Database Users

My (Insanely Long) Review of the SGS2

This ended up being way longer than I thought it would. It might help newbies though. Happy reading (to those that don't fall asleep half-way through).
So, here’s my SGS2 story. First some background. My Android experience is with two phones, the G2 (Desire Z) and G2X (LG O2X). Prior to that I had numerous Windows phones, the last being an HD2. So interface wise I’ve never used or even seen TouchWiz and my Sense experience is from Windows. Both Android phones were close to “pure Google” so I’ve played with a lot of launchers and heavily customized them. I liked the G2, loathed the G2X. Also, being in the U.S., the SGS2 is my first non-carrier branded phone.
The phone came Friday but I didn’t get to set it up until Monday. I wanted to play with it for a few days before commenting on it. So, by category, here are my thoughts.
Physical
I like the size, weight, and the way it feels in my hand. For some reason though, I treat it like it’s fragile. You can’t lay it down on its face because the gray trim around the screen touches the surface. You can’t lay it on its back because the plastic on the bulge at the bottom will scratch as will the camera surround. I’ll feel better when the cases I ordered come.
The full-glass front is nice as it makes the phone look rich and is more durable than using multiple materials. It’s a very stylish phone with no flex in the chassis and a very premium look. The hard-key for home that also activates task manager and voice control is a clever touch. As is being able to answer calls with the home button and disconnect them with the on/off switch. The capacitive buttons for back and menu have a pretty wide sensitivity area which makes them easy to hit even if they’re not illuminated.
The on/off switch and volume toggle are firm and respond well. I’m used to the power button being top right but I have no preference.
Overall, other than my fear of damaging it, I rate the phones physical attributes highly.
Screen
LG should stick to TVs. The O2X/G2Xs are plagued with LCD screen bleeding from the corners. It drove me crazy watching video with dark backgrounds. The colors were good on the G2X but the SGS2 blows them away. Having a totally black screen from edge to edge is a nice change from the G2X. Also, 4” vs 4.27” may not seem big on paper but the extra space makes browsing and media a much better experience. My screen has no bad pixels, lines or discolorations so I’m happy. I see the banding in gradients on certain apps and pages that some people have pointed out but it doesn’t really bother me.
TouchWiz & Samsung widgets
I used ADW Launcher on my other phones and liked it a lot. The biggest change coming to TouchWiz was the lack of control – no changing rows and columns, no changing icons, labels, or backgrounds, no controlling transitions. Also, the home screen being the furthest left screen instead of center is taking some getting used to. But to use some of the cool Samsung widgets you have to use TouchWiz.
So, after adjusting to it, I like TouchWiz. The multiple methods of moving between screens is cool as is the methods they use for moving apps around on the screen, adding pages and folders. The gyroscopic zoom is pretty cool too and a great party trick when defending buying a phone for $800. Having used Sense I was expecting TouchWiz to be similar. Sense is pretty much an all-inclusive overlay with different Sense functions all tightly integrated. TouchWiz is less intrusive and leaves a lot of stock Android exposed.
The full page calendar widget is handy and so are the e-mail and mini paper ones. I’m using live panel on one screen but it’s really just a method of resizing widgets which all the other launchers do too.
There’s no lag but I can see TouchWiz being a bear on less powerful devices. Overall, it’s not to die for but as an alternative launcher it’s got some benefits including the use of Samsung’s proprietary widgets.
Pre-Loaded Apps
Some brief comments on the pre-loaded apps:
AllShare – Much better than the DNLA app on the G2X.
BBC iPlayer – Doesn’t work in the U.S., even on a UK phone.
Calendar – I like Samsung’s better than stock.
Contacts – Again, better than stock.
Clock – Some cool features and I like Samsung’s desk clock better than stock android.
FM Radio – Nice interface but I haven’t used it.
Game Hub – Seems pretty limited in content and simplistic but I haven’t used it.
Kies Air – A really neat feature when you just want to move a couple of files between the phone and a PC.
Memo – Simple and effective for taking quick notes and easier than opening a Docs to Go page.
Mini Diary – Pretty cool for vacations and other type of social outings.
Polaris Office – Can anyone figure out what it does that other apps don’t already do better?
Readers Hub – I like it for the newspapers and magazines while I’m traveling. It’s nicely implemented.
Samsung Apps – What a strange little app. I doubt I’ll use it for anything other than updating pre-loaded Samsung apps.
Social Hub – I’m using it instead of individual apps for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I lose some functionality but it’s easier to see everything in one place and be able to respond quickly. Also, Samsung’s figured out a way to link Facebook contacts to internal contacts which supposedly can’t be done in 2.3.3.
Samsung Suggests – Just a link to a web page where Samsung suggests certain market apps.
Task Manager – Nothing special but not offensive either.
Video Maker – Nice to have I guess if you want to edit something on the road before sharing it. A phone’s not a great device for editing though.
Voice Command/Recorder/Talk – I haven’t figured these out yet. They’re all just Samsung-ized versions of Vingo. The few times I played with it what I said wasn’t understood. I haven’t figured out the difference/benefit compared to Google Voice.
E-Mail
I use Exchange and love the Samsung app. It offers lots of customization options, is responsive, and supports advanced Exchange features. It includes a tasks app which most manufacturer e-mail clients don’t. Some people were complaining about the lack of tick boxes. They’re there. When you press delete or move they’re displayed. It’s actually a cool idea as it saves a bunch of screen real estate. Overall, I like it better than the stock app and Enhanced E-Mail which I’ve used previously.
2G/3G/4G
I’ve only used the phone in my home city but it’s worked as well as any other phone I’ve used. It gets signal where my T-Mobile phones wouldn’t but that’s more a tower issue. I’ve never seen the phone drop below 3G but it does intentionally drop H/H+ when no data’s being transmitted. Data restarts immediately so if it saves battery I’m fine with it. Interestingly, I’m not in an AT&T fake 4G area but my downloads and web page loads are faster than my G2X even though SpeedTest shows half the bandwidth.
Wi-Fi
I’ve only used it in my house but it works as well as the G2/G2X in picking up, holding, and re-connecting a signal. It’s actually 15-30% faster than the G2X using SpeedTest. I get close to 30MB down according to SpeedTest where the G2X could only pull in the teens.
Bluetooth
It’s much more reliable than the G2X. It pairs easily, stays paired, and re-connects quickly and automatically. Rhapsody sounds 100% better over Bluetooth in my car than it did with the G2X. Loudness in my car is great, my BlueAnt Q2 headset is a little lower than I’d like but livable.
GPS
No problem picking up satellites and locking with GPS-only enabled. It’s a bit faster with Wi-Fi and sensor aiding on but feels roughly comparable to the G2 and G2X. My area has a pretty unobstructed view of the sky so it’s not a difficult test.
Sound
I have a pair of Shure 530’s and can’t turn the volume up past half-way. The bass seems richer and the separation better than on my G2X and G2. I’m no audiophile but the sound is more than adequate and better than my previous phones so I’m happy. The external speaker is louder than the G2 and G2X but a little shriller.
Internet
I like the stock browser and am impressed with how fast it renders. It’s a lot more fluid and responsive than the one on the G2X.
Battery
Every time I get a new phone I follow the same process. Format the SD card on a PC and have it in the phone at first boot, load any phone updates over the untouched stock ROM, hard reset, than start loading apps and customizing. There’s way too much that’s interconnected in phone software today so I try to reduce the variables.
I’ve been configuring and re-configuring the phone for two days now so it’s hard to judge battery performance. Neither Android OS or Android System have gone above 16% and there are no deep dives in the battery usage meter to indicate a run-away app or service. I’ve used Wi-Fi for hours a day, Kies AIR, AllShare, have all the Hubs as well as news and weather synching and am using Exchange push e-mail. Yesterday I was also watching videos on PlayOn and Netflix over 3G and Wi-Fi and listened to Bluetooth audio in my car for a few hours. Yesterday I got 12 hours on the phone and today about 11. The G2X was good for about 14 to 16 so I think I’ll get that with the SGS2 when I start using it the same way.
It appears I have a different approach to apps I don’t use then most of you. A lot of you freeze or remove them. I open them, accept their nag screens, and register if there’s a registration offered. I then go in to their settings and disable them or throttle them to the least amount of intrusion as possible. With everything inter-connected in the stock ROM there may be a polling process taking place looking for the status of specific apps. Freezing them potentially continues the polling while activating and ignoring them allows them to just be dormant. This could also explain why the online reviewers aren’t having problems as their phones are pre-setup by Samsung. Just my two cents on battery and, please god, don’t turn this in to yet another battery life discussion thread.
Summary
I really like the phone. It looks and feels good, seems well made, and is incredibly smooth and fast. I think Samsung did a great job with the UI. I know there’s battery, 2G/3G/4G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth issues but there are tons of external variables that affect those things. If you think you’ve got problems go check out the G2X/O2X boards. And shame on LG because their ROM is on 2.2 which has been around a lot longer and should be a lot easier to work with. My phone’s running terrific (knock on wood) and I would buy it again and recommend it to others. It’s kind of like moving in to a new house. As I live with it for a while I’m sure I’ll find additional positives and negatives. But, overall, it was a good choice and investment.

