Apple iPad has recently received a new competitor - Samsung Galaxy Tab. This tablet's design is not same lame copy of iPad design and characteristics, but a totaly different animal. It's smaller, lighter, and more portable yet it still offers the same or even better user experience. Galaxy Tab display and interface are the main features described here.
Galaxy Tab Screen
It's equipped with a 7-inch capactive touchscreen that brings an amazingly sharp picture. Display has a resolution of 1024 x 600 which bring pixel density to 192 dpi. The LCD may be inferior to the AMOLED displays, but to me picture quality is great, with great brightness and vivid colors.
The advantage of LCD becomes obvious when it gets exposed to direct sunlight. The display retains picture visibility despite losing some of its contrast. That cannot be said for the mentioned AMOLED displays, as they lose all their qualities on the sunlight.
Viewing angle is the weakness of all LCD screens. When it's viewed from the side, it's obvious that AMOLED has the advantage. It's good that the dimensions allow it to fit in one hand, and therefore always stay directed at the user.
The multi-touch screen is very reponsive to all gestures. All your gestures are accurately registered by the Galaxy Tab, and the on-screen keyboard will not give you a hard time adjusting to it. It's useful in both typing positions, horizontal and vertical.
TouchWiz UI
The display is accompanied by Samsung TouchWiz UI, a great addition to the Android OS on this tablet. The home screen supports from five to nine different layouts. Shifting between them is done by scrolling left ot right, and they can all be customized by application icons. Multi-touch gestures, such as pinch zooming, are also supported.
Samsung Apps is available along with Android Market, thanks to TouchWiz UI. Samsung Apps is an application store directed specificaly at Samsung devices. The bad news is, Samsung Apps at the moment can only be accessed through the network connection of the mobile provider, and not using the WiFi network interface.
All in all, Samsung Galaxy Tab is a well rounded tablet, and possibly the only worthy competitor to iPad.
