Gadgetory

how do Samsung and Sony's latest 10-inch tablets compare to one another I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 versus a Sony Xperia tablet Z Samsung is largely the dominant force in the Android tablet sector in q1 this year it was the only Android tablet manufacturer to hold double-digit worldwide market share with just under half of Apple's 39.6% share the rest of the market is divided between smaller Android manufacturers and a handful of om building Windows tablets Sony for example isn't even listed individually almost tablet market share reports and that might make you think Sony's latest tablet would struggle to keep up with a more widely known tablet brand like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but this head-to-head battle may surprise you aside from the fact that these two tablets are the same general shape they actually have very little in common and while both are quite similar to their smaller siblings the Galaxy Tab 3 being much like the Galaxy s4 in the Xperia tablet Z being similar to the Xperia Z this comparison is not quite that simple you can tell without ever picking up or touching either of these tablets that what they have to offer is very different the tablet Z from Sony uses with quality its design and build quality are practically identical to the Xperia Z which we were quite fond of during our short time with the handset except on a much larger scale the front is almost entirely composed of a 10.1 inch display and the edges are coated with a matte finish plastic the inner portion of the edges is filled with a shiny metallic plastic and the expansive mostly blank backside is also covered with the soft touch plastic ultimately aside from how minimal the tablet is what you will first notice about the Xperia tablet Z is how amarka Bleeth in the tablet is it's an impressive six point nine millimeters thick if you're fond of samsung's design and use of hyper light plastics you will likely have no issues with a Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 at least on the outside it's unmistakably related to the galaxy s4 it utilizes the same exact design a textured hyper glazed finish the top of lightweight polycarbonate body faux brushed metal trim along the edges and bold Samsung logos plastered on the front and back and it uses Samsung's typical custom navigation button layout with a physical home button centered at the very bottom of the face flanked by menu and back capacitive buttons to the left and right respectively for the record both tablets feel sturdy neither twist or squeak with a firm grip but the tablet Z's certainly has a major advantage on its size not only does it sport a matte soft touch finish which makes it easy to grip with one hand and feel much more premium it ships with IP 57 certifications for dust proofing and water resistance by no means is the Xperia tablet Z a ruggedized tablet but that's not the point if you want to take the tablet to the beach or lake or if you want to use it in the kitchen you can without the fear of ruining it that's certainly more than can be said for the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 the unfortunate side effect of dust proofing and water resistance rating is that each of the ports on the tablet Z are covered but hats off to Sony for squeezing the package down into a surprisingly thin device and doing so in a manner where the ports are still easily accessible without being a huge burden apart you might take the Tab 3 10.1 and Xperia tablet Z is similarly sized devices however there's a rather significant difference in the footprint of these 2 tablets at 266 millimeters why the tablet Z is 22.9 millimeters wider than that Tab 3 10.1 but the tab 3 is 4.1 millimeters taller and 1.1 millimeters thicker however both hit the scales at roughly the same mark 495 grams and 510 grams for the tablet Z and the Tab 3 10.1 respectively specifications are also quite different the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 features a 1.6 gigahertz dual-core Intel Atom chipset 1 gigabyte of RAM either 16 or 32 gigabytes of built-in storage a micro SD card slot 3.1 megapixel rear camera 1.3 megapixel front facing shooter 6800 milliamp hour battery and as the name alleges a 10.1 inch TFT display which offers a Meeker resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels Sony's tablet at least on paper is better equipped for a power user it comes with a 1.5 gigahertz quad-core Snapdragon s4 pro chipset 2 gigabytes of RAM 16 or 32 gigabytes of built-in storage with a micro SD card slot for expansion 8.1 megapixel rear facing camera 2 point 2 megapixel front camera 6000 million power battery in a 10.1 inch 1920 by 1200 pixel resolution LCD display with Sony's Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 while we're on the topic of displays it goes without saying the Xperia tablet Z has the superior panel yes the Galaxy Tab 3 10-point ones TFT displays an advantage in contrast flags on the tablet here washed out engrave at the tap threes contrast unlike other Samsung devices fitted with AMOLED displays isn't much better what the tablet is he lacks in contrast however it more than makes up for it in color reproduction saturation and clarity the Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 gives colors a much needed boost seriously don't turn it off and the 1920 by 1200 pixel resolution stomps all over the 1280 by 800 pixels on the tab 3 10.1 it's honestly a shame on Samsung's part considering the Nexus 10 has one of the highest resolution displays on a tablet ever 2560 by 1600 pixels hands-down the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is no match for the Xperia tablet Z and hardware which includes specifications design form build quality and display if we switch to the software side of things it's a much more evenly matched fight don't get us wrong though samsung dropped the ball once again if you power on the two tablets at the same time you might initially find yourself gravitating towards the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 