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Back in 2007 Bowers & Wilkins entered the consumer audio market with the MM-1 desktop speakers and quickly followed it up with the original Zeppelin. The Zeppelin was an unknown quantity when it was initially released because of its now trademark airship-like shape. With the Zeppelin B&W, did no harm to their reputation as the dock sounded like a million dollars and was relatively affordable considering the other products in the company portfolio. The Zeppelin Air pushes the envelope further as it adds Apple Airplay support and includes updated mid-range drivers and tweeters, along side a beefier sub-woofer. So is it worth the hype?
DESIGN
When we saw the Zeppelin initially, inventive was the word that came to mind. The simplest way to describe the product would be to compare it to an abnormally elongated egg. The same holds true for the Zeppelin Air as, looks-wise, nothing much has changed except the fact that the original chrome finish at the rear has been replaced by a more classy glossy black plastic finish.
All ports are housed in the rear. We get the standard auxiliary port, component ports and USB along side the new ethernet port for AirPlay and power port. As always, the dock connector is in the front. Keeping up-to-date with changes in mobile computing technology, the dock connector can support an iPad. Most probably, B&W reinforced the base of the dock connector making it more sturdy for iPad compatibility.
In keeping with the design of the dock, B&W also provides an egg-shaped remote control which, frankly, looks adorable. One gripe one may have with it is that the battery compartment of the remote is covered with rubber which can be quite a pain to attach.
Build quality is exemplary even by B&W standards, with the Zeppelin being constructed of a mesh like fabric and having a rock sold plastic covering in the rear. When paying in excess of Rs 40000 for an iPod dock, quality is what is expected and that is exactly what we get. In comparison to the slightly cheaper Bose and JBL offerings, the build quality is light years ahead and we are guessing that is a tradeoff most will be willing to swallow considering the amount of money being invested.
SOUND QUALITY
The original from 2007 wowed people with its sound quality, a fact that doesn't surprise given that B&W has always had a penchant for superb sound quality. One has to just listen to all the old Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and the Who records as most of them were mastered with the help of B&W monitors placed in London's legendary Abbey Road Studios. As a matter of fact, some of the vintage B&W equipment is still used there. We are talking about some of the most iconic albums in music history here. So, could a relatively inexpensive B&W system sound poor? The answer to that would be no.
The Zeppelin Air is a modern B&W marvel, it incorporates the best sonic technologies developed by the company in their iconic Nautilus line of speakers and combines them with mid-range drivers and tweeters used in their award winning MM-1 desktop speakers. We also get the same DSP sound processing found in the MM-1 which converts to superior sound quality if one bypasses the PC sound card and takes the sound output directly through USB.
While all the tech jargon is alright, the big question is - how does it sound? To put it simply, it is the best sounding iPod dock south of Rs 50k, which is a massive category as we have more than 50 products in the under Rs 50,000 range. In many cases it outclasses docks which are must more expensive - for instance, the Bang & Olusen BeoSound 8 which will set you back by Rs 85,000.
Overall, the sound does have remnants of dynamic compression but acoustically the Zeppelin Air delivers a hair raising sonic quality which one has become accustomed to with B&W audio gear.
The sound is very open and warm, which cannot be said about the much more expensive Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 8 or the Bose Soundock.
We tested multiple tracks on the Zeppelin Air, covering a plethora of genres. From the brash sonic boom of progressive metal of Tool to the silky suave blues licks of the late great Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Zeppelin conquered a sonic stratosphere only known to audiophiles. All tracks were 320KBPS MP3's and the same files were used for Airplay tests too.
Drums thudded, cymbals blasted and distorted guitars roared on the machine gun riff of Tool's oddly timed Jambi. Interestingly, the guitars maintained the machine gun rhythm interplay of Adam Jone's Les Paul and Danny Carey's drums without sounding overly muddy and providing adequate clarity allowing us to hear every nuance of the flanging and echo effects used by the band. The key here was the ambient reverb which was audible and made the song come alive. Even the pinch harmonics used sat well in the mix and never gave us an ear piercing squeal which can often happen with sound docks.
Next in line was our personal favorite, the '80s classic Sweet Child O' Mine. Here, the sound of the main riff is always the key and, thanks to our good fortune, Slash's Les Paul never sounded sweeter with all the harmonic overtones singing. The midrange was beautifully balanced with all the natural harmonics of the distorted neck-pickup popping in the mix. The treble response was equally impressive and Axl Rose's husky wail never caused our ears any discomfort. The same held true for the lightning fast Wah-Wah laced guitar solo. Most impressive was the bass response, as normally in most hard rock songs we hear the guitars, the drums and the vocals, but the bass gets lost in the mix.
