Samsung sent me a Galaxy Tab 8.9 to review a while ago and for the most part the tablet works but the tablet doesn't really work well enough. As far as the specifications go you'd think the tablet would have no problems using the dual core Tegra 2 chip, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage to power Android smoothly. But that's not the case. I think it's a problem with Android 3.0 Honeycomb which this tablet runs since really the tablet seems slow when switching apps, loading up apps, and closing apps, and really overall the user interface seems slow.
Once you are in app there aren't as many issues and it can run most applications that are available. Although most of those applications are smartphone applications since right now the tablet version of Android doesn't really have many exclusive apps. But at least most smartphone apps run fine on the tablet.
Even though the internal hardware is bad the external hardware is great. The tablet is a very solid tablet since it has a metal casing around the sides and a plastic back and a glass front. The plastic back is probably the worst part since it scratches easily. But other than that the tablet is extremely thin and light and still extremely solid. The display is also pretty good, it's very bright and high resolution. But it isn't quite the Super AMOLED Plus display that Samsung puts on their smartphones. The cameras on the tablet also aren't very good and I personally really didn't like them, but they did work for video chat.
Overall the tablet is working and it works fine. Battery life is great, speakers are great, and most things are great. Android 3.0 Honeycomb is really holding back this tablet. So hopefully it will get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich which should fix most of my issues with the tablet.
The Breakdown
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Design
10
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Display
9
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Camera(s)
6
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Speakers
9
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Performance
7
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Software
7
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Battery life
9
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Ecosystem
7
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