My Samsung Tab Is A Convertible!
The first thing that surprised me when I unpacked the case (and to be honest, the one that surprised me the most!) have been the four rubber feet standing out from the four edges of the keyboard. Rubber feet are not unusual, but here they are on the upper side, not underneath the keyboard. First I thought they are there to protect the screen when folded (which is probably true). But then it dawned on me I can have the keyboard upside down. I mean you can fold it 350 degrees out to form a stand for the tablet. Wow this is smart. The true convertible. Exactly the setup I have been looking for. It can be a tablet (keyboard acting simply as a stand with a tilt). Or it can be a notebook.
After the second paragraph I have to say typing on the physical keyboard is very good. Way better compared to the on-screen touch one. So the investment is worth the money and the bulk. Yes it adds considerable bulk to the package. The Tablet itself is very thin and light. And the keyboard case is more or less of the same weight as the tablet. Bundled together they weigh almost the same and have the size almost identical as the Nokia Booklet or the 11-inch MacBook Air. With one difference. For laptops you need a case. And here the keyboard is THE case. Plus. There usually is no power supply to carry around with a tablet. I mean I obviously do carry one. But it is very small and light and has a thin and light cable and I can use it to recharge my phone too. It is a small, 10W - class charger. With a laptop you usually carry an extra 50W - class charger. Which is big an heavy and has thick and heavy cables.
One may ask what is the deal then, when the tablet+keyboard package is physically approaching a modern ultralight system with a fully blown OS? Well, I am asking this question myself, as this is still an experiment. There are two notable differences. The first is the OS itself. Setting aside the iOS vs Android argument for a moment, both mobile operating systems are really optimized for mobile use. Instant power on, applications better designed to be operated on the road, it is somehow easier to use an iOS or Android device outside the office desk, than their full blown alternatives like MacBooks or Windows laptops. Evernote, for example, (which desires a blog post of its own) is much more polished on Android than it is on Windows. Touch browser is fine on an airplane in the economy, while the fully unfolded laptop requires a business class fare.
So far so good. The convertible design and the typing experience are definitely on the bright side. But there are areas where the tablet + keyboard package does not shine at all. Even frustrates. Like the popping on-screen keyboard. It shows up every time I touch the screen within a typing area. Or move a cursor with a mouse and click. Looks like the Honeycomb (Android 3.1) does not understand there is a physical keyboard attached and pops a virtual one of its own. Irritating. Then there is a conflict with a Bluetooth mouse. It seems like either the Samsung Tab or the Android OS cannot properly handle two Bluetooth input devices at a time. When the keyboard is connected, the mouse movements become erratic and even interfere with the keyboard itself (with a symptom of lots of repeated keystrokes). It works all fine when I connect a non-Bluetooth wireless mouse via a USB dongle receiver, but such setup, while works great, looks ridiculous, especially as connecting the USB dongle to the Galaxy Tab requires yet another dongle (30-pin system connector - to - USB). Hopefully the multiple Bluetooth input devices issue is a software one and will be fixed in the next release of Android. The final aspect , I do not feel comfortable with, is the flexible connection between the keyboard and the tablet. Of course this is by design, but makes using the device as a laptop (keeping it on the laps with the screen up) almost impossible. You have to fold the keyboard and use it as a rest and work with the virtual one. Especially as the physical one is not backlit and it turns out most on-the-laps use cases are in dimmed environment.
Also while a considerable amount of details of the keyboard case seem to be very well designed, there are some strange shortcuts. The case - which is obvious - fits the Galaxy Tab 10.1 perfectly. But for instance it comes with its own micro-USB charger, which is completely weird. Samsung must have been thinking about such keyboard case when designing the Tab. So why didn't they furnished a micro-USB charging port on the side of the Tab, so they could provide a Y-splitter with the keyboard, saving the bulk of a charger? These are things Apple would never lt out. They care to the finest detail. And that is why they win. Samsung should note.
I will be using the tablet + keyboard package for a while, to fully asses the usability of the approach. But for the moment, although being one of the finest combinations on the market today, I have a feeling a simple laptop is much more comfortable. Especially as a packages like the Nokia Booklet I have been using for more than a year now, or the 10-inch MacBook Air offer a huge step forward in overall productivity. But they are more expensive. And a tablet is more convenient to browse the Web at a coffee table.
So as you see... a tablet with a keyboard is really like a convertible. No roof by design. Enjoy the ride. But when you have enough of the elements, you may hide under a roof. Obviously that comes for a price and with a roof on, the overall package is less ideal than a traditional sedan.
May be... just may be... the next MacBook Air will be touch enabled. And will allow the keyboard to fold 350 degrees out, acting as a tilted stand for the screen? It seems like with a help from Samsung I have just found the new magical and revolutionary formula for a portable computer, AD2012...
Ah and BTW may be in 2012 Apple will port the built-in 3G modem option from the iPad to the MacBook too?
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