Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 Review

Introduction:

When we think about Samsung, one of the first things that tend to come to mind is the fanatical rate on how quickly they’re able to develop, produce, and bring devices to market – and it shows just by looking at their smartphone portfolio. Concurrently, we’re beginning to see the same thing happening over in the tablet world as they quickly established themselves with the original 7-inch Samsung GALAXY Tab.

Early in the year, they abruptly rocked the boat by introducing the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1, which then received a huge overhaul recently with its design so that they wouldn’t be outdone by another rival. However, things don’t end there as they’re able to fill in the gap between the two models with the Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9. Employing the same design characteristics and hardware under the hood, it’s going to be intriguing to see how this $469 priced tablet will be able to secure its own identity.

• Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9
• Wall Charger
• USB cable
• Stereo Headphone
• 4 ear bud replacements
• Quick Start Guide
• Health & Safety and Warranty Guide

Design:

Besides its discernible size difference, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 looks and feels much like its bigger brother. Visually, it utilizes the cookie-cutter tablet design approach that we’re all familiar with by now, but it’s still able to stand out thanks to its razor thin construction at 0.34” thick uniformly all around. At first glance, it seems as though it’s sporting a brushed metallic back cover of some sort, but in fact, it’s nothing more than a tough plastic material that emulates the look of a metal exterior. Despite the less premium material in use, we’re actually impressed that it does a superb job in repelling dirt and debris from sticking on – thus, keeping it looking clean at all times. Overall, it’s not something new that excites us,  but it still works and comes together very well.



As its name implies, the tablet is sporting an 8.9” PLS (Plane to Line Switching) LCD display with a sizable 1280 x 800 resolution – the same resolution as the GALAXY Tab 10.1. Combining its screen size and resolution, it obviously produces some hard crunching high pixel density, which makes it so detailed looking. Adding to its lovely appearance, its high brightness output, great viewing angles, and piercingly warm color production, all combine together to give us one gorgeous looking display that looks fantastic in all conditions.


Literally, everything else regarding the Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 is absolutely identical to its bigger brother as it features the same propriety charging/dock port, left & right speakers, microphone, volume rocker, and dedicated power button around its sides.

When it comes to cameras, it’s also unchanged as it flaunts a 2-megapixel front-facing one above the display and a 3.2-megapixel auto-focus snapper in the rear with an LED flash. However, it’s still sorely lacking a built-in microSD card slot to increase its internal storage – though, you can purchase an optional adapter that plugs into its charging port to get that functionality.

Interface:

Oh joy! The Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 is another one in the saddle that relies on the all too casual 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor to power the tablet – and that’s what we constantly see with most Honeycomb flavored tablets. Strangely though, it’s seriously marred by some ridiculous bouts of lag and slowdown with its operation. Of course, it’s not as bad when navigating the homescreen with a static wallpaper, but using a live wallpaper instead, it simply strains to keep up with our interaction.

Shedding a tear in the process for its lack of responsiveness, it could somehow be related to the TouchWiz UX experience that’s running on top of Android 3.1 Honeycomb. Needless to say, its myriad of live panels can surely be the culprit behind the compromised  speed – however, they do offer a lot of useful information through the homescreen. And to show off its added level of personalization, some of the stock and Samsung widgets are resizable to fit any length. Also included, the “Mini Apps” tray provide quick access to some commonly used apps like the task manager, calculator, and calendar. It’s nice that they’re overlaid on top of things to give us good visibility on whatever we’re doing.

In its attempt  to provide users with an all-in-one experience, there are various Samsung inspired hubs that cater to the needs of specific individuals. Looking at the overall picture, they’re very useful in getting content onto the tablet – without the need of downloading separate apps out of the box. Specifically, the Music Hub allows us to purchase music and albums, Media Hub offers quite a few movies and TV shows for purchase or rent, Readers Hub grants us all of our eReading needs, and Social Hub aggregates social networking content all in one spot.


Organizer and Messaging:

Running any of the tablet’s organizer oriented applications, they’re nothing drastically different from other tablets featuring the stock or customized Android experience – and in fact, they’re the same ones found with the TouchWiz filled GALAXY Tab 10.1. Considering that this is Honeycomb we’re talking about, items like the calendar, contacts, and memo apps fully take advantage of the larger real estate as they’re laid out in a familiar two-panel layout. However, for other things like the alarm and calculator, they seem to be nothing more than scaled versions of their smartphone counterparts.

Far from being a shocker, both the Samsung email application and Gmail one utilize the same DNA infrastructure as they provide visibility on our inbox and its contents simultaneously. Moreover, the entire layout shifts over to the left when a specific email is selected. And just like all the other Android devices before it, setup is a painless process as it requires only our email addresses and passwords to activate generic email accounts properly.


Truly adorning the fact that we’re presented with four different keyboards, which include the stock Android one, Samsung, Swype, and TalkBack keyboard, we’re not thrilled by the fact that some of them can be a bit unresponsive in keeping up with our pace. Additionally, due to its smaller sized display, its buttons and overall size are reduced – causing us to be a bit more cautious in what we press. Nevertheless, a lot of patience can easily make the entire experience a bit more tolerable.

