Samsung Galaxy Tab puffs its chest at Apple's iPad

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 6 2010, 07:19

Bringing the fight straight to Apple's door, consumer electronics giant Samsung has officially launched its Galaxy Tab computer, which may just arrive as the first 'proper' rival to the hugely popular iPad tablet device.

So what can prospective tablet buyers expect from Samsung's offering? Well, first impressions reveal a sleek and svelte portable computing platform that comes complete with a 7.0-inch WSVGA display, a pixel resolution of 1024 x 600, and version 3.0 of Samsung's TouchWiz touch-sensitive user interface.

Lifting the Galaxy Tab's hood reveals version 2.2 of Google Android operating system (Froyo), 512MBs of RAM, the PowerVR SGX540 graphics processor, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Samsung's 1GHz Hummingbird Cortex A8 CPU – which has been co-developed by Intrinsity.

According to performance benchmarks carried out on the Hummingbird, Samsung's CPU is able to crunch almost double the amount of frames as the TI OMAP3630 processor used in the Motorola Droid X, and more than two-and-a-half times more than the Qualcomm Snapdragon utilised through many of HTC's handsets.

Other contributing aspects crammed into the Tab include a 3.0 mega-pixel rear-facing digital camera, a 1.3 mega-pixel front-facing camera for video calls, an onboard gyroscope, a geo-magnetic sensor, an accelerometer, a screen-altering light sensor, support for both HDMI and USB, A-GPS, 16GBs or 32GBs of Flash memory (depending on configuration) and up to 32GBs of memory expansion via microSD.

Despite the apparent appeal of Samsung's Galaxy Tab, it certainly has a hill to climb in the burgeoning tablet market – not least because the retail momentum attributed to the iPad has seen Apple's device shifting around 2.3 million units per month.

In related news, Boy Genius Report has revealed that – cum November – Sprint will join Verizon Wireless in carrying the Galaxy Tab and will also offer the device through its 3G and 4G WiMAX networks.

Pricing for the Galaxy Tab, when purchased through a carrier, is expected to be less than $300 USD.

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