Features

Ok, so we've talked about the Galaxy Tab 8.9 4G in its smaller details, but let's hit the feature set, shall we? The Galaxy Tab 8.9 4G's stand out feature is mentioned within its name, the 4G connectivity. Telstra are a big partner of Samsung, who have worked together and released the device on Telstra's 4G network. The Tab 8.9 4G I received had a Telstra 4G SIM card installed, which means I got to mess around with some seriously fast Internet access.

4G download speeds will really only help in the downloading of large files, with most websites not really benefitting from the huge leap in speeds. So, please, if you're looking at buying this device because you think the entire Internet is going to get an injection of speed, think again.

There are not many other specific features that the Tab 8.9 4G has over the competition of Android-based tablets, as it's still stuck with Honeycomb. I couldn't download or run Google's Chrome browser, as that is an ICS-exclusive, which is such a pity as it's the only browser I use. But, Google do bake in some Googleified (if it's not a word, it is now) features into Honeycomb's browser. It almost felt like a pre-Chrome browser, which wasn't as bad as I originally thought it was going to be.

Gaming with the Tab 8.9 is exactly what you'd expect from an 8.9-inch tablet, great. It's not as great as the Retina-powered third-gen iPad, but it does its job. It gets a bit warm on the back after a while of gaming, but holding a tablet for extended periods of time gets tiring anyway, so its not something you should have to be too worried about.

I've taken a few snaps with the Tab 8.9's 3MP rear-facing camera and while it's not the best camera, it'll do. Using a tablet as a camera is not something you'd want to do, because firstly you look like a weirdo and secondly, it's too big to really justify itself as a camera. Smartphones are much better at this job, in my opinion.

I've also taken a video to show the quality of the rear cameras video recording ability. The video loses a fair amount of its color and quality, but again, it's good enough to take a video if that's what you'd like to do with the Tab 8.9. I think the video quality is subpar to my expectations of this tablet. I expected more and would've liked to have seen Samsung throw an 8-megapixel camera into this thing for some Full HD (1920x1080p) recording.