perfect

Here is my response the phone kicks arse.....good review though

Hold on, you are on t-mobile usa and you can connect to 3g? I thought this phone can not do AWS? I haven't checked this forum for a while so if it works with tmous 3g frequencies I would be damn!
Nice review btw!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

ceroglu said:
Hold on, you are on t-mobile usa and you can connect to 3g? I thought this phone can not do AWS? I haven't checked this forum for a while so if it works with tmous 3g frequencies I would be damn!
Nice review btw!
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He said TMo phones. He may have been buying them off contract.

Awesome review. Answered a few of my questions! Didn't know about the home button answering calls and whatnot. I love that!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I believe the browser is faster because stock android doesn't use hardware acceleration on the browser while Samsung does on its phone. I think ice cream sandwich will bring hardware acceleration to the entire os finally.
Glad you enjoy the sgs2. Nice review
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

Good sane review. Hey but what about that crappy batter...jk.
Didn't know about receiving/ending call buttons. Thanks for the tip. I've always hated using the touchscreen buttons and it seems Samsung did me a big favor.
Have you tried purposely scratching your phone? I always baby my phone, until the inevitable first drop. Then it is meh, who cares. The phone is black/greyish so marks won't really be that noticeable.
Also good to hear a normal person who isn't whining about Touchwiz all the time, and actually finds the pre-installed apps useful. Touchwiz is a paper-thin veneer, but certain benchmark freaks would rather turn on Windows Classic and leave Aero off for whatever peanuts of savings they can muster.

How do use allshare
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App

poloboogie said:
How do use allshare
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a ton of videos and pictures on my Windows Home Server. I also transfer TV shows from TiVo to it so I catch up using the phone while hanging in the backyard, doing chores, etc. The WHS can stream remotely but I haven't tried that yet. I also use it to transfer pictures back and forth.

silverwolf0 said:
Touchwiz is a paper-thin veneer...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd imagine version 1.0 was a bit rough. When you think about it, everyone used to dump TouchWiz and Sense to make the phone's run faster and smoother. With dual-core processors UI speed really isn't much of an issue anymore. And you can get things done faster with some of the app integration like contacts/Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn all combined. Now let's hope the manufacturers don't start making bloated UI's because of the increased headroom.

great review.

Damn good review, used to iphone for last 3 years. Loving android more and more. This might be my next phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Regarding Polaris Office and how it stacks up against other office suites currently available on Android, have a look at this thread.

superrrrrrrrrrrrb review. thanks a lot buddy

I must say thats a nice review! I finally got mine two days ago, I was blown away! Haha
First when I took it out of the (awesome) box. So thin, so beautiful.
Then I turned it on, plastic was still on. Didn't see the boot up animation so well. During set up I already was like "wow, those are some deep blacks..". Then when I arrived in the homescreen and I saw the colours and sharp icons... Oo! (I'm coming from Desire with simple AMOLED)
Then I swiped to the right to go to the second page, again wow xD So smooth and fast.
I also didn't use swype before, I'm hooked now. I swiped all of this, in record time and with minimal effort.
Overall this is the best phone you can get right now, without doubt.
Edit: Just picked up my Desire again.. Slow and ugly haha! Everybody coming from a Desire generation phone will be amazed. Its definitely a big upgrade, worth it in many ways.

Thanks for the review. It was solid and it wasnt long at all.

Great review and I read it all, didn't fall asleep either. Agree with most of your observations.
The things I don't like about Touchwiz is mainly to do with the app drawer, I prefer the continous up/down scrolling of the stock one, apps can't be arranged in alphabetical order.
Also wished there was some kind of nightmode for the screen where it would turn down the brightness to an even lower level for those, like me, who do a lot of reading in bed in complete darkness. The lowest brightness level of the screen is still too high in those situations.

zen123 said:
Great review and I read it all, didn't fall asleep either. Agree with most of your observations.
The things I don't like about Touchwiz is mainly to do with the app drawer, I prefer the continous up/down scrolling of the stock one, apps can't be arranged in alphabetical order.
Also wished there was some kind of nightmode for the screen where it would turn down the brightness to an even lower level for those, like me, who do a lot of reading in bed in complete darkness. The lowest brightness level of the screen is still too high in those situations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try screen filter which is free on the market, one click on the widget turns on good night mode..

Acer A500 disapointment ...

Hello, I just bought an Acer A500, this is my first Android device (I own an iphone 3gs).
But I am very dispointed by its speed. I was hoping it would be as fast and smooth (at least !) as my old iphone 3gs but it's not ... When you scroll a web page it's not smooth, whatever the web browser I tried, even single web page as Google !
The only smooth scrolls are when you use the photo browser or when you scroll through the icons pages. For the rest, even the Android Market app, it's not smooth at all.
So is there any optimisation we can do to let the A500 display everything smoother, or is it just an Android 3.0 problem which may be corrected in a future release ?
Thanks

The coming Android OS 3.1 will be better. The update including the browser stability and smoothness.
.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

Thanks, I just hope now the 3.1 will come quickly to the A500 and that it will really be smoother ...