A constant oddity with most speakers is that they perform well with newer music but struggle with music from the '60s - basically, we mean mono recordings. So we had to check out some Jimi Hendrix style psychedelia. In our experience, the fuzz laden tone of Hendrix's albums is the ultimate litmus test for the mid-range of a speaker. Zeppelin was proficient at what ever we threw at it, be it the univibe laced fuzz of his Fender Stratocaster on Purple Haze or the Wah-Wah pyrotechnics on Voodoo Childe. The Zeppelin conquered. We believe this happened due to the newly redesigned mid-range drivers and tweeters as the old Zeppelin did not reproduce audio with such detail.
Impressive as this was, we found that the real forte of the Zeppelin lies in reproducing acoustic music. On the 12-string reverberating bliss called Stairway to Heaven, the nuances of guitar slide, subtle chord changes, hammer-ons and pull-offs, all came forth with a magnificence only seen before in high quality studio monitors. This was quite amazing.
Even for hardcore Texas blues. the Zeppelin was astoundingly competent. The percussive rhythms, the baritone vocal style of Stevie Ray Vaughn and the throaty overdriven Stratocaster were all omnipresent in the mix. Actually, the most satisfying bit was the throaty tone on the solo on Life Without You. Luthiers will tell you that the single coil tone is the most dynamically complex but this complexity is often missing on sound systems, leave alone iPod Docks.
Overall, we were very satisfied with the performance of the Zeppelin Air but, if we were to get really picky, then we would say it could offer better stereo imaging although, as a rule, iPod docks are limited in this aspect due to their general design.
AIRPLAY
One of the more hyped features of the Zeppelin Air is the Airplay functionality giving it the 'Air' moniker. For starters, Airplay is Apple's wireless technology which allows streaming of music via Wi-Fi. Airplay automatically converts your music to Apple-Lossless while streaming but this will never result in any audio quality gains. The most impressive thing about Airplay has to be the potential for wireless playback which is extremely convenientand it even works with other iOS based hardware. While the audio may not be as crisp and clear as a direct wired or docked connection, the quality loss in Airplay is quite minimal. So minimal that the layman will not even identify the difference, only audiophiles will - but, then again, audiophiles flinch at the thought of wireless sound.
When it works Airplay is a delight, but when it does not it is a pain in the neck. We noticed some minor lags in changing songs or changing volume levels but these issues are very trivial. The major issue with Airplay, at the moment, is that it is only as good as one's wi-fi signal. The moment you have issues with your signal you have issues with your audio which is quite a turn-off.
VERDICT
At present, the B&W Zeppelin Air is the reigning king of all iPod docks at present. With the Zeppelin Air, British audio alchemists have managed to enhance an already sublime product. Apart from the upgraded internals and better sound quality, B&W provides AirPlay which is a nifty little addition making it more iOS friendly. We can even connect it to our TV and use it as a sound-bar. The only thing stopping one from buying this dock would be it ultra high price tag of Rs 48,000.
PRICE
Rs 48,000
Pros
Stellar Sound Quality
AirPlay
Inventive Design
Cons
Price
Overwhelming Bass
RATINGS:
Value:3
Design:4.5
Sound Quality:4.5
Wow Factor:5
JBL has always had an affinity for unique high fidelity audio gear (remember Sound Sticks II) so be rest assured something interesting is in store for you. This time around we have wrapped our picky ears around the JBL ONBEAT, which is an ultra portable iPod/iPad Dock. High quality iPod/iPad docks are a rarity in themselves and finding one sub Rs 10,000 gets even harder, so the ONBEAT is a rare breed. So lets see if this one can appease our sonic sensibilities.
Design
Clearly, JBL intended to design something that would sit comfortably on your office desk or on your bedside table. For the most part,they succeed. The ONBEAT is a very well designed dock and it is relatively light, weighing only 1.9 pounds.
Even the speaker grill is made up of quality plastics, so we have been pampered with plush build quality as no other dock in this price range manages to look so premium.
At first glance its oval base and curvaceous structure lends it a look reminiscent of a croissant.There is also a heart shaped incision in the center which houses the iPod/iPad dock clamp.
Besides this, we have the two 7.5 watt drivers on the sides. These are not dedicated drivers, they are designed to deliver all the frequencies through a singular unit. So, there are no dedicated tweeters and woofers.
The volume knobs are placed on the right hand side and they are made up of chrome like material,which lends a solid and comfortable feel to them.
On the rear end of the dock we have the standard power port, the ON/OFF switch, the auxiliary input, the USB port and a Video out. JBL has equipped the dock with all the connectivity frills a layman would need for his day-to-day entertainment.
