Messaging, App Store, Browser


Messaging

Considering the size of its on-screen keyboard and of the screen in general, it is no real surprise that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a pretty good messaging platform. Every bit a non-3G device, there is no back up for text or motion picture messaging. Social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter have no built-in back up, either, but at that place is no shortage of free tertiary party applications available to fill that void. The simply instant messaging client loaded on the Milky way Tab 10.ane is Gtalk, which tin be used not only for instant messaging only also for video chatting using the forwards-facing camera. The quality isn't fantastic, merely it is skillful plenty to proceed in impact with friends and family and to meet what is going on.

At that place are 2 pre-installed e-mail applications on the Galaxy Tab x.1. The outset, Gmail, is a new multi-pane version of the popular and fully featured Gmail application seen on Android smartphones. Users are presented with nice views of the folders, bulletin lists, and messages in a very organized and intuitive fashion. On top of that, the Gmail customer offers features like Priority Inbox and threaded conversation views that users have come to wait from Gmail. The regular email app offers the same paned view every bit Gmail, and is equally prissy to use. It adds multi-touch zooming to the mix, which is a handy feature when you are working with a large, loftier-res brandish.


Apps / App Store

The real downfall of Android 3.x Honeycomb and so far is application support. There are relatively few tablet-specific apps available at the moment, and compatibility with older titles is can be somewhat spotty at times. While most of the over 200,000 applications plant in the Android market volition work in full screen mode, some do non, and those that do oftentimes perform less than optimally.

Since the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 runs a stock install of Android 3.ane, in that location are few non-Google apps pre-loaded on the tablet apart from standard personal organizer apps like the Calendar (which syncs with Exchange and Gmail accounts). Google Maps, Navigation, Places, and Books are all there. Samsung too included the Pulse newsreader, which is built for tablets. While new tablet-friendly apps are beingness added daily to the Android Market, it remains somewhat hard to discover them since the Market application does not make clear whether an app is tablet-aware or not.


Browser

The spider web browser that ships with Android Honeycomb is quite different from the browser we find in Android smartphones. For starters, it offers true tabbed browsing, only as you would find on Google Chrome on the desktop. The Honeycomb browser even supports Chrome'southward Incognito mode (for leaving no cookies or history of your browsing sessions) and will synchronize with Chrome's bookmarks. The new features are quite nice.

The browsing itself is generally quite fast and very accurate, but Adobe Flash support, paired up with resource-intensive banner ads and videos, can really make a web page difficult to live with. While the browser worked fine on YouTube.com when watching embedded videos, it struggled on our own site (which, as you can see, includes banner ads). Double-tap attempts at zooming ofttimes resulted in text choice, and panning and scrolling were very rough in general.

Setting plug-in (ie. Wink) support to "on-demand" in the browser's settings fabricated everything run every bit shine equally drinking glass, however. I should also point out that the Tab 10.1's browser lacks the cool "Labs" settings section and the experimental navigation controls offered past it that are found on the Motorola XOOM.