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Ultra Mobile Video Editing Part 5 – Series 9, Core i5 and Software Tests


In Part 4 we looked at a €399 AMD Fusion-based Lenovo S205. Through a number of video editing software tests I managed to get an acceptable 720p rendering speed out of the device which would be OK for short projects. For 480p output, it was good though.  In this article I’m taking it up a notch in processing power to an Intel ‘Sandy Bridge’ based 13 inch laptop. It’s the lightweight Samsung 900X3A and given the right software, it’s proving to be a fantastic machine for 720p editing, rendering and uploading for YouTube.

Before we start though, a reminder of the aim and parameters set for the project. The parameters I’ve set for the project are shown below and you can read about why these parameters have been set here.

  • PC and video editing software to cost less than 600 Euros
  • PC to be less than 1.5KG with 12 inch screen or less.
  • Total camera + PC solution to weigh less than 2KG and cost less than 1000 Euro
  • Source video should be 720p
  • Video sent to YouTube should be 480p minimum
  • Video editing sotware must include watermarking, overlays, crossfades, and multiple audio tracks.

At 1.33KG the Samsung Series 9 (900X3A) is light but with the 13 inch screen, is bigger than I’d like to see. The screen size (1366×768) does have some advantages at this size though. It’s matt and bright too which means it is good for working outdoors. A 128GB fast SSD helps too. There is an 11 inch version of the 900X3A available to order if the 13 inch screen is not to your tastes. If it looks and sounds like an expensive laptop, it is. It’s well outside the target price of 600 Euro. You won’t be able to find the 900X3A for much less than 1400 Euro at the moment but don’t let that put you off because this is a premium device that’s one of the first in the market. Intel are promising sub $1000 devices based on the same platform as the 1.4Ghz Core i5 in the Samsung 900X3A and as time goes on, those prices will drop further and during 2012 I expect devices of this calibre to be coming down fast to 600 Euro.

You’ll find a full review of the Samsung 900X3A over at Ultrabooknews but let’s focus on video production here.

First thing to note is the lack of full-size SD card slot. It’s a big minus in my opinion. A micro-SD card slot is available but I really don’t recommend swapping micro-SD cards about. The full-size adaptor with eventually fail and there’s a high risk of dropping or losing a micro-SD card. The solution is to use a USB adaptor for the SD card or a standard USB connection. High-speed cards are a must for high bitrate videos so make sure your adaptor is a quality one. The Series 9 supports USB3.0 but you shouldn’t need that. One of the ports can be used as a charging port when the device is off too which could be handy.

The excellent SSD in the Series 9 works at up to 220MB/s so for large programs like Power Director 9, there’s no hanging around waiting for it to load up. YOu might find it load faster than on most desktops in fact. Moving files around, duplicating and general file work is quick too which really helps to smooth things along.

The CPU/GPU combination in the Series 9 is known as ‘Sandy Bridge.’ It’s the second-generation Core processor from Intel and makes significant processing power gains over the previous generation. It’s an expensive platform but as well as raw CPU power and acceptable low-end gaming GPU power it also includes a hardware video decoder and hardware video encoder for some formats. Support for the video encoder is not widespread though. HDMI-enables full extended screen working but remember that the audio is routed digitally and you’ll need an audio decoder in your monitor.

As with the Lenovo S205, I’m using 12Mbps 25fps 720p from a Nokia N8 and converting it to 720p at 30fps with  a bitrate of 6mbps. The laptop is set to high-power mode (no mains power.) Remember, this isn’t a comparison of video editing suites, it’s a test to see how much editing and rendering power and time can be had from the Samsung 900X3A (and by definition, from other notebooks based on the same CPU/GPU/Chipset combination.

Video Editing Software

Cyberlink Media Espresso.

Cyberlink Media Espresso does a fantastic job of converting video. A 7 min H.264 video was converted in just over 60 seconds which is exceptional. It matches the frame rate automatically though and despite setting a 6mbps bitrate, the conversion completed with a 4mbps bitrate.  It bodes well for video rendering using Power Director, the video editing tool from the same company. Note that this is a pure video conversion tool and no clip editing or sequencing is possible.

