Bonnie Cha, of All Things Digital, takes a look at Samsung’s latest 7″ tablet and compares it with the Kindle Fire:
An e-book or tablet is travel-friendly and capable of holding multiple books; in the case of tablets, they also allow you to surf the Web, play games, watch videos and more. There is no shortage of devices to choose from, with the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire, the iPad and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. But this week, I took a look at Samsung’s latest Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0.
[ See post to watch video ]
The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is the third model in Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series to feature a seven-inch touchscreen, and the first to run the latest version of the Android operating system, which is called Ice Cream Sandwich. At $250, it’s also one of the more affordably priced Ice Cream Sandwich tablets on the market, and because it runs on Wi-Fi, you don’t have to sign a long-term contract with a cellular provider.
It’s a great value for all the features you get, and it even offers some extras over the $199 Kindle Fire, including two cameras, expandable storage, and a year of free online storage (up to 50 gigabytes) from DropBox. However, the Kindle Fire’s user interface is slightly more polished, and Amazon offers a more vast collection of books, video, and other multimedia, so choosing between the two may come down to whether you want to use your device more as a media-consumption device, or as an extension of your laptop.
Physically, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 doesn’t look all that different from previous versions. In fact, if you were to compare it to the model before it, which was the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, you’d be hard-pressed to find the difference between the two, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
(Via All Things Digital.)
What a weak comparison. It read as if I gave my non-techie niece both devices and told her to play with them for a couple of hours and give me her impressions.
Nowhere in the article did it give the technical specs like screen resolutions for either device. Here’s the funny part, I jumped over to Amazon and searched for the Galaxy Tab in order to learn that it is the same screen resolution, 1024×600 as the Fire as well as the same processor and same internal 8 GB storage.
I’m waiting for the 2nd generation Fire myself. I find the current screen resolution to be quite inadequate.
Doesn’t the Kindle App for Android mean the Tab has exactly the same ebook selection as the Fire?
Also, the Tab has a 1280×800 res screen, not 1024×600 like the Fire.
The Tab also has Bluetooth, and at $250, twice the integrated memory (16 GB vs. 8 GB) and as mentioned has 2 cameras.
I’m not saying one is better than the other for the respective price, just pointing out what you get for the extra $50 if you are willing to spend it. Many people may prefer the Kindle OS even if it was the more expensive tablet.
OK, unless you really prefer the Fire version of Android, the Tab is certainly the better device for the money. But the Fire may meet all the needs of some people, and save them $50.
Sorry, can’t edit post above, but apparently I was looking at the Tab 10.1 specs even though I searched for the Tab 7″ 2.
It is 1024×600 like the Fire, and 8 GB internal memory.
The other points are still valid.