Apple has chosen Australia to show its displeasure to Samsung about the similarities between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Apple iPad 2. Last week it used the courts to pressure Samsung to stop the launch, originally planned for August 11. Also embroiled in other court action in the US, Apple is clearly concerned about the Samsung devices, so we've managed to get a Galaxy Tab 10.1 (the US version, which, thanks to Apple's actions won't be available to Australians) and compared it to Cupertino's flagship iPad 2.

Our conclusion is that the Galaxy Tab 10.1's potent combination with Android Honeycomb 3.1 makes it a dangerous competitor to the iPad 2. Android Honeycomb is already available on several premium tablets, but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the first that puts it in a hardware package with the sex appeal of the iPad 2. Here are the top 10 reasons we believe Apple fears this package and is making an example of Samsung Australia in front of Australian consumers and the rest of the world.

This not a list of instances where the Galaxy Tab trumps the iPad – in some, it doesn’t – but it shows the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is close enough to the iPad 2 to worry Apple.

1. SLIMMER & LIGHTER

Clearly, many vendors think slimness is not that important, just check the new tablets from Toshiba, HP, Lenovo, ASUS and Acer - all generously thicker than the iPad 2. There are only two people that consider slimness critical: Steve Jobs, the head of Apple, whose iPad dominates the market, and Lee Don-Joo, the Samsung vice-president whose Galaxy Tab 10.1 is widely seen as the closest challenger to the iPad 2. Don-Joo aborted the first attempt at the 10.1 this year and sent his engineers back to the drawing board to come up with a slimmer one. They succeeded. In the battle of slim, Samsung has trumped Apple with a Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet that is 8.6mm thick versus the 8.8mm of the iPad 2, and whose 3G version weighs 565g vs 613g for the iPad's. When going for the consumer dollar, slim and light is not just a style affectation as many might believe; it's a real selling point to consumers, making the tablet easier to hold for longer, and easier to slip into a bag. In other words, slimness matters and Samsung has matched the seemingly impossible slimness of the iPad 2.

There's been some criticism that the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s weight loss has been achieved partly by using a plastic back cover that’s lighter but not as high quality as the iPad’s aluminium one. Actually, the plastic back makes the Galaxy Tab 10.1 much easier to hold because it grips better than the shiny metal on the iPad. But the iPad’s definitely looks better, particularly with the big black apple in the middle.
 

2. BETTER DISPLAY

When you put both screens next to one another, the Galaxy’s colours seem a touch brighter and more saturated than the iPad’s, which are more subtle and realistic – it’s a bit like comparing the colours of an LCD TV to those of a plasma TV. But when it comes to resolution the Galaxy display is ahead. With 1,280 x 800 pixels crammed into its 10.1in screen and with a 16:9 aspect ratio, the Tab is markedly superior in displaying HD movies, where the stronger colours make movies seem more, well, movie-like. The iPad’s 9.7in 1,024 x 768 is geared to work across a greater range of content, particularly magazines, where its 4:3 aspect ratio is more effective. We would call the display face-off a draw, but technically, the Tab display has beaten the iPad 2's in independent tests. A maker of screen calibration and testing software, DisplayMate, tested the top 5 tablets across a variety of criteria, including screen reflections, brightness and contrast, colours and intensities, viewing angles and backlight power consumption. The Galaxy Tab won by a nose.

 

3. BETTER MAIN CAMERA (STILLS & VIDEO)

This is really a case of which device’s main or back camera is the least terrible, and here the Tab, with a 3.2 megapixel camera (which takes 2,048 x 1,536 pixel photos) trounces the iPad’s 0.7 megapixel camera (which takes 960 x 720 pixel shots). As you’d expect, the Samsung's photos have better detail but the iPad tries to compensate by delivering stronger colours. We're surprised Samsung has downgraded the camera resolution from the 8 megapixels on the aborted thicker Galaxy Tab (now floating around as the 10.1v, or "Fatty"), more evidence that the bigger sensor has been dumped by Samsung to make its new Tab slimmer.  Both back cameras shoot in 720p video and the Tab just comes out ahead here too, with videos that have a tiny bit more discernible detail. We’ve read that the Tab video is far superior, but we couldn’t see it: the advantage is marginal at best. The Tab also has a better front camera: 2 megapixel resolution vs the 640 x 480 VGA camera on the iPad 2.

The Tab definitely beats the iPad when it comes to the actual camera app, which is more like one you’d find on a compact camera, letting you pick different scene modes and effects and alter settings like white balance and metering. The iPad still camera app is just one giant shutter.