Camera:

Peeking at the TouchWiz camera interface, we’re easily reminded of a smartphone since it replicates the layout found with Samsung’s previous devices. Not to say that it’s a bad thing, but when there’s just so much room begging to be used properly, we’re expecting something more conducive – though, it’s still more than functional. Aside from that, it boasts a healthy amount of options, shooting modes, and manual settings to appease even the stiffest of photo enthusiasts.


For a tablet, we have to give the Samsung GALAXY Tabb 8.9 some props for capturing some average looking photos with its 3.2-mexapixel shooter. To our delight, it’s able to dish up images that pack sharp details and balanced colors that are neutral in tone with outdoor conditions – and for the most part, they’re pleasing to the eye. Conversely, quality takes a dip in low lighting scenarios as they’re muddied by some recognizable levels of graininess. In combating that, its LED flash is powerful enough to cast rays of light to even out its appearance.

Exhibiting the same overall results with its 720p video capture, we’re mostly content by its average visuals as it’s able to capture things at the smooth rate of 29 frames per second, and record clear sounding audio. However, it’s not all pretty as details are on the soft side of things. Of course, it doesn’t get any better in really poor lighting as its quality is diminished by its noisy looking production. Nevertheless, it’s agreeable enough to accept wholeheartedly without being turned off too much.

Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 Sample Video:



Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Listening to some of our favorite tunes on the tablet, the TouchWiz music player lacks the visual allure that some other tablets take pride in – like the Sony Tablet S. Instead, its approach is fairly straightforward with albums laid out in a grid-like view and on-screen controls placed in another panel on the right side. Even with its two speakers, they’re good with a lot of strong tones being emitted out of them, but things sound rather shrill and irritating at the loudest volume. However, it’s worth mentioning that it offers a variety of equalizer settings to better enhance its output.

Experiencing a good amount of lag in various aspects of the tablet already, we’re once again baking in its glory as we head on over to watch high-definition videos on the GALAXY Tab 8.9. Visibly struggling to playback a movie trailer encoded in DivX 1920 x 1080 resolution, it’s undeniably hard to tolerate because of its sluggish movement – albeit, colors and details look eye-catching. Despite its shortcomings, it’s better able to play lower quality videos like those in 720p format.


Granted that it offers DLNA functionality with the AllShare app, it still requires an optional adapter or docking station to get a hard-wired video-out function. We can complain about its lack of a built-in video-out port, but it would probably compromise its svelte appearance – then again, an adapter that sticks out can easily be a sight for sore eyes too.

As we mentioned already, both the Media and Music Hubs provide a centralized area to purchase content. Meanwhile, it’s packed with the Movie Studio app and Photo Editor app to quickly cut, edit, and beautify our stored content.

With our 16GB review unit, there is approximately 13.11GB of total storage available to us out of the box. Again, there’s no way of supplementing that capacity – well, that’s unless you purchase either its optional microSD card or USB adaptesr.

Internet and Connectivity:

Interestingly enough, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 is able to manhandle web browsing with very little effort, which is surprising  to tell you the truth when it struggles to smoothly navigate its own homescreen. Even with complex pages filled with a lot of Flash content, we’re able to traverse the page with relative ease. From kinetic scrolling to pinch zooming, everything about it appears to be in tip-top shape.


Just like its big brother, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 is available in Wi-Fi form initially, but it’s not going to be long before it’s retrofitted with some sort of cellular connectivity. Luckily, it’s able to connect solidly to a nearby wireless hotspot without one instance of dropping the connection – plus, it retains a solid signal strength at all times. In for the ride, we also find other connectivity items like Bluetooth 3.0 and aGPS.

Performance:

Setting it to automatic brightness during our testing, we’re able to get close to two days of moderate usage that consists mostly of web browsing and emailing. In our books, that’s a pretty good mark to hit with its 6,000 mAh battery – thus, easily providing power users with a solid day’s worth of usage. Naturally, light users will benefit the most as they’ll dearly enjoy its longevity.

Conclusion:

If you find the original 7” Samsung GALAXY Tab too small and the GALAXY Tab 10.1 too big for you to handle, then it’s a no-brainer conclusion that the GALAXY Tab 8.9 offers that tangible solution in bridging the gap. Although it’s almost hard to not like this offering, especially when it’s fashioned after its bigger brother, there are some things that diminish its overall appeal in drastically establishing its own identity.

Standing out like a sore thumb, it’s simply plagued by too many instances of unresponsiveness that tarnish its pristine aura. From playing high definition videos to navigating around its homescreen, we’re just turned off a little bit by its sluggishness. However, its biggest detractor has to be its $469 pricing, which doesn’t seem to be justifiable based on its offerings and performance. Obviously, it’s pricey when it’s only separated by only $30 from its bigger brother.

On the other hand, if it were priced somewhere around the lower $400 mark or less, it could potentially gain some credibility, but as of right now, it’s very hard to accept altogether when you look at the big picture.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android version:  3.1
Kernel version: 2.6.36.3
Build number: HMJ37.UEKHA P7310UEKHA

Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 Video Review: