Samsung reveals 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab sequel with Honeycomb
Samsung has revealed its new Galaxy Tab 10.1, the successor to its Android-based Galaxy Tab tablet (readour review of the original). The new device will run Android 3.0, codenamed Honeycomb, and is expected to launch in some markets as early as March. Samsung also officially announced the Galaxy S II, a formidable follow-up to the company’s popular Galaxy S.
The new Tab is powered by NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset and has a 10.1-inch screen with a 1280×800 resolution. Models will come with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, WiFi, and 3G support on GSM networks. Vodaphone has reportedly partnered with Samsung for the launch and is expected to be the first mobile operator to carry the device. Unlike the original Galaxy Tab, the Tab 10.1 will not ship with Samsung’s Android platform customizations or its TouchWiz user interface. It will be a stock Honeycomb device with an untainted Android environment.
Engadget spent some hands-on time with the device at Mobile World Congress and was impressed with its svelte profile—it apparently weighs in at a slim 1.23 pounds, which is less than the iPad and the Motorola Xoom. It looks pretty slick in Engadget’s video. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but it will probably be in the same ballpark as the $799 Xoom. Android enthusiasts are clearly going to have some tablet choices in the next month or so, but the relative similarity of the hardware specs between the devices means there isn’t a lot of differentiation going on yet.
In addition to demoing the new Galaxy Tab, Samsung also officially revealed its next generation of Android handsets. The Samsung Galaxy S II sports a dual-core 1GHz CPU and an 800×480 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display in an impressively thin (8.49mm) form factor. It runs Android 2.3 and a new version of Samsung’s custom TouchWiz user interface. It also has support for near field communications (NFC). It looks like a seriously formidable device, but the lack of a qHD resolution seems a bit disappointing.
Samsung has some big plans for its new custom Android software stack. Alongside an updated TouchWiz, The Galaxy S II will ship with a new suite of applications called Samsung Hubs. It will include hubs that allow users to buy and access books, games, and music. There’s also a Social Hub that will provide a unified messaging framework, potentially like Motorola’s Blur.
Samsung has a strong Android product lineup this year. The arrival of Honeycomb could finally give Samsung the kind of software user experience it needs to seriously pursue its tablet aspirations and make the Tab 10.1 a credible iPad competitor in a way that the original Tab could not. The Galaxy S II looks like a worthy remix of the original, crowd-pleasing Galaxy S and a relatively good offering to pit against the new dual-core Android powerhouses from other vendors.
Source: Arstechnica.com
Tablets, tablets and more tablets. If we were asked to pick only one HOT product category this holiday shopping season, there wouldn’t be even a nanosecond of hesitation before we offered the words tablet PCs. Tablet PCs may not be a new product category or idea but they certainly have come of age and 2011 is shaping up now to be the year of the tablet. Apple made a big splash with the iPad earlier this year and Q4 is starting to look like it will bring a veritable tidal wave of Android and Windows 7-based devices competing for shopping carriage space versus Apple’s new 10-inch darling slate computer. The good news is, all of this competition is bound to mean lower prices at retail. Fittingly, a small company out of Paola Alto, CA no less — Cherrypal, made headlines recently with the announcement of their dirt-cheap $188 CherryPad tablet.