4. BETTER MOVIE PLAYBACK

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is able to play back 1080p movies while the iPad 2 can't play any video with resolution higher than 720p. But, more importantly, the Tab shows movies at 16:9 giving you a more cinema-like experience. It’s here that the Galaxy Tab’s stereo speakers (on left and right sides of the device) also make a difference compared to the iPad’s single speaker, generating more of a surround sound effect. We’re not saying the Tab’s are better overall, since the iPad’s speaker seemed just a bit fuller when it came to playing music (we're not audio technicians here, the music just sounded "fuller"), but certainly, when you're watching movies, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 beats the industry leader.  

5. BETTER WEB EXPERIENCE

Here on in, the Galaxy Tab 10.1's advantages derive largely from its use of the Android Honeycomb 3.1 OS, but just as the iPad and iOS are inextricably linked, so the Tab and Android make a formidable package. When it comes to their performance on perhaps the single most important function of a tablet device – web surfing – they annihilate the iPad, with the Honeycomb browser providing an experience that's reminiscent of browsing on a full desktop PC, unlike the frustratingly smartphone-like Safari browser on the Apple device.


First of all, the Android browser supports Adobe Flash while the iPad doesn’t. Whether Steve Jobs likes it or not, the web is still full of Flash videos and web sites haven’t exactly cowered and dumped Flash for HTML5. If you surf with the iPad be prepared to view many sites with blanks on them.

The lack of tabs and Safari’s insistence on switching to a new page when you open a link in your browser also makes web surfing a frustrating experience. Many of us want to open links in the background when we're surfing, so we can finish the piece we’re reading and head to the other, opened pages, later. On the Tab, right-click on a link and select “open in new page.” The new page opens in the background, in another tab (by default it goes to new page, but this can be changed in the settings). On the iPad, the new page opens, but the old page disappears from under you and is relegated to the Safari pages grid view, which means you need to click an icon to go back into Pages view, then hunt down the page you were viewing in that grid. There is no alternative. It’s stone-age stuff.

6. BETTER UI & NOTIFICATIONS

Look at an iPad 2 home screen and you see a grid of icons that’s reminiscent of web pages from 1995. Sure, Apple is aiming for mass-market simplicity so that the tech unsavvy aren't confused by too many options, but surely in 2011 it can do better than this? (The Galaxy Tab/Android combination does.) What really makes the Honeycomb UI look like it was designed sometime in the last five years is widgets, which are windows into important, updating information on the device: whether email, calendar, weather, news sites, Facebook, Twitter and so on. When you look at an iPad screen, you see a grid of flat icons. When you look at an Android 3.1 screen, you see what’s actually happening on your device.

The navigation on the Galaxy Tab is also much more consistent across all apps. Most make use of the universal Android navigation buttons of back and home, with their own options button. By contrast, apps on the iPad still lack a consistent back button and in-app navigation.

Android’s notification system is vastly superior. While on the iPad a notification is a jarring pop up in the middle of the screen which interrupts what you are doing, on Android notifications such as emails or appointments flash subtly at the bottom right of the screen, and then leave a reminder icon.

7. BETTER FILE MANAGEMENT

When you need to transfer a document or image or video off your Galaxy Tab 10.1, you connect the 30-pin USB data cable to a USB port on your computer, and the Tab appears in Windows Explorer as an external drive. You can transfer any file on and off it as simply as you do on any USB drive.

Transferring files to or from an iPad is nowhere near as easy because you are not given access to the device’s file system - except when moving images. Unless you resort to sending other files by email then you need to choose from several clumsy methods. One is to use File Sharing in iTunes, where you go to Apps and locate the relevant application (the files are only ever associated with the application) which will then show documents associated with said app on the iPad. From here you can transfer files off the device. Another is to send the file from within its app to a cloud service, like MobileMe (to be replaced soon by iCloud) or to buy an app like Air Sharing HD, which lets you wirelessly mount the iPad on a PC as an external drive. All these options work, but none have the sheer simplicity of plugging your Galaxy Tab into a USB port and seeing it treated like any other drive.

8. EASIER TEXT INPUT

Which device makes it easier to input data manually is not the kind of question you’ll find in most comparisons between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad 2, but when you consider that the single biggest downside of tablets when compared to computers is their lack of a physical keyboard, this is actually a crucially important quality.  The onscreen keyboards on both the Tab and the iPad are much of a muchness, but Galaxy Tab/Android also incorporates Google’s voice-to-text technology for voice input. It’s really useful when you’re on the move and can’t easily type, particularly when doing web searches. Speak to it and you’ll be amazed just how many words it gets right.

