A closer look at the now quad-core tablet from Korea
The
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is here: the latest high-profile tablet from
the Korean tech giant, and one that sits across many intersections of
what's fast becoming a complex Samsung family tree. While the Galaxy tag
is a given for any Samsung mobile device nowadays, the Note range is
also now seemingly becoming a separate line of its own.
As with the original Samsung Galaxy Note
- a smartphone that helped popularise the awful term 'phablet' because
of its large display - the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 comes rocking an
S-Pen: Samsung's stylish name for its stylus.
We had a quick go on the super-sized Note, which you can see in our video:
So,
in the confusing Galaxy of Samsung devices - where Y means Young, M
means Magical, Pro means there's a physical keyboard and Plus means an
upgrade - the Note moniker is pretty straightforward. It means you can,
if you want, make use of a stylus.
However, the term Note is not reserved for large-screened smartphones - the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is a tablet, after all. But with Samsung already having just launched a 10.1-inch tablet into the market - the similarly named and similar-looking Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 - you'd be forgiven for scratching your head at this point (whether you use a stylus to do this is your choice).
So
the Note tag is now a label associated with premium mobile devices and
Tab, despite its use on the original (and expensive) Samsung 7-inch and
10-inch tablets, now appears to indicate a more affordable entity.
The
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1's spec sheet blows the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
10.1's out of the water, you see, with a quad-core 1.4GHz processor (as
opposed to a 1GHz dual-core one) and double the RAM.
On the flip
side, it will also do your bank balance more damage. The Samsung Galaxy
Note 10.1 costs £399 in the UK or $499.99 in the US for the Wi-Fi only
version, £500 (around $790 - cellular tablet price not announced in the
US yet) if you want 3G coverage as well - both offering 16GB of storage.
A 32GB version is available in the US for $549.99 (around £350). That's a price tag that, while cheaper than the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, makes the new Note a bit more expensive than the quad-core duo that have come out of Taiwan recently - the Asus Transformer Pad 300 and the Acer Iconia Tab A510.
And
while we've resisted to use the 'i' word up until now, it's also
impossible not to mention that this is a price point that puts the
Galaxy Note 10.1 directly up against Apple's latest iPad (16GB version). The Android vs iOS
argument is not one we're going to venture into here, but it's pretty
difficult to ignore the fact that you can have the world's most popular
tablet - complete with its incredible Retina display - for the same
price as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.
However, should you dare to be different, read on... Features
We mentioned the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1's striking similarities to the recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 in our introduction, and there's no doubt that on first glance they appear almost identical.
The
truth is that the Note's dimensions are a little bit different, at 262 x
180 x 8.9mm, and it's a tiny bit heavier, at 597g. Despite the slightly
different tale of the tape, though, there's no escaping the fact that
we're dealing with a white plastic tablet, complete with silver trim and
front-facing twin speaker grills. And
while the Pearl White finish is somewhat aesthetically pleasing (a
Pearl Grey offering is also available), there's no disguising the
slightly disappointing design. We're not saying the build quality is
anywhere below par, but we'd have much preferred an aluminium chassis,
or at least a textured plastic or rubber.
Like the Samsung Galaxy S3,
the white finish looks nice from afar but up close it's a tad too
flexible for our liking, and it you'll find it's covered with
fingerprints and smudges after only a short play - a crime the silver
mock-metal trim is also guilty of. Talking
of that silver trim and, front-facing, it is penetrated on the top side
edges by the dual stereo speaker setup. This is a feature that, once
again, was also part of the Tab 2 10.1's design, but it's one that we're
fond of, since it produces a much more natural audio experience.
The
port and button action is all found across the Samsung Galaxy Note
10.1's top edge. From left to right you'll find the power button, the
volume rocker, a microSD (flap-covered port), an infrared receiver and a
3.5mm headphone jack. There's a distinct lack of an HDMI port, so
you'll need a USB adaptor for wired HD TV action. On
the bottom are the little slot where the S-Pen slots into - which we'll
come back to later - and the Micro USB port that is used for disk
mounting and charging.
The silver trim curves into the front edge
nicely, although there is a noticeable lip where the silver reaches the
white bezel. There's also a distinct black trim around the LCD display,
and we can't help but think that Samsung could have done a better job of
seamlessly integrating the panel into the design.
And
yes, you read that correctly - it's an LCD display. A TFT one, in fact,
with an awfully underwhelming 1280 x 800 display. Yes, we know that's
still an HD display, but in a tablet arena now being dominated by Full
HD 1080p displays (not to mention the iPad's 2048 x 1536 display), and Samsung being a display panel specialist, we can't help but feel a little short-changed. The original 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note boasted a Super AMOLED display, after all.
