Let's first talk about why I did get the Samsung Galaxy Tab. I have for the past year and a half been very pleased with the Dell Mini 9 with the alternative OSX on it, however just recently replaced it with the MBA 11". The only shortcomings I encountered with the Dell was that the Atom processor just couldn't handle certain tasks (that well) so t became a habit to do maybe only maybe 75% of what it was capable of. So despite it's upgraded RAM of 2Gb and 32Gb Runcore SSD it got limited "real computing" use aside from when on trips. Also the fact that the MBA was significantly wider it triggered the want for something lightweight for around home and on the go, basically a Netbook replacer. Being the iOS user for the past few years the Galaxy Tab had a number of appealing features such as capacitive touchscreen. It must be pointed out that while I have had a number of various gadgets over the past few years I never owned an Android device. I have tested, played with some in stores and borrowed a couple but never actually owned one so my Android know-how was near zero.
I purchased my Galaxy Tab at full price ($599.99) on Amazon that enabled me to not have any additional fees such as sales tax, activation fees nor even shipping charges (for second day delivery) I point this out as it was a very pleasant experience. Not to mention the part that they gave me credit so I was able to acquire it without any funds "out of pocket".
I bought it this way also to be able to change my mind sooner rather than later even if I would decide to keep it I knew that two years (contract time if bought that way at $399.99) is a long time especially in the emerging tablet market as well as I wasn't even sure if I would be using the 3G feature on it even if I kept it as I would've have the tethering possibility.
So to the point(s) as to what made me decide to not keep it. I must say that it was among the hardest decisions I've ever done on a gadget any time recently, more on this a bit later.
Having read, viewed pictures and watched videos including live reviews :) online nothing surprised me when I got the device. I had however learned that not only is TMoUSA the cheapest alternative for monthly 3G service but it appears that the Tab on other NA carriers lack the built-in 16Gb user accessible memory and only has the MicroSD, whereas the TMoUSA versions have both internal 16Gb and the MicroSD slot ready for your card. So if you're in NA the best valued HW version is the TMo one. Interestingly TMo has chosen to preinstall the SIM card into the device and enable a web page where you can right there and then enable prepaid 3G with a CC.
One of the few things I to some extent had some forehand experience with was Gmail, while I love Gmail and value how it for instance is so much better than iOS' native mail app it could be more elaborate for the tablet than the standard mobile edition this will surely come in the near future. Samsung as tried to address this with their own mail app version but unfortunately not lived up to Gmail's mobile edition when it comes to capabilities, so you end up with a nicer UI on the tablet format but with even less possibilities. As emails is the core of my business this was a serious let down for me personally, on this topic I also am somewhat puzzled by the lack of any (aside from K9) serious email clients on the Android platform (market) I'd be very delighted to learn I am mistaken on this.
Then the next annoying thing is the mobile vs desktop rendering of websites. The native browser, that is not a native Android browser but another Samsung custom job, will render most websites in the mobile format (when there is such a version) and while in some cases you can click on the normal website option on that website it not only doesn't stay that way for the next time it also won't affect any other websites you might visit in the same browsing. Now there are a number of alternative browsers on the market of which I used Dolphin and SkyFire both having their pros and cons, but even with these browsers that have the "desktop" option under settings it isn't that black and white, you still might at times still end up with the mobile version one place this seemed to be very true for was eBay. Sometimes no matter what I'd get the mobile version. While this is only a minor thing on a mobile phone where you are many times better off with the mobile version, unless you're looking for a setting/feature not visible in the mobile edition, on the tablet the whole idea of the larger screen becomes somewhat pointless.
Another thing that really annoys me is that whenever you click to zoom in on a paragraph of text in either an am ebook reader a PDF or on a website, it doesn't always zoom that paragraph from "edge to edge" of the screen, or when/if it does an associated picture might not be in the zoomed screen.
On the keyboard I had seen a number of Tab owners indicate that they could thumb board ok in portrait mode but not so much in landscape, as I anticipated this was not an issue for me, as I've even found myself thumbing on my Dell Mini 9 plenty of times. What did bother me though is related to this that is the keyboard layout I being used to iOS OSK was having some issues with finding the right buttons for instance the spacebar felt too small and very much so when searching within the browser as it uses the same URL place for search and not a separate search window, this enables the "URL keyboard layout" with even smaller space bar, these might be things I just didn't learn the correct way of how it's done in Android. Either way was annoying for me to be typing.like.this.because.of.not.hitting.spacebar :). I did find a KB layout I liked (surprise surprise it was a iOS copy) but neither there or with the native KB layout was I able to utilize the auto-correction in a way I wanted to. I am not fond of how the word suggestions pop up above the keyboard I find it very annoying. Even my now old Sidekick LX09 corrects common typos I do and I can move on being lazy in not correcting anything. So I ended up using the Tab without correction, which made me watch better how I type :). I am pretty sure there would be a correction feature (read: app) out there that would do exactly what I want and how I want it but I have to say I was getting tired of all the searching for an app to resolve this and that which I have gotten used to is part of the OS, almost reminds me of Windows Mobile which ended up being an acceptable platform after you had added some essential UI and other solutions. On that subject even searching the Android market was frustrating to me as some of the "apps" on there are just fake stuff put there for whatever alternative agenda.
So while I deeply respect Android and recommend it to many of those I know, it has characteristics I have a hard time accepting, it just feels likes there's no central way of doing things and that rather than having the option of adding whatever apps it becomes a necessity in order to get the device working with the features you want.
The only thing on the HW that was a bit annoying was the lack of any physical button like a home button this is especially annoying when you want to turn the screen on when the only option you have is pushing the power button and then unlocking the screen.
Aside from having my wifi router not being found twice after the Tab had been sitting for a while and some awkward loss of wifi signal what appeared to have been BT headset related the wifi worked just fine with my Airport Extreme. I would assess it to work slightly better than my iPhone4 outdoors and just a tad less powerful indoors than my iP4.
There's a few things that I think very much shows that Android isn't completely ready to be on a tablet. A couple of things I had happen to me was while in Gmail (desktop version) I was able to click return but not start to type until I chose a text only layout. The other thing is while being able to watch any flash content within the browser is nice, if you do chose to do so without opening say the YouTube app you will find it very hard to get the buttons to register such as play/pause & volume, so you will be better off opening it in the video app whereby the flash capability as such becomes somewhat irrelevant.
During the time in used the Galaxy Tab I had it lock up on me twice and had Skype open up to a completely black screen three times, killing the app and restarting it resolved that, while a complete restart of the device was needed when it locked up on me.
As a conclusion I would say I was ready to accept a few lacks here and there kind of like most of us did with the very first generation of netbooks, but with the HW really lacking next to nothing I think my expectations for the OS were only even higher. The price yes the $600 (which should be about the lowest out the door buying it outright out the door you can find currently) does make a difference if it was $200 even without any 3G I would still have it, but right now it doesn't live up to it's price tag for me personally. I am convinced that anyone perfectly content with Android but wanting a tablet that's portable will love this device, for anyone coming from an iOS environment I would say get more familiar with Android before you get the Tab or you might not be too pleased.
It's a great piece of tablet that is welcomed to show the competition (whoever they are! :)) what 7" can do! I love 7" tablet sizes although even it can get on the heavier side after 2-3 hrs of straight usage :)