One feature in Media Espresso which could be a real advantage for mobile video creators is the YouTube upload feature. I was able to throw in a 6mbps 720p file for upload which was converted down to 1.8mbps to match YouTube minimum requirements. It results in fast upload speeds and fast conversion speeds at YouTube. A 180MB 1080p file was converted down to low-bitrate 720p and just 33MB in size. Upload speed was obviously 5x faster than the original and the conversion time at YouTube was about 2 mins for 360p and another minute for 720p. Ignoring the video editing tools for a bit, this is one tool that could seriously help beat the clock on uploading YouTube videos. When you’ve got time you can always upload the high-bitrate version at a later time.

Cyberlink Power Director

Over the last 5 years I’ve seen consistent support from Cyberlink for low-level hardware. Early VIA UMPCs had video decoding hardware that was supported by Cyberlink. The recent AMD Fusion platform is well supported and the same is true here with the Intel Quick Sync Video technology.

power director Series 9

Despite trying a wide range of settings though, I couldn’t get Power Director to work as fast during standard video clip conversion as Media Espresso. Using a single clip without any affects I was able to achieve a 6:48 conversion time for the original 7:38 clip which is good, about 3 times faster than the Lenovo S205 with the same challenge, but there seems to be a more complex operation going on in Power Director that results slower conversion speeds than with Media Espresso. Using the default hardware acceleration settings (hardware decode only) I only saw a 30% average CPU load. Turning off the hardware decoding though does result in higher CPU load and slower processing (about 2x.) It wasn’t until I spotted the ‘Trial Software’ watermark on the rendered video clip that I realised what might be happening. The Intel Quick Sync encoder can’t work efficiently if there’s an overlay being applied. I’m checking this theory with Cyberlink right now and will update the post when I get new information or am able to test without the text overlay being forced.

Update: Thanks to Cyberlink I was able to test a fully licensed version of Power DIrector. I couldn’t get any more speed or CPU load out of the system so clearly there’s something else that may need optimising. 720p conversion rates remained at just under the 1X real-time mark about 3x faster than the AMD E-350 based Lenovo S205 and easily 5x faster than a standard Intel Atom netbook.

At this stage we can say that Intel Quick Sync does work in Power Director and this test case, a 720p 12mbps source, gives a 2x increase in rendering speed (with watermarking) but there could be more. Using other clips, 1920×800 at 8mbps for example, I began to see some limits where the hardware encoder wasn’t helping to increase the speed (but was helping to keep CPU usage low and therefore battery drain minimised)

In the best cases (using Intel Quick Sync video) I saw an average of about 18W being used with a peak of 25W, possibly while the Sandy Bridge Turbo feature was being used (until the thermal controls turned it off.) In terms of speed per watt energy consumed, that’s easily the best I’ve seen so far. On a fully loaded battery, the Samsung Series 9 900X3A could encode about 2.5 hours of 720p timeline cuts, fades, titles and sequencing. On the Lenovo S205, you’ll get about 1hr of encoding completed. On a netbook, well, you don’t want to go there with 720p editing and encoding!

Heat and Turbo

Intel’s Turbo Boost technology is interesting and useful in some situations. In video rendering situations though it’s not so useful due to the way it works. Thermal monitoring means that if the CPU core reaches a fixed temperature, the Turbo boost feature will be restricted. In CPU-bound, multicore tasks like video rendering, both cores will reach operating temperature very quickly and Turbo will be turned off. In some cases I saw just 9 seconds of Turbo boost but it depends on ambient temperature and the process being used. For video editing (not final rendering) Turbo boost works well because it’s only need occasionally. It has major advantages but not in video rendering.

SVRT

SVRT is a feature in Power Director that detects if the source and destination file formats, frame rates and bitrates are the same. In they are the same (or similar in some cases) the source file is not re-rendered completely. Only fades, titles and effects will be re-rendered.. In other cases, the file is ‘passed through’ to the output thus vastly increasing rendering speeds. With the N8 source files I was unable to achieve this. Interestingly, by passing the source files through Media Espresso it converted them to a format that was compatible with the SVRT process.

This pre-conversion process may not be the highest-quality way to treat video clips but for our YouTube target, it’s an interesting process and could, for videos over say 5 minutes, could shorten the rendering time. There’s a second advantage to having Media Espresso in the toolchain too because it does a very good job of converting and uploading files for YouTube. There’s also the option of using some simple clean-up tools although that will extend the rendering time by a lot.

Other tools

Again, this article is not meant as a review of video editing software but during the series I’ve mainly been focusing on two software packages. The Cyberlink solutions covered above and the Corel Video Studio Pro X4 solution that I’ll talk about now. The reason? They both offer sub €100 solutions, include support for hardware and specialist libraries like OpenCL and they include enough capability for the average mobile video process. These aren’t pro tools but where speed is important and YouTube is the audience, pro tools are often too much.

