Why the Samsung Galaxy Tab may be the best eBook reading device today
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 10:10AM 
If you discount the Samsung Galaxy Tab's relatively high price and focus on its unique features (mobile hotspot, only 7-inch tablet in the market, dual-cameras and, okay, yeah, Adobe Flash) it really is a compelling tablet which can only get better once the Honeycomb OS (Android 3.0) is released by Google and Samsung sometime this year. With all the major eBook reader apps now available, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is turning out to be the ultimate eBook reading device today.
What has surprised me most about the Samsung Galaxy Tab is its pick-up-and-go size and form factor as well as its natural ability as an e-book reader. The size and shape of the Galaxy Tab is very similar to that of leading e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle, the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Kobo reader.
One handed operation for reading is totally doable and since most of the leading e-book platforms are now available on the Android mobile OS, the Samsung Galaxy Tab has become the most portable one-stop-shop for all your e-reading needs.
What's available on Android today?
- Amazon's Kindle App - 800,000 books plus magazines, newspapers, blogs
- Google Books App - 3 million books
- Barnes & Noble Nook App -2 million books plus magazines, newspapers, blogs
- Kobo Reader App - 2 million books plus magazines, newspapers, blogs
- Sony Reader App - 1 million books plus magazines, newspapers, blogs
While most of these apps are available on other platforms, most notably the Apple iPad (which has Apple's own iBookstore app and will get the Sony Reader App 'sometime soon'), there's no denying the Galaxy Tab's advantage in portability.
The iPad is clearly more like a magazine in shape and dimensions and we've seen some impressive experiments like Richard Branson's Project magazine, clearly the wave of the future. There are things that the iPad is clearly better at doing, being the Swiss knife of eBook readers may not be one of them.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab is more similar to a pocketbook in size and shape and feels more natural as a reading device. Battery life is great (7 hours, with Wi-Fi and 3G) and the smaller size makes it less conspicuous when riding trains or buses.
We've used the Kindle 3 and maintain that it is the best standalone eBook reading device although the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, with its underlying Android OS and that colour screen, is equally compelling. But the ability to access any or all of these ebook services in one device which is also a full-featured tablet is extremely convenient.
As an early eBook adopter, I bought a lot of books on the Sony Reader platform but later on switched to the Kindle and we likewise dabbled with Google Books and Kobo just to see what they have to offer. When I left one device for another, I found I had to leave behind the books I purchased on its store.
Two years ago this would have meant that I would need to own or use multiple e-reader devices in order to access these various titles or use their PC or Mac applications to read them on a computer, which is not the most ideal or comfortable way to read ebooks for prolonged periods.
As a consumer of eBooks, I can now shop across eBook stores for the best prices and at the end of the day I have potentially millions of books easily accessible on one device. The good news is that Samsung has all but confirmed a non-3G Wi-Fi version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab which will likely be sold in regular stores and will not require 3G data service in order to work.
The Wi-Fi Galaxy Tab will certainly be more compelling to a larger base of users, the best thing is all of these eBook options will already be available once it does get released.
Is the Samsung Galaxy Tab the best tablet today? We would have to say no, not yet, but it could very well be the best eBook reader in terms of portability and sheer versatility.
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Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Apple recently rejected the Sony Reader App on iOS devices because in does not enable in-app purchases. The way the Sony Reader app works on the Galaxy Tab is that it bounces you from the app to a web page. This means that the Galaxy Tab now really is the ultimate and most dynamic eBook reading device. The only thing it does not have is Apple's iBooks.
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