Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (U.S. Cellular)

U.S. Cellular subscribers love their carrier, and they'll probably love it more with 4G LTE. But the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 ($399-499) isn't the best way to keep the love flowing. While it's the first tablet?to use the super-fast network on the nation's most adored carrier, it's last year's model and suffers from app availability problems that all Android tablets are currently struggling with.

Hardware, Design, and OS
The U.S. Cellular Tab is actually the same hardware as the Verizon Wireless Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 ($629.99), which we gave a 3.5-star rating to when we reviewed it last September. But as often happens when carriers are six months late with a product, we're knocking the tablet down half a point because the world has moved on, but the Galaxy Tab 10.1 hasn't.

The Galaxy Tab is a now-traditional slab-style tablet, 10.1 by 6.9 by .34 inches (HWD) and 19.9 ounces. It has a 10.1-inch, 1280-by-800 screen (thus the name) and a slightly textured gray back. It's slim and relatively light for a tablet its size. U.S. Cellular's one model is the 32GB unit, which offers about 27GB of space for user files; there's also a microSD card slot. Battery life was similar to the new Apple iPad, at 5 hours, 15 minutes of video playback time with the screen brightness cranked up to max. (The Galaxy Tab has a lower-resolution screen than the iPad, but it's also considerably lighter.)

The tablet runs Google Android Honeycomb 3.2 with Samsung's TouchWiz extensions, including a little bar of desk accessory-like applications including a calendar and memo pad which pop up from the bottom of the screen.

We've been over this ground before, and you should read our original Galaxy Tab 10.1 review and our Verizon Galaxy Tab 10.1 review to get a full picture of the device. The news here is the carrier, the service plans, and the timing.

Coverage and Service Plans
U.S. Cellular is the seventh-largest carrier in the nation, with about six million customers in 26 states. Outside the carrier's native coverage area, U.S. Cellular roams on Verizon and Sprint, offering nationwide 3G coverage. The carrier won our Readers' Choice award by a considerable margin thanks to positive opinions of its fees, coverage and reliability.

U.S. Cellular's LTE network currently covers six regions: Madison/Milwaukee, Wisc.; Lawton-Wichita Falls, TX-OK; Bangor-Portland, ME; Presque Isle-Houlton, ME; rural eastern North Carolina and metropolitan Iowa. It's currently the only LTE carrier in Maine, but at least part of all of those other areas are covered by Verizon's 4G LTE. The carrier plans to expand throughout 2012 and 2013.

We haven't been out to test U.S. Cellular's 4G network, and U.S. Cellular isn't quoting speeds publicly. But because of U.S. Cellular's comfortable spectrum position, we expect it to function more like Verizon's network than like MetroPCS's. That means average download speeds around 9.5Mbps, as our Fastest Mobile Networks tests showed last year.?

U.S. Cellular offers the Galaxy Tab at a compelling price: $399.99-499.99 for a 32GB model after a $100 rebate, depending on service plan. That's cheaper than Verizon's $629.99 price. But USCC's service plans are far less flexible than Verizon's. Verizon lets you pick anywhere from 2 to 10 GB/month, with fees smoothly sliding up from $30-80/month. USCC only has two options: an unrealistic 200MB plan for $14.99/month, and a probably overly roomy 5GB plan for $54.99/month. The up-to-$200/month overage fees on each plan are a blast from the unpleasant past.

More annoyingly, there's no true month-to-month option. Contrast that with the Editor's Choice Apple iPad (4.5 stars), which is once again more expensive up front at $729 for the 32GB 4G LTE model, but where you can turn the data fees on and off at will.

2011's Device, Now In 2012
Here's the difference six months makes. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 no longer runs a current version of Android?its 3.2 has been supplanted by 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and although Samsung promises a 4.0 upgrade, the company hasn't given a timetable for it.

The Galaxy Tab's 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor is also starting to look slow compared with quad-core tablets like the Asus Transformer Prime ($499, 4 stars) and others soon hitting the market. And Toshiba's Excite 10 LE has become the thinnest Android tablet around.

The Galaxy Tab's biggest problem, though, is apps. While the Tablified Market ($1.49, 4 stars) third-party directory lists about 1,500 good Android tablet apps, that's much fewer than you'll find on an iPad. You can run Android phone apps on this tablet, but they'll often look awful. Google has shifted its development focus to Ice Cream Sandwich, which makes us hesitant to recommend Android tablets not running ICS like this one.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is U.S. Cellular's only 4G LTE tablet, but we have a better idea. The carrier lets you use its Android phones as Wi-Fi hotspots, and it plans to sell a standalone MiFi-style hotspot as well. If you're interested in speeding along on the nation's most-loved network, get a Samsung Galaxy S Aviator, U.S. Cellular's upcoming 4G LTE phone, or U.S. Cellular's upcoming standalone Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot. Then pair one of those with the Wi-Fi-only models of the new Apple iPad, Apple iPad 2 ($399, 4.5 stars) or Asus Transformer Prime Wi-Fi tablet. You'll get the best of both worlds: U.S. Cellular's LTE service with a better tablet, and no extra two-year contract.

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