The package even includes a remote control,the buttons of which are made up of a membrane like material. All aspects of the dock can be easily accessed but,in the absence of a display, we sometimes did not realize what functionality we were activating. This was a tad problematic. So we would have appreciated a tiny display even if it bumped up the price.
Apart from this, an adapter for the docking station has been provided, enabling the iPod to be docked in landscape mode. This functionality is meant for the iPod Touch and the iPhone but not for the iPad. Though one must mention that the iPad compatibility is a boon.
Sound Quality
At the outset we should make it clear that sky high expectations of the dock are unfeasible as the category of ultra-portable docks is itself limited by the general design of the products.
The ONBEAT is designed to do a specialized job and it serves its purpose more than adequately. Overall, the mid-range remains pretty balanced albeit a tad brittle, the treble response was on the brighter side of things but, as usual, the bass response was lacking.
All these qualities are par for the course and while testing the ONBEAT we found it sounded slightly better than the offerings shelled out by JBL's sister company Altec Lansing.However, it was definitely inferior to the similarly priced Logitech Rechargeable speaker dock S715i
For testing we picked some of our favorite MP3 tracks all encoded at 320KBPS. Interestingly, the results were quite varied.
We started with some electronic magnificence of Tangerine Dream's Poland and Firetongue. Generally, electronic music has an ambient overtone which always remains omnipresent coupled with a repetitive bass-line. We found out that the ONBEAT excelled at reproducing these sound gradations. The ONBEAT successfully managed to reproduce the elegant ambient nuances at low to-mid range volumes but the melletron and slap-back bass effects started to buckle at higher volumes.
We experienced similar results with the Guns n Roses' smash hit Sweet Child 'O Mine. The overdriven tone of Slash's guitar was not distinct enough as the ONBEAT failed to pick up the harmonic overtones produced by the higher notes at higher volumes and had a tendency to clip too.
While listening to some modern alternative rock in the vein of Nickelback's Rockstar we did not face many problems thanks to lower levels of distorted guitar in the mix. While the acoustic elements sounded decent they were notably brighter than usual. As far vocals went, Chad Kroeger's vocals remained crisp and the interlude with Billy Gibbons' spoken words sounded perfect.
We also bravely tested some metal tracks such as Metallica's classic riff-montage called Four Horsemen and Megadeth's Hanger 18 but these sounded downright awful with the drivers buckling under the pressure exerted by the excessive distortion based tones.
Clearly these speakers are not designed to be pushed or to be used with more brash genres of music. They perform best when they are left alone on an office desk or the bedside for some ambient, lounge like music or simpler tracks, which do not overwhelm the drivers with multiple instruments.
Verdict
If you are looking for a decent dock for your office/bedroom, which also supports the iPad then the JBL ONBEAT, will fit the bill. But don't expect it bring the ceiling down. While it does not offer awe inspiring sound, it does manage to sound decent in popular genres of music which will be adequate for most. It even manages to offer good connectivity options which is another feather in its cap.
The only problem would be its steep price tag of Rs 9,990 as for slightly less we could get a similar sounding dock which would only lack the build quality of the ONBEAT.
Pros:
Solid Build Quality
Good Connectivity options
Portability
iPad compatible
Cons:
Brittle sound
Expensive
No display
Ratings:
Price: 2
Design: 4
Sound Quality: 3
Wow Factor: 3
There seems to be no end in sight for the Tablet frenzy. After the iPad 2 and the Android Honeycomb armada, here is Reliance's latest 7-inch, 3G tablet which runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and comes bundled with a multitude of 3G plans. At the outset we have to say that for a change this one does not follow the monotonous similarity of all the other Android tablets. Lets see if this one breaks the ice with the Indian masses.
Packaging and Content
Reliance gives us the standard set of goodies including the power cable, the USB cable, the 4-gigabyte memory card and also a pair of super-cheap headphones. But yes, headphones. Apple, are you reading this? If Reliance can, so can you - give us headphones with the iPad!
Hardware and Styling
At Rs 12,999, this is not the cheap Chinese built tablet one would expect. Even though its clearly 'made in China' courtesy ZTE, its at the higher end of the spectrum. With its brushed aluminum like plastic finish in the rear, the device indisputably feels well built. Interestingly, the rear casing is removable which means we can access the 3400 mAh battery, alongside the Reliance sim-card slot and the MicroSD memory-card slot. We also get the 2-megapixel camera in the rear end of the device.
The front-end of the device welcomes us with 7-inch capacitive touch display along with the three Android touch buttons and the VGA front camera, which facilitates video chats.
