back to article Samsung specs up 7in Android tablet

Samsung has posted the spec for its upcoming Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab. And Vodafone has announced availability. What we have behind its shiny, 190 x 121 x 12mm, 380g shell is a 1GHz ARM A8 processor with a PowerVR SGX540 graphics core - rather similar to Apple's A4 chip, in other words. It has 512MB of Ram to play with …

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  1. Gordon 10

    Capacitive or Resistive?

    that and price is is most important to me.

    1. JaitcH
      Pint

      According to a German review in the run up to IFA ...

      the Samsung 7 will have a capacitive screen and telephone features making it eligible for Google App store.

    2. PaulR79

      Capacitive

      I don't know why you needed to ask unless you're unfamiliar with how the product is being lined up but it has to be capacitive. There's no way it would be popular with resistive and those are generally kept for cheaper or more rugged designs where looks and function are limited to set tasks like building sites perhaps.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Obviously what you can't tell.....

    ...is it's made of the cheapest plastics known to man, feels like it's made of wafers, will shatter into a billion pieces if dropped more than 3" onto the finest shagpile, and will curiously stop working within a month of the manufacturers warranty expiring.

    Ohhh Samsung, why do you make such good looking products that are utter crap :o(

    Nice to see there's a manufacturers war heating up to fill a niche that doesn't exist. WTG.

  3. ThomH

    I'm still not sold on the Flash, but...

    Selling it through a mobile network is a really smart move. Hopefully these things will be free on a 24 month contract?

  4. Mr Brush
    Thumb Up

    Want!

    The Android slate market has been getting some very nice stuff recently.

    I can't see any USB ports, but I'm sure that Samsung wouldn't be daft enough to use proprietary connectors.

    Still, must be strong and wait to see what 3.0 (GingerBread) holds before taking the plunge.

    1. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Want!

      It has a 30-pin connector that feeds to USB. Samsung also talks about a Mini USB port.

      1. styven
        Unhappy

        Not happy really...

        Looking forward to this but expected at least a mini usb port as per the proposed mobile industry standard.

        Not happy that it can't as I understand it be bought outright.

        This link says no wifi version!

        http://www.talkandroid.com/13228-galaxy-tab-goes-website-live-has-a-commercial-as-well/

        A bit gutted about the whole thing really.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    It's nice, but..

    I wouldn't want to buy a device like this with another contract. I'd want to buy it outright, every time. Then tether it to my existing phone.

    If SIM free, it's something ridiculous like 4-500 quid, then, that's useless.

    1. Arctic fox
      Unhappy

      @It's nice, but. I am afraid you are not going to like this but....

      .......it looks as if we are talking about well over 700 pounds!

      http://androidandme.com/2010/09/phones/the-samsung-tab-gets-a-price-pre-orders-and-launch-date/

      I do not think that it will be "free" on contract any time soon either.

  6. Lloyd
    WTF?

    Nice and shiny

    But available on Vodafone? I think not after the still ongoing debacle with "unlimited" data and Android "updates". I'd buy it out of contract and use it pay as you go.

  7. Miek

    Sub 10" just 'aint enough

    Looks lovely but too small. I am personally waiting for 10"+ tablets.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Don't be greedy

      7" is enough for anybody. Fnar Fnar !

  8. LPF

    OK couple of questions..

    1) Hands up who has ever and I mean EVER made a video call?? do you know of anyone who has ?? why even bother with front facing camers, no one wants to send pics fo the contents of their nostrils to someone they are talking to.

    2) why keep stum on the pricing? whats the point, you waiting to see if you can undercut apples anticipated 7" tab ?

    anyway I though the iPad was a fad and would disappear soon, why is everyone bringing one out then ?

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Tablets have a market

      Tablets are here to stay. It is a market that existed but nobody had approached it right.

      Technophobes can use an iPad or similar tablet as they are very simple to use.

      There's usually no filemanager and more importantly no technical things to worry about like "format" functions, defrag and so on.

      It's truly a device you could hand to a computer beginner and they would work out how to use it while not being able to destroy it too easily.

    2. lglethal Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Actually i video call regularly...

