The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 review unit that I tested only features Wi-Fi
connectivity. An LTE-equipped version has been announced by Samsung,
but the company has not revealed when that will be available for
purchase. Wi-Fi performance was good, and I was able to maintain a
signal outside on my porch, a good distance from my Wi-Fi access point.
The Galaxy Tab 8.9 also supports
Messaging 
The Galaxy Tab 8.9 has pretty solid support for messaging needs. It
includes the Honeycomb Gmail app, which has scrollable widgets and
offers the best Gmail experience for any tablet device. It also comes
with Samsung's own email client that features a split-screen view and
rich text formatting, along with multiple account support, multiple
message management, and pinch-to-zoom. It lacks conversation view and
support for IMAP IDLE (push services for IMAP email accounts), so those
are two things that I would like to see improved for the next version.
Samsung's email app also features a scrollable home screen widget for a
quick look at your inbox.
For instant messaging, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 comes with the Honeycomb
Google Talk app with voice and video calling features. It works as well
as ever, and makes good use of the 8.9's 2 megapixel front-facing
camera. Other instant messaging protocols require a trip to the Android
Market, as the 8.9 does not support them out of the box.
Apps / App Store 
It is no secret that tablet-optimized apps have been a weak point for
Honeycomb ever since it was released, and things are no different on the
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. Though the tablet has access to the Android
Market, there are so few apps that take advantage of the larger screen
offered by a tablet, that one quickly runs out of options and is forced
to use the smartphone apps instead. Like a mobile webpage, the
smartphone apps will stretch to fit the display of the tablet, but they
look a bit ridiculous, since the apps are usually designed for a screen
that is half that size. This leaves a lot of empty space and an ugly
user experience.
As part of its TouchWiz interface, Samsung has pre-installed a number of
apps on the Tab 8.9, including a photo editor, document viewer, and its
own app store. The Readers Hub offers access to newspapers, books, and
magazine content, but after a short free trial, you generally have to
pay for any content that you access in it. The Pulse newsreader is
available for accessing web feeds, and there are two different memo apps
for taking notes. The quick access tray offers a calender, calculator,
memo app, world clock, music player, and task manager accessible from
any app, which is probably the most useful part of Samsung's
customizations.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
Browser
The Galaxy Tab 8.9 offers a commendable web browsing experience,
complete with Adobe Flash Player support and tabbed pages. Web sites
load fairly quickly, and scrolling and pinch-to-zoom are smoothly
executed most of the time. The only hiccup the browser has is when
playing full-screen video, as the video quickly degrades into a choppy
mess and will frequently crash the browser. The browser also represents
itself to web servers as a smartphone rather than a tablet most of the
time, so you are presented with the mobile versions of pages more often
than desktop editions. Nobody will argue that mobile versions of
websites look downright ridiculous when stretched to fit an 8.9-inch
screen.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
Camera 
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 offers two cameras: a 3 megapixel rear unit
with autofocus, flash, and 720p HD (1280 x 720 pixel) video capture, and
a front 2 megapixel unit that does none of those. The rear camera
leaves quite a bit to be desired, as it requires a lot of light for a
decent image and it is a bit slow to focus. Unlike the images captured
by most of Samsung's smartphone cameras, the 8.9's camera offers flat
images with lots of noise and little punch to their color. Video is
slightly better, but I just can't get over the concept of recording
video with a tablet, as I find it very unwieldy and impractical.
The front camera serves its purpose well. It works for the occasional
self portraits and works well will the Google Talk video calling app.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
Music
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 offers the standard Google Music app for
Honeycomb tablets, as well as Samsung's Music Hub, where you can
purchase and download tracks from the 7digital music store. The standard
music app works well, and automatically syncs with a Google Music
account, so you can access thousands of your tunes on the go. The 3D
carousel of album art looks cool and is fun way to browse your
collection. The Music Hub provides an option to buy music, but its
selection is limited compared to
iTunes Music Store or the Amazon MP3 Store. Still, it's convenient to
have the ability to purchase music right on the tablet itself.
As far as speaker performance goes, the thin speakers along the bottom
edge of the Galaxy Tab 8.9 get surprisingly loud, though they tend to
lack depth and have little bass response. The loudest 80's hair metal
tunes could not get them to distort though, so that's a plus. The Galaxy
Tab 8.9 also supports standard 3.5mm headphones and A2DP stereo
Bluetooth streaming.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
Battery 
Samsung equipped the Galaxy Tab 8.9 with a 6,100mAh battery, which is
slightly smaller than the 7,000mAh unit that powers the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
No worries about that though, as the 8.9 is a champ when it comes to
battery life. During my review period, I found that I could easily go
days between charges, even with numerous accounts constantly
syncing/updating and fairly regular usage of the tablet. In fact, trying
to get the tablet to tap out to zero battery life with standard usage
is more of a chore than anything else. The heaviest users should be able
to go a full day on a single charge and still have juice left over at
the end of it.
Reviewer Spin
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 had a lot of promise when it was shown off
next to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 at Samsung's official unveiling earlier this
year. Many thought it would be the tablet for them, as it strikes a
nice balance in size between the 10-inch class of tablets and today's
large 4-inch or more smartphones. Unfortunately, while the hardware of
the tablet lives up to that promise, the software that powers it really
lets the user down. The choppy performance and all-too-frequent crashes
make using the Galaxy Tab 8.9 a chore more than an enjoyable experience.
Samsung is asking $469 for the 16GB version (and $569 for the 32GB
model), and at that price, I can't see how someone could justify buying
this when there are other, better options on the market. If Samsung were
to update the software on the 8.9 to something that has less bugs and
offers a better experience (like say, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich),
it might be more of a contender. Unless that happens, though, it is not.
You will find sample images and video captured with the Galaxy Tab 8.9 on the following page.
