So I registered and went to the event that had started at 8am today at the Greenbelt Fashion Walk. It wasnt really all that surprising to find that there wasnt a very long queue should you wish to avail of the discounted tab, it is after all still a considerable amount to shell out: 27k… 3000 less than the would be retail price of 29,999.
There were three sections in all for their setup: a viewing area (1) where they served iced tea and where you wait for your number so that you can then proceed to the purchasing area (2) where there are 7 retailer partners waiting to take your order; and a testing area (3) where about 4-6 galaxy tab 10.1s and a few galaxy s 5″ (with Urbanears connected to them) were available for hands on testing.
It was a clever move to make available some of the accessories for the 10.1 also up on sale at the testing area, there you can find keyboard docks which retail for around 3,500, HDMI connection which comes at 1,250, a car charger, book cover, and handsfree kit were immediately visible, they were also talking about a connection kit which might be the attachment that allows for USB connectivity to the tab.
Here are some of my impressions while handling the demo units there:
– The form really does resemble its Apple counterpart, there is only the SIM slot apart from the proprietary connector and the earphone/speaker jack on the tablet itself, the sales people were talking about extending the memory through a microSD but the specifications dont really show it; even with the keyboard you only get the last two connections (proprietary and earphone/speaker) in areas more easily accessible.
– When I compared the display to that of my Transformer at full brightness, it seemed to be a little brighter but Im pretty sure that was not an AMOLED screen on that one.
– Plenty of skinning is visible even through the status bar where the symbols and the clock were quite different from the Android stock.
– I also felt the device exhibiting haptic vibration, something that is not on the Transformer (or else I just havent found it yet)
– The device is really remarkably thin, but the glossy underside presents some cosmetic problems as fingerprints do easily adhere to it.
– An important note to consider is that although the unit has a 3G radio, it apparently only works for ‘texting’ and not full scale telephony that the earlier 7 inch tab had. One of the onlookers whom I talked to said that it was possible through an app but my hasty research proved otherwise, I may be wrong though.
The discount and the free leather slip case really didnt sway a swarm of consumers to the area, the people who were buying either were planning to sell it, or required more than one unit for other purposes, but a lot of onlookers did seem interested; they may make the other units available to non reservants eventually but that is yet to transpire. So if you’re one of the 700 people who reserved for the 10.1, within the twelve hour window you will definitely be accommodated; kudos to Samsung for that. There’s still 5 hours to go for the reserved units as of now and should you wish to check out the Tab drop by the Fashion Walk at Greenbelt 5 now.
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