The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) is now available in the USÂ for $399.999. The new tablet features a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display just like the original 10 inch Galaxy Tab, but it ships with Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and includes an IR blaster and microSD card slot, two features that last year’s model lacked.
The tablet has a 1 GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. It features a 3MP camera on the back and a VGA camera on the front.
Samsung’s latest tablet weighs about 1.3 pounds and measures 0.4 inches thick.
Although the Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) has an official release date of May 13th, it’s already available for order for about $400 from a number of retailers, including:
- Fry’s
- J&R
- MacMall
- Office Depot
- TigerDirect
Micro Center is also selling the tablet for $50 off, at just $349.99.
The new 10.1 inch tablet joins the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) which went on sale in the US last month for about $250. That model features similar specifications, but a smaller 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display.
The Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 portable media player also goes on sale for $199.99 this week. That handheld device features a 4.2 inch, 480 x 800 pixel display, a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 single core processor and Android 2.3 operating system.
Reveiws seem to indicate that, just as in the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Samsung has downgraded with the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 instead of improved its products, possibly to compete further down the price scale. Samsung is blanketing all price points of the smartphone and tablet markets, seemingly throwing devices around to see what will stick. The current Samsung tablet flagship is the Galaxy Note.Â
The Asus Transformer Pad TF300 is a superior product to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. The Acer Iconia Tab A510 is also superior to the Tab 2 10.1.Â
The TF300 has a better (brighter) screen than the A510 and a keyboard option. The A510 has a faster CPU (200 MHz faster than TF300, same speed as Transformer Prime TF500) and apparently more internal storage (32 GB vs 16 GB)) for $50 more than the TF300.Â
As far as reviews, it looks like a toss-up when choosing between the TF300 and A510. Either way I don’t think you can go wrong. I would lean toward the A510 due to the faster CPU and more storage (also some reviews don’t seem to downgrade the A510’s display as other reviews do), as well as some other factor(s) I can’t recall right now.
Thanks for your comprehensive answer!
I own a Tab 10.1 and wished it has a microSD card slot. Now, Samsung does it right in Tab 2. I also wished Samsung ships decent User Manuals rather than the tiny Getting Started booklets. I guess buyers of Tab 2 10.1 will be disappointed in this respect (just like Tab 2 7.0). Although the user manual files are available (sometime too late) in Samsung’s web site, their odd page size does not print well on common paper sizes without special fitting. For serious or frustrated owners, hard copies of User Manuals (neatly fitted and bound into convenient books) are available on e-bay for many Galaxy Tablets and Players.Â
LOL, you can even pre-order the Tab 2 10.1 User Manual just like you
pre-order the tablets.
Why on earth would you print out the manual? .PDF and keep it right on your tablet, or store on micro .SD
How does this compare to the TF300, which is around the same price?