My experience with the A500 is very fluid. I find that browsing to be "fast & smooth" as well. So, I'm left scratching my head that your receiving a better browsing experience on a 3GS. Could you upload a video sample on youtube? Some people have reported wifi issues with their device and that could be the culprit to your browsing experience. See if coming in close proximity of your wifi AP improves your browsing experience. If so then search this forum for what others have done to resolve the wifi issue. I am not having an issue so I have not further investigated the wifi issue.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

The browsing experience is a pain in the ass... but that is not from ACER it's from honeycomb...
the stock browser is still unstable and buggy and not support HTML5 and CSS3 as promissed...
and some function supported already by Iphone (field url and email for input do not trigger the good keyboard)
no smooth animation on javascript it s choppy and lost a lot a frame...
-- EDITED --
When I say a pain in the ass I mean, only if we want make or build animated javascript website
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com
this should be SMOOTH...or maybe I expect too much from "high-end" tablet dual-core.
HTML form field url/email
Issue16401 : http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=16401
SenchaMobile.
http://dev.sencha.com/deploy/touch/examples/kitchensink
-- animations ... choppy and not smooth at all...
-- Buttons ... rounded are... weirdly rendered but that is not a real issues from the android, but probably from webkit or more from also sencha methods.. but still
flickering on any page change...
you can see this flickering also when you are on form fields
-- FEEDBACK --
I do not mean anything wrong, I said before that Android 3.0 is young and will grow up by time with better and better things to come I love android and I love Acer Tablet, really good products
-- 3.1 --
it's come in this month "confirmed by Acer Thailand" but no final date yet...
So far my disapointment are not same
I just see the UI improvement on Samsung Galaxy 8.6... it's so nice the UI is sweeeeet
the status bar, with the turn on/off many things...
the fast app launcher on the bottom... WoOow sweet...
I hope we will got some flavor of it
IMPORTANT:
I own 2 tablets Acer A500
I own 2 Liquid Metal S120

You should probably return it. Nobody has yet had these issues, so it might be something wrong with your tablet.

@bec07 : who ?

You and the OP.

It is important to note that not all websites are created equal. I have fast and smooth experiences with some sites and horrible one with others. There are too many variables from code quality, embedded media and offsite advertising, amount of content on a given page etc to truly quantify a 'good' or 'bad' browsing experience.
Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. Some of it has to do with the browser, some has to do with the page you're loading.

gammaRascal said:
It is important to note that not all websites are created equal. I have fast and smooth experiences with some sites and horrible one with others. There are too many variables from code quality, embedded media and offsite advertising, amount of content on a given page etc to truly quantify a 'good' or 'bad' browsing experience.
Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. Some of it has to do with the browser, some has to do with the page you're loading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree, google.com is fast for me, but this site xda is very slow.

I use Dolphin HD browser... faster and more features.

Basicly all tablets are identical at this point. Some thinner, some thicker but only one manufacturer was smart enough to add the full size USB port.
Since the hardware is identical and it really packs quite a punch those issues should not happen. It would be best they check with their retailer or inconspicuously go to try out another A500.

Bec07 said:
Basicly all tablets are identical at this point. Some thinner, some thicker but only one manufacturer was smart enough to add the full size USB port.
Since the hardware is identical and it really packs quite a punch those issues should not happen. It would be best they check with their retailer or inconspicuously go to try out another A500.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 2 tablet and both are identical so I should change all tablet... naaaa don't think so.
I do think the 3.1 will remove some flickering glitch, and smooth maybe the javascript animation and css animation stuff. but for sure some website are poorly coded or got a DOM overloaded that eat the memory.
I do compare Sencha Touch website between iPad 1 and Acer A500... sad that run smoother on the old old iPad rather than on the new A500
but read really, I said the honeycomb and android is still young and buggy and will be better day after day because of the active community and the open mind of the code. do not interpret or miss understand.
It's a fact that browsing is not that smooth that should be, but it's already good.
now have to become the BEST.
(someone told me on the galaxy S II the browser was.... too fast for rendering it's tooooo good, but I didn't check about flickering or else)

I would have to agree with the first post, the web browsing experience is not as nice as iOS in regards to smoothness/scrolling, comapred to my iphone4 and former ipad1, but its not that bad either.
looking forward to 3.1.

sencha was developed with iPhone in mind, that's not really a valid comparison.

sollie said:
Agree, google.com is fast for me, but this site xda is very slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just change the theme to xda classic and here you go

Today I checked xoom 3.1 videos on youtube, and I'm still disapointed ...
Browsing the web is faster but still not as smooth as it should be.
And not only the web, also the other apps were not 100% fluid.
I don't know if I will wait until the 3.1 comes to the A500 ... I may sell it quick (only owned for 2 days !) and buy an iPad. And believe it or not : yesterday I have been to the hospital because of an epilleptic crisis I did while using the A500, because of the non-smooth scrollings ...
My point of view is that a pad experience seems magic when it's 100% fluid, without this the pad experience seems not far from a laptop experience, which is not what I was searching for.

New android users always feel that. U can easily change ur the launchers such as Launcher Pro which is very smooth and fast in my opinion. There are tweaks around for you to look for and learn while experiencing Android =)
dizzy33 said:
Hello, I just bought an Acer A500, this is my first Android device (I own an iphone 3gs).
But I am very dispointed by its speed. I was hoping it would be as fast and smooth (at least !) as my old iphone 3gs but it's not ... When you scroll a web page it's not smooth, whatever the web browser I tried, even single web page as Google !
The only smooth scrolls are when you use the photo browser or when you scroll through the icons pages. For the rest, even the Android Market app, it's not smooth at all.
So is there any optimisation we can do to let the A500 display everything smoother, or is it just an Android 3.0 problem which may be corrected in a future release ?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Ipads have had probably What? 50 updates. A500 had one so far. I have the A500 and my wife's has the Ipad. I think I updated my wife Ipad 3 times since Christmas ( hour or longer updates ) Give it some more updates and the A500 will shine. The way both Tablets are now if I had to sell one of them it would be the Ipad. The only thing I like better about my wife's Ipad is, I can plug it directly into our digital camera and get pictures real fast, but you also have to buy the 30.00 adapter to do this and now you have something more to lose and carry around. JM2C

This is the difference with Apple : with Apple it works fine out of the box, of course a few bugs are corrected in firmware updates but these bug do not avoid you to use your pad.
With Android I feel like in the bad days of Windows mobile : you have to wait for the manufacturer promeses before being able to use your pad properly, but most of the time windows mobile devices never worked as expected ... That's the problem of having one operating system for hundred of devices with different hardwares.
I would be very happy to keep my A500 mainly because of the included usb port, but also because of the price and the fact that Android is more "open", if only Acer would have given us a 3.1 release date I would feel better.
Edit : this time it's sure, I will sell it !!! A current bug let me type very slow on the keyboard, this is the last bug I will accept ! Another big problem has been found : the button bar on the bottom of the screen : I often touch it while using the A500 which freezes the screen ....
I guess I will wait for 3 or 4 more years before going back to Android ! For now I'll stay with Apple.
Thanks anyway to all of you !

