JRhetts
Adventurer
I have been wanting to make a switch to a tablet for my traveling 'computer'. I want a smaller and less bulky email/internet device, and at the same time I need a larger gps-equivalent that can both do road navigation and do off-pavement topo research, planning and tracking. Last summer, for three months in the Yukon, I simultaneously ran a Garmin 478 [for road nav] and a MacBook with MacGPSPro [for topo display.] The total information available was just fine, but it involved more machines and took up more space than I want. And input to esp. the GPS on the fly was very awkward and distractive from driving. [And, if my wife had been along I could not have set the MacBook up on the center console; the MacBook screen would have intruded significantly on her left elbow even in our large cab.]
So, I have been looking at the iPad and the Galaxy tab2 10.1. I managed to get my hands on an iPad2-WiFi and a brand new Galaxy for a few days, and have run them side by side to compare speed, display and overall functionality. I did not devise a formal protocol for my 'tests' ahead of time, but I was able to form some subjective impressions and do some quantitative tests on real world tasks.
Size: The two cover roughly the same area and thickness; the iPad is more nearly square while the Galaxy is wider and shorter than the iPad. Subjectively, the iPad seems a bit less bulky, but this is very subjective.
Price: Because the Galaxy has a built-in GPS, the comparable iPad is the WiFi+cell enabled version. And because the Galaxy has built-in voice recognition, the comparable iPad is the iPad3. Galaxy= $379.00 at Costco. iPad3= $629.00 at Apple.com. At this price, each has 16Gb memory, which is NOT enough for my purposes [storing maps for off-line use.] The Galaxy has a micro-SD slot, for an additional 32Gb memory, which is swappable at $35.00 per card. The iPad can go to 32 or 64 Gb total memory [but no external slot so it is NOT swappable] at an additional $100.00 per unit increase. So, the more realistic price comparison for me is: Galaxy= $414.00; iPad3= $829.00.
Overall Impressions: The subjective less bulkiness of the iPad did not mean that much to me, tho I did find I preferred the iPad form factor noticeably. The iPad was much more responsive and its OS was much more intuitive to me individually, and its browser seemed definitely superior.
Responsiveness: The iPad's responsiveness was significantly greater/faster. It opened its browser [Safari] MUCH faster than the Galaxy opened its browser. Rendering gmail pages and other site pages took noticeably longer on the Galaxy. Doing a search and displaying results took longer and the display was more bare bones on the Android Galaxy. Opening Maps and Navigation were pretty close, with the iPad slightly faster.
Browsers: Safari displays many pages, including the ExPoForum, MUCH more accurately than the Android browser. [The Android browser for example deleted all the headings on Forum pages and did not render the login boxes at all; after about 10 min I stumbled on a link to the login at the bottom of the home page, which in the Android window took 15-20 swipes to reach.] Safari seems like a superior browser, with respect to both speed and rendering. [I did not try Firefox on either of them.]
Maps & Navigation: Opening Maps and a Navigation initial page were close in terms of speed, tho the iPad was still faster. Maps and Navigation gave the same visual results and information on both, as the iPad2 I tried was still using Google Maps. I did not try any 3rd party apps tho I would have liked to. Both of them offer a display and buttons large enough to greatly improve my GPS-driving experience. [I don't think the 7" Galaxy is a big enough improvement for me, tho others may disagree.]
Speech Recognition: I found that Speech Recognition was a very valuable tool for my use. I found I could input both navigation requests and internet searches by voice quite effectively, which would be invaluable when on the road. [But be aware, both units do their speech recognition via the web, not inside the device. So you have to have WiFi to have this work. My Verizon smartphone allows me to create a WiFi hotspot using FoxFi and my data plan over 3G or 4G reception, so this is an integral part of my overall planned system.] I can imagine getting to the edge of a town or city and wanting to know where various kinds of facilities are, and inputting my request by voice to simplify things.
Operating Systems: I wanted to like the Android Ice Cream OS, because my Samsung Droid Charge smartphone is Android too. But, I don't. I don't like it on my phone and I don't like it on the Galaxy. It is just somehow opaque and non-intuitive to me. After more than a year of phone use, I cannot easily and directly figure out how to get what I want from it. My wife has become much more Android smart than I. Apple's OS simply makes more sense to me and there is value in that to me personally in efficiency and lowered frustration [certainly a personal or subjective reaction if there ever was one.]
Display: I could not see any major difference between the two displays in terms of clarity or color rendition. I liked the iPad's web pages a bit narrower and longer, and both screens seemed to wash out in sunlight to about the same degree. I can't be sure if it was the OS or the touch screen, but the Galaxy frequently interpreted my swipes to scroll thru a window as a zoom-in command. Perhaps, although I have very good fine motor control for a coot my age, it was interpreting my swipe as a double tap, but the iPad never did this. The frequency was sufficient to be annoying, and would be troublesome if I wanted to scroll in a divided attention setting [tho one should never do this of course].
Apps: From what I can tell, there are more than enough perfectly good apps for both platforms that will offer me way more than I can afford to play with. So I make no distinction here.
