Will Samsung's switch on the 1st Gen Galaxy tab affect them?

[Bateluer]

Or will sales be inconsequential regardless?

Engadget has picked up the store from XDA now.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/04/wifi-galaxy-tab-running-on-an-older-cpu-than-its-3g-siblings/

If you bought a WiFi-only Galaxy Tab, you probably assumed you were getting the same seven-inch slate that others have been enjoying since November, just without a 3G radio and burdensome two-year contract. Turns out it's worth poring over those specifications on the rear of the packaging. We've yet to get a confirmation from Samsung, but it appears the company swapped out its Hummingbird processor for an older "1GHz Cortex A8" chip with a slower GPU. The Galaxy Tab carriers have been hawking packs a PowerVR SGX 540, but some folks over at the XDA Developers forums have discovered that its WiFi-only sibling is rolling with the previous-gen SGX530. The specs on the Samsung site also lists Bluetooth 2.1 instead of 3.0 -- yet another significant downgrade. We guess the company had to make some trade offs to hit that $350 price point, but we don't have to like it.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Samsung's focus is on its upcoming Honeycomb tablets, and almost all media focus on Android tablets center on Honeycomb devices. I don't think this will help or hurt.

In fact, I am glad they did the switch for personal reasons. I am combing through the Wifi Galaxy Tab source right now, looking for something that might improve bluetooth on the Nook Color.

 

[mammador]

the model is over 8/9 months old. An older processor is not surprising. I doubt Samsung care much, since with the iPad2 out, and the Xoom and Playbook out they need an upboot anyhow.

 

[Deeko]

I heard this quite some time ago - why is it becoming news now?

Anyway, I doubt most people know the difference between a SGX 530 and 540, and considering the percentage of Android devices with something as powerful as the 540 is somewhat small at this point anyway, I don't think its really that big of a deal, as apps are generally written to run on the majority of active devices.

 

[Glitchny]

Don't see this being a huge issue as they aren't lying about the specs, they just don't explicitly tell the consumer that there is a difference between the models other than the lack of 3G. The listed specs are accurate to what you get.

Also I don't really understand why they are really even bothering to sell them. With the new honeycomb tablets coming out this wifi tab will just be overshadowed by Samsung's new tablets

 

[poofyhairguy]

Anyway, I doubt most people know the difference between a SGX 530 and 540, and considering the percentage of Android devices with something as powerful as the 540 is somewhat small at this point anyway, I don't think its really that big of a deal, as apps are generally written to run on the majority of active devices.

It actually does make a big difference. The issue isn't that apps aren't made for the faster chip, the issue is that the GPU has to push more pixels on a 7 inch screen than a 4 inch screen, and therefore a GPU that is already 50% slower gets another 40% performance hit compared to other SGX 530 devices.

In particular on my Nook Color (prior to hacks that overclocked the GPU and forced 16 bit rendering) games such as Gun Bros or even Fruit Ninja would lag and run slow on the larger screen. My friend's Droid X (clocked at a lower CPU speed) would play those games much smoother.

The other big deal is the original Tab could play 1080p, this one maxes at 720p. Neither could play high profile so that doesn't matter too much, before for someone wanting a "do-it-all" multimedia device this new Tab is way less capable.

With that said, once Asus can get its Transformer to the market in decent numbers all these "cell phone OS" tablets are gonna fall by the wayside.

 

[Deeko]

It actually does make a big difference. The issue isn't that apps aren't made for the faster chip, the issue is that the GPU has to push more pixels on a 7 inch screen than a 4 inch screen, and therefore a GPU that is already 50% slower gets another 40% performance hit compared to other SGX 530 devices.

In particular on my Nook Color (prior to hacks that overclocked the GPU and forced 16 bit rendering) games such as Gun Bros or even Fruit Ninja would lag and run slow on the larger screen. My friend's Droid X (clocked at a lower CPU speed) would play those games much smoother.

The other big deal is the original Tab could play 1080p, this one maxes at 720p. Neither could play high profile so that doesn't matter too much, before for someone wanting a "do-it-all" multimedia device this new Tab is way less capable.

With that said, once Asus can get its Transformer to the market in decent numbers all these "cell phone OS" tablets are gonna fall by the wayside.

A fair point about the higher resolution - but, as you mentioned regarding your Nook, its not like every tablet out there is running a SGX 540 or better.