYPE capabilities in the stock keyboard. We were never big fans of SWYPE
when we first saw it on smartphones, but on the larger tablet display it is a
revelation. Even the keyboard itself felt well laid out, and though we still
prefer the iPad's slick auto-correction skills, it is a very good keyboard
indeed.
Besides the UI
tweaks, we have found many new applications, which make the Galaxy Tab a more
complete device. More on these apps in the Essential Apps section of the review.
PC Sync and Market
As always with Android devices syncing is probably amongst the easiest
things to do. You only need to login to your Gmail account and you are good to
go. The same can be done on the Galaxy Tab, but Samsung has stepped up the game
with the 'Kies Air' Wi-Fi sync application. We have seen this app before on the
Galaxy S II smartphone and it's very handy indeed. All one has to do is connect
to a Wi-Fi network (the same one as your PC/MAC) and connect. The app will
reproduce an IP address, which we need to type in our browser, and voila! We
have access to all the data. We can drag and drop files, save messages and much
more.
Adding more to the
synchronization carnival, Samsung brings its Social Hub, which basically
aggregates all information from one's E-mails, Facebook and Twitter.
Handy, but we'd
rather use the dedicated Facebook and Twitter apps. Whoops, they are not
available on Honeycomb. So, for the time being, we are stuck with the Social
Hub. Luckily though, the web-browser opens a full version of Facebook with chat
support unlike the iPad.
As far as Android
Market goes we all know that Honeycomb is struggling with a dearth of apps
hampering the growth of the platform. We only have 200 odd Honeycomb optimized
apps, which is shockingly low - even the webOS powered HP TouchPad launched
with more than a 1000 webOS apps recently.
Samsung provides
their own apps store, but it's nothing special and we only get a handful of
apps, most of which are available on Android Market.
Essential Apps
Apart from the standard Google apps, The Galaxy Tab
10.1 brings in much more utility thanks to TouchWiz UX.
So some of the more
important apps include the following:
1.
Samsung Hubs
2.
Samsung Mail
3.
Gmail
4.
Kobo eBooks
5.
Pen memo
6.
Photo Editor
7.
World Clock
8.
Polaris Office
The most major
update that TouchWiz UX brings in relates to the Samsung Hubs - namely Social
Hub (discussed above), and the Music Hub.
Currently, the
Music Hub is not functional in India, but Samsung tells us it is powered by
7-digital and hopes to offer an online hub where consumers can purchase music
similar to iTunes.
Skinning is the
name of the game so Samsung added their Email app, which, surprisingly, has
issues with Gmail. This is not new - we encountered it earlier in our Samsung
Smart TV review and also with the Galaxy S II. Apart from this, it handles
Microsoft Exchange accounts pretty well, but we see no utility for it as
Android already offers us a robust Email app.
As far as our Gmail
troubles went, we chucked the Samsung Email app and logged into the fantastic
stock Android Gmail app. It is clearly the best way of accessing one's Gmail
account. The app is neatly divided into two separate panes reminding us of Mail
from the iPad. Thanks to the Android 3.1 update we now have resizable widgets,
which means our Gmail widget looks cooler than ever.
The Kobo eBooks app
is reminiscent of iBooks on the iPad, with its bookshelf like home-screen. The
app includes the standard page turning niceties that come with eBook apps. With
Kobo powering the app, we have access to a vast library of books, but it's a
bummer that Google's own Books app is not available in India as it has a larger
library of books and will soon incorporate a newsstand for newspapers and
magazines.
The Pen Memo is a
note-taking application and it even allows one to scribble with our fingers,
but the whole experience was very laggy reminding us of a time when the Symbian
powered Sony Ericsson P900 was the pinnacle of mobile OS technology.
The Photo-Editor
app works exactly as advertised. We could crop images, do minor touch-ups,
apply effects, change various color properties. This one is aimed at Photoshop
junkies.
Samsung felt that
the Android clock was not good enough; they saw fit to install a world clock.
In theory, this could come in handy for frequent travellers. The app welcomes
us with globe, which can be manipulated using pinch zoom but it does not do
much.
Polaris Office
handles the office duties on the Galaxy Tab. It can handle the standard
Microsoft Office formats such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. It also
includes Box.Net integration, which is immensely handy if one seeks cloud
integration.
Apart from all
these apps we have access to all the Google apps, such as Maps, Places and
Latitude, which makes the Android experience very robust and cohesive.
While Samsung has
gone to great lengths to add functionality to the already robust Honeycomb OS,
none of these apps have an effect on the consumer's choice. The one app that
could have is the Music Hub and that's sadly unavailable to us in India.
The 750 is
fitted with a 7000 mAh Li-polymer battery which easily gives you 8 hours of
life in heavy usage scenarios.
Performance
An ARM
Cortex A9 dual core 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and the Tegra 2 chipset power
the Tab 750. Performance wise, Android just felt slicker on this than the Xoom
or the Iconia A501. However, Android as an OS just lets down the tablets, and
the Tab 750 faces the brunt too. The sudden jerkiness and stutters are just
disappointing. The rivals it is taking on, the iOS namely, does not have any of
these annoying characteristics!
The TouchWiz
UX UI is quite nicely hanging around in an understated fashion. While it does
retain the characteristics we saw on the Galaxy SII smartphone, it does it in a
more silent fashion - mostly because, Google now frowns upon UI skins on top of
Android 3.0 and beyond.
Battery
life is comparable to the iPad 2 – about 12 hours. That is a huge relief,
because the tablets we have reviewed recently have flattered to deceive more
often than not.
Comparison:-
Performance
wise, this tablet easily gives a good competition to the iPad2. Its touch
screen is nearly as nimble and responsive as an iPad. For an Android tablet,
it's easily the best optimised touch experience. Typing on the tablet is also
no pain at all. The fingers flow smoothly and the input is butter smooth, even
with GPU intensive games, thanks to the dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor
under the hood and 1GB of RAM. The camera on the tablet is not the best, but I
have hardly seen people clicking pictures with their tablets. For occasional
snaps, the camera does the job. The front-facing camera for video calling is
superb and clear. It easily handles multitasking and has a negligible amount of
lag on it.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 houses a mammoth 7000 mAh
battery. However, with a 10.1" screen, a dual-core processor, and 1GB RAM,
the limited battery life breaks the illusion of grandeur. It claims a
battery life of 7 hours with video playback and 1840 hours of standby time. In
reality, I managed to drain the battery with two hours of video playback,
one hour of Angry Birds, two hours of web surfing, and two
hours of general usage. With moderate usage, it lasted for a little more than
two days. That's pretty decent by Android standards. Keeping the
brightness low went a long way in increasing battery life. On the flip side, the tablet
takes excessively long to charge; often requiring more than 12 hours to fully
tank up.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 750 showed a lot of
potential, but it bombs on several important counts. After being marketed so
heavily as Android's answer to the iPad, the expectations were bound to be
high. Unfortunately, the Tab 750 doesn t even manage to get the basics right.
The exterior is pretty cool, and the design is elegant. The screen is very
good, as is the overall media experience. Both the cameras are decent
for normal usage. However, the propensity of tablet to heat up
at the slightest strain is unpardonable. Despite a dual-core CPU and the
latest Android Honeycomb OS, the it was still marred by a laggy
performance.
Bottom line:
If you are a big Android fan, this is the best
tablet in the market for you. However, it is definitely a long way from beating
the iPad in the most basic of tasks.
Features: 3/5
Design And Build Quality: 3.5/5
Performance: 2/5
Value For money: 2/5
Overall Rating: 2.5/5
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