JasonMaust.com - Jason Maust Musings

I was fortunate enough that my wife purchased me the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi Android tablet last weekend and I thought I would share my thoughts.

Initial Thoughts:

The form factor, weight, and feel are great. The button placement makes sense. The speakers are clear and loud. Hardware wise, it is great. It does, however, have a Samsung-only plug on it, which is not a huge deal, but why do people hate USB?
Honeycomb is definitely nice...but it still has a few more steps to go. For example, it comes with virtually no widgets. Call me spoiled because I have an HTC phone, but Samsung or Google could have put a few in there pre-loaded.
It is fast enough and responsive enough for me.
Battery life is great. I left it on when I first got it for about 3 and half days straight before charging. Then, I have played around with turning it off at nights and get nearly 5 or 6 days from it. This is more than good enough for me.
Videos look and sound great via YouTube.
I am not an apps person, so I have no complaint with the apps I have pulled down so far. Only a few are not Tablet optimized, but no big deal.
The Tab came pre-loaded with the Pulse app. Very nice news reader.
The Browser...my only real issue. The default browser is nice, quick, loads and renders very well. However, so that you get sites like ESPN in the full web version, you have to go into debug mode (come on Google, just make it an option and stop making us go into debug mode) and set it to work like a desktop browser. Afterwards, every site renders great...EXCEPT FOR GMAIL!!!! How can the Google Browswer do such a terrible job displaying Google's most important application. It is maddening how it messes up the frames. It does an awesome job with Exchange Webmail...but not Gmail. As a result, I had to download Dolphin and run it in Mobile mode just to get a usable Gmail interface. For shame Google, for shame.
My only other issue, this time minor, is that the auto-brightness on the screen is a tad dim when you are in a dark room. Of course, this saves battery and your eyes...but it doesn't make the screen look as great as it is. Like I said, minor complaint, I just wish the dim setting balance point was higher.

Overall, I love the Tab 10.1. I even got a nifty (but expensive) case at Best Buy that I really like. For the price, this is the best non-iPad option, and, if you are like me and don't like Apple, the best tablet option period.