Samsung Galaxy Tab vs. Viewsonic Viewpad 7 - Literature Review

Richard Fieldhouse (3/12/10)

Well perhaps literature might be an overstatement, but I have read two articles that arrived with me today. What's worthy of note is that they arrive at diametrically opposite conclusions. How so?

It just shows how challenging the tablet choice before us can be. And this is with only a handful of tablets properly available.  In summary, both are 7” touchscreen tablets running on the latest Android 2.2 platform and with a WiFi or 3G connection to the outside world available.

Here's some detail.

I suspect both reviews I read could be right in their own way.  

So Charles Arthur in the Guardian prefers the Viewpad. He says that it's cheaper and this is certainly true. He also says that it plays Youtube videos more smoothly and that's surprising, since, on paper its performance is well down compared with the Tab.  Perhaps the Viewpad is automatically collecting the video at a resolution of 480 (lines counting down the short side of the screen) - and the Tab is biting off more than it (or Charles' WiFi link) can chew.  

He's also worried that his kids' fingers get in front of the Tab's main camera which is in the corner where you tend to grab the thing - unlike the Viewpad's camera which is in the middle.

David Ludlow in Expert Reviews prefers the Galaxy Tab - and he's well aware that it has a resolution of 1024x600 - quite a bit more than the Viewpad's 800x400 considering the screens are about the same size. But the question is can he really see this without wearing special geek-specs? Or is he using the spec sheet instead?  

My own geek-specs cost £2.99 from Clas Ohlson, but interestingly, even using these can reveal that the Tab's screen isn't perfect. Clearly not as good, in fact, as the screen on my ancient Archos 5 tablet. (14 months old really is ancient for an Android tablet.)

The Galaxy Tab has a 1GHz processor compared with the Viewpad's 600MHz. That's a pretty serious 73% faster - if the rest of the Tab's hardware can keep up and if the extra power isn't all being wasted on feeding invisible pixels.

So, the extensive literature review doesn't provide a complete conclusion.  But here's mine - a million Galaxy Tab have sold, so there will be some handy advice on the web if you have a problem.  It does have a very pretty Email app - and that matters to most of us. Also, using a dock, the Tab will feed high definition video via HDMI into a monitor or a TV. There, the extra resolution will show.   If these "workish" things matter to you, then maybe the extra hundred quid for the Tab is worth it.   

And if you remember not to get your finger in front of the lens. That would be ... Priceless?