Using Corel Video Studio Pro X4 I wasn’t able to get quite the speed of rendering that I saw on Power Director and there was no indication that Intel Quick Sync Video was supported although the ‘hardware encode’ option did appear. I wonder if the Intel Quick Sync technology is actually used. After 20 or 30 different tests I was not satisfied with the speed and efficiency of Video Studio Pro X4 and abandoned this a a choice for the Sandy Bridge platform.

Premier Elements SCreen

Adobe Premier Elements is another popular mid-range editing suite and it does support Intel Quick Sync technology via an Intel plugin (available here.) In my tests I felt confident that more was being pulled out of the Series 9 that with the other two programs although power usage was higher by about 10% than on Cyberlink Power Director 9. Because of the plugin there are specific settings for using the Intel Quick Sync technology and it’s possible to force the use of the hardware. In an initial test though, the video failed to finish its conversion. In all cases video direct from the N8 was misinterpreted as 500fps video and could not be used until I passed the source video through Media Espresso, process that takes time and obviously will degrade the source material.

By using these ‘cleaned’ files and creating a 1 minute timeline of fades, titles and including a ‘demo software’ the process was completed in nearly 2X real time 37 seconds for a 60 second video. I had no problem in editing or rendering these pre-converted files.

In a test of a standard bridge camera 720p file I downloaded a sample from a Canon SX30is in 720p at 21mbps. The file was easy to work with in Adobe Premier Elements and rendering speed down to 6mbps with fades and edits was almost as fast as with the ‘converted 6mbps file from the N8. Conversion down to sub-2mbps for YouTube and subsequent upload and availability was

08072011061

The software is very flexible in creating output formats although the user interface didn’t seem as intuitive to me as Power Director. Given that Intel Quick Sync support will be important for the professional version of Adobe Premier, it’s very likely that the Intel Quick Sync technology will get continued support and end up as a core part of the software. At this stage though, it might not be prudent to rely on this two-part solution for professional use.

For the purposes of this article though, it proves the potential power of the 2nd-generation Core i5 platform.

Summary

Both Adobe Premier Elements and Cyberlink Power Director confirm that a 1.3KG laptop can be used for comfortable and efficient 720p video editing and rendering. The hardware encoding and decoding in the 1.4Ghz Core i5 platform is clearly helping and in comparison with the Lenovo S205 that I previously tested, you can get a lot more done within the duration of a single battery charge. That’s very important for mobile users. Given our requirements, the Samsung 900X3A is a little expensive and with only 100GB of disk free, there are some storage limits that will have to be offset with a USB3 hard drive but as a platform, Sandy Bridge (at a measly 1.4Ghz) proves it can offer 720p editing and rendering in 1.3KG. Of the video editing suites tested, Power Director and Adobe Premier Elements come out on top for performance with Adobe Premier Elements leading the way assuming source files work correctly with the system.  Cyberlink Media Espresso works amazingly fast to convert files down to usable sizes for even faster editing and rendering and also, fast upload times.

In the video below I give you a demo of edit, render, convert, upload and view on YouTube. It’s a 720p 22mbps file from a Canon SX30IS (This sample was used) and the whole process takes 8 minutes.

Note on stability

In tests with Adobe Premier Elements, I saw a number of program crashes. This is of major concern as project work was lost as a result. I didn’t experience crashes on the other editing packages.

Note on Quality

The quality parameters for this project are fairly loose. I’m not looking for the best quality codec but I’m looking for an acceptable 720p full-screen experience on YouTube. At 2mbps, 720p videos are going to be lacking in a lot of finer detail but for YouTube, that’s the way it is. Editing in higher bitrates and converting using Media Espresso for a final YouTube upload leaves the original available for use later if required.

Next Step

For me, this ends my work to analyse low-end solutions because I know that in Sandy Bridge-based Ultrabooks I’ve found my solution. The next stage is to buy a device, make a final decision on the software and get to work creating content. Right now the Asus UX21 and Cyberlink Media Espresso and Power Director 9 are at the top of the list due to ease and smoothness of use and acceptable rendering speeds.

Thanks to Samsung Germany and Cyberlink for their help with this article. (Loan hardware and software provided.)

Ultrabook! Samsung 900X3A Full Review


cm markLooking for an upgrade to a netbook?

