Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1 hitting the US soon
The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and 10.1 models have now gotten official release dates in the US, April 22nd and May 13th respectively. The 7.0 model is essentially something in between the original/new 10.1 model and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and while some sites continue to treat the two as almost identical, I can’t emphasize enough that Samsung’s horribly uninformative classification of the chipset as “1GHz dual core” likely hints at it using the Tegra 2 chipset, not the Exynos chip in the 7.0 Plus. The main difference between those two chips is the GPU, with the Exynos’ Mali-400 GPU being able to pump out graphics power at a rate that the Tegra 2 doesn’t have Snowball’s chance in a cat scanner of matching. The rest of the specs are close: 7-inch 1024 x 600 screen, microSD, camera (albeit missing the 7.0 Plus’ LED, and with a lower resolution front camera), and so on. Ice Cream Sandwich is really the only upgrade on this device, which is why a $250 price tag does not impress me in the slightest with the 7.0 Plus once selling for $300. Unfortunately it’s become rather common that when a company’s products reach a point where they’re dirt cheap on sales, they discontinue them and release a slightly crappier version of the same device with an MSRP around where the previous version was on sale.
In fact, that is exactly what Samsung is doing with the 10.1-inch version of the Galaxy Tab 2 as well. Compared to the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 from a year ago, this one has a microSD slot added, a downgraded front camera, higher Bluetooth version, and a slightly different design to make it look less like an iPad. That’s not exactly progress when the original came out a year ago. Still, had it been a $300 device, I would have been fine with it. At $400, no. Simply no. Don’t buy it. A Tegra 2 equipped device isn’t worth $400 in 2012, go buy something with a Tegra 3 instead, like the $450 Toshiba Excite 10. I think Samsung is losing its grip on reality when this is what it releases in 2012 when everyone else is doing Tegra 3. I’m sure an Exynos 2 tablet will blow us away mere months from now, but that’s no excuse.
[The Verge]
