Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 – A lot to like

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is a tablet having perfect weight and size and it has been made better than the predecessors with the updates. It runs on Android Honeycomb 3.2 and there is no lag in the OS. The screen size is 8.9 inches big which is good enough for tablet.

This tablet was announced by the manufacturer some time earlier and it is now available on the AT&T network with LTE support. It is a part of the Galaxy S II handset which is one of the best Android phones out there at the moment. There are some things that you need to consider and here I discuss all of them.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 comes with 1.5 GHz Qualcomm MSM8660 dual core processor inside which is known to perform impressively. In my tests, the tablet was running pretty well and the battery life was about nine hours on a full charge. The performance on AT&T LTE and 4G network too was acceptable.

What is it all about?

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is a tablet having an 8.9 inches display and it is really light and thin. The weight of the tablet is 15.8 ounces which is a bit heavy than Kindle but it lighter than Apple iPad 2 which weighs 22 oz. The screen has a display of 1,280×800 pixels and it is a 16:9 TFT PLS LCD screen. The display is responsive and bright and this is the first Android tablet to give me a fluid user experience.

There isn’t any removable storage onboard but you do 12 GB of memory for storing your data. There is a front facing two megapixels camera and a rear facing three megapixels camera. The picture quality isn’t awesome but still acceptable for a tablet.

On the top left, there is power button and audio controls are located next to this button close to a headphone jack. Right top edge has a tiny slot for SIM cards and on the bottom, there are two speakers which give muffled audio especially when you lay the device on the bottom edge.

The cool

In my tests, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 was pretty impressive. I could play back video smoothly and there is support for MP4, MKV, FLV, WMV, AVI, and 3GP formats. In my Netflix test, I got about five hours of streaming which is about two movies before which the battery went down. On board playback is about eight hours but you might get more or less juice than this.

The size of the display is good enough. It is light, thin, and the display is readable and bright. Outdoor viewing was fine but it isn’t good for outdoor use. This device can be used as an e-reader too as it is lighter than most other tablets out there.

There is TouchWiz UI added here and it has been improves the user’s Honeycomb OS experience. There are some simple tools that would make it easy to use. For instance, there is a tiny arrow on the bottom which gives you a widget set containing Calculator, Task Manager, and Calendar. These open up as modal windows over actual apps which run in the back ground and multitasking is made easier.

This tablet also reminded me of the older PMPs. There is not much wrong in it and can be used for travel, couch, and bedside surfing purposes.

The uncool

There are a few drawbacks though – this tablet isn’t self contained and the battery can’t be swapped. There is no additional storage support either. In my tests, I had a software failure problem in the form of YouTube; it couldn’t load as a stand alone app. The player loaded for a few seconds and then repeated.

Other than this, there is nothing in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 that would make me discourage you from buying this device. You will be stuck with AT&T all the time and the carriers can’t be switched; so you need to be wary about this. The manufacturer should have made a Wi-Fi only model too. The non AT&T 16 GB version will cost you $399 and the 32GB model will put you back by $549.

Verdict

I don’t review a lot of Android tablets because it is a jungle out there and each Android tablet is the same as the other. But if you are buying an Android tablet at all, I would recommend this device ahead of other looking at all the goodies that it has to offer. The size is unique and the tablet is well made too. Some might complain about the relatively high price and lack of card storage but then you should remember that it comes bundled with Galaxy S II phone.

You will certainly compare this tablet with Gal Tab 10 or any other smaller member of the Gal Tab device-family. There is a plethora of Android tablets out there too. But I will recommend this one more looking at its capability and strength. It is an exciting and usable tablet.

Features

• 8.9 inches display
• Android Honeycomb 3.2 OS
• 16 GB internal storage
• Rear and front facing cameras
• Free with phone for $479

Pros

• Thin and light design
• TouchWiz UI for improving user experience
• Nine hours of battery life

Cons

• No external storage
• Expensive
• LTE version comes bundled with the contract