Further Reviews of HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy Tablet

It's been a while since I got my grubby paws on the Samsung Galaxy 7" tablet, as well as the HTC Sensation 4g phone.  I wanted to update my impressions on the devices, just in case anybody's reading.

HTC Sensation 4g

My boss keeps telling us he will always have more G's than we do and to date it's been a factual statement.  I suspect this has more to do with our carrier being T-Mobile than anything else, but it's not like we have a control sample to test out this hypothesis.  Suffice it to say that the coverage was much better with Verizon, our previous carrier.

This phone has largely been a blast.  It's a speed demon that has required very little instruction or maintenance.

My favorite/most useful apps:

• Opera Mobile - a fast browser
• WiFi widget - to turn off/on wifi quickly
• gStrings free - excellent, free guitar tuner
• World Newspapers - great source of news, albeit a little unsteady
• TV listings - for obvious reasons
• Wolfgang's Vault - classic rock streaming
• Slacker Radio - the Jeff Beck Channel... say no more.
• ES File Explorer
• ConnectBot - ssh
• SysAid/PRTGdroid - work apps
• AK Notepad - a yellow pad
• Timeriffic - controls functions by time to extend battery

I could obviously do without the T-Mobile crapware but I have not rooted the device (yet).  I am waiting until others do to see if the gains are worth it.   I am very satisfied with the default messaging and email apps, which is a miracle in itself.

The battery life is so-so, but definitely better after applying Timeriffic.

Samsung Galaxy 7" Tab

I am very specific about this model because there is also a Samsung Galaxy phone and a Samsung Galaxy 10" tablet.  It makes ordering accessories a bitch sometimes.

Given the choice, I'd rather have a 10" tablet but I couldn't argue with the price of this one.  This is a completely different device one may think: in essence, it's a very large phone.  The technology is a little older and a bit slower than the Sensation.  While it doesn't have a phone, it has a phone number.  I guess I could make calls if I rooted, which I haven't.  It will message.

I will get around to rooting the tablet, if for no other reason than the operating system's willingness to allow any program to start itself for fun.  Task Killer has a busy job killing all of the self-starting programs.  These can be killed or frozen when the Samsung is rooted.


My favorite/most useful apps:

• Advanced Task Killer
• Xiaalive - radio streaming
• Android Assistant - takes the place of many utility apps
• 1Page BBC - BBC news
• Drudge - Drudgereport.com viewer
• Astro File Manager
• Zeem Launcher - small, fast replacement for stock Droid launcher
• PremierGuitar - guitar magazine reader
• Scanner Radio - listen to radio scanners all over the world
• Sparse rss - rss feed reader
• Yahtz Me - Yahtzee clone for my wife
• Angry Birds - my nephews would kill me if I didn't have this installed
• CPU Usage Monitor - cpu graph

I like my tablet and will continue to use it.  It is just the right device for when I need to spend a little more time on a larger screen than on my cell phone.  I check my rss feeds in bed and this is a pretty good device for the task.

I noticed that charging seemed like a day-long affair.  My advice is to charge this only via the supplied charger, not the usb cable, as the supplied charger puts out twice the current and this is a rather large battery.  If you turn off wifi when not using it and can calm the apps down, the battery will last a while.


The thing that irks me the most about Android devices is the programs that start on their own.  There is simply no reason for it.  If I have disabled GPS, why does TeleNav start by itself?  If I don't get push mail, why does Mail start?