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A Quick Look at Samsung's Galaxy Tab Shows It's a Lot Better Than I Expected

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A limited look at the Galaxy Tab showed me all I needed to see: this thing is great. I'm no fan of Samsung phones, and worried it would feel cheap, with TouchWiz an albatross around Android's neck. I was wrong.

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It's well made, and doesn't seem as plasticky as the Galaxy S range of phones—or indeed, most Samsung phones. Just like with the iPad, the bezel around the display is possibly too large for its own good, but the touch-sensitive buttons (menu, home, back and search) almost don't have a purpose with that large 7-inch display.

While I don't want to harp on too much about the iPad, it's the elephant in the room when discussing tablets. Android is so well suited for a device such as a tablet, and while I have my grievances about Samsung's TouchWiz UI, it's not as cumbersome as it feels on a smartphone.

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The touchscreen (a capacitive TFT-LCD WSVGA display, with 1024 x 600 pixels) could be improved upon. While it's bright, and rendered colors beautifully, it could be more receptive. Several times I had to poke a finger at an app to open it. Otherwise, it's fast enough for a tablet of its size—largely thanks to the Cortex A8 1.0GHz, which zooms along in some of their Galaxy S phones.

Like I said, my hands-on session with the Tab wasn't nearly long enough to do it justice (the Tab tables were more crowded and sought-after than an iPad display table in an Apple store, but don't read too much into that), so if you're wanting more first-look opinion on it, check out SlashGear, ElectricPig, Engadget or AndroidAndMe for more.