The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1" Tablet

Apparently Samsung was not happy with the reception of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" and are planning a March 2011 release of a ten inch model. There is not much on this tablet at the moment, but I will share what I can find out.

The Mobile World Congress will take place this Sunday, February 13, 2011. Samsung is planning to unveil the new Galaxy Tab 2, a ten inch diagonal tablet computer, at this show.

The Tab 2 is rumored to run the new Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) for tablet computers. There is also word that despite it's ten inch screen the Tab 2 will be thinner and lighter than the 7" version. It will even be smaller than Apple's iPad.

According to sources the Tab 2¹ will feature an eight megapixel camera and run on a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon³processor. There have also been rumors that it will run an nVidia Tegra 2 processor or one of Samsung's own design, the Exynos 4210³.

That's three different processors made by three different companies. Very unlikely!

At this point rumor is overriding common sense. Even the number of cores for the processor (one or two) is in doubt as the Snapdragon is single core and the Tegra 2 & Exynos are dual core. Perhaps worse, processor speed is even in doubt with 1GHz and 1.2GHz being bandied about as the Tab II's clock speed.

Eynos is a portmanteau of two greek words; smart (exypnos) and green (prasinos).

The Tab 2¹ will sport an eight (8Mpxl) megapixel camera capable of recording both still and moving images at 720p². It also features dual stereo speakers.

The Galaxy Tab II¹ is also rumored to support:

• Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread (upgrade 3.0 Honeycomb⁴)
• 3D Display after upgrade to 3.0 Honeycomb
• NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor
• Gorrila Glass screen
• Back camera: 8mp, 1080p video, Dual LED flash
  
• Front camera: 3mp
• 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v3.0
• USB Port
• 64 GB Internal Memory, MicroSD Slot,
  
• RAM 1024 MB
• Accelerometer
• Gyroscope
• Compass
• Barometer

February 13, 2011

The actual figures are in. The Galaxy Tab is called the 10.1 not the Tab II.

It will have an nVidia Tegra 2 (dual core) processor running at one GigaHertz, 16 or 32Gigabytes of RAM and run Google apps (mail, maps, etc.). The OS will be Android Honeycomb (3.0) and the front facing camera will be an 8Megapixel capable of recording 1080p at twenty-four frames per second and playback at 1080p thirty frames per second.The front-facing camera is a three megapixel design for still images and video chat.

The unit will communicate via Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n), HSPA+ (21Megabits per second) and EDGE.

it will have a capacitive touch multi-touch display recognizing gestures. On either side of the display will be speakers to give stereo reproduction sound. It will also come with a 3.5mm headphone jack (and possibly headphones; who knows) and support Bluetooth 2.0 plus EDR.

The display will have a resolution of 1280 x 800.

Finally the rumors have ended. The section above titled The Real Deal and the table immediately below have the actual specifications.

Perhaps the most impressive specification is the battery. It is massive and with that much stored power could quite possibly run for eight or more hours between charges.

However...a sale price of $1,100 from Best Buy is hardly a bargain, even if the unit is slightly smaller than the Apple iPad.

Update March 23, 2011
In direct response to the popularity of the iPad2 Samsung has dropped the price of their tablets to well below those comparably equipped iPad2s.

The 8.9-inch Wi-Fi version of the tablet will now start at $469; this for the 16GB model. The 10.1-inch tablet Wi-Fi model will start at $499 for the 16GB equipped tablet.

¹ The machine will be called the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

² Actual recording will be 1080p at 24 frames per second.

³ The Orion or Exygnos processor is indeed stalled; the nVidia Tegra 2 processor is the one installed.

⁴ The tablet will come with Android Honeycomb; not Gingerbread (2.3).

The author was not compensated in any way, monetarily, with discounts, or freebies by any of the companies mentioned.

Though the author does make a small profit for the word count of this article none of that comes directly from the manufacturers mentioned. The author also stands to make a small profit from advertising attached to this article.

The author has no control over either the advertising or the contents of those ads.