Trying to switch from iPad to Galaxy Tab

So I had an iPad 1, and currently have an iPad 2. I recently switched from an iPhone to a Motorola Atrix and as far as a smartphone, I am enjoying Android much better than iOS on the phone. But switching from an iPad to the Galaxy Tab I'm still up in the air about.
So that being said, the GT is about as good as the iPad for our needs, mainly just web browsing in bed. I really didn't need to get the GT, but I was just craving something different to play with. But do have a few issues / questions.
For starters, I've noticed web browsing is a bit sluggish on the GT whereas it is really smooth on the iPad. I installed Dolphin Browser for Tablets, but it seems just as sluggish as the stock browser.
I am also worried about future OS updates from Samsung, being as they don't have the best reputation in that department. Atleast with the iPad I know I can install iOS updates the day they come out.
Does anyone know what's Samsung's timeline for putting out Honeycomb 3.2 for the GT? I was thinking they might skip it being as ICS is due out soon. They might put their effort more into that. I hope they already started working on it so we don't have to wait for a long time for it.
I guess the durability of the GT worries me also. My first one had the Neuton Rings, I exchanged it at best buy, so far so good with the new one. But I am worried that the new one will eventually get them. It's nice with the iPad that if I have any problems I can go right to an Apple store and get it taken care of instead of sending it off for warranty work.
Well so far I like it, I guess maybe only because it is something different to play with, so no major advantage over my iPad so far. But I'm keeping an open mind about it.

chocodough said:
So I had an iPad 1, and currently have an iPad 2. I recently switched from an iPhone to a Motorola Atrix and as far as a smartphone, I am enjoying Android much better than iOS on the phone. But switching from an iPad to the Galaxy Tab I'm still up in the air about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm exactly the same way.
Right now, I've been thinking about getting a tablet for about a month now. I absolutely love Android and am excited about ICS. However, I believe in the tablet department, I think Apple really nailed it in terms of apps.
I believe that apps on the tablet need to be as smooth and as unique to the tablet/pad design. And apart from a very small amount of apps on Android, very few actually run smoothly and have taken advantage of this design.
In saying that, I have no doubt that Google will catch up eventually, but that may be a few years yet in terms of getting the same quality of apps.
At least in terms of tablets, Apple has it perfected, for the time being.

I believe samsung has to give us the most updated version of the android os for at least a year. They talked about fragmentation at the recent Google io and said that all android manufacturers will be part of this deal too. I don't think it should be too long before we see 3.2 or ics
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 on the Xda premium app

let me start by saying that these are my opinions.
Hands down the ipad is much smoother with more and higher quality apps. I own both the galaxy tab and the ipad 2, and i use the ipad muvh more because i can do things in a quarter of the time. I dont blame google for that though. I personally think that tegra is a pos, pardo the french. Every honeycomb tab is very laggy that ive tried(except the jetstream). Even the atrix is incredibly laggy when compared to an sgsii.
I typed tis response on my galaxy tab in about ten minutes due to the lag, i could have spent 2 on the ipad

guys stop whining.
90% of the IPad apps are iPhone apps just with higher resolution, they look the same, they feel the same, basically in most cases it feels like you are holding bigger ipod/iPhone.
However the choice of the apps already on appstore is hands down.
with android there is no key word like "You need an app for that"
you don't need an app to watch youtube
you don't need and app to check your bank account
...
I have 50 apps on my tablet where 80% is games
I have one video player app 1 news reader
and few other apps that makes my life easier
the rest I can do on the web browser or directly from inbuilt apps JUST AS I WOULD DO ON THE COMPUTER
the only thing I can't to is to play high end games and watch BluRay dvd
and really I don't have a need to play games on my laptop only thing I'm using it for is as a BluRay player,
my gtab replaced my laptop in nearly every field (including printing)

I own both an iPad and a Galaxy Tab, I got the tab to replace the iPad, which it has done successfully. My main usage is business use which, involves a lot of emails and Web access etc.
From my experience, the tab (or specifically, Android) beats the iPad hands down, the simple fact that you cannot do such a very simple task on an iPad (or any other IDevice for that matter) such as, attach a damn file other than a photo to an email is bewildering! How can it be geared for business use, when you need a 3rd party app to attach a PDF file, but creates a new email as opposed to just replying?
Or the way that you can only have multiple email signatures for different accounts, if you jailbreak it, not out of the box!
Yes their are more apps on the iPad, but if their were only 1000 tablet apps for Android, would you really have them all installed?
A lot of the Web orientated apps for iOS, are not needed on the Tab, as it is capable of giving you Web pages they way they are meant to be viewed. They both have their pros and cons, but my personal preference is the tab, I can stream movies from my network with nothing else needed other than a file manager, I can map network shares. With another simple app, I am able to print to any network attached printer, not just the ones Apple tell me I should use and on that note, I think that's what it all comes down to.
With Apple you pay £500 for a device and they enforce what they think is best for you, with an Android device, "YOU" decide what you do with it.
Rant complete!

RavenY2K3 said:
I own both an iPad and a Galaxy Tab, I got the tab to replace the iPad, which it has done successfully. My main usage is business use which, involves a lot of emails and Web access etc.
From my experience, the tab (or specifically, Android) beats the iPad hands down, the simple fact that you cannot do such a very simple task on an iPad (or any other IDevice for that matter) such as, attach a damn file other than a photo to an email is bewildering! How can it be geared for business use, when you need a 3rd party app to attach a PDF file, but creates a new email as opposed to just replying?
Or the way that you can only have multiple email signatures for different accounts, if you jailbreak it, not out of the box!
Yes their are more apps on the iPad, but if their were only 1000 tablet apps for Android, would you really have them all installed?
A lot of the Web orientated apps for iOS, are not needed on the Tab, as it is capable of giving you Web pages they way they are meant to be viewed. They both have their pros and cons, but my personal preference is the tab, I can stream movies from my network with nothing else needed other than a file manager, I can map network shares. With another simple app, I am able to print to any network attached printer, not just the ones Apple tell me I should use and on that note, I think that's what it all comes down to.
With Apple you pay £500 for a device and they enforce what they think is best for you, with an Android device, "YOU" decide what you do with it.
Rant complete!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly how I think.