Grumbles
aside, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 still has a vibrant display with
great viewing angles, and more than does the job of making HD footage
stand out. It just lacks that wow factor that we've come to expect from
Samsung. The
processor onboard is a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos one, backed up by 2GB of
RAM. While rivals go down the Nvidia Tegra 3 route for their quad-core
engine rooms, Samsung is able to keep things in-house.
The huge RAM option is a nice first for an Android tablet as well - comfortably blowing the 1GB Transformer Pad Infinity, as well as the iPad, out of the water in this respect. As
mentioned, the onboard storage is 16GB, and this is expandable by up to
64GB more by using the microSD slot. Samsung mentions 32GB and 64GB
options on its website, but there's no word of these versions landing in
the UK yet.
We had no issue transferring stuff from our microSD
card to the internal storage, or running digital media directly from it.
Our review model was the Wi-Fi-only version, although for £100 (around
$155) more, 3G connectivity (HSPA+ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100, EDGE/GPRS
850/900/1800/1900) is available. Weighing
a shade under 600g, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is light enough to
hold, even for long periods of time, and the curved, shiny design makes
it pleasing in the hand. There are no physical buttons up top - long
gone are the days of an Android home button (despite Samsung still
putting one on its flagship smartphone).
The battery is a 7,000mAh Li-on one - we'll let you know later on how we got on with it.
Interface and performance
There's no Android 4.1 Jelly Bean action on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, we're afraid - just a heavily modified version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The alteration comes courtesy of Samsung's TouchWiz UI, which will either delight or depress you, depending on your viewpoint.
Personally,
we like Samsung's Android overlay, and we were mightily impressed with
the raft of new tablet features afforded to the Galaxy Note 10.1.
Obviously, the S-Pen control option is at the forefront of the tablet's
existence, but we'll come back to that, since there are a couple of
nifty features we'd like to deal with first. The
first of these is the snazzy split-screen setup, which enables you to
run two apps side by side when the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is in
landscape mode, or one on top of the other in portrait mode.
Not
only does this enable you to get on with two things at once (with speedy
multitasking taken care of by the healthy 2GB of RAM), there are also a
couple of funky actions onboard to make your life easier. You can drag
and drop media from one app to the other in a fancy Mac-like copy and
paste action, and you can switch the app positions around at any time. Currently,
only certain apps are afforded an invite to the split-screen party
(S-Pen, the web browser, video player, photo gallery and Samsung's email
client) but we're hoping the likes of Twitter and Gmail are added to
the guest-list soon.
Another multitasking treat on the tablet is the pop-out video player - similar to the one we saw on the Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone.
This enables you to play back video in a pop-out, windowless, player so
you can view footage while getting on with other stuff. You can also
resize and move the viewing window, so it's easy to position it
appropriately for whatever other apps you're using. In
terms of the S-Pen, it works just like your finger - albeit a skinnier,
slightly more accurate one. It's powered by stylus specialist Wacom,
and Samsung states that it offers 1,024 degrees of pressure sensitivity.
It's not just for note-taking or drawing, either - combine a long press
with a tap of its side button, for example, and you'll take a
screenshot. Just removing the S-Pen from its slot brings up a sidebar of
S-Pen friendly apps.
Using S Note, for example, there's a
handwriting recognition tool, and other S-Pen delights such as shape
match and formula match, which both work well. Thanks
to the quad-core CPU, app loading is quick and response times are great
- we noticed hardly any lag when switching between programs. Menus
appear quickly and there's no issue with unrecognised touches or swipes.
The
keyboard is a customised Samsung one with a Swype-like option onboard
as well. The spacing of the keys is great, and there's a nice "pinch to
change" option that enables you to switch between a standard QWERTY
layout, a floating keypad or a split keyboard. The auto-correct engine
could be a tad annoying at times, but this isn't a problem that's
exclusive to Android, and it can be switched off.
In
terms of home screens, there a five on offer - each of which can be
loaded with app icons, shortcuts, widgets and wallpapers as you see fit.
You simply need to press and hold and you're presented with a gallery
of customisation options. The lock screen features the same "human
touch" water effect that we saw on the Samsung Galaxy S3 - complete with
an array of shortcuts to jump straight into apps.
The boot-up
time is pretty quick, at around 25 seconds - on a par with similarly
specified Android tablets - and is punctuated with neon blue Samsung
logos and the occasional odd sound.
Battery life and benchmarks
Battery
life on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is OK - we managed around five
hours of intensive punishment (streaming and looping an HD video on full
brightness). This equates to around six to seven hour of regular use.
