Introduction
Last year’s IFA is where the tale of Samsung and tablets started and now the company is ready to open a new chapter and it’s one we couldn’t be more excited about. The SuperAMOLED screens were one of the best things to ever happen to the smartphone industry and now they have landed on slates as well. Meet the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.
As its name suggests, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 has 7.7-inches of SuperAMOLED Plus gorgeousness. The tablet is a living proof that the mobile industry has been progressing at an amazingly rapid rate. A single year is all it took for Samsung to more than double the processing power and get a vastly superior display technology on board, while at the same time reducing the thickness by a third.
Just check out the compelling specs sheet that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 has:Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 at a glance
- Form factor: Tablet
- Dimension: 196.7x 133 x 7.89 mm
- Weight: 335g
- Display: 16M colors 7.7” Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels)
- OS: Android 3.2 Honeycomb, TouchWiz UI
- Chipset: 1.4 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400MP GPU, 1GB of RAM, Exynos chipset
- Camera: 3.2 MP autofocus camera with 720p video recording; LED flash; 2 MP front-facing camera
- Memory: 16/32/64 GB internal memory, expandable through a microSD card slot
- Connectivity: quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and quad-band (850/900/1900/2100 MHz) UMTS with 21 Mbps HSDPA and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps support, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 30-pin connector
- Battery: 5,100mAh (Up to 10 hours of video playback)
- Misc: Gyro sensor, accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation, ambient light sensor, Adobe Flash Player 10.3 support, DivX/XviD support, TV-out (through an adapter)
So not only are we getting a Super AMOLED Plus instead of a regular LCD, we are also treated to a larger screen and higher resolution in a body that hasn’t growtn noticeably. Plus, there’s the latest version of the tablet-friendly Android on board, instead of Gingerbread and the oversized-phone experience that it provides.
All this really shows that Samsung is a quick learner. In the increasingly crowded tablet market you can’t achieve great things by being as good as the rest – you need to stand out. And what could possibly stand out more than a combination of the most powerful mobile chipset, an impressive screen, an ultra-slim waistline and a thin bezel?
Luckily, we were able to get a pre-production Galaxy Tab 7.7 and we went for a short hands-on preview to get you started. By now you should have felt how enthusiastic we feel about the Galaxy Tab 7.7, so we better not waste any more time. The hardware inspection comes after the break.
The fact that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 has a thinner profile and a more favorable screen-to-bezel ratio than just about any other slate out there would probably be enough for us to pronounce it a real looker. But the good news don’t really end there with this one – there’s also the metallic back, the nicely curved lines and the lack of buttons on the front, which contributes to the overall high-tech feel.
So, as a whole we can conclude that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 is easily among the best looking pieces of technology we have seen this year. And that’s certainly a good thing when you are talking a device, belonging to a class where coolness is rated way higher than practicality.
And yet, despite all the superlatives it deserves, the design won’t be the Galaxy Tab 7.7 key selling point. For that is a role most certainly reserved for its 7.7” Super AMOLED Plus screen of WXGA resolution (that’s 1280 x 800 pixels).
If you did the math already, you’d know that the Galaxy Tab 7.7 display has a pixel density of 196 ppi – the highest of any tablet out there. Just for comparison, the 7” Galaxy Tab had a 169 ppi screen, the Xoom LCD had a density of 149 ppi, while the iPad display has just under 132 ppi. Now smaller tablets need higher density as they would normally be looked at from closer range, but despite that, the 7.7” is still sharper than any of its competitors.
And then, there’s the spectacular image quality reserved for Super AMOLED Plus displays. With the AMOLED technology blacks are as deep as they get as individual pixels can simply be switched off, unlike LCD where the whole panel is backlit at all times.
And the viewing angles of the Galaxy Tab 7.7 display are just as impressive with icons looking as if they are printed on top of the glass rather than be smeared and blown out when looking them from the side. Sure, there is some color shifting at extreme angles (we are talking close to 180 degrees here), but that’s the worst that could be said about it. No other slate screen can even come close to that.
Finally, since Super AMOLED Plus screens are almost perfectly non-reflective, you don’t need to worry about losing the image quality under bright lighting. Legibility issues in the sun are also out of the question – another first for tablets.
Until now we were used to slate screens having much worse quality than that of high-end smartphones. The iPads were no match for the iPhone retina, the Xoom couldn’t hold a candle to the Milestone LCD and even Samsung’s own Galaxy Tabs isn’t in same league as the Galaxy S smartphones. With the Galaxy Tab 7.7 however, we are seeing the trend change.
The rest of the body
When we finally gathered enough willpower to take our eyes off the Galaxy Tab 7.7 superb display, we noticed that the slate, just like the rest of the Honeycomb bunch, packs few hardware controls. With all the navigation done on the screen itself, there’s no need for hardware buttons on the front panel. All you get there is the earpiece and the video-call/chat camera (you do remember this slate doubles as a phone, right?).
Unlike the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 has the portrait orientation as its default mode. When you hold it that way the earpiece goes on top where it belongs, while the Samsung logos can be read without tilting your head. Of course you are free to use it however you see fit, but we are going to be holding it this way while describing the rest of its functional elements.
