Hands-on with the new Galaxy Tab. Video: Consumer Reports
Santa's sleigh must be full of tablets: holiday shopping has helped the Samsung Galaxy Tab surpass the one million mark in sales since it became available in mid-November, according to eWeek. The Galaxy Tab is the iPad's stiffest competition, though it's still trailing Apple's tablet. So what's driving the Galaxy's success?
First, the competition beyond the iPad is not really viable. We've looked at seven tablets that cost less than the Galaxy and the iPad, but they have a variety of problems. In addition, the Galaxy Tab is smaller and thus more portable than the iPad, which is appealing to some buyers, and it has a video camera for video chat—not an iPad feature, as yet.
Many of the other available tablets lack capabilities you'd expect, because they don't have the necessary hardware or they use an older version of the Android operating system. But the Galaxy Tab includes the following features:
The ability to change the display's orientation from landscape to portrait;
A capacitive touch screen with an on-screen QWERTY keyboard;
Home, Menu, and Back functions that are always available to the user;
An accelerometer for measuring movement, a compass for measuring direction, and a GPS receiver for measuring location;
A method for updating software;
Access to the Android Market.
But Galaxy buyers are also reaching deeper into their pockets than many iPad owners. The Galaxy Tab starts at $400, but the price can go well above $700 when you add in a two-year contract option; the iPad starts at $500. And since you're not locked into a contract with the iPad, you have the option to turn the 3G on and off, month to month.
Have you bought a tablet, or do you plan to? Let us know what you like and don't like in comments.
