My Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 arrived last week. Due to various events, I've only had limited time to play with it, but here are several of my initial observations:
Android syncing is awesome. This is only my second Android device. I've had my Nexus One for a year and a half now, but I'm not the type to throw out perfectly good technology for a new Shiny (though I have been having more issues with storage space, recently...). As such, this was the first time I experienced logging into a new device and watching all my apps and contacts immediately start syncing. That was pretty cool.
Android syncing is...odd. Later, I noticed that it didn't download all the apps I have on my phone, and there wasn't an obvious pattern. Some of the larger ones (Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons) didn't download, but neither did an alternate keyboard and some other odds and ends.
Honeycomb is not Gingerbread. I was expecting the interface to feel different; I'd seen enough videos of it, after all. But it does feel like an entirely different system. Much of that is because of a sense of freedom. The larger screen is just a lot less claustrophobic. The configuration screens are familiar but different and, most noticeably, the "App Drawer" is completely different. Similar to the market, you can look at either All Apps or My Apps and, honestly, I'm not sure I can tell the difference other than the preinstalled apps (stock and Samsung-specific) don't show up under "my apps". But that didn't stop some of them from suddenly showing up on my phone, either. Very strange.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not stock Android. Though I'd tried, I hadn't seen much discussion only about whether this device was stock Android. I figured it wouldn't be far off and, honestly, I still don't know if it's been modified beyond the base installed apps, including a Samsung App Market, which makes no sense to me (especially since it wasn't even on the home screen by default). However, it DOES ship with a Samsung keyboard replacement. And... I don't know why. It seems to have no benefit over the stock keyboard whatsoever. In fact, it feels exactly like the stock keyboard, but with ugly gray buttons like it was written for Windows 95. Mostly I was frustrated by the missing quick-access for the numbers on the top row of keys, until I switched to the stock keyboard and found that that, too, didn't have it. So I bought Thumb Keyboard and haven't looked back.
Honestly, I haven't bothered to look at the preinstalled apps much (except for Pulse, just because I recognized it). I plan on doing so, but I generally consider anything preinstalled to be bloadware, so it'll take me a while.
Android Honeycomb apps... need... more... apps. The app environment for Android tablets is nowhere as evolved as it is for the iPad, and I expected that. I was surprised, however, to realize that not even the Facebook app is Honeycomb-optimized. Neither is Tweetdeck, which I would have thought was a shoe-in, if it weren't generally expected that Twitter is just going to kill it off. Even though this is the same OS as my phone and it runs the same apps, I feel like I'm starting a whole new search for the right tools.
In general, I'm still getting used to the concept of having a tablet; deciding what things work best on the phone vs a larger screen, finding new apps to take advantage of the increased space, etc. But I do love the batter life so far. It's never been far from the charger, but the only time I've had to plug it in came after several sessions of various games chewing through the screen and processor.
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