I love android and I love honeycomb, but it just doesn't seem to meet standards yet. Just scrolling through the home screens on the g tab is laggy, now you could say it's because of widgets but it's pretty clear that android can run damn smooth with the right hardware ala galaxy s2.
Hopefully ics will allow me to browse the Internet on my gtab without having to give a pause between each letter or violently press the screen just to make sure it registers.

mchimney said:
I love android and I love honeycomb, but it just doesn't seem to meet standards yet. Just scrolling through the home screens on the g tab is laggy, now you could say it's because of widgets but it's pretty clear that android can run damn smooth with the right hardware ala galaxy s2.
Hopefully ics will allow me to browse the Internet on my gtab without having to give a pause between each letter or violently press the screen just to make sure it registers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, There maybe lag from time to time, but when you consider that all the interface on the iPad is, is the app draw on Android, where as Honeycomb has a whole lot more to it than that, and my app drawer had no lag to it at all lol.
With saying that, whilst not as much as Android, I did experience lag from time-to-time on my iPad, like I say not as much as on Android but!... I couldn't honestly tell you how many times the browser crashed out on me with the iPad, sometimes the websites weren't even particularilly big. Or the annoyance of trying to load a website, then flicking to email then back again, only to find it had to reload the page again because it doesn't do proper multi-tasking, and these things need to be accounted for also, Android simply does more stuff at the same time where as iOS cannot and may lag a bit because of it.

So far my experience with the Galaxy Tab has been positive. I don't experience any OS lag that I can tell, outside of the keyboard lag when typing. I only have 1 widget on the screen though.
My wife and I only really use it for web browsing in bed. I don't really use a lot of apps on the iPad / GT like I do on my Atrix phone.
Of course the only issue I really have is the browser lag. Either Safari or Atomic web browser on the iPad are much much smoother and not choppy when scrolling. So being as I mainly just web browse on it, that is my main issue. I use the stock browser as well as Dolphin for Tablets. I like the stock browser a bit better, I wish it had 2 options though that Dolphin has, such as setting the default viewing to desktop instead of mobile, and an option to have Flash load as needed instead of always.
I guess my main issue is that I didn't really need to buy a GT since the iPad did everything just fine for which my wife and I use it for. I'm just really trying to give myself reasons to keep it. If I keep it, I am debating on whether selling my iPad, or just let my wife use the iPad so I can actually have a tablet to actually use in bed without waiting for her to get done with it. hehe
I just noticed that the Motorola Xoom just got a 3.2.1 update recently while we are still waiting for 3.2. That is a bummer. I know 3.2 isn't a big update, but I hear it's mostly performance enhancments, which would be welcome though.
@mchimney
I notice no lag at all on my Atrix. The only issue I had was a few icons for some apps randomly disappearing from my desktop. I put on Go Launcher and the problem is gone. Actually the Atrix was what switched me to Android from the iPhone. I've had a Nexus One and an HTC Inspire, and although both were nice, just something about the Atrix which made me finally switch. I'm looking forward to the Atrix 2. One of th best things I like the most about the Atrix is how LOUD the external speaker is. I always thoughy the iPhone 4 had a loud speaker, and the Nexus One and the Inspire had low volumn speakers, but the Atrix definately has the best.

TASK650's rom seems to have cleared up any homescreen lag for me no matter what sort of retarded screen cluttering widget I use although at the moment I use only HD Widgets and Battery Girl (It's cute and fairly useless)
That rom also applies a fix to make the stock browser display desktop but I don't think you can toggle back and forth as with Dolphin.
In regards to Samsung updating HC I would not be too optimistic as my Fascinate is only able to go to 2.3 via a port of CM7 which I decline to use at the moment.
Of course since the wifi version is not saddled with Verizon we may indeed see updates in 3.x or ICS but I'm not holding my breath for that.
Swype keyboard seems to have no lag for me no matter what I do save for trying to share a page via News360 but I think that is an issue with the app rather than the keyboard.
Best of luck on your screen not getting rings

I also bought the Galaxy Tab because I wanted to escape from the closed Apple ecosystem. I've had about every Android phone that was released and enjoy them very much, and I try hard to love the Galaxy Tab, but it is giving me a hard time. Really, when it comes to the tabs there is no competition. Most has already been mentioned above, I'll add my short comparison:
- Ipad 2 : connectivity, itunes, no files system (this for me is the major one), screen resolution (too less to comfortable read e.g. pdfs and articles with small fonts), browser may be slow at times, no flash
+ Ipad 2: smooth operation and reliability, no stuttering, no random errors, no force closes, very fast in operation, lots of apps (which I do not need), available apps are of better quality (compare e.g. quick office HD on an iPad to that on android - the latter has e.g. not even the capability to create bulleted lists!), apps integrate much better (e.g. copy paste content between or from browser to apps etc), superior battery life and standby time, very efficient use of memory
- Galaxy Tab 10.1: laggy as hell, force closes of launcher and apps, most videos choppy, bad memory handling (try to open large pdfs/office docs and then to scroll, zoom etc)
+ Galaxy Tab: it's android, so customizable, filesystem (great!), easy data transfer, very fast download speeds, better screen resolution, the whole internet experience (including flash, although it very often stutters and cannot handle the content of some sites)
It's really a tough call, and I always oscillate between falling in love again with the other tab after having used the other for a while.. It heavily depends on what you want to do with the tab. For casual surfing, music, videos, photos etc the Galaxy is super, but if you are a power user that intents to use the tab as kind of a computer replacement while on the road to fulfill a variety of diverse tasks then the iPad is (with exception of the f***ing data transfer / no file system problem) without any doubt far superior.
How spoilt we are to have such discussions - remember if 5 or 10 years ago somebody would have given you a device with such power and capabilities, we wouldn't have believed it..
---------- Post added at 10:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 AM ----------
I also bought the Galaxy Tab because I wanted to escape from the closed Apple ecosystem. I've had about every Android phone that was released and enjoy them very much, and I try hard to love the Galaxy Tab, but it is giving me a hard time. Really, when it comes to the tabs there is no competition. Most has already been mentioned above, I'll add my short comparison:
- Ipad 2 : connectivity, itunes, no files system (this for me is the major one), screen resolution (too less to comfortable read e.g. pdfs and articles with small fonts), browser may be slow at times, no flash
+ Ipad 2: smooth operation and reliability, no stuttering, no random errors, no force closes, very fast in operation, lots of apps (which I do not need), available apps are of better quality (compare e.g. quick office HD on an iPad to that on android - the latter has e.g. not even the capability to create bulleted lists!), apps integrate much better (e.g. copy paste content between or from browser to apps etc), superior battery life and standby time, very efficient use of memory
- Galaxy Tab 10.1: laggy as hell, force closes of launcher and apps, most videos choppy, bad memory handling (try to open large pdfs/office docs and then to scroll, zoom etc)
+ Galaxy Tab: it's android, so customizable, filesystem (great!), easy data transfer, very fast download speeds, better screen resolution, the whole internet experience (including flash, although it very often stutters and cannot handle the content of some sites)
It's really a hard call, and I always oscillate between falling in love again with the other tab after having used the other for a while.. It heavily depends on what you want to do with the tab. For casual surfing, music, videos, photos etc the Galaxy is super, but if you are a power user that intents to use the tab as kind of a computer replacement while on the road to fulfill diverse tasks then the iPad is (with exception of the f***ing data transfer / no file system problem) without any doubt far superior.

