Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 preview: First look

Introduction

By losing an inch of screen diagonal and reducing the weight to something you might actually be able to hold longer than 5 minutes, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 hopes to convert more people to the tablet cause. Those who found the 7” Galaxy Tab too limiting and the 10.1” slates too heavy to take anywhere other than your couch will certainly appreciate the effort.
This could be the next evolutionary step in Android tablets. An ultra-slim slate with powerful hardware, lower weight than we expected and an impressive screen created by the world’s number-two-soon-to-be-number-one manufacturer. It definitely looks like a winner on paper (and not the Charlie Sheen kind, mind you).

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 3G at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Tablet
• Dimensions: 230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6 mm, 470 g
• Display: 8.9" 16M-color WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels) IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen
• CPU: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor, ULP GeForce GPU, Tegra 2 chipset
• RAM: 1GB
• OS: Android 3.1 Honeycomb
• Memory: 16/32/64 GB storage
• Camera: 3.15 megapixel auto-focus camera with 720p video recording; LED flash, 2 megapixel front facing camera, video-calls
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 3.0+HS, standard microUSB port,GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, HDMI TV-out (through an adapter), USB host (adapter required)
• Misc: TouchWiz customization, telephony, DivX/XviD codec support, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, gyroscope sensor, Swype text input

Android tablets may have been off to a slow start, but no one can deny that they’ve been improving at an amazing rate. Only a few months after the release of Honeycomb we already have at least a dozen intriguing tablets, including the Transformer with its detachable multi-functional keyboard, the Acer ICONIA Tab A500 with its competitive price and the XOOM with its hopefully-soon-to be-enabled LTE connectivity.
Yet the not quite polished Android 3.0 OS has been holding all those tablets back. Lagging, lack of support for all the features (like the USB host or microSD card) and low number of optimized apps used to be the deal-breakers.
Well, Google has already addressed most of the performance issues with the 3.1 update and developers have been hard at work on delivering those apps so iOS might finally get itself some proper competition.
Good timing for the Galaxy Tab 8.9 then, which may as well see its prospects soar.