Wrap-up


Although the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is the clear successor to the original, it's hardly an upgrade. It's not materially better than the OG version -- in fact, it's worse in almost every way -- and now Samsung finds itself in a market where it can't compete as effectively as it used to. Sammy's corporate heart was in the right place when it cut the price by $100, but it's almost as if the outfit forgot other companies are doing the same thing -- and stepping up their games in the process.

When ASUS, for instance, set out to create a cheaper alternative to the Transformer Prime, it compromised slightly on battery life and settled for a thicker, heavier design, but the Transformer Pad TF300 is nonetheless similar where it counts: like its big brother, it has an IPS display, quad-core Tegra 3 chip and an excellent camera. The 10-inch Galaxy Tab 2 actually costs more than the TF300, even though it packs last year's specs and a hopelessly crippled shooter. If you have $400 to spend, you could buy an iPad 2 or the new Transformer and enjoy comparable (if not longer) battery life, along with smoother graphics and an improved imaging experience. Assuming you were going to ignore that camera anyway, you can't exactly go wrong with the 10.1, but you could also do a lot better.