it runs TouchWiz like any other galaxy tablet and is equipped with the latest version of Android version 4.2.2 the interface on the Xperia tablet Z however might leave you scratching your head initially it looks like it's running Ice Cream Sandwich it features the leftward navigation buttons and the notification panel in the lower right corner swiping down from the top of the display does well nothing but tapping on the top right corner will open the app drawer navigate to the about page in the settings however and you might feel a little more confused that's right it's running Android 4.1.2 not Ice Cream Sandwich and honestly we couldn't be more happy about this strange fusion of ice cream sandwich tablet interface atop jelly bean it puts the controls within reach of your thumbs when you're holding the tablet two-handed and it just makes more sense than implementing a phone UI on a 10-inch tablet and that brings us back to TouchWiz on the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 basically it's a good version of TouchWiz which overrides some of the Android 4.2.2 features and it's missing the most important and useful features of TouchWiz like multi window features that would be perfectly useful on a tablet such as pop-up browser are nowhere to be found only the touch woods features we don't really care about smart stay and smart rotation are available it's almost as if Samsung dug up this TouchWiz UI from a few years ago and slapped it on slightly newer hardware with an Intel chip the notification shade for Apple resembles applications that are not yet optimized for tablet use it's full screen and it utilizes the 10 inch screen rather poorly it's just rough around the edges for instance within the notification shade is a button in the top right corner which is supposed to reveal a page of settings toggles however there are no additional toggles only the ones that appear above the notifications in the standard configuration pressing the button only makes the brightness slider and notifications disappear that said Sony's software isn't perfect it's heavily-laden which is to blame for some stuttering throughout use more on that in a bit the interesting bit is that the Galaxy Tab 3 software unlike most other Galaxy devices does not offer you tiles of software features in this case the Xperia tablet Z takes a cake where the Galaxy Tab 3 is missing the multi window feature the tablet Z offers what Sony calls small apps which are free-floating applications accessible by a button in the action bar almost every part of the software experience on the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 fills half as 'red naturally the tablet Z pulls even further ahead as if you hadn't already guessed this theme continues into performance to be fair neither tablet performs flawlessly both tend to stutter and lag from time to time on both accounts we can blame that on heavily customised interfaces but the Xperia tablet Z has doubled the memory meaning it can jump between applications markedly better than the Tab 3 10.1 without having to completely reload each application synthetic benchmarks also put these two on a level playing field in terms of performance the sound coming from the speakers on either one of these tablets is plenty loud for multimedia consumption unless you're in a noisy area in that case you'd probably be better off with headphones anyway they got likely to have three 10.1 speakers however are fairly easy to completely cover with the palms of your hands the Xperia tablet Z speakers are also quite easy to cover but not entirely since there is one speaker on the bottom of each the left and right edges and two on the bottom edge on paper the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 has the larger battery but only by 800 million Powers in day-to-day usage the two tablets appear to drain at approximately the same pace both also have software features that attempt to prolong battery life but what it boils down to is if you use either tablet heavily you'll have to charge it every day if instead you use them more sparingly they will likely last several days on a single just remember to switch off Wi-Fi when you're not using it to keep them going longer the camera performance on these two tablets is night and day though neither particularly awesome it's a case of mediocre camera and purely terrible the 8.1 megapixel camera on the tablet see is no stunner but it's fairly comparable with smartphone flagship from in the last two years pictures lack detail and proper contrast but as camera gets the job done and the software has ample features the Galaxy Tab 3 10-point ones 3.1 megapixel camera is just there it takes pictures which lack necessary detail they're noisy fuzzy and often out-of-focus you would think a tablet third generation or less coming from the market leader in Android tablets the creator of a tablet is fantastic as the Nexus 10 would be capable of completely burying the competition but in just a few months time it seems as if Samsung forgot how awesome the Nexus 10 is and instead went back to its old ways Sony the unlikely winner takes this battle in a decisive manner its Xperia tablet Z is a tablet you won't be afraid to take around water or dirt which offers a decent camera useful software a high-resolution display crammed into a svelte high-quality casing the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 has none of that there's just not much else to say the Xperia tablet Z is the definite undisputed winner in the Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 is a 2011 esque mid-range tablet and the Intel Atom chipset simply isn't enough to save face that's going to do it for this video if you enjoyed it be sure to click the thumbs up button below and subscribe to see more videos like this one in the future stay tuned for more Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 coverage over the next few days and be sure to follow us in the usual places twitter google+ and facebook at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i'll see you soon