Monthly Archives: October 2010

Available from Clove for £287.88 from 12th November

Highlights-

Android 2.1 (Eclair) Operating Sytem
Mobile network technology: GSM/WCDMA/Wi-Fi
7 inch touchscreen
2 Megapixel Camera
WiFi & Bluetooth
MicroSD expansion (up to 32GB)
Gravity Sensor
HD Video Playback
3.5 mm Audio jack

My first day with the S7 was enlightening in many ways; a good quality Android tablet can be built for under £300, Android does work on a tablet and the 7” form factor is much more useable than I ever expected.

Lazyboy and I had a discussion on 247 last week which went like this-

LB- “I can’t imagine how having a screen which is only half the size of the iPad’s would make any of those tasks easier.”

LB- “True. But I don’t think it’s that hard to image what the equivalent of 4 iPhones weighs in a jacket pocket.”

I can fully understand where he is coming from and the appeal of the iPad is obvious on so many levels. From iTunes through to the great battery to the large use anywhere screen, it is peerless. So why did I get rid of mine? Well, I found that I just wasn’t using it enough and I think that a lot of that came down to the size. I didn’t realise at the time, but it was a factor and it quickly became a product I used at home and nowhere else, a home that also puts a roof over a Mac Mini and a laptop.

Call me crazy all you like, but the appeal of the 7” tablet form has smacked me between the eyes in a way I never expected. It offers a superior browsing experience to a smartphone, a superior video watching experience and a superior game playing experience. The iPad does all of the above better, but you pay with the size of the unit which quickly squeezes away a huge amount of practicality.

This isn’t a case of me comparing the S7 to the iPad- I am comparing the 7” tablet to the 9.7” tablet and that small dimensional change makes a world of difference. There were rumours of a 7” iPad a couple of months ago which never came to fruition. Mr Jobs- you missed out.

To me the 7” tablet is the sweet spot of mobile computing that works on both the portable and desktop experience level. I can’t explain why it works so well, but it does and I can see keyboards being attached to devices this size and a whole new breed of laptops being born as the miniaturisation of technology gathers pace. I realise that I sound almost giddy with excitement, but this form is near perfect for me. For content creation the 800 x 480 pixel screen is not ideal because the keyboard dominates the screen once activated. It needs to dominate to be (almost) as usable as the iPads, but does leave you short on viewable real estate- it didn’t prove to be a big problem for me because I would rarely be using any tablet with an on screen keyboard for large amounts of data input. As I said earlier, stick a keyboard on this thing and it all changes again. I don’t expect the majority to agree with me here, but I won’t complain because this form just feels right for me- I’m not saying it will fit your life as well.

I think I am trying to say that if you expect to create lots of content on a tablet a 7” model may be too small. If you want to view videos, browse the web, read eBooks and play games it could be a better fit because it is more portable.

Screen (7/10)

The resistive TFT screen is not the best on paper, but it is easy to use and I had no problems with accuracy or sunlight viewing. It does get slightly washed out in bright conditions, but not ad badly as some other models. The landscaped nature will be seen as a problem to some and I can understand that when viewing web pages in that mode. However, turning it to portrait form offers a pleasing eBook experience which fits the hand much more naturally than most other tablets. All in all, I am more impressed with the screen than I expected.

Battery (6/10)

I am not convinced on the battery performance. It is better than others perceive it to be, but heavy use will mean more than one charge a day. The upside is that you can buy a spare and chuck that one in if you need to so at least options are available. I would still prefer to see a longer default battery life built in.

Performance (8.5/10)

The processor is rated at 768Mhz which seems hard to believe because 1) I have read elsewhere that it is 1Ghz and 2) it feels much quicker. Performance has been stellar so far and I have not experienced any slow downs at all even on processor heavy tasks. With multiple apps open it still chugs along and so I have few complaints.

Media (7.5/10)

Not bad at all. Video playback is smooth and the screen size is good for watching long movies and TV shows. The exterior sound quality is very loud, but it keeps the quality going even at the top level. The inclusion of a kickstand is a much bigger benefit than I expected and brings more flexibility to its use. Music playback through decent headphones is also good- it doesn’t rival the iPhone or the better BlackBerry’s, but it is good enough. I don’t personally see tablets as being devices you will often listen to music on so can excuse it not being the best in the market.

Web (7/10)

Web browsing on the S7 is a difficult one because in landscape you have to scroll a bit and in portrait you have to zoom a bit. However, the experience still feels quite ‘desktop like’ to me and I enjoyed the experience. The fact that the Android browser is so good helps a lot and the bigger screen nudged it to a desktop feel more than a smartphone feel for me.

Connectivity (9/10)

It has a phone app which you would use with headphones normally. It offers 3G / HSDPA from any SIM card and of course Wi-Fi is built in. Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS round off the communications and so I have to score it highly, particularly because it all works so well. I have had problems with some Android devices and Wi-Fi in the past, but so far the S7 has been faultless in this regard.

Conclusion

It is hard to conclude my thoughts on the S7 without mentioning the price. I am left with a feeling that Samsung will have to do something very special with the Galaxy Tab to justify the fact it is twice the price of the S7. The Tab has 4 times the internal memory, a higher resolution screen, better battery, Android 2.2 and a faster processor which after using the S7 leads me to believe that the Tab will be a killer device.

The S7 is way better than I expected and way better than the price point it sits at. It does almost everything well and is a good quality piece of kit that will serve you well for a variety of uses. The battery could be better, but the purchase of a spare will help to resolve that issue somewhat. The S7 has opened my eyes to Android on a tablet and proved that it is a viable platform for the future. It may not be at the high-end in terms of quality materials or specification, but it is way up there in terms of value. This is a quality product which will be accepted positively by those who don’t want to spend £500 on a tablet that will not be used as often as a smartphone, and that could be a sizeable chunk of the population.