On the right hand side, we get the customary volume rocker and the unusually placed power button which has clearly borrowed from Samsung. Actually, the Reliance 3G tablet can easily be mistaken for the original 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab, the only difference being the finish in the rear.
On the top, we get the standard 3.5 mm audio jack and the bottom houses the micro-USB port. Besides these both the top and bottom have a speaker modules.
Interface
We get impression that this tablet was designed more as a means to promote Reliance's 3G network. The only way that is going to happen is if the users have a decent interface at their disposal, and stock Android pretty much offers exactly that. Unfortunately, someone at Reliance thought that they could out-do Google and build a better user interface. Bad idea guys, even premier smartphone manufactures like Samsung and HTC haven't come up with anything better than vanilla Android.
The moment we powered the device up we were at the mercy of the unwholesome Android skin Reliance has specially developed for it.
Funnily, for the first 15 minutes we were wondering if the device had a resistive display or a capacitive one, which was Reliance's claim. After struggling with the horrid touchscreen response we lost patience and decided to install LauncherPro which is the best third party Android skin available. The moment LauncherPro was ready the tablet became a pleasant device to use.
Apparently, the Reliance skin was consuming so much of processing power from the device that it was left almost unusable for any other task.
If you have been reading our reviews, you will know we are not big fans of Android skinning, even from companies like HTC who deliver the very good HTC Sense UI, and here's why.
Android skinning never works, as the best Android is the one delivered by Google - it is fast, smooth and intuitive. Skinning slows down the device, it clutters the user interface and rarely adds any functionality that stock Android does not have.
This is a direct indictment of the Android ecosystem where OEMs have the license to pollute the software and pass on any bloat-ware to the consumer in the name of differentiations and marketing. Hopefully, this will change in the near future.
Lets be clear out here - we are not saying that the 3G tablet is a bad device, actually the reality is quite the opposite. What we hate is Reliance's decision to pollute the OS with their skin just for the sake of pushing the Reliance brand. Make no mistake, that's what it is. They may claim that their user interface is unique but it is not. It does not add even one bit of functionality to the device that is not already available on stock Android.
Multimedia
Multimedia is normally a tablet device's forte as the tablet form-factor is optimized for multimedia consumption. The Reliance tab is designed for this purpose only.
As the device runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread it is as adept as any other Android smartphone on the market when it comes down to multimedia.Admittedly, it tends to get a tad slow but hey, it costs Rs 12,999. That price won't get you any dual core goodies and we don't think many will care, either.
For music we get the stock Android music player. Despite the lack of the visual flamboyance of an iTunes-style cover flow interface, it's very functional and easy to understand. It organizes one's music pretty neatly. One can easily sort out assorted music according to Artists, Albums, and Genre or even according to the song name. A built-in equalizer would have been great, but, again, the price bracket doesn't allow.
Oh well. We're probably suffering from the Samsung Galaxy Tab blues, which is higher up on the tablet food chain.
For video, we have the standard Android Video player, and also a myriad of free alternatives making the rounds of Android Market. The video player is a pretty barebones experience. No HD video playback, which is a bummer, but HD video playback does require at least an 1GHz processor. Besides this, the device handled most of the standard video formats pretty well, though one would do well to shut down all apps before starting a video.
We should also mention that the display does not boast of a very high resolution and can look bland at times.
Reliance did not mention the exact resolution of the display but we are assuming it to be below 1024x600.
Reliance has added dual cameras - a 2-megapixel snapper in the rear and a VGA resolution one for video chats. Our summation was not very good. They produce some disastrous pictures filled with noise, grain, poor colour and so on. We can actually write a whole other article just on the cons of the cameras. To tell the truth, a 2004 Sony Ericsson S700i could click better pictures. But yes, you will at least get the bragging rights and the VGA front camera will be more than adequate for video chats. We are guessing Skype will come in handy.
PC Sync and Market
This is one area where the device excels. PC sync as with all Android devices is quite painless courtesy Google Contacts. The moment we popped open the Reliance tab we logged into our Gmail ID and eureka! we had all our contacts.
As far as Android Market goes, we do get a wholesome selection of apps to choose from, as this is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread device. Some 300,000 apps are at our disposal so be rest assured you will be playing around with the device for a long time.