At first I was disappointed with my galaxy tab, however after looking deep down into my inner geek and going through all the available tweaks I'm extremely satisfied.
I can't really say much more than that, everything is buttery smooth, no hiccups. I haven't seen a force close for months, the browsing is incredible.
After doing everything to get maximum performance out of my tab the only thing that still bothered me was the non-uniform icons. So after applying my preferred icon pack I showed it to my non techy brother who has an Ipad 2 and he honestly preferred it over his Ipad.
The thing is, I would never recommend a galaxy tab for him because he doesn't have the time to go through all these tweaks, and without them this honestly doesn't even compare to an ipad.
Maybe you can put yourself in these shoes to help you choose.

mchimney said:
I love android and I love honeycomb, but it just doesn't seem to meet standards yet. Just scrolling through the home screens on the g tab is laggy, now you could say it's because of widgets but it's pretty clear that android can run damn smooth with the right hardware ala galaxy s2.
Hopefully ics will allow me to browse the Internet on my gtab without having to give a pause between each letter or violently press the screen just to make sure it registers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you said, ICS is coming in 1-2months. Samsung already said they plan to keep the Touchwiz development to a minimum since ICS is already very user friendly. That will also allow them to release faster updates. they are hardware masters and no software kings.

I was an ipad 2 user. Am switching to a GT 10.1 4G.
I use ADW launcher with a single home screen and static black wallpaper, 3 widgets and 10 or so shortcuts. No delay. No delay while browsing (the thumbs driven interface is excellent, pages load faster than on ipad)
There are software issues. 3.1 is a work in progress. I've rooted so I could have messed things a bit.
Apple's decision to ban in-app purchases made me rethink my commitment to their brand. Kindle 's store was conveniently accessible. I couldn't believe this decision.
GT's non-standard port and (incredibly) lack of vga out are irritants. What were they (not) thinking??
I still advise most people to stick to apple tablets, a more polished and foolproof product. But for tech savvy (i.e. people who like to waste time learning how to update their ROM), the GT is a very attractive alternative. Much much more satisfying than Apple's environment. (ftr, our household uses 2 iphones, 3 ipads, 3 macbooks, 2 minis, 2 imacs and a macpro :/)

mchimney said:
I love android and I love honeycomb, but it just doesn't seem to meet standards yet. Just scrolling through the home screens on the g tab is laggy, now you could say it's because of widgets but it's pretty clear that android can run damn smooth with the right hardware ala galaxy s2.
Hopefully ics will allow me to browse the Internet on my gtab without having to give a pause between each letter or violently press the screen just to make sure it registers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you need to try my rom out if you'r experiencing lag bro. Lol.

i'll second task. A custom rom like tasks and pershoots overclocked kernel clears up nearly all lag including flash and video playback. The roms also give much better battery life.

I was looking primarily for a near replacement for my laptop to use while lounging about and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 meets that need way better than an iPad. I don't like the browsing and file management experience on the iPad. On the Galaxy tab these functions work pretty much like a laptop.
However, if I could afford to buy just one tablet, it would probably be the iPad -- and that's only because the overall choice and quality of apps on that platform is way better.

Unboxing and gestures and S Voice DEMO videos

Here are two videos I made with the SIII, first the unboxing, then the demo for the gestures.
Note that I left out the direct call and pick up to be notified functions as I didn't have a microSIM card.
Feel free to ask whatever question about the phone and I'd love to answer or test things for you. Enjoy watching!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GauEbTHJYNk&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edbhVsWdngo
Edit: I forgot to mention that I've fiddled with the S Voice in multiple languages (I'm not a native speaker of either of them) and it surprised me how well I managed to get along with the app. It's responsive, useful and can easily understand you (I'm kind of shouting at it because I wanted to get it right, but it works very nicely). Can't wait for the Romanian version!

Cool!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Tomorrow I'll be giving back the SIII, so post questions, if you have any, while I'm still able to verify things for you!

How were you able to acquire such a beast before release?

I'm with the Samsung Mob!lers Romania and we almost always get the devices prereleased. Unfortunately they are beta products and can have faulty software, but luckily I had no problem whatsoever with the SIII. Stay tuned for a full video hands on and many other Samsung devices

Funniest part is when it open maps in Korean language
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Rate your UX with the new nature inspired TouchWiz. How is it different than S2 TW? Smoother? Any small, but experience enhancing changes?
Reviews have shown that the stock S3 browser is much better and less laggy than the S2. Can you confirm this with real life usage?

Unfortunately I have no S2 at hand to try out, but what I can say based on my experience with TouchWiz is that it's very sharp and quick and in the time I used it I had no intention of using a custom launcher. The browser is the same I have on my Tab 2, and prefer it over Chrome, but I can't say how much faster it is than the predecessors.

There are many users talking about the possible screen issues on the SGIII. Were you able to notice some kind of tinting?
Thank you for your time and great videos by the way.

I saw some topics talking about the display quality, with a slightly pink hue, but the model I have is just perfect. A lot of people complain about the oversaturation, but I think the colors are very very vivid. You get four different display color settings to match your taste, with dynamic being the flashiest and then standard, natural and movie.
I've tested everything out and I never got a force close or any kind of error, although it got stuck in S Voice once, but bear in mind that I don't have an actual production model.

floiancu said:
and prefer it over Chrome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i read about other reviewers saying this too. very cool. thanks.

And here's the full review, a short presentation of the features. I particularly love the screen, crisp clear as you can see in the close up at the end. Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fcYW3GRS0&feature=youtu.be

Thank you, Flo.
EDIT: Now I see that the other guy has replied to my question about the reader and the answer is that it is available for most sites!
Is there a "reader" type function in the web browser? In one other video demonstrating text reflow, the reviewer pressed an icon in or near the address field to go into a "reader" mode! So clearly it does exist, but the reviewer was browsing mobile wikipedia when he did it, I was wondering if it is available when for example reading an article on Gsmarena in desktop mode?

I didn't see any reader button so I can't say if there was one, when I browsed I simply used the text wrap on the standard double tap zoom, never at different sizes.
If it's the same browser with the one I have on my Tab 2 (ICS 4.0.3) then there is no such feature, but they nay be different.

have u used or looked at a htc one X before? if so could you make a brief comparison of its screen with the sgs3 screen?

I have only seen them separately and I only know that both displays are amazing. A romanian reviewer whom I trudt has made a detailed comparispn between them and he favours the screen of the One X. In terms of resolution or color tones they're both overkill, but he says that the visibility in heavy sunlight is better on the One X.
I can only say that there's nothing you can possibly use the screen for that requires a higher resolution. Check the close up in the end of my gestures video to see how crisp clear it is!