I know that 1.3KG can feel different in different form factors but the thin and light laptops shouldn’t be ignored if you’re thinking about ultra mobility. For example, if you need a device to operate for 7-8 hours while typing offline but want to turn up the power dial to 11 now and then for a bit of 720p editing and rendering or gaming, the Samsung 900X3A is one to take a look at. It’s a smart device in its own right but it also gives us a good idea how Ultrabooks will perform when they arrive in the next few months.

In the full Samsung 900X3A review I’ve just published over at Ultrabooknews you’ll see some impressive, netbook-like battery life possibilities, gaming and video editing and some thoughts about moving up from the netbook category. For example:

  • Video editing and processing
  • Fine-grain thermal management that allows ‘turbo’ scenarios
  • A wide-dynamic range of operating modes. From netbook to desktop
  • Faster busses, faster disk, faster startup
  • Video streaming and video calling in high quality
  • Fast batch processing of images
  • A wide range of reliable video playback capability
  • Fast web rendering
  • Desktop-style multitasking

Ultrabooks are a category I’m personally very interested in as one that fits well with my three device (smartphone, pad, laptop) strategy. I’ll be writing up a new article about ultra-mobile video editing using the Samsung Series 9 and you’ll see it in the next few days here at UMPCPortal. Hint: 5x high-end netbook rendering speeds. 3X Fusion E.350 rendering speeds for 720p content and output.

The full Samsung 900X3A review is available here.

Samsung 900X3A Impressions, Video. Live Review on 30th June


I posted some first impressions  overview video and of the Samsung 900X3A over at Ultrabooknews.com today and it’s embedded below. Those of you that are interested in seeing this live (in terms of processing power / efficiency Sandy Bridge is worth taking a look at) see the details below.

UPDATE: Full Samsung 900X3A review and live review videos now live!. Click here.

Live Session Announcement

If you’ve been to any of the live review sessions at UMPCPortal or Carrypad you’ll know we offer a unique service. We’ll sit down with a device for a few hours, put a few cameras on it, start a chat session and run a live, detailed open review where you can ask questions and get all the answers you need.

That’s what I’ll be doing with the Samsung 900X3A on Thursday evening at 2100 (Berlin time) at Ultrabooknews.com/live

Here’s the time shown in your location.

It’s free, it’s open and some of it is even recorded but if you want to ask specific questions and watch the input from other people in the chat room, you’ll need to be there!

Follow  @ultrabooknews for late-breaking info and reminders in the run-up to the session on Thursday.

With Rumblings of a Dual-core Galaxy Tab 7, Will the 1.2GHz 4G Version Ever See the Light of Day?


galaxy tab 7 4gApparently lost in the shuffle, Samsung’s 4G Galaxy Tab 7 (with Verizon 4G LTE support, improved camera, and faster 1.2GHz {single-core} CPU) didn’t see wide coverage back when it was announced at this year’s CES in January. Six months later, we’re left wondering where it is. Now we’re seeing rumors of a dual-core Galaxy Tab 7 and it seems possible that the 4G version announced at CES may be scrapped and will perhaps emerge as a dual-core and 4G model.

Official inquiries to PR folks from both Verizon and Samsung say that the 4G Galaxy Tab 7 is still happening, but a date for release has not yet been announced. At this rate, I’m thinking it might be dropped in favor of a dual-core version. As mentioned, the 4G Galaxy Tab was announced 6 months ago — a long time in the tech world, especially for a device that was already available in it’s non-4G version as early as 8 months ago.

An Italian Blog, Samsung.HDBlog.it has a piece showing that the next version of the Galaxy Tab 7 may be equipped with Samsung’s newest processor, the Exynos 4210, a 1.2GHz dual-core CortexA9 CPU. In addition to 1080p encoding (for video file creation) and decoding (playback), the Exynos 4210 also conveniently supports 4G LTE modems. Due to the language barrier, I can’t quite make out if this is speculation on the part of the blog or sourced information. Regardless, the time appears to be right for a ‘version 2.0’ of the Galaxy Tab 7, and Samsung has the hardware laying in wait.

As an 8 month old product, the Galaxy Tab 7 is definitely becoming ripe for a refresh. It no longer seems that a mere bump to 1.2GHz from the existing CPU, an improved camera, and 4G support (as announced at CES) will be enough to bring the popular tablet up to spec with modern tablets, especially with its bigger brothers, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, already available (and soon in 4G variants). Perhaps dual-core 1.2GHz with the new Exynos 4210 is the only way to go. The question then is: when?

