Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

When I first saw Samsung galaxy tab at Best Buy last summer, I absolutely loved it because of its vibrant color and huge contrast, which is the signature of Samsung products (I own Samsung LCD TV and Galaxy S2 cellphone). It really stood out from other Android tablets on display. However I balked at purchasing it due to its lacking of some of the functionality. So when the galaxy tab 2 came out, with 100 bucks less price tag, and an Android 4 OS, I had a big leap of faith that I pre-ordered it on Amazon and had my friend brought it to me from the U.S. After playing it for a few days, I have to say I am very frustrated and disappointed. Owning a Samsung galaxy tab 2 is merely for the sake of having an android tablet, it doesn't live up to my expectation. Let me start with some positives: 1. Latest Android ice cream sandwich OS. Although so far I haven't been able to take any benefit from it. 2. Option of expanding the capacity up to 32GB. This is the big difference from iPad. I plugged in a 32GB MicroSD and the tablet instantly had 48GB capacity in total. 3. The 400 dollar price tag is a much sweeter deal for a new release, even though hardware wise it didn't change much. However, so far I found the negatives out weigh the positives: 1. The color is blueish and washed out, comparing to galaxy tab (remember that grand canyon screen saver!) or galaxy s2, it is a big disappointment for me. It no longer has the distinguish vibrant color that sets Samsung apart from any other Android tablets. And there is no where in the setting that I can tune the color. The only thing I can adjust is the brightness. 2. The response of the tap or swipe on the screen is not consistent. Sometimes it's sensitive, sometimes it is not and you really have to tap/swipe hard or multiple times before it responds. 3. The response time is slow. Especially when using Youtube, it takes a lot of time to render the video thumbnails. 4. There is a very annoying bug in Youtube. As shown in the video I attached. If you search an artist, all result videos come up, however after you play any of it and return to the result screen, none of the thumbnail responds! To add insult to the injury, Youtube is one of the 'systemware' pre-loaded by Samsung, and for some strange reason Youtube app was blocked on this tablet, i.e, you DO NOT see Youtube app in the play store, so you can't even update it. 5. Samsung makes its own skin on top of Android OS. Some widgets/apps are ok, for example, the S-Planner replaces the google calendar, but some very basic and useful default apps on galaxy s2 are missing, for example, 'clock'. Now if I want a stop watch or timer I need a separate app, because the pre-loaded 'Alarm' doesn't cut it. 6. Try editing an email is pain in the neck. The cursor doesn't appear where you tap, actually it almost doesn't respond at all. I had to download a different keyboard with cursor to move the cursor around. 7. The battery doesn't last long. It takes about 5 hours for a full charge, but when streaming video or radio, it goes down very fast, definitely not the 10 hours battery time Samsung claims it has. 8. The camera/video quality is bad, as mentioned by some other reviewers. For me I don't intend to use it for taking pictures or videos so it doesn't bother me that much. 9. The pre-loaded Polaris Office 4.0 is still probably in its infancy. I had some document from work that I wanted to read at my leisure time on this tablet, half of them wouldn't work, the Polaris office just crashes the moment it finishes loading the file of the following format: .pptx, and .docx. But this may not be problem of Samsung, but rather the limitation of Polaris Office. 10.For people who have Harmony remote please keep it. The function of 'smart remote' app is not even close. It probably works well for people who just have one or two devices in one room, and need only basic buttons. People use tablet for different things. Some are very happy with this tablet because the apps/function they use happen to be flawless, but for me, due to the above reasons I can only say that I am disappointed at least. REVIEW UPDATE JULY 10th. The tablet prompt for OS upgrade to 4.0.4 (jelly bean). After the upgrade the images on the tablet becomes sharper and more colorful, or as I say it, more Samsung like. So I highly recommend existing owners upgrade their Android OS to get better performance.