9. BETTER MULTI-TASKING

This is an old one but it’s worth mentioning that the Galaxy Tab with Android supports full multi-tasking, in which various apps can run in the background even when you are not directly using them. So if you leave an app and go to another, the former continues to do its thing. You can check which ones are open via the Honeycomb multi-tasking panel, which provides previews of the running apps at the touch of an icon in the Honeycomb nav bar. On the other hand, the iPad restricts background processing to a few apps such as downloads and Skype. For most apps the iPad instead does task switching, in which the application is stopped, its state remembered and put into suspended animation, to be revived when you get back to it.

10. THE GOOGLE APPS ADVANTAGE

We constantly hear about the humongous number of apps in the App Store – at last count there were over 90,000 iPad apps, versus a few hundred for the Honeycomb devices. Clearly Apple wins this one, but it’s not the advantage everyone makes out. The question is whether all the major, critical apps are available for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and how they compare to those on the iPad.

If you use Gmail and Google docs, the Galaxy Tab/Android experience is vastly superior, since the apps are more tightly integrated and provide richer functionality than on the iPad. Google Docs is actually the closest thing you can get on any tablet to a full working, business-grade office suite. For good measure, Samsung has also added a non-cloud Office suite called Polaris Office that’s compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

If you’re a heavy user of the Evernote note-taking app you’ll find that the Honeycomb version is more advanced than the one on the iPad. The latter borders on the annoying, particularly its dumb "stick-them-all-on-one-page" treatment of tags, one of the most important aspects of the whole app. The Honeycomb version comes with side panels and more sophisticated treatment of things like tag hierarchies.

A feature sadly lacking on the iPad is a native chat client. What was Apple thinking? Instant messaging is one of the most fundamental apps of all and yet the iPad doesn’t even give you one - you have to search the App Store for a third party app. On the Galaxy Tab, Google's Gtalk is there as part of Honeycomb. We suspect the lack of IM client on the iPad has to do with Apple's reluctance to create more ongoing background processes that will sap battery life.

SUMMARY

The iPad is a great-looking machine that's simple enough for mass users to understand quickly and boasts one thing the Galaxy Tab/Android just don’t have: iTunes. But Apple knows that when it comes to design & style, Samsung is in on its little secret: that it's important! It also knows that for advanced users, the greater freedom to customise Android Honeycomb and its closer resemblance to a desktop PC environment is very attractive. And finally, Google is developing a serious competitor to iTunes in Google Music. The end result is that if you're a vaguely savvy consumer, the iPad is no longer your only real option.

No wonder Apple is flexing its legal muscle, even if it means beating up on us poor Australians.

SPECS

	iPad 2	Galaxy Tab 10.1
DIMENSIONS
width	185.7 mm	175.3mm
height	241.2mm	256.7mm
thickness	8.8 mm	8.6mm
weight	613g	565g
ENGINE
Processor	Dual-Core Apple A5 (1GHz)	Dual-Core NVIDIA Tegra 2 (1GHz)
Memory	512MB	1GB
DISPLAY
Screen size	9.7in	10.1in
Screen technology	Capacitive LED Backlit IPS	Capacitive TFT WXGA
Resolution	1024x768	1280x800
DPI	132	149
STORAGE
storage	16G, 32GB or 64GB	16GB, 32GB or 64GB
COMMS
Cellular	Wi-Fi + 3G model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)	Wi-Fi + 3G model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi	802.11 a/b/g/n	802.11 a/b/g/n
Wi-Fi Direct	Yes	Yes
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology	3.0
CAMERA
Back camera - stills	0.7 megapixels	3.2 megapixels
Back camera - video	720p	720p
Front camera - stills	VGA	2 megapixels
front camera - video	VGA	VGA
VIDEO
Playback res	720p, 30fps	1080p, 30fps
Video Codecs	H.264, MP4 , MOV, MPEG4, AVI	WM9, WM8, WM7, H.264, MPEG4, DivX, XviD, H.263,VP8
AUDIO
Formats	HE-AAC (V1 and V2), AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAVfont>	MP3, ACC, ACC+, WMA, RA
Speakers	Single	Stereo
Microphone	Yes	yes
Headphone jack	3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack	3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
INPUT/OUTPUT
Connector port	30-pin dock connector port	30-pin dock connector port
SIM	Micro-SIM card tray	Full SIM slot
SENSORS
General	Three-axis gyro, Accelerometer, ambient light sensor	Accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor
Location sensors	Assisted GPS, Digital Compass	Assisted GPS, Digital Compass
BATTERY
Battery	Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery	7000 amH
Battery life	Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music. Up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network	Up to 9 hours video, up to 72 hours playing music
Charging system	Via charging cable.	Via charging cable.

Compiled by Conrad Bem