When I first started testing the Samsung XE500T1C-A02CA it was without the keyboard, so everything was just the touchscreen and I was pleased by how easy it was to set up. All you need to do is create an account and you’re off. The On-Screen Keyboard is pretty basic but does the trick. If you’re not used to a numpad, get used to it because that’s how all the numbers are displayed. The top row from 1-9 is removed and instead you have the numpad and a set of commonly used characters (! @ # $ % & ( ), etc).

The first thing I did with the XE500T1C was to get online and so I set up the wireless network and tried it out around the house and down the street to where the mailbox is, about 50 meters away. The signal strength was good and I never had any problems regardless of where I used it. This will of course depend on how strong of a wireless signal you begin with. If the route is located in some far corner inside a closet your results will be very different than mine.

Once I was connected to my network I started browsing the internet, as most people would do with a tablet. At first I had no problems browsing all my favourite websites or doing a search with Bing. However I did run into a few problems where I lost the ability to press on the next page button on certain websites. I would have to swipe up to get the address bar menu, swipe it close to go back to my website and then click on the next page button. This happened a few times and even when friends were over checking out the device. It didn’t get off a great first impression. Another problem I had was when view stock chart & graphs on my trading account, it simply wouldn’t load on the TD website. There was no explanation why, the page would pretend to load and go blank. Just a note, I did still had the problem when in desktop mode but after install Google Chrome and used it as my brower I didn’t have any issues. It seems like this is a simple software bug that’ll get resolved in an upcoming update.

Pre-installed with Windows 8 are a number of basic but key applications. I found the News application pretty nifty as it had a number of pre-selected sources to choose from and it also recognized that I had browsed the Toronto Star and made that a feature source which with one press would take me directly to the online paper. A quick click of the Windows Home button at the bottom of the tablet would take me back to the homepage and let me fire up another app of my choice (Mail, Calendar, Photos, Messenger, Maps, SkyDrive, Weather, Camera, Games, etc). All of them responded quickly. If you want to find more applications, you can go to the Store and see what is available. If you want to search for an app you don’t actually have to go to the Store because there is no quick search button anywhere. Instead you need to swipe the tablet to the side which will bring up a generic Search menu. By default if you start typing and hoping to find a new application it is actually searching for what you currently have installed. You need to look down an inch and highlight the Store feature. You will notice right above the search bar it will have changed from Apps to Search. It took me a few minutes to figure this one out and it was frustrating not knowing why I couldn’t find any apps. Keep in mind that there are limited apps available to Microsoft and they are not nearly as well versed as Google or Apple. However, I’m sure this will change in the coming months as Windows 8 devices become more popular.

If you want to quickly find all the apps you have installed, return to the homepage, swipe up from the button and touch the All Apps button at the bottom right. This will show you everything you have installed. If you want to pin an app to the start screen, touch the app and hold until you can pin or unpin to the Start menu.

If you wish to run two apps at the same time, select the apps on the Start screen and swipe from left to right starting at the edge. This will split the screen 3:7 or 7:3. You can continue swiping until you have the two apps you want open at the same time.

Overall the tablet met my expectations, I didn’t expect it to be perfect nor did I expect it to have a ton of apps ready to go. I am a bit disappointed that Internet Explorer didn’t work perfectly right out of the box. On a design perspective I’m happy with the XE500T1C-A02CA. The screen is big which is great for movies but terrible for thumb-typing, the processing speed is impressive with how many things I could do at once without bogging down the machine, the audio quality is as good as it gets for a tablet with a soft bass but sufficiently clear and loud. The screen is pretty good too, more often than not I could easily share the screen with my wife when we’re looking up a recipe or trip idea.

One advantage the XE500T1C-A02CA has over Google and Apple is that it runs the Windows 8 operating system which means it can run any desktop application you throw at it. From the Start page touch the Desktop icon on the bottom left and it loads up your typical Windows desktop. If you have the keyboard docked then from here it is just like a netbook but you have a touch screen. The only odd ball feature is that you don’t have a Windows Start button to navigate to all your install programs or a specific program. Instead, everything you install would have to be on your desktop which would make it very cluttered. I won’t get into the details but with the XE500T1C-A02CA, from the Desktop page you do whatever you want as a normal PC but expect it to take significantly longer as it is only an Atom Z2760 (1.8 Ghz 1MB L2 Cache) processor with 2GB of RAM. Also, don’t expect to store too many things as you only have about 35GB of free space to work with.

Between using tablet use and desktop use with and without the keyboard, I found I could average 8 to 10 hours of use. This is pretty amazing for essentially a complete PC. The one thing I did find was that in sleep mode the Samsung XE500T1C would drain its battery faster than my Galaxy Tab. Within 24-36 hours I would have to recharge.

After a short two weeks with the XE500T1C-A02CA it was time to pack it up and send it back to Samsung. I certainly won’t miss the XE500T1C as I do have my Galaxy Tab which does everything I need it to however, I will miss some of the nice extra features the xE500T1C brought to the table. The large 11.6″ screen size made is nice for sharing pictures and I never found the extra frame any more of an inconvenience to carry around. The keyboard dock is great for when it came to working on this particular review away from my office. The ability to install any Windows app makes it easier than looking for an alternative, especially when it comes to find the right program for the corporate world.

The Samsung XE500T1C-A02CA will certainly have a small piece of the market place. For those just entering the tablet world and still think they will want a keyboard, the XE500T1C-A02CA is a great way to enter the market. I would have happily recommended as option for my less tech-savvy friends. The same goes for those in the corporate world that just have to have that particular Windows application not available in Apple or Google platform. The XE500T1C-A02CA isn’t the fasted tablet/netbook in the world but it does the trick at a price that doesn’t completely break the bank. For those who need a little more power, Samsung offers the 700T series which will cost in the $1000 range and will complete directly against the Microsoft Surface Pro that we all see in the .

• Advantages

• Great at multi-tasking applications
• Great basic setup with a selection of apps for beginners
• Multi-purpose with Windows environment

• Disadvantages

• Only 35GB of free space available
• Limited apps in MS Stores
• Keyboard layout prone to typos with shift and forward slash key

I’d like to thank Samsung for making this review possible.

Pages: 1 2 3 4