Form:
Apple ipad 2 – 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm, 607g
Galaxy Tab 8.9 – 230.9 x 157.8 x 8.6mm, 470g
The ipad 2 is a more appealing piece of kit even though currently we feel a lttle bit oversaturated with the overall iDesign aesthetic. Regardless of this, Apple has managed to shave away an ample amount of the bulk to keep things fresh and make a very sleek and mostly pleasing form.
The appearance of the materials used to increase the risk for ipad 2 seems much better than on the Galaxy Tab 8.9, which looks a little bit cheap electrical systems, while the Apple’s build quality is always to the usual high standard.
The Galaxy Tab is simply a bit in the smaller side of what we should prefer from a tablet with the ipad 2 presenting us having a far more satisfactory size.
They’re both wafer thin devices which is always a plus but we are really not exactly in love with the visuals from the Galaxy Tab 8.9, especially given how nice its big brother, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, looks.
While using 8.9 it seems like there is a bit so much body around the screen, the corners are a bit too curved when compared to the ipad 2 and the back panel is boring when compared to Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Winner – Apple ipad 2
Storage:
Storage on both these handsets is really similar plus each cases they’re very well provided for, each has a choice of 16, 32 or 64GB of onboard capacity. In other memory related areas the contrast might be more obvious.
The Apple has 512MB of RAM but no card support, which overall doesn’t stack up too well contrary to the Samsung’s 1GB of RAM and Micro SD support approximately 32GB.
We have to side with Samsung for this one.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
Display:
The ipad 2 incorporates a 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen, the resolution clocks in at 768 x 1024 pixels and 132 dots-per-inch (dpi).
The display features line-up is for the lighter side, keeping it nice simple with an oleophobic surface to repel grubby fingerprints, not only that it’s scratch resistant too. Aside from this it’s the usual run of gyro and accelerometer sensors and multi-touch input.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab features a TFT capacitive touchscreen which is a wee bit smaller at 8.9-inches but compensates because of this with a higher resolution of 800×1280 pixels possibly at 170dpi. The tablet comes preloaded with all the TouchWiz UX user interface (UI) and features multi-touch as well as both accelerometer and gyro sensors.
The ipad 2 is a nicer size within our opinion but for screen sharpness and clarity the Galaxy Tab has it beat using a higher resolution and dpi.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
Processor:
The Galaxy Tab works a 1GHz dual core on Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset even though the ipad 2 is on a slightly better footing which has a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual core processor around the Apple A5 chipset and followed by a PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics processing unit (GPU).
The Cortex-A9 power should outperform the Tegra 2 about the Galaxy Tab especially with the powerful GPU.
Winner – ipad 2
Camera:
The ipad 2′s camera is rated at lower than 1-megapixel, 0.7 to become exact, which is really awful on the modern, high-end device.
You will find the argument asking why you should be using a tablet as being a camera anyway, but considering that it has become standard to include at least one on any device even though the megapixel count goes steadily upwards, to add a camera which is, to quote Charlie Sorrel from Wired, “about a similar resolution as an early 1990s-era photographic camera,” is a bit naff to say the least.
Camera features include autofocus, geo-tagging, video calling and 4x digital zoom, video capture is 720p. There’s also a secondary camera with a rating of 0.3-megapixel VGA.
The Galaxy Tab is often a better prospect without being anything too marvellous, it sports a 3.15-megapixel primary at the respectable 2048×1536 pixels, with autofocus and LED flash. Video capture is 720p as you move the secondary camera is 2-megpixels.
You could possibly see that coming but we choose the Galaxy Tab on cameras.
Winner – Galaxy Tab 8.9
Final Thoughts:
The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is a fine piece of kit and wins in many areas, but it’s by no means excellent. Likewise the Apple ipad 2 is definitely an well put together device, but it is simply lacking in a couple of areas which stains a normally standout tablet.
Performance wise the ipad 2 takes the lead, plus it’s prettier, in a lot of areas, specially the display,camera and memory the Galaxy Tab excels over the ipad 2.
It’s hard to recommend the Galaxy Tab 8.9 when we’d rather have a 10.1, and we have to say the ipad 2 is not actually better or worse than the Galaxy Tab, it is just different.