So at the bottom you have the stereo speakers, the microphone and the Samsung proprietary port that is used for charging the Galaxy Tab 7.7, connecting it to a computer or providing HD TV-out. Once again, we don’t get a standard microUSB jack from a slate and, frankly we are starting to lose hope that it will soon become the norm, if ever.
There’s another microphone pinhole and a 3.5mm audio jack on top of the Galaxy Tab 7.7.
The left side holds the microSD card slot and the SIM slot. Since Android Honeycomb has already resolved all of the issues it had with microSD cards, you can now use that slot to expand the 16GB internal memory by up to 32GB and it would be much cheaper than purchasing a 48GB version of the device.
The right side of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 holds its only two hardware keys – the volume rocker and the power key that also doubles as a screen lock control. Below them is the Infrared port that lets you use your slate as a remote control the old-school way. We don’t really see that much use for an Infrared port on a slate, but Samsung obviously had some special application in mind for it. And it doesn’t hurt having it, does it?
We complete our hardware inspection at the back where we find the 3.15 MP 720p-video-capturing camera. Tablets are hardly the most comfortable devices for taking pictures (even relatively compact ones like the Galaxy Tab 7.7) so the camera is more of an accessory than an essential feature. That’s why we’ve no reason to frown at the specs – it’s as good as most users will need anyway.
Under the hood lays a 5100 mAh battery, which should last it through at least a day of on and off usage. So far we don’t have a comment on the real-life performance of the battery. The battery is non-removable, but that's par on the course for tablets these days.
The whole tablet seems pretty well built. And you really gotta take it in your hand to appreciate how thin the slate is.
We didn’t spend that much time with it, but we didn’t see a single element on the body that looked either cheap or out of place. And as we give Samsung a well-deserved pat on the back, we move to the software part of the preview. Join us on the next page.
User interface
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 runs on the latest edition of the Android tablet-friendly platform - Honeycomb 3.2. Samsung have also equipped the slate with their home-brewed TouchWiz UI customizations.
In theory, this should mean user experience nearly identical to the one provided by the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. In reality, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 does much better and it immediately became clear to us that the Honeycomb 3.2 provides quite a significant boost to performance.
The main grudge that we were holding against Honeycomb so far was its rather poor performance with many of the apps in the market. We know they aren't properly optimized for tablets, but if they run smoothly on WVGA smartphones with a 1GHz single-core CPU, then they should be doing at least as well on a dual-core chipset, despite the increased resolution. And that's exactly how things are with the Galaxy Tab 7.7.
Maybe the Exynos chipset with two 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 CPU cores is also a part of the explanation, but it's certainly mostly down to some overdue optimizations.
As far as usability is concerned - Honeycomb gives you little to complain about. The platform designed from the ground up for tablet use gives you software UI navigation keys in the bottom left corner – back, home and task switcher (plus a screenshot key thanks to TouchWiz), the search shortcuts on the top left, the app drawer on the top right and finally, but certainly not least importantly, the notification/quick settings area (again, thanks to touchWiz) in the lower right angle.
Editing the homescreen works just as usual. Nicely modified to make better use of the larger screen, it gives you all five homescreen panes on top with four tabs available at the bottom - widgets, apps, wallpapers and “more”.
This way you can grab a widget from the bottom tab and bring it to the desired homescreen pane on top. With smartphones you need to scroll screens if you want to place a widget on any other screen but the currently selected one.
Unfortunately, unlike most of the smartphone droids, the tablets lack the option to pick the number of homescreen panes. Five might be a good number for some, but if you don’t need as many, they just slow up the navigation and if you need more, there’s just no way to get them.
Another cool feature brought by TouchWiz is the taskbar at the bottom, which is no longer static. A swipe upwards flips it to its side to reveal seven shortcuts. Clicking on any of them opens a widget window that you are free to move around the screen.
All the taskbar-docked shortcuts are the proprietary Samsung apps. They include the in-house task manager, the world clock and the PenMemo app, as well as a calendar, calculator, a music player and a phone app. All of them except the task manager and the phone app have shortcuts to their respective fullscreen apps. Most of the functionality is overlapping anyway so you might not need to go there too often.
Samsung have also added several apps to make the Galaxy Tab 7.7 preinstalled package more complete. You are getting a dedicated video player, a file manager, a document editor and an ebook app are all must-haves so it's nice that the Koreans saved you the efforts to get them yourselves.
First impressions
Tablets sell so well not because they are as productive as computers – they sell so well because they are more fun to use. And the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 certainly fits the fun-to-use-tag nicely. It's snappy, it looks cool and has that oh-so-magnificent screen that is really a joy to behold.
Since its creation Honeycomb has always been arguably the most functional of tablet interfaces, but its performance was holding it back big time. Now, however, most of its issues seem to have been resolved and the Google tablet platforms seems ready to jump to the top of the slate food chain.
The only unknown remaining at this stage seems to be the pricing. If the Galaxy Tab 7.7 manages to go below the $600 barrier at launch it will probably become quite a success - the Super AMOLED Plus alone is probably making it worth it and the powerful chipset and slim body come as nice bonuses.
We are really hoping that Samsung will do their best and will bring the tablet to the market as quickly as possible though. Competition is fierce these days and today's super hot might be relegated to the role of an also-run in half a year - it would be a shame if such a thing happens to the sweet piece of technology that is the Galaxy Tab 7.7.
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