Fantastic mate. Thanks for the videos.
If you still have the device with you can you try to shoot and upload a video showing the multitasking capability. Open as many apps as you can including games and browser and switch back from one another to see how well is it functioning ?
---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?fife3i

I gave the phone back, but I've tested the problem reported on the One X, that the multitasking was not working properly (reloading web pages when switched back to the browser etc) and I can completely vouch for the multitasking on the S III. It switches the apps flawlessly and keeps them in the RAM not requiring a reload.

floiancu said:
And here's the full review, a short presentation of the features. I particularly love the screen, crisp clear as you can see in the close up at the end. Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-fcYW3GRS0&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haha love the comparison with the 5110. I had that phone about 14 years ago and it wasn't considered to be a big phone back then.

Facepalm the phone to silence it is EPIC !

Some Observations

Positive:
- Fast, fluid, powerful.
- Multitasking is fantastic because of the additional RAM.
- The browser is as close to desktop performance as I've seen in an Android device
.- It's a new generation of tablet for Samsung, more like a giant SGS3 than an extension of the OG 10.1 or 10.1 2. I just updated my OG Tab 10.1 to ICS before I got the Note and the Note’s version of TW is far more modern with 3D effects on things like the keyboard.
- It has SGS3 features like Awake Stay, AllShare Play, AllShare Cast, BT4.0/aptX, and Buddy Photo.
- The new keyboard is much better laid out and has mini and thumb views. It also floats in mini-mode and has Swype-like capabilities. It’s actually quite usable now.
- The screen is incredibly responsive whether via finger or stylus navigation. Between that and the GPU/CPU speed and additional RAM it's almost an iPad like experience.
- The onboard speakers sound fantastic for a mobile device.
- Video performance is the best I've seen on an Android device.
- It's well built and feels very premium.
Neutral:
- It's not going to win any beauty contests but it's growing on me.
- Samsung's apps and widgets aren't terribly impressive aesthetically. Why does Samsung fell the need to make everything look so cartoonish?
Negative:
- Social Hub has been removed which really doesn't make any sense. I checked the Luxembourg and Netherlands ROMs and its missing from them too. My 3G Note has a TTT (Trinidad) CSC. Some other leisure stuff has been left out too like AP Mobile.
- The S-Pen's in a stupid place. If the Note's in a case or sitting on a stand you can't reach it. Based on the real estate that's probably the only place they could put it. It also feels a little cheap.
- Auto-brightness is way too low; probably to save battery.
- It can't read SDXC memory cards. I had to go through a ton of gymnastics to get it to recognize my SanDisk 64GB card and it's now running FAT. It's a shame Samsung didn't implement exFAT the way they did on the SGS3.
- It’s a shame it doesn’t have an HD display.
I'll post more as I use it for different things.

Questions.....
Light Bleed, especially on boot up?
BlueTooth and wireless - are there any issues with using BT while on wifi?
Are you using the Chrome browser?
Have you tried any games, or netflix. Netflix from what I am hearing is poor on the T700, and games had stuttering issues before our last update.
no bogging down with many widgets running?

BarryH_GEG said:
Negative:
- It can't read SDXC memory cards. I had to go through a ton of gymnastics to get it to recognize my SanDisk 64GB card and it's now running FAT. It's a shame Samsung didn't implement exFAT the way they did on the SGS3.
I'll post more as I use it for different things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh... the lack of exFAT is almost a dealbreaker!! Now I have to really think about if this is worth getting or not (have a Note N7000 right now and really miss having big files on my 64Gb card).

With general usage, how is the performance compared to other Android tablets or iPad?
How good are stock apps like S-Note or the Adobe PS?

Thanks for the observations. Very good points to take into account.
I have a question about multitasking. Is it possible to have floating windows? Are there limitations on what can multitask? For instance, I'm interested to float a video or photo, while having Sketchbook Pro or some other drawing app open to draw on. Is that possible?
Sent from my Galaxy Note

lardo5150 said:
Questions.....
Light Bleed, especially on boot up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
None. Samsung's QC on their tablet displays is pretty impressive. The only display complaint was with early versions of the OG 10.1 which would get a moisture circle between the glass and panel from humidity. That was more a design issue than a QC issue. The resolution's the same as the OG 10.1 but looking at them side-by-side the panel itself is definately different. It seems a lot sharper; especially with text.
BlueTooth and wireless - are there any issues with using BT while on wifi?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an Asus "feature." I've never had that issue on any other brand of Android device I've owned.
Are you using the Chrome browser?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock. If you use a third party browser you lose multi-view.
Have you tried any games, or netflix. Netflix from what I am hearing is poor on the T700, and games had stuttering issues before our last update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No games yet. Netflix plays great. So does Amazon Instant (via the browser), HBO GO, Xfinity Player, YouTube HD, and Vevo.
no bogging down with many widgets running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. I have 30 running across five home pages.

cmunho said:
Thanks for the observations. Very good points to take into account.
I have a question about multitasking. Is it possible to have floating windows? Are there limitations on what can multitask? For instance, I'm interested to float a video or photo, while having Sketchbook Pro or some other drawing app open to draw on. Is that possible?
Sent from my Galaxy Note
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, side-by-side only with each app fixed at half the display. Videos in Pop Up Play float and can be moved and resized. Pop Up Play only works with the stock video player.

BarryH_GEG said:
Positive:
- Fast, fluid, powerful.
- Multitasking is fantastic because of the additional RAM.
- The browser is as close to desktop performance as I've seen in an Android device
.- It's a new generation of tablet for Samsung, more like a giant SGS3 than an extension of the OG 10.1 or 10.1 2. I just updated my OG Tab 10.1 to ICS before I got the Note and the Note’s version of TW is far more modern with 3D effects on things like the keyboard.
- It has SGS3 features like Awake Stay, AllShare Play, AllShare Cast, BT4.0/aptX, and Buddy Photo.
- The new keyboard is much better laid out and has mini and thumb views. It also floats in mini-mode and has Swype-like capabilities. It’s actually quite usable now.
- The screen is incredibly responsive whether via finger or stylus navigation. Between that and the GPU/CPU speed and additional RAM it's almost an iPad like experience.
- The onboard speakers sound fantastic for a mobile device.
- Video performance is the best I've seen on an Android device.
- It's well built and feels very premium.
Neutral:
- It's not going to win any beauty contests but it's growing on me.
- Samsung's apps and widgets aren't terribly impressive aesthetically. Why does Samsung fell the need to make everything look so cartoonish?
Negative:
- Social Hub has been removed which really doesn't make any sense. I checked the Luxembourg and Netherlands ROMs and its missing from them too. My 3G Note has a TTT (Trinidad) CSC. Some other leisure stuff has been left out too like AP Mobile.
- The S-Pen's in a stupid place. If the Note's in a case or sitting on a stand you can't reach it. Based on the real estate that's probably the only place they could put it. It also feels a little cheap.
- Auto-brightness is way too low; probably to save battery.
- It can't read SDXC memory cards. I had to go through a ton of gymnastics to get it to recognize my SanDisk 64GB card and it's now running FAT. It's a shame Samsung didn't implement exFAT the way they did on the SGS3.
- It’s a shame it doesn’t have an HD display.
I'll post more as I use it for different things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I have it since Friday last week and also have a normal 10.1 and can confirm some views but let me add/question others:
First some great differences from normal 10.1:
+ SD card slot (I did not have one before... How did you get 64gb working? I did not so far
+ Infrared port (you can use it as a remote controller for your TV
+ Whatever have been sayd on speed/memory above
+ Some nice configurable enhancement on lockscreen
+ A special menu (or direct app) appears when you pull out the pen
+ You can define the level of auto brightness now! (therefore it's not too dark, just pull the slider and the auto brignes will be affected as well to a higher level )
+ No Social hub (I always reoved this with Titanium because I don't use any of the Samsung hubs)
- The price was heavy (OK, I wanted to get it as one of the first and did not want to wait until I get 20% discount)
- Why not a higher resolution screen?
- The 64GB SD topic
I did not have too much time to test a lot or to install/play a lot of games (use it more for business). Run only Quadrant Pro once and the result was ~6150, about twice than on my 10.1.
Ok, I hope I helped some more with my additional view!

