News this Week

This week Samsung began updating the Galaxy Tab line up to ICS. This is good news to all the Galaxy Tab fans out there. Samsung promised an update this month and August. I honestly thought that the update would come in August given Samsung updates usually come late. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the first one to start receiving the update but the rest will probably start receiving it soon. The tablets that will receive the update include the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus.

Also making headlines, Nokia finally parted ways with Meego. It’s been a wave of bad news for Nokia fan boys and the only OS that really made them have some kind of hope is now no more. Good news though Meego won’t just die like Maemo did. Other manufacturers like Samsung will continue developing it of course in partnership with Intel the co-pioneers of the Meego OS. Under Samsung Meego is now Tizen and am sure Samsung Tizen phones will come out soon. Tizen looks really promising and now we only need to wait.

Nokia N9; the last Meego device

Seems it’s only Samsung making the headlines. They have announced a new phone, sort of like the Nokia touch and type. The Samsung Galaxy Chat B5330 features a 3 inch screen with a physical QWERTY keyboard kinda like the Nokia E6 with a larger. It comes with full connectivity since HSPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 are all onboard. It’s only the camera that may be a disappointment given it’s a 2MP unit. There is 4GB of internal memory expandable via SD. Almost forgot the best part. It runs ICS with Touchwiz 5 that’s on the Galaxy S 3. Good entry level phone by Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy Chat

It’s all Samsung I tell you though this one isn’t good news. The Galaxy Nexus was banned in the US are quickly removed from major stores such as the Google Play Store. The Samsung and Apple war getting out of hand now.  Most manufacturers make products in a bid to try and please American consumers, Samsung being one of them. I liked the approach Nokia took in considering developing markets. So how about Samsung market the Galaxy Nexus in developing markets like Kenya and slash the price a bit. I am sure they will benefit from that instead of spending money on the court room.

Galaxy Nexus

Great news for all is that Cyanogenmod 10 (CM10) has been confirmed. We know that manufacturers will take their time to roll out Jelly Bean update and have sweet words for not updating some devices just like they did with ICS. The Cyanogenmod team has always taken care of the less fortunate devices and now they will bring us Jelly Bean through CM10. The devices that support CM9 will be able to support CM10 which is really great.

Finally Motorola have updated their Motoblur skin. Usually this would not be news (great news) but it is. I can’t believe I can finally say I like Motoblur. The negative comments on the previous versions of Motoblur were overwhelming and it was a matter of time before Motorola responded since sales were affected. The new Motoblur based on ICS is really colourful and looks lighter than the HTC Sense 4.0 or even Touchwiz 5. Great move by Motorola.

~Eddy

7 inch shootout

They say size matters. No it’s not what you think. Tablet screen sizes range from 7 inches to 10 inches, oh no wait, Toshiba have a 13 inch slate, the Excite 13. Those who prefer portability will always go for the small tablets in the 7 inch range which includes 7.7.  That category has become very competitive and subject to this post. They are also generally cheap and sufferers like me can be able to afford them.

The main culprits here are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus, Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Toshiba Excite 7.7, Blackberry Playbook and of course the recently announced Asus Google Nexus 7. It’s a tough face off and I can easily pick any one of them. So let’s look at each one of them briefly.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus runs on a dual core processor clocked at 1.2GHz with 1GB Ram. It has a 7 inch screen and has 3G connectivity and ability to make calls. It runs on Honeycomb but Samsung have promised an ICS update this or next month. Price is around KShs. 40,000 or less second hand. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 has the brightest 7.7 inch screen and its dual core processor is clocked at 1.4GHz. It also has a GB of Ram and 3G connectivity with an option for Wi-Fi only. It has the best battery though the most expensive of the bunch. The Toshiba Excite 7.7 has a 7.7 screen and it’s also as good as the Tab 7.7 screen given that they are both super AMOLED. It runs on quad core Tegra 3 processor with a Gig of Ram. It runs ICS out of the box. Not sure about its price but Toshiba tablets still haven’t found their way to the Kenyan market. Hope things will be different with their Excite line up.

The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 has a dual core processor clocked at 1GHz with 1GB Ram. It runs ICS out the box and its price should be around KShs. 20,000. It also has 3G with support for voice calls. The Blackberry Playbook has a 7 inch screen, 1GB ram and a 1GHz dual core processor. It runs on Blackberry Tablet OS and you can find it for less than KShs. 40,000. Finally the Nexus 7, it’s a quad core 7 inch slate with a price tag of around KShs. 20,000. It also runs Android’s latest OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Asus Google Nexus 7

If money is the issue then we only have two tablets to consider, the Tab 2 7.0 and the Nexus 7. If you want performance go for the Nexus 7 but if you want connectivity go for the Tab 2 7.0. The Nexus 7 is powerful but lacks SD card support, 3G and rear camera. The Tab 2 7.0 is less powerful but offers full connectivity including SD card support for those who will want to store more. It also has a rear 3.2 MP camera. Both tablets have a nice build quality even at that low price point.

If money is not the issue then you can choose from the remaining tablets. The Excite 7.7 has a bigger screen and one of the fastest quad core processor. It has a rear 5 MP camera, SD card support and runs on ICS. A clear winner on paper but performance is what matters and where the Galaxy Tab 7.7 comes in. It only has a dual core processor though the 1.4GHz can compete with quad core tablets. It has a better build quality and boasts the best battery with up to 12 hours of video playback. The only downside is that it still runs on honeycomb though an ICS update is coming soon

Toshiba Excite 7.7 and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 Below

We also have tablets that are in between the cheap and the expensive ones. The Tab 7.0 plus sits between the Tab 2 7.0 and the Tab 7.7. It’s one of those tablets that seem to please everyone. If budget is the issue then you can still go for it and if you need performance you still go for it. The Playbook seems to be in a league of its own. It’s a good tablet but may be let down by the OS if you are crazy about applications since it still has few. But for ordinary tablet usage such as web browsing and media consumption then it does well. Also, if you are Blackberry person you may want to crown it with a Blackberry tablet. Oh, and the Playbook can run Android applications via a software.

Blackberry Playbook

It’s a tough competition and that only means consumer sovereignty. But even though we have a choice we still don’t have the perfect choice. The perfect choice would be the Nexus 7/Toshiba Excite performance with Galaxy Tab 7.7 screen and design , Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 connectivity, Galaxy Tab 7.7 battery life and Nexus 7/Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 price. The best we can do now is identifying the tablet that suits us best. No point in choosing an expensive powerful tablet if we will only browse the web and social network.  7 inch tablets are built around mobility so it’s good to choose a tablet that will have full connectivity such as 3G, SD support and maybe USB on the go (OTG) support. The choice is always yours.

Update: ICS update started rolling out this week the galaxy tab line up

~Eddy