Introduction
The 10-inch form factor is the corridors of power in tablet terms, but the ones that won't turn your wallet inside out are hard to come by. In the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, Samsung seem to have a reasonably-spec'd Android tablet, which might be the answer to that particular problem.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 official pictures
The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 isn't a radical departure from the original Tab 10.1, but builds on the company's tablet know-how (they must have redesigned the original a dozen times) and launches with Google's latest Android version, Ice Cream Sandwich.
Let's go over the specs before moving on.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 at a glance:
- Form factor: Tablet
- Dimension: 256.6 x 175.3 x 9.7 mm
- Weight: 588g
- Display: 16M-color 10.1" PLS LCD capacitive touchscreen of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels)
- OS: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, TouchWiz UI
- Chipset: 1 GHz dual-core processor
- Camera: 3.2 MP autofocus camera with 1080p video recording; VGA front-facing camera
- Memory: 16/32GB of inbuilt storage, expandable via a microSD card slot
- Connectivity: Voice and data connectivity with quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and quad-band (850/900/1900/2100 MHz) UMTS, 21 Mbps HSDPA and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps support, video calls, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 30-pin connector
- Battery: 7,000mAh
- Misc: Gyro sensor, accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation, ambient light sensor, Adobe Flash Player 11 support, DivX/XviD support, TV-out (adapter required), USB host (via an adapter)
If you were expecting the Tab 2 10.1 to take charge of Samsung's Android tablet lineup, you'd probably be disappointed, but there's little to cast doubt on its ability to handle daily tasks with ease.
Samsung have also enabled 1080p video recording (like in the Tab 2 7.0), but to us photography on a tablet shouldn't be a priority.
Things like web browsing, watching videos, gaming and document editing are well within its reach, the only area where the Tab 2 10.1 is likely to fall short (besides synthetic benchmarks) is high-end gaming.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 live pictures
Design and build quality
The family resemblance between the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is strong. The styling is very minimalist, with rounded corners and smoothly beveled back.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 next to Tab 2 7.0
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is built around a 10.1" PLS LCD screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. While the resolution is far from stellar, it's the most common choice for 10-inch tablets.
The screen is pretty impressive - viewing angles are very good (although there's a noticeable blue tint when viewed at an angle) and the blacks look reasonably deep (we'll measure them when we get a review unit).
Pixel density is nothing exciting (149ppi), but big tablets like the Tab 2 10.1 are viewed at a bigger distance than phones, so it's not much of an issue really.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 has no hardware controls at the front - it doesn't need any with Ice Cream Sandwich inside. All you get here is the front camera and some sensors.
A close-up of the front-facign camera and sensors
There's no earpiece (like on the 7" Galaxy tablets), so you can put the tablet up to your ear and use it as a phone, but loudspeaker mode or a headset (wired or wireless) would make a lot more sense anyway.
The two speakers are on either side of that port. You have to be careful not to place your palms over the speakers when you hold the tablet landscape.
The 10.1" PLS TFT display on the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 • Stereo speakers
At the top we find the 3.5mm audio jack along with the SIM compartment and microSD slot, both sealed with plastic lids. There's also the Power/Lock button next to the volume rocker.
The busy top side houses the SIM, microSD slots along with 3.5mm audio jack, volume rocker, power/lock key
The microphone is at the bottom and you are warned upon launch of the camcorder app against covering the microphone.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 uses a proprietary 30-pin connector for charging and connectivity, which is located at the bottom of the tablet.
The bottom has the speakers, the primary mic and the connectivity port
Single, multi-function ports like the 30-pin connector on the Tab 2 10.1 mean you'll need a proprietary cable for both computer connections and charging. It's not a happy moment when you need to fill up the battery, but all you have is a microUSB charger. The lack of USB charging is a common fault of tablets, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.
The journey ends at the back of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 Anyway, the 3.15 megapixel camera goes it alone, there's no LED flash like in the Tab 7.0 Plus.