I can only hope that Samsung doesn’t decide the drop the Galaxy Tab 7 in favor of the 8.9 inch size. Chippy, along with myself and others, would be infuriated; 7 inch is just perfectly portable!

HDR-Computing on the Slick Samsung 900X3A


Thanks to Samsung Germany I am now using a rather swish and expensive Series 9 (Model 900X3A) 13″ laptop running the new Sandy Bridge ULV platform. This isn’t a ultra mobile PC of-course but it’s not here for ultra-mobile testing, it’s here for two other things. Firstly I want to use it for the next part of my Ultra Mobile Video Editing series and you’ll see that happen here are UMPCPortal. Secondly I want to start tracking the Ultrabook category very closely as I believe it is not only an important low-power platform for laptops but could, in a few generations, drive sub 1KG Windows devices that will range from sub 1W always-on, to 15W power-houses, exactly what I call High Dynamic Range Computing. They will challenge netbooks for size and power utilisation and include premium features like Wireless-Display, Light-Peek and security subsystems that can be used to stream and store high-value content. There will be a price premium of course but that should reduce to hit the top-end of the netbook range meaning Atom has a positioning job to do. You can follow my work with Ultrabooks over at Ultrabooknews.com

 

Read the full story

Samsung Series9 Incoming for Testing


image

While not officially an ultrabook, the beautiful Samsung Series 9 uses exactly the same platform as the Asus UX21 will when it launches. It comes with a generous 128GB SSD and it’s super-light too. The only issue is that it’s expensive.

That’s not going to deter us from testing one though so next week we’ll have the Samsung 900X3A with Core i5-2537M (NP-900X3A-A01DE) and we’ll be doing a live review session in partnership with my other blogging location, UMPCPortal.com Stay tuned here and on Twitter for more information.

We’ve put the Series 9 in the database alongside the UX21

The Ultra Mobile Challenge is Harder Than Ever


Let’s say you need a UMPC. It’s not as uncommon as some people think. It might not be the consumers cup of tea but in industry, mobility counts for a lot. Logistics, amateur pilots, health industry, blue-light industry, traveling geeks and other situations where full capability, compatibility and flexibility in the smallest package is key. The problem is, if you need a ultra mobile PC today, what the hell are you going to buy?

Lets put down a little wish-list for the sake of the argument.

Sub-1KG, Windows 7 support, 5hrs battery life 5-8.9 inch screen, easy conversion to keyboard/screen device. Price under $1000.

The shortlist I would recommend right now would be the following but they are all ‘last-gen’ UMPCs, at least a year old and going out of stock, and probably entering the end-of-life phase.

  • Fujitsu UH900
  • Sony Vaio P
  • Viliv N5
  • Viliv S7
  • Viliv X70
  • Archos 9 (with SSD, 1.2Ghz)
  • UMID Mbook SE Thx to Gearsguy for the information on the availability and videos. I’ve included one of the videos below.

If you need a keyboard, the Mbook SE, UH900 and N5 are worth a look. The Archos 9 is good value at under 450 Euro right now and the X70 is a great performer. Isn’t it underwhelming that these devices are all over a year old though.

W100One device I took a second look at was the Toshiba Libretto W100. Originally this device was available for 1100 Euro. Today, it’s under 600 Euro in Europe making it an interesting option because of its CPU – Pentium Dual-Core U5400 with 2x 1.20GHz that comes in at about 130% the processing power of a high-end dual-core Atom part. It also includes 2048MB Ram and a 62GB SSD. This is certainly an ultra mobile workhorse but the design and battery life are going to be issues for some. 3hrs isn’t that exciting.  Interestingly this could make a super ultra-mobile video editing platform.

 

 

This dearth of options in this space is because of two things. Firstly, Menlow is out and Oaktrail isn’t yet in. There isn’t really another platform to think about right now although I’ve got my eye on AMDs Z-01 We’re going to have to wait for a set devices on Oaktrail for another few months. The other issues is the 10 inch tablet craze. It puts designs at around the 1KG mark and limits usability. The Viliv X70 is one to keep an eye out for but based on the silence from Viliv, I’m guessing it’s not close to being available yet.

Widening your choices

Netbooks, starting at about 1.2KG (2.6lb) and large-format Windows tablets (again 1.2KG when a keyboard is added) along with 5~ and 7~ Android tablets and the iPad2 all need consideration. Even the >4 inch Android phones with the latest CPUs. As Meego filters in, keep an eye on that too as it spans mobile and desktop environments. Finally, Honeycomb and WebOS are operating systems to watch. Personally I have high hopes for Honeycomb as one of the more flexible operating systems to cross-over into a productive and flexible environment and that could happen on either ARM or Intel.

Choosing a platform for 2012

Oaktrail Intel’s Z6xx series. We’ve seen it running Windows, Android and Meego already, it will run Chrome OS and there should be forward compatibility with Windows 8 making it, in my opinion, one of the most interesting ultra-mobile platforms out there right now. Intel builds of Honeycomb and Meego should be able to squeeze more battery life out of it too. There’s a 2X graphics improvement over Menlow (GMA600 vs. GMA500) and even hardware 720p video encoding which could speed up video rendering. At 1.5Ghz, it’s not the most CPU-powerful platform but Intel have already talked about 1.8Ghz versions and I’m sure, if the platform becomes popular, we could see dual-core versions too. Why Oaktrail and not Cedar Trail? Because it’s got power management capabilities that Cedar Trail hasn’t got.

Waiting for Sandy Bridge.

Sandy Bridge in ultra-low-voltage guise is very interesting. I recently tested an AMD-E350 based Lenovo S205. It was good. It’s TDP (CPU+GPU) is 18W and the CPU performance is high-end Atom level. Sandy bridge, on the other had also comes in 17W TDP variants but the CPU performance on these simply blows Atom, E-Series Fusion and even first-gen Core parts out of the water. with around 5x the CPU performance of an Atom CPU along with some good GPU performance. Price is high as we’ve seen with the Samsung Series 9 but that devices comes in at 1.3KG with 6hrs of battery life and serious compute power. It’s a sign that Ultrabooks could push down in to even smaller and lighter designs.

Samsung Series 9 Ultrabook (4)

My plan. What’s yours?

Today I sold my last netbook / laptop. Over the last few months I’ve been having a clear-out and now I’m left completely without any sort of mobile productivity device. It’s a nice position to be in but it’s going to be a tough decision. Right now I’m favouring the Samsung TX100 / Gloria / PC7 Slider on Oaktrail because I’m interested in Oaktrail performance and multi-OS scenarios. I’m worried about the CPU performance though. I’m also looking carefully at that Toshiba W100/W105 show above. I think I can run PowerDirector video editing suite on that and get some usable 720p rendering speeds that should be 2x what the Oaktrail platform can produce. Finally, Samsung have another very interesting product in the Series 9 laptop on Core i5 Sandy Bridge. It’s an expensive item but a real mobile workhorse. And why am I looking at all these laptop-style devices? Because after spending 7 months with the Galaxy Tab I’ve found that there are fewer things I need to do on a laptop now and those things generally involve high-productivity working with Video, Images and multiple windows. The 7 inch tablet has filled a great position but along with my new requirement to product 720p videos, has pushed up my requirements for a laptop.

(Update: Sold Out!) Today Only: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7-inch WiFi+3G (Sprint) for $259-No Contract!


gtab woot

Update: As predicted, the Galaxy Tab has already sold out from Woot. Some interesting stats:

During the sale, Woot sold one Galaxy Tab every 27 seconds. The first one sold after only 1 minute and 42 seconds of the deal being available. Total number of units sold was 1755.

———————————————–

Our favorite deal-a-day site, Woot.com, has a great deal on the tablet that’s been topping our popularity charts for months on end: the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

This particular version is a 16GB WiFi+3G model which doesn’t appear to be well priced on the surface until you realize that you don’t have to sign up for service with your purchase from Woot. A new Galaxy Tab from Sprint without the contract would run you $429. Woot is offering the device (refurbished) for $259 without the contract.

Just in case you aren’t familiar with the well respected tablet, here are the important bits:

  • Android 2.2 (customized for a tablet experience by Samsung)
  • Samsung C110 Hummingbird CPU @ 1GHz
  • 512MB of RAM
  • 7 inch capacitive touchscreen @ 1024×600
  • 16GB pre-installed MicroSD card
  • WiFi & Bluetooth 3.0
  • CDMA 1900/800 EVDO Rev A (Sprint)

Chippy has a wickedly detailed review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab should you desire to consult an expert about a potential purchase:

https://www.umpcportal.com/2010/10/28/samsung-galaxy-tab-full-review-part-1-overview-hardware-screen-keyboard/

This is Woot we’re talking about here — they only offer one deal per day. After 12:59am EST, this deal will be gone (and will likely sellout even before), have at it!

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