Essential Apps
While Reliance added its skin on the Android interface, they thankfully did not install any bloat-ware on the device. The device could hardly stand on its feet with the Reliance skin, with multiple apps it would have been dead on arrival. In spite of this, we do see some Reliance apps such the Rworld which is basically an app linked to their network services and Reliance Mobile TV. The Mobile TV app is basically a spin-off of the one for the iOS. We must say this is quite a handy app as it streams most of the major TV channels on subscription. The streaming quality is pretty good and utilizes the Reliance 3G connection to its fullest. Reliance must be hoping for such services to catch the fancy of the middle-class as they unlikely to make much money on the device itself because of low margins. The one place they can cash in is on their 3G network, and basically they are hoping that the 3G Tablet will act as a catalyst for the 3G market, still at a nascent stage and riddled by poor connectivity and expensive data charges.
Performance
Lets be clear - this isn't the fastest tablet around. Reliance also claims this device features 512MB of RAM but they don't mention clock speed or the processor type. We believe it is a processor from the ARM cortex A8 family clocked at 800 MHz which is more than adequate for day-to-day tasks, though we must admit it's not ideal for multi-tasking.
The device was pretty snappy once we got rid of the Reliance embellishments, but we ran our standard tests to make sure.
So we started with Quadrant and guess what, it crashed. The same happened with Linpack and Benchmark Pi. This was pretty disappointing, but we are assuming this happened because the processor was not supported by the benchmarks.
The only test we managed to run successfully was the web-based Rightware Browsermark test. The results were not very encouraging with a paltry score of 15646. In real-world testing, things were quite different as web pages rendered quickly and we did not encounter many flash problems. Suffice to say we were more than satisfied with the performance.
When it came down to battery life the device lasted around 6 hours, which included constant 3G usage, some phone calls and multimedia consumption. This was quite impressive considering the battery in question is a 3400 mAh.
Another noteworthy mention is the loudspeaker, which handled duties while we used the device as a phone and it also came in handy when we listened to some music. It was loud and clear most of the time. Normally, Chinese tablet manufactures employ their cost cutting tactics in areas such as this but,thankfully, the Reliance 3G tablet does not suffer from this syndrome.
Verdict
There is a lot to like about the Reliance 3G tablet including decent build quality and a fairly functional feature set. Once we couple these features and the Rs 12,999 starting price tag with the myriad of 3G plans the offer becomes tastier. Clearl,y this device is not meant to be a workhorse. As a multimedia consumption hub the device fits the bill perfectly.
One has to admit the Reliance Tab has the potential to open up the 3G market in the country.
Price: Rs 12,999
Pros
Value for Money
Good Battery Life
Decent Performance
Cons
Reliance Skin
Average display
Bad camera
Ratings
Performance: 3.5
Price: 5
Ease of Setup: 4
Ergonomics: 4
Wow Factor: 3
On January 27, 2010 Apple boss Steve Jobs introduced the world to a little something called the iPad, and suddenly tablet became something other than what you take when ill. A flotilla of other tablets, mostly Android, followed but failed to crash Apple's party. Samsung, with its original Galaxy Tab starring a 7- inch display and Android Froyo, led the charge but to no avail. A year later, here are the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, both are running Google's tablet OS, Honeycomb. But are they any different from the slew of Honeycomb tablets already flooding the market?
Packaging and Content
Our jaws dropped when we first saw the packaging - a humongous cube like box. Clearly, size does matter to Samsung. The box could probably fit two full frame DSLR cameras. But we are not complaining! The outsized packaging makes the device supremely secure - so secure, it would probably survive even if thrown out of a moving vehicle. Overall, the packaging was very similar to that of the Galaxy S II, except larger.
As far as content went, all the standard amenities such as the power adaptor, the proprietary USB connection cable and the tablet itself were present. Nothing revolutionary here!
Hardware and Styling
Samsung has adopted a widescreen design with the Galaxy 10.1. It is an interesting decision. While other tablet manufactures like Acer too have adopted similar form-factors, the implementation on the Galaxy Tab is superior thanks to its being ultra light at 565 grams making it more comfortable for over extended periods of use. And yes, it is lighter than the iPad 2 - by a minute 36 grams, but there it is. The comparisons with iPad 2 don't stop here as the svelte Galaxy Tab 10.1 snatches the tag of the world's thinnest tablet from the iPad 2 by 0.2-mm. 8.6-mm vs 8.8-mm may seem negligible but it matters a lot when it comes to heavy usage.
Obviously, in designing the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung has borrowed design cues from the their own product portfolio. Be it LED TVs or smartphones, we see a bit of everything in the Galaxy Tab.
Originally, when Samsung had announced the Galaxy Tab, it was thicker but Samsung decided to totally redesign the device in the wake of the iPad 2. We must say that it is a very commendable effort. Samsung has of late made a conscious decision to make super-light products and this design philosophy is also seen in the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Like in the Galaxy S II, Samsung has used an ultra light plastic in the construction of the device, especially the glossy white back finish. This felt a tad flimsy as we could actually depress it if we held the device firmly. The 3-megapixel camera is also housed in the rear which is, as usual, more of a formality.
