There are four main areas to review:
1) Style
Anyone complaining about the Tab's style is way off base. I question the purpose of a bad review based on style. The Tab is thin, lightweight (which matters a lot now that I've held it all day; any heavier would be a real strain), and looks very, very good. The back doesn't feel like cheap plastic at all (seriously, how could anyone write that?). It doesn't even feel like plastic. It's almost like brush metal without the weight. Just the right amount of bezel. It also feels solid (I was afraid it would be TOO thin and/or lightweight). Anyone not rating the Tab's style 5/5 is blind, crazy, or both.
2) Hardware
I'm not super-techy, but from what I understand, the Tab is as advanced as it gets right now. The camera is just okay, but a tablet shouldn't be your primary camera. It's fast. The screen looks amazing (the colors on the comic App made me believe in God). I'm sure some of you are waiting for Tegra 3, but I can't imagine needing this device to run faster than it already does. 10.1 is the perfect size for a tablet. If you're considering a 7-inch tablet, stop it. Might as well get a 4.3-inch phone.
3) Ports
In my opinion, this issue has gotten blown out of proportion. I'm sure some of you need HDMI, USB, mini-USB, SD, micro-SD, CD-Rom, Zip, a 5-inch floppy disk, etc. The port chatter had me leaning toward the Toshiba Thrive. But then I realized I never use any ports on any electronic device I already own. I've connected my laptop to my television like twice in two years using the HDMI port. Everything I do is in the cloud now (photos on Picasa, music on Amazon Cloud, documents in Google Docs), so who needs a ton of extra storage space on the device itself? Not me, and I bet you don't either. I got the 16 GB version, and after setting up all my Apps, I still have about 13 GB free. I bet I never get close to using all 16 GB. Plus, lots of ports = thicker and heavier. Thinner and lighter is much better, trust me.
4) Software
(I realize this isn't Samsung's fault, so it's not influencing my overall score.) Honeycomb 3.1 is fine. Reminds me of Android 2.2 on my phone. I haven't run into many glitches, but if there are some that pop up, I'm sure the experience will continue to improve. The real problem here are the Apps. It's just not good. Yes, there are some Apps optimized for Honeycomb, but I think that number was 96 at last check. That's not many (especially since most are games). The good news is that the actual Honeycomb Apps are amazing. I was blown away by the 360 News App. There just needs to be more, which I'm sure will come over time, but it's frustrating to spend $500 on a device that has very little to offer that I can't already do on my phone. No Netflix (seriously, that is just absurd). It just feels like Android is still six months away from giving us a good reason to buy a tablet. Obviously, they'll get there someday, but if you're on the fence, it might be worth waiting for the software to catch up to the hardware. In all fairness, I basically knew this going in, but after diving in, I was still surprised at how little has been done to create Apps for Android tablets.
Overall:
I love the Tab. Absolutely perfect hardware experience (until the next big thing comes out). If I had it to do over again, I would still buy it because I like shiny new objects, and it's fun being on the front end of technology. If you already have a nice phone, and money is tight, and you're still debating whether it's worth dropping $500 for a tablet, I would wait until you hear people like me saying the App Market is fully stocked.
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