Tablet Shootout: iPad 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the winner is...

By IBTimes Staff Reporter | June 21 2011 8:03 AM

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 released last week in the U.S. amidst high expectations of the people who expected it to be an iPad killer. But has it lived up to the hype?

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The legal war between American giant tech firm Apple and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics reached another level as Samsung filed a patents infringement suit against its competitor and business partner on Thursday.

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The Galaxy Tab was billed as an iPhone killer because of several reasons.

The Galaxy Tab boasts a huge screen - 10.1 inch - and a higher resolution display than iPad 2 (1,280 x 800 versus the iPad's 1,024 x 768).

The Galaxy Tab is also technically thinner than the iPad 2 (0.01 inch thinner). However what is noticeably different is the weight - Galaxy Tab weighs 1.24 lb compared to iPad 2’s 1.33 lb weight.

However, that’s not all.

Galaxy Tab comes with super-fast Tegra 2 dual core 1 Ghz processor, a top notch touch response, 1080p video playback, 720p video recording, WiFi, Bluetooth and a long-lasting battery.

Galaxy Tab also has a gyroscope and accelerometer, which will give a decent motion gaming experience.

It is also Samsung's first Honeycomb 3.1 OS powered tablet. The new OS promises better animations, faster response and improved web browser performance.

Galaxy Tab is also Samsung’s first tablet to feature the new panel technology, Plane to Line Switching (PLS), which offers a 10 percent greater brightness, clarity and viewing angles twice as large as the more traditional In-Plane Switching (IPS) panels used by iPad.

However, Galaxy Tab has its fair share of weaknesses.

For instance the battery life of Galaxy Tab cannot be compared to iPad 2. While iPad 2 users could reach a little under 10 hours with Wi-Fi on, display brightness at around 65 percent, and a lot of video usage, the Galaxy Tab users can expect the device to last shorter than 6 hours under the same conditions.

Moreover, though the Galaxy Tab can claim to be the thinner of the two tablets, the thinness was achievable at a sacrifice - Galaxy Tab is missing USB, HDMI, and SD card slot.

Furthermore, the speakers of Galaxy Tab are tiny and though loud when you crank up the volume, aren't pleasing to the ears.

And, no matter whichever way you look at it - slice it or dice it - Honeycomb lacks the finesse and elegance of iOS.

And of course, there's the app store we need to think about. The iconic Apple App Store has over 425,000 apps or more than double of Google's Android Market offers. Google has also been lagging behind Apple for quite some time when it comes to offering quality apps.

However Galaxy Tab is no pushover.

It beats the iPad 2 in terms of the camera specs. Galaxy Tab comes with a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera (for video chat). It also offers 1080p video capture capability.

In comparison, Apple iPad 2 has a 0.7-megapixel rear-facing camera which can record videos at 720p along with a secondary VGA front-facing camera for video chat.

Galaxy Tab also boasts of a bigger display than the iPad 2 - 10.1-inch versus 9.7-inch. And, that's a wonder, given the fact that Galaxy Tab is thinner and lighter than iPad 2.

Galaxy Tab also has more RAM than iPad 2 - 1GB versus 512MB.

Galaxy Tab is also competitively priced - the 16GB version retails for $499 while the 32GB version retails for $599.

And, in what could be the clincher for many tablet buyers, Galaxy Tab boasts of another capability lacking in iPad 2, which is Adobe Flash playback.

In conclusion, Galaxy Tab is the best Android tablet to be ever released. No doubt about that. But if you've made up your mind about getting iPad 2, don't give it a second thought. The UI of iOS will not make you want to regret your decision.

Check out the video on Galaxy Tab below: