While Samsung may still be facing difficulties actually shipping its Android tablets thanks to interference from Apple, the company is churning out some impressive looking hardware. The latest addition to Samsung's Android tablet directly replaces last year's lacklustre Samsung Galaxy Tab and sits alongside the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 as its smaller sibling.
Samsung claims the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the slimmest and lightest Android tablet going and with official figures of 7.89mm thick and 335g in weight (nearly half an iPad 2), we have little reason to disbelieve the company. What's more it really shows when handling the device - it is just effortless to pickup and hold one handed.
The design is also stunning. We really are bowled over by it. The fundamentals are all very familiar, with an all black front - bar the small Samsung logo - and brushed metal back, but combined with the slimness, and with everything being in the right proportion, it just works so well. The iPad 2 probably still has the crown for outright class thanks to the solid feel of its metal build but it's a close run thing.
Packed into this slim chassis are a decent if not comprehensive selection of connections. A headphone jack sits on the top edge while a microSD slot is on the left side. However, there's no HDMI and rather than a normal microUSB Samsung has used the same proprietary port as on the Tab 10.1. The former is a much more understandable decision given the tablet's size but the latter is agrrevating as it means you always need that cable and that cable only to charge this device.
On the right edge there's the volume and power buttons while the back is home to a camera
with an LED flash! We didn't give it much of a go but no grand claims were made of its abilities by Samsung so we suspect it's a somewhat token effort. There's also a webcam on the front.
There are two speakers on the bottom (in portrait) edge. They seemed of reasonable quality but the Samsung booth was so noisy that it was very difficult to really hear.
