Slideshow

A look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and TouchWIZ UX

16 Photos Ross Catanzariti (PC World)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is among the first Android tablets to run a customised version of Google's Honeycomb operating system

  • Most Android tablets currently on the market appear to scream "me too", but Samsung appears to be trying to change these similarities with its upcoming Galaxy Tab 10.1. It's TouchWiz UX user interface has been implemented on top of the Android 'Honeycomb' platform, making the Galaxy Tab 10.1 among the first Android tablets to run a customised version of Google's Honeycomb operating system.

    The Galaxy Tab 10.1 Home screen. Note the Samsung clock widget, and the AccuWeather widget, which are both features of the TouchWIZ UX interface. The dock also slightly differs from the standard Android Honeycomb UI.

  • The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 browser.

  • The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 calendar gets an overhaul. It looks slick and attractive.

  • Samsung has included a basic notepad.

  • Samsung's bookmark widgets, shown here on the second home screen.

  • TouchWIZ UX also includes a fairly comprehensive image editor.

  • A world clock application also comes standard on the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

  • The TouchWIZ UX alarm. Straightforward, and easy to use.

  • There is also an app called Pen Memo, that allows you to draw on a notepad using your fingertip. In our experience, its not as accurate as it could be, and a little slow to transfer finger movement onto the screen.

  • The Samsung camera app. A wealth of settings are located on the right panel, and you can easily switch between front and rear facing cameras, along with still image capture and video recording.

  • The Samsung e-mail app. It uses a two-pane view with e-mails listed on the left, and single e-mails displayed on the right.

  • The Samsung Social Hub Widget. Social Hub aggregates e-mail, instant messaging, contacts, calendar and social network connections from Facebook, Twitter, e-mail (including Microsoft Exchange) and LinkedIn.

    We love how all the Samsung widgets are resizable, so you can fit them on the screen as you wish, though we did notice the screen jitters when scrolling through home screens. This is mainly evident if there are more than two or three widgets on a home screen.

  • A nice feature of TouchWiz UX is what Samsung calls "Mini Apps". Tapping a small up arrow at the bottom of the screen brings up a tray of mini apps — a task manager, calendar, world clock, pen memo, calculator and music player. The mini apps tag applies because these apps appear as an overlay on top of the screen, allowing you to continue working on any other open applications. The mini apps can be dragged to any part of the screen, and will remain active until they are closed — they even remain on the screen when you open another app, negating the need to switch between apps like usual. Shown here is the calculator mini app.

  • Samsung has also included a file manager.

  • The Galaxy Tab 10.1 gallery appears to be almost exactly the same as the standard Honeycomb version.

  • The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 browser, with default Samsung keyboard shown. The Samsung keyboard offers spell correction and word prediction and is slightly larger than the standard Google Honeycomb keyboard. Samsung also includes the Swype keyboard — this can be activated in the settings.

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