Samsung claims that it has added an aluminum element in the construction, which tapers down the sides of the device and extends up to the rear, covering the area surrounding the camera. This is problematic, as it certainly did not feel like aluminum. It felt more like painted plastic but we do not have any evidence to prove this. What ever may be the case, the fact is that it just does not have the solidity of aluminum.
We get the impression that Galaxy Tab tries to mimic the look of a Samsung LCD, but we felt that they could have saved more space as the bezel measured 0.75-inches. Samsung has produced thinner bezels - their Smart TVs measure 0.50-inch. Such small details could have helped make the Galaxy Tab 10.1 a more svelte product as its still feels a tad larger than the iPad in spite of all the weight and profile reduction attempts made. We mention this as, in our opinion, if there is a company capable of out-foxing Apple in design, it is Samsung. That hasn't yet happened, but Samsung has done a pretty good job of out-maneuvering Sony in the LCD market and let's not forget Sony are also known for their elegant products.
Apart from all the design niceties of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, we get a front facing camera for video chat. The standard volume rockers, micro-SD card slot, 3.5 mm and power button are all housed on the top of the device.
Interestingly, the bottom side of the devices houses an Apple-esque proprietary connector for USB and HDMI. Unfortunately, the HDMI adaptor will be sold separately alongside a micro USB dongle. In all likelihood Samsung had to abandon the inbuilt USB and HDMI ports in their quest for slenderness, which we do not mind, but we do mind them charging us extra for additional dongles, which should have been included in the package.
But there is no denying the fact the Galaxy Tab is the most portable and comfortable tablet to carry around in the market today and, dare we say it, more so than the iPad 2, which is an astonishing achievement by Samsung considering they totally redesigned the product in the wake of the iPad 2. Take a bow.
Interface
With the launch of the Motorola Xoom and Acer Iconia A500, Google has established a solid Honeycomb presence in India. Many people ask us how are they different from each other, and our answer is the form factor and the full USB port offered in the Acer Iconia. The standard reply is in the region of 'That's it!' and all we can do is nod along as the internals and the OS are identical. So our question to Samsung: how would they differentiate the Galaxy Tab from their Android competitors in India on the basis of User Experience? They fired back with an answer. It was TouchWiz UX, the Android skin implemented on the Galaxy Tab.
We have seen TouchWiz before on Samsung smartphones but this is the first time it makes an appearance on a Honeycomb device. As always, Android skinning is a double-edged sword with minor performance blips caused by the extra eye-candy, but this should not be a major problem.
With TouchWiz UX, Samsung adds Live Panels to the Honeycomb homescreen, which includes a multitude of Samsung widgets such as AccuWeather, Samsung Mail and Calendar. Samsung has also re-designed the iconography of Honeycomb with their trademark cartoonish icons, which we hate! They look like cheap rip-offs of iOS icons and this is one area where Samsung gets nothing but minus points.
A nifty addition to the UI is the inclusion of a screenshot button right inside the UI, which is placed next to the 'open apps scroller' option. Besides this, we get another option in the bottom task bar, which opens up a dock of some handy apps. This dock can be opened from any app as it is well ingrained into the UI.
Samsung has become a devout supporter of gyroscope based gesture controls as seen in the Galaxy S II. The same holds true for the Galaxy tab 10.1. We get the same gesture based Tilt Zoom functionalities. With the gesture controls we could even flip widget placement. While we don't know how many people will use this party trick, it is a handy addition and,more importantly, exclusive to the Galaxy Tab for right now.
We also see numerous Android 3.1 upgrades of which most are 'under the hood' relating to the operating system stability, but one has to mention the resizable widgets. Now we can resize the widgets on the home screen according to our own whims and fancies. Pretty cool! Where is the like button, if we may ask?
Samsung has even added SWYPE capabilities in the stock keyboard. We were never big fans of SWYPE when we first saw it on smartphones, but on the larger tablet display it is a revelation. Even the keyboard itself felt well laid out, and though we still prefer the iPad's slick auto-correction skills, it is a very good keyboard indeed.
Besides the UI tweaks, we have found many new applications, which make the Galaxy Tab a more complete device. More on these apps in the Essential Apps section of the review.
Multimedia
As a rule, the tablet form-factor specializes in multimedia consumption and the Galaxy Tab is no exception to this rule. It is an absolute multimedia leviathan.
