As expected, Verizon Wireless is now offering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 in the US. And as expected, it’s not exactly cheap.
If you sign up for a new 2-year contract you can take home the Tab 7.7 for $499.99. If you forego the contract, the tablet will run you $699.99, but at least you won’t have to pay $30 per month or more for a data plan.
Either way, you get a version of the tablet that’s capable of connecting to Verizon’s 4G LTE network. There’s currently no WiFi-only version of the Tab 7.7 available in the US.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 features a 1.4 GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a microSD card slot for extra storage space. It has a 7.7 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED Plus display and a 5100mAh battery which Samsung says should provide up to 12.5 hours of active use time.
The tablet ships with Google Android 3.2 Honeycomb software with Samsung’s TouchWiz customizations.
While the Samsung Galaxy Tab isn’t much larger than an Amazon Kindle Fire, it has a higher quality display, a faster processor, more memory and storage, cameras, and 4G LTE mobile broadband support. On the other hand, the Kindle Fire sells for $200, which makes Samsung’s latest tablet look pricey at $500 and up.
Comical how badly carrier relationships wreck product launches. Â
So they finally release this, right on the heels of iPad3. 6 months ago this would have been interesting. In five days this will be obsolete technology.
 Hardly — the iPad3 is still substantially larger and weighs rather more. I mean, iPad3’s are great devices… but they won’t fit into the average coat pocket, whereas this will.
And sure, the iPad3 might have a faster CPU or better graphics or whatever, but the percentage of people for whom the Tab’s CPU/GPU aren’t “fast enough” for is going to vanishingly small.
Amazon has sold *over 6 million Kindle Fires*, even though no one would suggest it’s more powerful than an iPad. You need to realize that only a relatively small fraction of the market is always after (and can afford) the device with the best technical specs…
Ouch! Â I am hoping for $399 for the wifi version but that seems unlikely at those 3G prices…Â
Not likely, in the couple of countries where the wifi model is for sale already the price is closer to $699 or so.
And still with Honeycomb. Â Lame.
Probably due to their touchwiz addon…Â
Although I think most people would rather have ICS with a future touchwiz update instead of touchwiz with a future ICS update. Â I know I certainly would.