Samsung and LG both announced tablets at MWC 2011 last week. Samsung broadened the range of the Galaxy Tab with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, whereas LG’s first tablet, the LG Optimus Pad came loaded with 3D for the early adopter. Both come running Android Honeycomb. In a game of who’s the best specced, does the LG Optimus Pad floor the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, or will it be the other way around?
Screen
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, as you might have guessed from the name, has a 10.1-inch touchscreen, with a 1024 x 600 resolution display. the LG Optimus Pad is a little smaller, clocking in at 8.9-inches, which puts it in between the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab and its 10.1-inch big brother.
What’s special about the LG Optimus Pad is that its screen can display 3D, and it can shoot 3D images too, with dual cameras on the back of the tablet. Before you get excited though, when we got our hands on the device, we found it didn’t add anything, and felt more like a gimmick than a real added extra.
For starters, to watch 3D you’ll need blue and red 3D specs, as the Optimus Pad isn’t glasses-free. Secondly, it’s only your own videos that are in 3D, so you’ve got no 3D gaming or wallpapers, although the HDMI output means you can stick it through your 3DTV. When we get down to the day to day practicalities of the LG Optimus Pad, we don’t fancy sitting on the tube wearing a pair of cardboard 3D specs we got free in a packet of cereal. Do you?
Read our Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands on first impressions
Cameras and video
As we’ve just mentioned, the LG Optimus Pad has two cameras, for shooting 3D video, but there’s also the option to shoot with just one of the cameras, in which case you’ll be using a 5MP camera, with 1080p video recording.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 packs more megapixels, with an 8MP stills snapper, plus a 2MP front facing camera for video calling, and HD recording. This is a case of taste: are you a die hard early adopter or not?
Operating System
Both the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the LG Optimus Pad will come running Android Honeycomb, and both run pretty vanilla versions of Android Honeycomb, with less to see form individual manufacturer’s trying to make their mark on Android. Android honeycomb has been a long time coming, and from what we’ve seen of upcoming Android Honeycomb tablets so far, it looks like manufacturers are steering away from plastering skins and extra hubs on top of the OS, in favour of Android pure and simple, which is how Android Honeycomb is shown off best.
When we got our hands on the LG Optimus Pad last week, we said: “Plain Jane Android 3.0 is utterly excellent: we love the layout, in app “fragments”, dedicated software home, back and menu keys, and new notification system,” and there was no sticky OEM skin to be seen.
We had similarly fawning things to say about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, in particular, the shortcuts shone, and the OS flew. We said it was “astounding”, and reckoned that it showed that Android was ready to take on the iPad. We said: “the Galaxy Tab 10.1 feels like a more complete mobile computer than the iPad. We can’t overstate the handiness of the shortcuts, and the speed at which the Samsung tablet skips between functions.”
Read our hands on first impressions of the LG Optimus Pad
Under the hood
The LG Optimus Pad is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 1GHz dual core processor under the hood. After getting hands on with both these tablets last week at MWC 2011, we reckon that the LG Optimus Pad was as fast as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Verdict
There’s not much between these two tablets, since both are running pretty vanilla versions of Android Honeycomb, and are packed with nifty processors. The differentiator between these tablets is in screen size and the 3D. For us, the 3D is unnecessary, and could push up the price without adding anything which is a truly desirable feature.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is bigger, and considerably less portable than the LG Optimus Pad, despite the fact that there’s not a whopping great difference in the screen sizes. The price could be the decider here, but there’s no official word yet from Samsung or LG on what they’ll be charging for these two beauties. Until then, we withhold judgement.