I would like to point a thing about the screen resolution. Exynos 4412 doesn't support Full HD. It supports max WXGA resolution.
Source: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/Exynos/news_12.html
I guess we will have to wait for Exynos 5 series for FHD and WQXGA resolution.

fscherz said:
+ You can define the level of auto brightness now! (therefore it's not too dark, just pull the slider and the auto brignes will be affected as well to a higher level )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this. It was driving me crazy.
- The price was heavy (OK, I wanted to get it as one of the first and did not want to wait until I get 20% discount)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you get a 3G version? The 16GB Note was less than I paid for my 3G 32GB UK G-Tab 10.1. And at least I can use the Note as a phone for conference calls and spare the battery on my phone.

BarryH_GEG said:
Did you get a 3G version? The 16GB Note was less than I paid for my 3G 32GB UK G-Tab 10.1. And at least I can use the Note as a phone for conference calls and spare the battery on my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I bought the 3G and I 4got to mention one other big +
+ !!!! You can use it as a phone, it comes with dialer and works as normal phone like the 7 Tab!!!! Of course, use the earphones if you don't want to use the standard speakerphone setup
+ Another +, it's data speed is much higher than any of my other tablets or my normal Galaxy Note N7000! I get full WIFI speed now (22MB, have DSL with 24MB max...) and 8MB+ on H+. Before I had with Tab 10.1 and Note only around 8MB on Wifi and 3-4MB on H+

Does the stock browser reflow text? Thanks!

I've had one since Friday. Purchased from Negri. It is awesome. The writing is SO fluid - NO lag.
I got my 64 GB card to work by formatting it in my 5" Note. It wouldn't recognize it before but after format in the small Note it recognizes it as 64 GB.
I cannot get BeyondPod to move it's directory to this external card. Does anyone know the path I need to tell BeyondPod to use?

Nakel said:
Does the stock browser reflow text? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.

oh snap! microsoft is gonna sue! samsung's promo vid looks so dang much like courier.
/s
i gotta say their demo looks like everything i had hoped ms to come out with. i'm playing with the asus infinity right now but starting to come across the regular QC defects that asus works so hard to maintain.
it's a hard decision -
asus- decent hardware with great aftermarket support
samsung - great quality hardware with sub-par aftermarket support (just getting ics after the JB ships??? tablet support is on different than their phones).
my 1 yr old gt 10.1 has no light bleed, no clicks or creaks and works just as good as day one.
my tf infinity is 4 days old and the bleed has progressively gotten worse and the click on the right side is getting a bit louder. i like it, but i'd hate to have it fall apart on me.

I've had mine for about a week now, and I'm in love with this device. It's by far the best, most responsive Android tablet I've used - and I've used a lot. My GTab 7.7 feels like a juddery mess compared to this thing. I find it very nice to hold, very light, the speakers are fantastic - and FRONT facing (why is this so hard for manufacturers/designers to understand we want them on the front??), battery life is excellent, and the screen, OK it's not HD (and a bit jarring coming from an iPad 3) is still plenty nice, bright and clear.
It's my favourite tablet, possibly ever.
That being said - I've had a few software issues with it.
1) Most serious, but only happened once so far: I brought up the pop-up S Memo from the bottom taskbar, then clicked the fullscreen button to expand to the full S Note application. S Note completely froze, then crashed. Upon relaunch, half of my notes, along with half the demo/tutorial notes were completely missing from the app. NOT good. After messing around with ways to get it back, I discovered through the file browser that all the note files were actually still there. I went into the Application manager in android settings and did a "Clear Data" for S Note. This solved the problem. Upon relaunch, all the notes were back in S Note.
2) In S Planner, there is NO option to create a NEW note in S Note to attach to a task. There is only an option to link an existing note. The original GNote has the option to create a new note.
3) Also in S Planner, one time I selected the option to link a task to a note in S Note, and S Note opened but then completely froze. Force killing S Note did not help. I tried multiple times, and had to restart the whole tablet to be able to use S Note at all.
4) I've been using an Apple (no hissing, please) bluetooth keyboard with the Gnote 10.1. Works fantastic (see, Apple and Samsung really CAN get along ) but I turned the bluetooth off one time to save battery when not using the keyboard. A while later, I tried to turn bluetooth on again. Bluetooth would not turn on. I could not toggle it on or off. I restarted the tablet, and bluetooth came on automatically.
These issues are very annoying, but so far have all happened only once. Hopefully will not be recurring issues, as I plan to make extensive use of S Note and a bluetooth keyboard too.
Other than that, I just LOVE this tablet. Bye bye, iPad 3!
Sent from my GT-N8000 using xda premium

How's the battery life so far?
And does the screen resolution look clear enough compared to ipad 3?

fscherz said:
Yes, I bought the 3G and I 4got to mention one other big +
+ !!!! You can use it as a phone, it comes with dialer and works as normal phone like the 7 Tab!!!! Of course, use the earphones if you don't want to use the standard speakerphone setup
+ Another +, it's data speed is much higher than any of my other tablets or my normal Galaxy Note N7000! I get full WIFI speed now (22MB, have DSL with 24MB max...) and 8MB+ on H+. Before I had with Tab 10.1 and Note only around 8MB on Wifi and 3-4MB on H+
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The phone is cool. I would imagine you could easily do hands-free (haven't actually tried it), but the speakers are certainly loud enough for most situations.
BTW, i've never seen a phone this large. I imagine there have been a few, but perhaps not. Anyone?

macwilson said:
The phone is cool. I would imagine you could easily do hands-free (haven't actually tried it), but the speakers are certainly loud enough for most situations.
BTW, i've never seen a phone this large. I imagine there have been a few, but perhaps not. Anyone?
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Samsung also is releasing a bluetooth S-pen that you can use to talk on phone .......
see here http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/300...iew-high-end-tablet-but-lacking-in-resolution
"unless you get the special Bluetooth pen also announced on Monday which you can hold to your ear during a conversation."

BarryH_GEG said:
No.
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Damn!