But the process of adding media to the device can become a tearful experience if you happen to own Apple hardware as in its current state the Android File Manager utility for Mac OS X does not support the Galaxy Tab. Google, you better rectify this, you are torpedoing Samsung's chances.
In this case we were left with the 'Kies Air' Wi-Fi sync app, but, come on, how can a device miss out on USB connectivity even if it's the Mac OS, which has a market share as large as a bacteria.
Fortunately, we faced no such problems on our Windows machine.
With Honeycomb, Google finally managed to re-design the stock Android MP3 player, and it was beautiful. It featured a beautiful, carousel-like, album-art flipping interface. But please note the use of the past tense - it 'was' a beautiful MP3 player because with the Galaxy Tab, Samsung had the urge to skin it. So what we have here is an MP3 player, sans the beautiful stock interface. Why, Samsung? Why would you strip an application of its natural beauty?
Apart from this folly, the app is actually quite handy as the songs are divided in a well-organized way and also we get multiple equalizer modes, which help modulate the sound frequencies according to the users preferences.
Interestingly, we can even launch the MP3 player from the Samsung dock, which opens a small widget like window and can be blown to its full size just with a tap. This is handy as one can start the MP3 from within any app without needing to switch to the menu screen.
When it comes to video, we can safely say that the Galaxy Tab offers the best video experience on a tablet device, iPad 2 included. We say this, as the on-board 1280x800 LCD display is the best yet to grace a tablet. It features sublime contrast ratios, impressive brightness levels and best in class viewing angles. This is not surprising as Samsung is the leading manufacturer of LCD displays in the world and they also supply the display panel for the iPad but it's clear they reserved the best one for their own tablet.
Even the Video app has received the TouchWiz Skinning treatment, but luckily most of the changes only improve the navigation of the app. We managed to play multitude of video formats without glitches including 720p HD video. Formats like .MKV, .AVI and. Xvid all worked seamlessly.
The 3-Megapixel camera is just about passable. It produces grainy pictures but thankfully we get many options such as white balance, focus modes, Scene Mode, effects and Geo tagging. The camera is par for the course as the even Motorola and Acer have employed poor cameras on their devices while the iPad's camera is not even worth mentioning.
The 720p HD video was also a tad jittery, again we believe the tablet form factor is not ideal for any kind of photography so, and mostly consumers don't care about the back camera. They only care about the front facing camera, which can enable video-chat.
Apart from this, the device comes with 16GB of memory, which will be ample. But if it's not enough, then one can always add up-to 32GB in the memory card slot.
PC Sync and Market
As always with Android devices syncing is probably amongst the easiest things to do. You only need to login to your Gmail account and you are good to go. The same can be done on the Galaxy Tab, but Samsung has stepped up the game with the 'Kies Air' Wi-Fi sync application. We have seen this app before on the Galaxy S II smartphone and it's very handy indeed. All one has to do is connect to a Wi-Fi network (the same one as your PC/MAC) and connect. The app will reproduce an IP address, which we need to type in our browser, and voila! We have access to all the data. We can drag and drop files, save messages and much more.
Adding more to the synchronization carnival, Samsung brings its Social Hub, which basically aggregates all information from one's E-mails, Facebook and Twitter.
Handy, but we'd rather use the dedicated Facebook and Twitter apps. Whoops, they are not available on Honeycomb. So, for the time being, we are stuck with the Social Hub. Luckily though, the web-browser opens a full version of Facebook with chat support unlike the iPad.
As far as Android Market goes we all know that Honeycomb is struggling with a dearth of apps hampering the growth of the platform. We only have 200 odd Honeycomb optimized apps, which is shockingly low - even the webOS powered HP TouchPad launched with more than a 1000 webOS apps recently.
Samsung provides their own apps store, but it's nothing special and we only get a handful of apps, most of which are available on Android Market.
Essential Apps
Apart from the standard Google apps, The Galaxy Tab 10.1 brings in much more utility thanks to TouchWiz UX.
So some of the more important apps include the following:
1. Samsung Hubs
2. Samsung Mail
3. Gmail
4. Kobo eBooks
5. Pen memo
6. Photo Editor
7. World Clock
8. Polaris Office
The most major update that TouchWiz UX brings in relates to the Samsung Hubs - namely Social Hub (discussed above), and the Music Hub.
Currently, the Music Hub is not functional in India, but Samsung tells us it is powered by 7-digital and hopes to offer an online hub where consumers can purchase music similar to iTunes.
Skinning is the name of the game so Samsung added their Email app, which, surprisingly, has issues with Gmail. This is not new - we encountered it earlier in our Samsung Smart TV review and also with the Galaxy S II. Apart from this, it handles Microsoft Exchange accounts pretty well, but we see no utility for it as Android already offers us a robust Email app.