I am sure that because of its price and features, the Galaxy can represent a much better value to those for whom the Android OS is clear and easy to use. The iOS makes a big difference to me personally, and I do value the greater responsiveness of the hardware and the rendering of Safari. So, that's almost certainly the direction I will have to go in order not to be frustrated with what I invest in. [I hate paying twice as much!]
Hope this is helpful to others.
So, I have been looking at the iPad and the Galaxy tab2 10.1. I managed to get my hands on an iPad2-WiFi and a brand new Galaxy for a few days, and have run them side by side to compare speed, display and overall functionality. I did not devise a formal protocol for my 'tests' ahead of time, but I was able to form some subjective impressions and do some quantitative tests on real world tasks.
Size: The two cover roughly the same area and thickness; the iPad is more nearly square while the Galaxy is wider and shorter than the iPad. Subjectively, the iPad seems a bit less bulky, but this is very subjective.
Price: Because the Galaxy has a built-in GPS, the comparable iPad is the WiFi+cell enabled version. And because the Galaxy has built-in voice recognition, the comparable iPad is the iPad3. Galaxy= $379.00 at Costco. iPad3= $629.00 at Apple.com. At this price, each has 16Gb memory, which is NOT enough for my purposes [storing maps for off-line use.] The Galaxy has a micro-SD slot, for an additional 32Gb memory, which is swappable at $35.00 per card. The iPad can go to 32 or 64 Gb total memory [but no external slot so it is NOT swappable] at an additional $100.00 per unit increase. So, the more realistic price comparison for me is: Galaxy= $414.00; iPad3= $829.00.
Overall Impressions: The subjective less bulkiness of the iPad did not mean that much to me, tho I did find I preferred the iPad form factor noticeably. The iPad was much more responsive and its OS was much more intuitive to me individually, and its browser seemed definitely superior.
Responsiveness: The iPad's responsiveness was significantly greater/faster. It opened its browser [Safari] MUCH faster than the Galaxy opened its browser. Rendering gmail pages and other site pages took noticeably longer on the Galaxy. Doing a search and displaying results took longer and the display was more bare bones on the Android Galaxy. Opening Maps and Navigation were pretty close, with the iPad slightly faster.
Browsers: Safari displays many pages, including the ExPoForum, MUCH more accurately than the Android browser. [The Android browser for example deleted all the headings on Forum pages and did not render the login boxes at all; after about 10 min I stumbled on a link to the login at the bottom of the home page, which in the Android window took 15-20 swipes to reach.] Safari seems like a superior browser, with respect to both speed and rendering. [I did not try Firefox on either of them.]
Maps & Navigation: Opening Maps and a Navigation initial page were close in terms of speed, tho the iPad was still faster. Maps and Navigation gave the same visual results and information on both, as the iPad2 I tried was still using Google Maps. I did not try any 3rd party apps tho I would have liked to. Both of them offer a display and buttons large enough to greatly improve my GPS-driving experience. [I don't think the 7" Galaxy is a big enough improvement for me, tho others may disagree.]
Speech Recognition: I found that Speech Recognition was a very valuable tool for my use. I found I could input both navigation requests and internet searches by voice quite effectively, which would be invaluable when on the road. [But be aware, both units do their speech recognition via the web, not inside the device. So you have to have WiFi to have this work. My Verizon smartphone allows me to create a WiFi hotspot using FoxFi and my data plan over 3G or 4G reception, so this is an integral part of my overall planned system.] I can imagine getting to the edge of a town or city and wanting to know where various kinds of facilities are, and inputting my request by voice to simplify things.
Operating Systems: I wanted to like the Android Ice Cream OS, because my Samsung Droid Charge smartphone is Android too. But, I don't. I don't like it on my phone and I don't like it on the Galaxy. It is just somehow opaque and non-intuitive to me. After more than a year of phone use, I cannot easily and directly figure out how to get what I want from it. My wife has become much more Android smart than I. Apple's OS simply makes more sense to me and there is value in that to me personally in efficiency and lowered frustration [certainly a personal or subjective reaction if there ever was one.]
Display: I could not see any major difference between the two displays in terms of clarity or color rendition. I liked the iPad's web pages a bit narrower and longer, and both screens seemed to wash out in sunlight to about the same degree. I can't be sure if it was the OS or the touch screen, but the Galaxy frequently interpreted my swipes to scroll thru a window as a zoom-in command. Perhaps, although I have very good fine motor control for a coot my age, it was interpreting my swipe as a double tap, but the iPad never did this. The frequency was sufficient to be annoying, and would be troublesome if I wanted to scroll in a divided attention setting [tho one should never do this of course].
Apps: From what I can tell, there are more than enough perfectly good apps for both platforms that will offer me way more than I can afford to play with. So I make no distinction here.
I am sure that because of its price and features, the Galaxy can represent a much better value to those for whom the Android OS is clear and easy to use. The iOS makes a big difference to me personally, and I do value the greater responsiveness of the hardware and the rendering of Safari. So, that's almost certainly the direction I will have to go in order not to be frustrated with what I invest in. [I hate paying twice as much!]
Hope this is helpful to others.
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