Gadget of the Day: Samsung Galaxy Tab

This little number right here has been added to my wishlist, consequently knocking off my choice of getting an e-book reader (Kindle). Amazon should not be happy about something like this.

I’ve tinkered so much with the idea of single purpose technologies. I was on the fence about the concept and did truly want to give it a shot you know. But slowly as I start thinking of finances and realistic numbers I began to go with multi-functioning as opposed to single use devices.

Take the Zune for example, by far my favorite mp3 player, but not my current mp3 player. What is my current mp3 player? My phone, the Google Nexus One! And soon what will be my e-reader? The Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The Galaxy Tab will be hitting stores either late October or early November, with a bigger size being rumored to release early 2011. Samsung has released the above 9min video to showcase all the awesome things this gadget can do. 7in display, flash and html5 ready. 4 e-reader apps in counting and a full 80,000 apps at it’s fingertips, I believe this will be a solid contender for tab computing that iPad has set. 

An android powered tab is just what this market needs, and Samsung seems to be doing a fine job of marketing this bad boy as the new challenger to the #1 spot. Samsung only stands one major disadvantage and that would be the Apple’s huge advantage of apps and developers. Hopefully Google will be able to take charge and turn the app game around.

But the Galaxy tab has a ton going for it. The size is perfect, bigger than a cell phone but still almost pocket accessible. 7 inches was a brilliant design choice on Samsung’s part. Although the screen on the iPad is leaps and bounds better, I believe that due to size of the iPad it becomes irrelevant to someone who would prefer compact size to aesthetics (plus the Galaxy Tab display isn’t bad at all with a TFT screen). Not to mention that this product is half the weight of the iPad too!

Of course, the fatal flaw of the iPad (what I believe is only a ploy to make more money in the long run) is that it doesn’t come with a camera… the Galaxy Tab corrects this… however a 3.0MP camera doesn’t hold well with me, but certainly it is better than nothing. And a front facing camera sweetens the deal.

But for me, and I’m sure many more, the big deal will be that Samsung is making this device open to the big four carriers of the US (Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile). This is possibly the best idea of this invention, giving everyone access to the power of Android! A definite plus.

More details will be exposed soon, and I for one am too excited to see what comes next!