As far as our Gmail troubles went, we chucked the Samsung Email app and logged into the fantastic stock Android Gmail app. It is clearly the best way of accessing one's Gmail account. The app is neatly divided into two separate panes reminding us of Mail from the iPad. Thanks to the Android 3.1 update we now have resizable widgets, which means our Gmail widget looks cooler than ever.
The Kobo eBooks app is reminiscent of iBooks on the iPad, with its bookshelf like home-screen. The app includes the standard page turning niceties that come with eBook apps. With Kobo powering the app, we have access to a vast library of books, but it's a bummer that Google's own Books app is not available in India as it has a larger library of books and will soon incorporate a newsstand for newspapers and magazines.
The Pen Memo is a note-taking application and it even allows one to scribble with our fingers, but the whole experience was very laggy reminding us of a time when the Symbian powered Sony Ericsson P900 was the pinnacle of mobile OS technology.
The Photo-Editor app works exactly as advertised. We could crop images, do minor touch-ups, apply effects, change various color properties. This one is aimed at Photoshop junkies.
Samsung felt that the Android clock was not good enough; they saw fit to install a world clock. In theory, this could come in handy for frequent travellers. The app welcomes us with globe, which can be manipulated using pinch zoom but it does not do much.
Polaris Office handles the office duties on the Galaxy Tab. It can handle the standard Microsoft Office formats such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. It also includes Box.Net integration, which is immensely handy if one seeks cloud integration.
Apart from all these apps we have access to all the Google apps, such as Maps, Places and Latitude, which makes the Android experience very robust and cohesive.
While Samsung has gone to great lengths to add functionality to the already robust Honeycomb OS, none of these apps have an effect on the consumer's choice. The one app that could have is the Music Hub and that's sadly unavailable to us in India.
Performance
When a 1GHz NVidia Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM power a device, we expect it to be a speed demon. But TouchWiz UX skin has a tardy effect on the device and we found it to be a tad slow in comparison to the Motorola Xoom, which also runs Android Honeycomb 3.1. The major problem we faced was that whenever we activated a Live wallpaper the device slowed down considerably. Even after multiple Factory Resets the problem persisted and it only went away when we installed the standard static wallpaper. This could be a problem with our review unit but, if not, should be easy enough to rectify through a software update. Anyway, most people don't use Live Wallpapers so Samsung can probably breathe easy. Nonetheless, the effects of skinning were evident.
Apart from this flaw, the device was very smooth and the performance was comparable to the other Android Honeycomb based tablets. Even the benchmark tests agree with our assessment.
On the Quadrant Benchmark, the Galaxy Tab scored an impressive 2378, which is more or less par for the course. In comparison, the Motorola Xoom scored 1916, but once we had updated it to Honeycomb 3.1 the performance deficit increased as the Xoom only managed 1572.
On the Linpack Pro test, the Galaxy Tab scored 54.129 MFLOPs in 3.12 seconds while the updated Xoom scored 59.875 in 2.82 seconds.
In the Benchmark Pi test, the Galaxy Tab calculated Pi in 563 milliseconds, and the Xoom beat the Galaxy Tab by a minute 1 millisecond.
Even on the Browsermark test, the stalemate continued as the Galaxy Tab scored 83672 and the Xoom closely followed with 81574. The Honeycomb web-browser generally has been very impressive with its Flash support and the same holds true for the Galaxy Tab.
Another impressive facet of the Galaxy tab was its battery life as it lasted 8 hours and 26 minutes with incessant Wi-Fi and 3G use. Video and browser usage did not hamper it much and only the iPad managed to beat it in terms of battery life, which was pretty impressive.
Verdict
At present, we can safely say that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the best of the rest. It is the closest thing to an iPad competitor - if such a thing exists. It boasts of a sublime slim form factor making it the most portable tablet in the market and also has an impressive OS, which is only shot down by the lack of apps.
While all this is nice, we do have issues, which TouchWiz UX as it slows down the general performance of the tablet. In spite of all the good things we have to say about it, we still cannot recommend it over the iPad - at least not till the apps situation drastically improves for Honeycomb.
Specifications
Pros
Compact form factor
Beautiful Display
Tilt Motion controls
Wi-Fi sync
Cons
TouchWiz UX is a double-edged sword
No USB and HDMI dongles in package
Apps selection
Poor Mac OSX support
Ratings
Performance: 3.5
Price: 3.5
Ease of Setup: 4.5
Ergonomics: 4.5
Wow Factor: 4.5
