Katherine Boehret, on the Galaxy Tab 10.1:
But this week I reviewed the first tablet that’s actually thinner than the iPad 2: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Never mind that the difference in thinness between these competing tablets is two-tenths of a millimeter. Thinner is thinner.
But the most notable difference between these two tablets is in battery life: In my test with Wi-Fi on, screen brightness at about 75 percent and a continuous loop of video playing, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 lasted for just 5 hours and 38 minutes. This is only a bit more than half as long as the iPad 2, which lasted for 10 hours and nine minutes in the same test.
Nice as it looks, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is lacking some built-in features. Unlike the iPad, this tablet supports Flash, Adobe’s popular format for playing videos in the Web browser. But out of the box, it won’t play Flash videos unless people first download a free Adobe Flash Player app from the Android Market. I only discovered this by unsuccessfully attempting to play videos on CharlieRose.com.
A Samsung spokesman said a future software update will include Adobe Flash Player, but that won’t be pushed to devices until later this summer.
I suppose I can endure living with a device that’s two tenths of a millimeter thicker. But I suppose I would also have to endure having double the battery life and a fully baked OS on my clunky device.
Sigh.