Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 preview: First look

Introduction

Samsung are really taking tablets seriously these days. They already have three offerings this year. The other two are more compact, but it's the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that will lead the team ahead in enemy territory. The trio surely has one hard task ahead of them, but let's see how the eldest brother fares now.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 official photos
The largest of the company's tablets offers more screen estate and larger battery, while at the same time maintaining the impressively slim waistline. There’s a Tegra 2 chipset ticking under the hood so you get the latest and greatest in mobile chipset technology.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 3G at a glance:

• General: GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz , UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Tablet
• Dimensions: 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm, 565 g
• Display: 10.1" 16M-color WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels) PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen
• CPU: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, ULP GeForce GPU, Tegra 2 chipset
• RAM: 1GB
• OS: Android 3.1 Honeycomb
• Memory: 16/32/64 GB storage
• Camera: 3.15 megapixel auto-focus camera with 720p video recording; LED flash, 2 megapixel front facing camera, video-calls
• Battery: 7000 mAh
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, HDMI TV-out (through an adapter), USB host (adapter required)
• Misc: TouchWiz customization, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor

As you can see, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is nothing else, but a slightly larger 8.9 so the only question remaining is which one would suit your style better. And while we find the 8.9" size more versatile, it was the the 9.7-inch iPad that made the tablet class mainstream so it’s a good guess the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will probably have a wider reach.
Plus Samsung introduced some last minute touches to its largest slate, which should help it fare even better. At the eleventh hour the company announced that it will come with an even larger battery (7000mAh) and 30 grams lower weight than initially announced and that it will be getting DivX and XviD support. It seems like a good way to give an already competitive device an even bigger edge over its competitors (though in the case of the Tab 10.1 the edge is slimmer).

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 as seen by our camera
But those are all mostly guesses based on what the specs sheet of the device tells us. It's about time that we checked out its real-life performance and see if it will swing our opinion in another direction.
As we move to the hardware part of this preview, here's hoping that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 won't disappoint as it's about time the iPad 2 got a worthy competitor.