I was able to get a hold of the new Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and take it for a spin. I never quite liked 7-inch tablets, and felt a 10-inch tablet was optimal for viewing. I’m hoping this 8.9-inch tablet will change my mind, because a smaller tablet is just easier to carry around on the go. Just to preface this convo, I’m a iPad 2 owner, so most of familiarity comes from owning an iPad. However, I’ll never give up a chance to test out a new piece of hardware and see if it is worthy of a buy, and tossing my current hardware to the sideline.

The Hardware

Samsung makes a nice piece of machinery. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 was love at first… umm… touch. It is light and feels great in hand. This thin little bugger is 0.34 inches thick, weights lighter than the iPad 2 at just under a pound, and is covered in plastic instead of aluminum like the iPad. Don’t let the plastic deter you because this thing is built solid. It has a minimalist design, with only a power button, volume rocker, headphone jack, and proprietary charger port on it’s exterior. Not to mention, it has a microSD slot at the top, great when you want to quickly view your pictures from your camera on a bigger screen. My only gripe with the buttons is that the power button is too close to the volume rocker. Too many times I found myself accidentally hitting the volume buttons when I wanted the device to wake up.

I’ve tried a few tablets, like the BlackBerry PlayBook and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (7-inch), and I felt the screen size was too small for surfing on a tablet — so I had my reservations before I tried the device. However the 8.9-inch screen on the Galaxy Tab 8.9 does the trick. If you’re looking for a tablet that is big on screen real estate, but small in your bag, 8.9-inches does the trick. I still prefer a 10 inch screen, but I can easily get use to a slightly smaller screen and more portability. There is always one thing you can count on when you buy a Samsung product and that’s their rich and beautiful screens, so expect no less from the Galaxy Tab 8.9.

This puppy is available in either 16GB or 32GB, LTE 4G or Wi-Fi only, and Bluetooth 3.0. In terms of battery life It provides up to 11 hours of use, but this varies immensely, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

The Software

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb (Google’s mobile OS which is optimized for tablets). Also, let me get this out of the way because the question of Flash always comes up and I’ll can safely say – “Yes, it runs Flash.” Don’t expect much from the Flash experience, just like on any tablet, Flash slows things down a bit. But it doesn’t matter, these days all Flash is good for in my opinion is ad banners.

Compared to the iPad I found browsing a little slow using Wi-Fi (didn’t get the opportunity to try 4G LTE… drat). Also I found that the iPad rendered fonts on website much better than the Galaxy Tab 8.9. Nevertheless, browsing on the Galaxy Tab is still a comfortable experience. The Galaxy Tab 8.9 runs 1080p video in a broad variety of popular in formats, so unlike the iPad, you’ll take comfort in knowing you can download some video to the tablet without having to convert it first.

Not In A Flash

Tablets don’t bode well in this area of photography and the Galaxy Tab 8.9 does not differ. However, for a tablet, it takes a great set of pictures with it’s 3.2 megapixel camera at the back, and a sub-par 2.0 megapixel camera at the front. The biggest problems with this tablet’s camera is it takes way too long to focus.

It’s App-etite

If apps are your thing, then you might be a little turned off. The Android Market has roughly 5,000 apps design for Android 3.0 and higher, and all may not be specifically designed for tablets. Compared this to Apple’s 140,000 apps designed specifically for the iPad, and there’s no competition.

Wrap up

I had loads of fun using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and would definitely recommend this bad boy for anyone looking for an iPad alternative, who’s tired of Apple everything, or simply because you think Android kick butt (which in some cases it does). It is comfortable to hold, has a beautiful display, and is great for entertainment on the go. Oh yeah, the 16GB 4G LTE tablet goes for about $430 on a 3 year Bell contract, or $630 with no strings attached.

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