      Sorry to blow your bubble LPF but i video call regularly over skype. As do a number of my friends. True we're all expats living a long way from home, and for that reason, video calls are a great way to stay in touch with family and friends half the world away. And true ive never had a video call with someone in the same country and certainly never over a mobile phone (at the prices they charge! Hell No!). But i do video call internationally all the time.

      So im really not sure why your on your hobby hourse about this. A front facing camera doesnt take up much space on the device, it doesnt add more then a few grams in weight and nor does it blow out the cost of the device. So whats your point? Its a nice feature - even if you dont use it! Kinda like the window washer on your car - Ive never used mine (because i clean the windows when im at a service station) but i realise that other people do use it, i can see maybe one day it might come in handy (on a particularly dusty road, perhaps?). So im happy its there, it doesnt cost me anything, doesnt slow my car down. Why should i demand its removal?

      Oh and why is everyone bringing them out? Well the iPad has sold a McTruckload, so why shouldnt other companies attempt to cash in? Just because you dont see the point in the iPad, doesnt mean others dont...

    3. Reg Varney

      > LPF

      1) Ever heard of Skype?

    4. Dan 10

      Video calling

      My mate once made one on a "first time around" 3G phone while viewing a flat, in order to show his potential flatmate what the place was like - a slightly niche usage scenario, I think you'll agree!

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yeah I did Videoconferencing over 10 years ago

      1) yes

      2) agreed - but unless they have one without a mobile radio then the hopes of cheaper models deminish and we all know how these free (NOT!) laptops with mobile contracts work out. Be interetsing to see. Also with ever converging standards and multi-band radio sets for mobile commiunications becoming more sorted then manufacturing of said units only gets cheaper.

      Personaly a Psion 5mx with a colour screen and bluetooth would of been my ideal, heck can even skimp on the colour screen. That had great bettery and worked well for its lowly sub 40mhz cpu. Indeed a basic cheap mobile will run a week on a charge but all manufactorers add options and this and that and you end up with a swiss army knife of a phone that realy dont pan out too well on battery and some tasks.

      But a device like this without the mobile GSM gubbins and a nice retro microwriter interface in a position under the tablet were you hold it and my life would be alot more complete. FYI Microwriter was a 5 key input interface that allowed people to type with one hand and get a extremly respectable input rate, well pish on these touch screens wich akin to typing as automated phone voice menu systems are to a conversation. they may do the job for most but all will agree there not ideal.

      A quick insight into what a microwiter keyboard entry would of been like http://www.bellaire.demon.co.uk/bellaire_cykey_codes.html

      Pretty easy to pick up.

      but back to this tablet - if they can do it without contract for sub £300 then they may get some love but realy people want a cheap tablet display they can abuse aroudn the house for sub £100. Screen VNC via wifi to your home PC and lets face it - who owns a tablet and dosn't own a home computer. Now that is not common. Indeed I suspect more people with tablets play virtual money shot or other such bathroom apps.

    6. Llanfair
      Happy

      One advantage of a front camera

      It can be used as an expensive mirror :-)

    7. DrXym

      The me too factor

      Front facing cameras got dumped because no one made any calls with them. Why encumber a device with something nobody uses? Then Apple sticks a front facing camera in the iPhone and suddenly all the manufacturers get "me too" syndrome.

      Companies have been trying for years to push video phones and the same issue applies every time. People just aren't that interested in seeing each other in day in day out sort of calls. And even if they were, both parties need to be equipped with the same device / software / network provider in order to do it. Too much effort for the very rare occasions people can be bothered.

    8. Steve Adams
      Happy

      re: do you know of anyone who has ??

      yeah me - a few times via skype/video.

      It's funny I did a search through time and found a similar comment made just before the launch of mainstream mobile phones:

      "Hands up who has ever and I mean EVER made a phone call whilst out of their house or office?? do you know of anyone who has ?? why even bother with a roaming phone, no one wants to spend their time walking around away from their desk or house while they are talking to someone."

      And this - just before TV was launched:

      "Hands up who has ever and I mean EVER watched a radio show with pictures?? do you know of anyone who has ?? why even bother with a radio with pictures, no one wants to be confused by moving pictures whilst listening to their favourite radio program"

      So - it appears people (like you) had similar confusion about why things hadn't been done *BEFORE* the mass availability and mainstream adoption of the enabling technology.

      Duh!

