Just bought an iPad 3. Comparing it with my Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Every gadgets have pros and cons. People who say "X is perfect, I love it" are those who are not fully utilizing X. They just use tiny fraction of the features of X and satisfied with it. People who say "X is perfect, Y sucks and those who buy Y are suckers" are suckers themselves. They just do not know why many people buy Y.

Anyways, I generally like my Galaxy Tab 10.1 (GT 10.1). There are somethings I do not like about it, but there are more things I like about it, and I will buy Galaxy Tab 11.6 when it hits the stores with the glorious 2560*1600 resolution screen. Meanwhile, the iPad 3 currently has the highest resolution. So many people around me have bought iPad 3. Finally today I bought one too.

It is hot

Yes, you have guessed it. I mean literally. I just downloaded some apps from the store over Wi-Fi, browsed the Internet, played some YouTube videos. I did NOT play 3D games. During my use, the power cable had been connected to it.

It got definitely hot! Apple fanboys in Korea said it was not that hot and Samsung Galaxy S2 is hotter (somehow, they always mention Samsung), iPad 3 feels probably hotter because the back panel is metal. GT 10.1 and GS2's back panels are plastic. Can you guess which substance will feel hotter on your hand, metal or plastic? I hold iPad 3 for about one hour or so, and put it down to write this post, but I still feel some residue on my both palms. It sure is a slightly unpleasant experience I did not have with my GT 10.1.

It is heavy

Yeah, some say 60g is nothing, but that DOES make difference. iPad 3 is heavy. Admit it.

My iPad's screen is not equally white

Part of the screen look greenish and part of the screen look pinkish. This is a well-known problem among iPad 3 buyers in Korea. You need a good luck if yours happen to have a fully white screen without problems. The problem is that Apple Korea does NOT refund or change iPad 3 with those problems. They claim that those iPad 3 are normal and the users should deal with it. Though I have no choice but to use my iPad 3, it irritates me when I view a white web page on my iPad.

It takes for ever to charge

When I was using my iPad with full brightness with power cable connected, I expected it would be charged. But actually the battery meter was dropped. Now I am charging it without using it. One strange thing is that even though I am charging it (with screen turned off) it feels cool. When I used iPod Touch 4, it got hot when charging, even if the screen was turned off.

The sound is louder than GT 10.1's but mono. Where the speak should be headed?

I played the same YouTube video. Of course they were on the same 5GHz Wi-Fi. Strangely, GT 10.1 quickly buffered the video and started it. iPad 3 took substantially longer time to buffer it.

The maximum volume of iPad 3 was definitely louder than that of GT 10.1. But GT 10.1 has stereo speakers, and I like that. When I was watching a music video on iPad 3, the sound is skewed at one direction, and felt strange. iPad 4 should have stereo speakers, for it is a multimedia-consuming device! And don't tell me to use earbuds. You know they are bad for your ears.

But the high-resolution screen looks great most of the time!

I cannot deny that, with all other shortcomings the iPad 3 got to achieve that resolution. Pictures look nice, though text on a white background does not, because mine has a greenish-pinkish screen.

Applications quality is better than that of Android tablets.

The number of users of iPad, a single model, far exceeds the number of all hundreds of Android tablets combined. Apps made by large companies look better because they have dedicated graphics designers. Large companies want profit, so they rather make iPad apps than making Android tablet apps, simply because the number of iPad users are larger.

I browsed the top free apps in the App Store, the icons of those apps surely looked a lot better than those in Android markets. I downloaded some apps, and the quality was better, too.

For example, Skype for Android is the same for phones and tablets. On my GT 10.1, Skype looks ugly because the layouts are distorted. On iPad 3, it just had iPad version of Skype! Damn you, Microsoft. Create an Android tablet version, too!

The UI of the iOS is smoother and more elegant.

Why Android UI looks so crappy? The have all the good things but the UI... I just hope the Android team would spend a little bit more time on developing better UI.

Conclusion

I cannot tell which one is the better one. Both GT 10.1 and iPad 3 has pros and cons. If you are rich, buy both. If you are not rich, choose the one that suits better, considering all the pros and cons I have listed so far.