We learned back in February that Virgin Australia would be trialling the Samsung Galaxy Tab as an in-flight entertainment option, and that only business class passengers would be in the first round of testing. But it turns out the trial is even more restricted than that: it’s only running for a single week. Fortunately, there’s better news ahead.
Jetstar has had iPads since last year. Qantas is trialling iPads on one plane. Virgin Australia is also getting into the tablets-for-in-flight-entertainment game, but rather than going Apple, it will be using the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Having previously promised a mid-April release, Vodafone has now slightly delayed the Australian release of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v. Pre-orders will be accepted from April 20, and the tablet will ship from May 1 and hit stores on May 4.
We looked at the key features in Honeycomb earlier in the year, but we’re now getting much closer to the actual release of devices offering the optimised-for-tablet version of Android. I’ve been testing out the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v ahead of its official release, and it has some pretty nifty features for productivity-minded travellers.
We thought $599 was a more reasonable price for the Galaxy Tab Android tablet than its original $999 cost, but this is even better: Telstra has the device as an outright buy for $408.
We already knew that the Honeycomb-running 10.1 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab Android tablet was a Vodafone exclusive. Now we have a firmer Australian release timeframe (mid-April) and one potential bit of good news for users who don’t want to be locked to a Vodafone contract: the device will be available outright for $729.
You might well ask: why does Vodafone keep scoring the good Android deals? No price details yet, but Samsung just announced at its Aussie WMC press launch that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be Vodafone-only at launch in early Q2, as part of a global deal. The same doesn’t apply to the Galaxy S2, fortunately.
Pretty much everyone agreed that $999 was way too much for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, so this is worth noting: Unique Mobiles is selling the Android-based Tab unlocked for $599. That’s more like it, though I’ll hazard a guess stock will move pretty quickly at that price. If anyone has bought from Unique before, tell us how well that went in the comments. [Unique Mobiles via OzBargain]
The Samsung Galaxy Tab is the best high-end Android tablet on the local market right now (and priced to match), but its interface isn’t ideal for everyone. Here’s how Lifehacker reader Assaph tweaked his Galaxy Tab with a few familiar Lifehacker tweaks to make it work better.
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Android tablet finally goes on sale this week, and that means options other than the rather OTT $999 outright buy price. While every carrier is planning to sell the device, so far only Optus has revealed pricing.