      Once it becomes simple and cheap of course lots of people will want to make (some) use of video calls. Probably not al the time... and very likely never with you if you intend to hold your device at just the right angle to display contents of your nostrils (eeeewwww - why would you choose to do that?).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Pint

        I'm on the train

        LOOK!

        Video calling will be no good for some people though, like the people I hear on the bus saying "no, I'm in work". Hmmm, maybe turning on the video should be the choice of the other party...

    9. Chillijohn

      Video Calls

      I know people who have made video calls but then they are deaf so standard voice calls are no use to them.

      If we can get the required video quality then videocalls will be able to offer mobile video relay services (Sign Language interpretation over a videophone) like the services that have been available in Scandiwegian countries for a while now.

      ...not that I believe that that's the motivation for offering videcalls in this case.

    10. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      My neice

      She uses video on skype several times a week to talk to grandparents and me. I don't think she can see any other use for computers. Maybe you're just antisocial?

    11. Nexox Enigma

      Seriously

      """1) Hands up who has ever and I mean EVER made a video call?? do you know of anyone who has ?? why even bother with front facing camers, no one wants to send pics fo the contents of their nostrils to someone they are talking to."""

      I think I made one just to prove that my n900 could do it months before the iphone4, but it's entirely useless. I don't know why anyone would want to see a picture of the other caller's chin (Are you going to hold your phone / tablet at eye level?) while they talk. I have yet to see a video chat system that added any communication value over standard voice. Video conferencing, with serious equipment (Cameras that auto-swivel to the current speaker, that camera right in the middle of the main screen, so people actually look directly at it,) but these front facing cameras on mobile devices are just items that have to be on the list now.

      And don't even get me started on the rear-facing cameras. Every phone /has/ to have one, even if it's a 2mp blur-master model with plastic 'optics' that takes ~8 seconds to actually capture that 'image.'

    12. TeeCee Gold badge
      Happy

      @LPF

      Too right!

      I recall when 3G first took off and video calliing was supposed to be the "killer app". I called a mate one day and the conversation started like this:

      "Can you talk now or are you still in your meeting?"

      "No, that's finished, I'm in the dunny."

      "...!!....Thank f*** we don't have video calling!"

    13. Chris 3

      Any family...

      Where the grandparents live a long way away or overseas are quite likely to make video calls.

  9. druck Silver badge
    Happy

    Should have called it the "Universe S"...

    ...because it look like a larger version of the Galaxy S phone. Just got one myself, and it's great. I'd certainly appreciate the 7" screen over the 4" on the phone, but then it wouldn't fit in my pocket - the Achilles heel of tablets.

  10. JaitcH
    Pint

    This has got the features than iTablet should have had

    The crippled tablet from Apple should have had all these features and more, as did the first Android tablets released in China had - many months before Apple tried to persuade everyone they were the first.

    The Android OS V3 has features that really will enhance tablet performance.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    800 Euro for the 16GB as rumor has it

    Link in german

    http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Samsung-greift-das-iPad-an-1070932.html

  12. Bob Terwilliger

    HELLO!

    Dom Joly wants his phone back.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    OK...

    "1) Hands up who has ever and I mean EVER made a video call?? do you know of anyone who has ?? why even bother with front facing camers, no one wants to send pics fo the contents of their nostrils to someone they are talking to."

    err...me, using Skype, about 10 minutes ago! Pound to a penny the Gmail IM-cum-VoiP system will support video chatting on Android by the end of the year. When that happens we will all want front facing cameras on our Android 2.2 tablets.

  14. thomas k.

    Wow, looks just like ...

    the Veiwsonic one from t'other day.

  15. Stuart Halliday
    Unhappy

    Still lacking.

    And yet Android 2.2 still doesn't support any of the grown up graphic file formats like TIFF, PSD and RAW...

    So of us grown ups would like to show off our photos on it please....

  16. poonab
    Thumb Up

    TV-Out?

    If this does tv-out via the new galaxy s hdml cable im in!

  17. Blain Hamon
    Unhappy

    Bother me not with your vapor wares!

    At least a month away for Vodaphone, no release announcement for the US beyond 'a few months later', no price, no demos, just some specs and a handful of photoshops. Samsung's own website isn't much better, either, with the two videos again only showing mockups of the hardware and faked screens.

    Wake me up when there's an actual review of an existent device.

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