The back of the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 • A close-up of the camera
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is powered by a 7000 mAh Li-Ion battery. There are no official quotes on battery life yet, but we'll be doing our own tests when we get our hands on a retail-ready unit.
The back cover is made of soft plastic, which is nice to the touch and offers decent grip. It's matte too, so it hides fingerprints very well. As you would imagine, you can't pop this cover open to access the battery, which is par for the course.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 can easily be held in one hand and will slip into a coat pocket or a purse. The curved back doesn't hide the 10.5mm thickness too well, but makes it easier on your hands when holding the tablet.
The build quality of the Tab 2 10.1 is great, there were no creaks or weak spots.
The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 held in hands
TouchWiz-flavored Ice Cream
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box and some useful pre-loaded apps, with TouchWiz supplying a familiar set of interface customizations.
Before we begin here is a video demo of the user interface in action.
The Ice Cream Sandwich interface is similar to Honeycomb, so you'll feel right at home if you're upgrading from an Android 3.x tablet.
TouchWiz customizations are visible right from the homescreen
The lockscreen shows you the time and date and the status bar at the bottom remains visible, so you can still see network status and new notifications. Unlocking it is very easy - just tap anywhere on the screen and drag your finger out of the circle.
Unlocking the Tab 2 10.1
You get five homescreen panes and you can't add or remove any. In the top left corner you have shortcuts to Google search (both text and voice), while the top right corner holds the app drawer shortcut. There's the status row at the bottom.
Search is here and is as useful as always
It contains the usual Back, Home and Task manager on-screen keys, but Samsung have added an always visible screenshot key. When you snap a screenshot, the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 automatically launches an app that lets you scribble some notes on the image.
The notification area has been improved too • The Task manager
Also located on this bottom row is the notification area. It has the connectivity toggles that we've come to know from the smartphone edition of TouchWiz. They offer more functionality than the stock Honeycomb quick settings - including GPS, Wi-Fi, Sound, Mobile data and Sync.
The app launcher has seen no modifications at all, but there are plenty of preinstalled apps that cannot be found on other tablets - Social Hub, Music hub, Pulse reader, AllShare, Polaris Office, Video player and editor and My files. Some of the other apps like the music player and the calendar have been modified as well.
Apps and widgets
Telephony, phonebook and messaging
Despite its size, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 features full voice-call support. It will even do 3G video calls with the front-facing VGA camera.
You could (and should) use the loudspeaker or a headset to make your calls. Picking a contact to call is fairly easy - you have smart dial, a call log if you need to call someone back and Favorites, which display large tiles with the photos of your favorite contacts. Voice dialing is enabled too.
Smart dial works like a charm
Contact management is straightforward on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Your contacts get automatically synced with your Google account (other accounts too, as well as social networks and so on) unless you explicitly disable this feature.
Contacts are displayed using a two-column interface that's present in several other key apps and really puts all the screen real estate to good use. The left column lists all the contacts, with the contact info on the right.
The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 contact manager
From here, you can easily send messages and emails, call contacts and view the wealth of info stored in the phonebook. You can join contacts, which comes in handy when you install Facebook, Skype, etc.
The messaging app layout is similar to the phonebook - on the left you get the threads, on the right are the messages in each thread.
There's an application-specific search that lets you quickly find a given message among all your stored SMS and MMS.
Texting Dexter on the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 comes with two email applications out of the box - one for your Gmail and one to use with any POP3/IMAP account.
They both use the same split-screen interface. Initially, your folders are listed on the left and the emails in the currently selected one appear on the right. Upon clicking on an email the list of emails moves to the left tab while the body of the selected one pops up on the right.
The default email client
Bulk actions are supported too, so you will easily manage mailboxes that get lots of traffic.
You can set up the automatic email retrieval interval or you can disable that completely and check mail manually. There's also a handy setting that makes your client automatically download attachments only when you are connected over Wi-Fi.
