The first thing you notice when you start using a Samsung Galaxy Tablet is that it clearly thinks it’s a phone. Most people I show the device to also think it’s a phone as they do their best Dom Joly impersonation. I had only intended to use the device over wifi but I’m constantly reminded that I haven’t put a SIM card in, and that the phone can only make emergency calls. I noticed at one point that a significant portion of battery life was being put to use on phone related activities. At that point, I put the device into flight mode and then enabled wifi to try and make the battery last longer. Trying not to use the device as a phone means many of the Samsung applications simply don’t work as they require a SIM card, although why they need the SIM card I couldn’t tell you.
One of the things I was looking forward to doing with the device when I got it was to use it around the office as I’m using a desktop and I wanted a way to take notes, look things up and do demos. My first snag there was that the electronic keyboard is just too small for any note taking at length and when I held the device in portrait mode I was typing by thumbs alone. I’ve found that the screen on the Galaxy is just about right to web pages, and due to the size, I can hold the device in one hand, not unlike the Kindle. Many websites are redirecting me to their mobile version, which although can look very nice on the size of the device, it sort of deflects the purpose of having a tablet as opposed to a phone.
Some of the plain oddities are exposed when trying to use Google Docs on the phone. Having sent you to the mobile version, you can edit documents and spreadsheets, but not presentations. When trying to change to desktop mode you get a bizarre error about the browser not supporting web word processing. There was me thinking that all that was needed was HTML rendering, Javascript processing and an Internet connection.
I have felt I’m getting benefit when you consider just about how ‘cloud-enabled’ the device is. I’m yet to plug the device in to my computer, apart from trying to deploy an application I’d built onto it. For music I’ve been using Spotify, Last.FM or iPlayer for Radio 6. Tools like Google Voice have let me find, download and play podcasts without needing desktop software like iTunes with varying success. The speakers on the device are just about good enough to carry around the house with you, or plug the headphone jack into stereos in different rooms. I’ve used DropBox to drop video files onto the device and they just play without having to configure anything or install any codecs.
I’m generally enjoying being able to think of this as more of a computer than a locked down device though, by seeing the running applications and being able to navigate the file system. However there seem to be simple things I just can’t find, like changing the auto-lock timeout or being able to wake the device from being locked other than pushing a button at the top of the device, when my hands tend to be at the other end of the device.
I’m happy that Apple has some competition in the tablet market, but I think the experience needs to improve a lot, through both the physical device and the software that powers it. I’d suggest a good start would be to get the device to stop thinking it’s a phone. The Amazon Kindle has a SIM card for 3G access, but it’s knows it isn’t a phone. It may be a small point, but I prefer my devices without the split personality.