The Gmail app
Writing emails is reasonably comfortable with the virtual QWERTY keyboard taking about half of the screen. The tablet is too big for the landscape keyboard to be used comfortably (your hands have to hover over the screen), but if hold it vertically, you can type easily with two thumbs.
The big and small keyboards • handwriting is also supported
There's auto correction and auto capitalization available and you can enable sounds on key presses. There's haptic feedback too - the slate vibrates exactly where you've tapped.
3.15 megapixel camera and 720p video
A 3.15 megapixel main camera that shoots 720p videos and a VGA megapixel front-facing snapper (with VGA video) is what you get with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Provided that tablets aren't the most photography-friendly devices, it's probably as much as you are going to need anyway.
Anyway, the two cameras are mostly there to cater for video-chatting and some augmented reality apps or games and the possibility to snap a thing or two as a reminder comes as a welcome bonus.
The camera interface is an oversized version of what you find on the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus with the available settings on the left and the virtual shutter key and the video/stills toggle on the right.
The still camera interface
Here go a few samples to show you the image quality of the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 camera. They aren't perfect, but they're pretty good for the 3 megapixel league - low noise, good detail and colors, but a slight bluish tint. We'll take a more in-depth look at the camera when we get a retail unit for a review.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 camera samples
The camcorder interface is not much different, really. There are fewer options available here, but the layout is basically the same.
The video camera interface
We'll post video samples when we get a retail product.
Pen memo and S Planner
While the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 doesn't have a slot for an S Pen, it still borrows a couple of apps from the Galaxy Note.
The Pen memo app lets you scribble notes with your finger. You can use various pen styles and colors. There are undo/redo buttons and an eraser if you mess something up. You can insert images from the gallery, other memos and even part of a map.
Pen Memo is an easy way to jot down notes
The S Planner is a custom calendar that features a lot of different views - Year, Month, Week, Day, Agenda and Task. It can sync up with several calendars (including the one from Facebook) and you can choose which ones are visible.
The app is quite handy - in portrait orientation in month view, you can select a day and all events for that date will be listed at the bottom of the screen.
S Planner is a comprehensive calendar
ICS browser was made for the big screen
The web browser on Android has always been excellent and the Ice Cream Sandwich version is no exception. Its interface has been revamped to better fit the new ICS layout and the tablet form factor.
Tabs are available at the top of the screen, so switching between them and closing unneeded ones is very easy. In the top right corner, you'll find the an extended settings button, which brings out cool features like Find on page, Desktop view, Save for offline reading and several others.
The web browser was redesigned
One option we really liked is the Brightness/Color setting - it offers several presets that adjust the screen to enable power saving. There's also the Inverted screen rendering option, which turns the web page black and white (with white backgrounds becoming black). You can further tweak this effect using the Contrast slider.
The Inverted rendering mode
The browser has a new trick too, one which it learned from its desktop sibling, Chrome. When searching for something, if the browser is confident you'll click on a certain search result (and with Google's algorithms there's a good chance you will), it will start preloading that page right away so that it opens faster if you do click it. You can set this to work only over Wi-Fi or turn it off completely.
Another trick the Android browser snatched from Chrome is the Incognito mode - there's no global setting, but you can open Incognito tabs.
If you don't like this desktop-like interface, you can enable Quick controls from the Labs settings, which reveal many controls (Tabs, URL, Reload, History, etc.) when you slide your finger in from the side.
The Quick controls
First impressions
When we handled the first Galaxy Tab 10.1, it got us pretty excited. It was the dawn of Android tablets, and the experience was all new. Number 2 is somewhat short on thrills, but will get you from A to B at comfortable cruising speed.
The Tab 2 10.1 doesn't seem like the gadget for people who already have a 10-inch tablet. If you're about to get your first tablet, or looking to upgrade to a bigger screen, the Tab 2 10.1 starts making sense.
There's nothing official on pricing yet and we still have a lot of things to test before we can pass final judgment, but the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 should do well in the 10" tablet midrange. The screen looks good, you get voice and data connectivity (plus video calling) and the tablet should have enough power to handle daily tasks.
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