The
battery onboard is a 7,000mAh Li-ion one. One minor quibble is that the
battery takes an age to charge. Overnight seemed to be the only way to
hit the magic 100 per cent.
When it came to benchmark scores, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 scored well above the Nvidia Tegra 3 mid-range posse of the Toshiba AT300, the Asus Transformer Pad 300 and the Acer Iconia Tab A510 proving that the Exynos processor, combined with that 2GB of RAM, is packing quite a heavy punch. Benchmarks Antutu - 12,727 SunSpider - 1,230.4 PeaceKeeper - 666
Browser and media
Samsung
has stuck a wealth of apps onto the Galaxy Note 10.1 but has sadly
omitted a key one from its latest tablet - Chrome. The browser of choice
for most Android enthusiasts is sadly lacking out of the box; a trip to
the Google Play emporium (once known as the Android Market) is required
if you want Google's flagship web platform.
Instead, the default
browser is the standard Android one. This isn't necessarily a bad thing,
supporting as it does things such as text reflow, text resizing,
inverted rendering, pinch to zoom, offline reading and Flash support
(you will need to visit Google Play to grab the latest version first,
however). Whatever
browser you choose (we like Dolphin HD and Opera, as well as the
Android flavour of Chrome) zoomed pages look great on the Samsung Galaxy
Note 10.1 and navigation across the web was a smooth affair with a
minimal fuss caused by even the most demanding of pages.
The 2GB
of RAM, along with the quad-core CPU, means that multi-tab browsing is
also a cinch for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Page load times were
quick, although we only ever used a strong, fast, Wi-Fi connection in
testing.
Movies, music and books
As
well as the Google Play store, Samsung has also pre-loaded its Music
Hub, Video Hub, Learning Hub up for your viewing and listening pleasure.
But while these make for nice looking widgets on your Samsung Galaxy
Note 10.1's home screens, populated with album covers and movie posters,
you're only likely to use them if you haven't already got your own
digital media accounts in place. Of course, your Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 will enable you to stream movies using Netflix, music using Spotify, and so on. In
terms of stored music, the pre-installed Music Player is a fairly
standard affair, with all the usual bells and whistles that you'd expect
(album artwork, playlists, shuffle mode) along with a couple of funky
extras - namely a decent set of EQ options and 'Music Square', which is a
playlist generator based on moods. The
standard video player handles an array of file types out of the box,
including WMV, MP4 and MKV and, for formats not supported, Google Play
has a multitude of free video players such as MoboPlayer, or MX Video
Player, which can handle pretty much any video format you throw at them.
And don't forget, videos can be popped out and watched while using
other apps. HD
video, even 1080p resolution footage, is handled with ease and is
stutter free. The sound from the stereo speakers is pretty good, but
you'll want to use your headphones or some speakers for a proper movie
or music session. Getting
your media onto the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is straightforward, since
the tablet supports drag and drop functionality with your PC. You can,
of course, load up a microSD card with media and pop that in as well. Google
would prefer, however, that you part with your money and load up on
digital goodies from Google Play, which offers movie rentals from 99p
(new releases cost around £3.49, or £4.49 for HD titles) and electronic
books. The music arm of Google Play isn't yet functional in the UK,
however. There's
no micro HDMI onboard, but you can beam up action to your big screen TV
using Samsung's AllShare functionality. You will need a Samsung TV or
Blu-ray player for this to work, though. One
thing that isn't so Samsung-specific is the Smart Remote app, which
enables you to control your TV, Blu-ray player, stereo system or set top
box using your Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. It's what the infrared
receiver on the top is for. Simply find your brand, match it up and away
you go. There's no support for UK Sky boxes at the moment,
unfortunately, but we had it playing nicely with our Samsung TV and our
Apple TV.
Apps and games
When
you first switch on your Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 you'll see that it's
pre-loaded with all of the native Google applications such as Google
Play, Gmail, Google Maps, People, Google+ and Talk.
Samsung has
also seen fit to pre-install a number of its own apps that it thinks
does Google's job better. You'll find ChatOn, Email, S Note, S Planner, S
Suggest and Samsung Apps. None of these offerings are outstandingly
brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, although S Note will come
in handy with your S-Pen. Also
pre-loaded are AllShare Play, Crayon Physics, Dropbox, Games Hub,
Learning Hub, Music Hub, Polaris Office, Smart Remote and Video Hub.
Which ones of these you enjoy or delete are entirely up to you -
although it's well worth syncing up your Dropbox account, even if only
for the 50GB of free cloud storage for two years.
In order to get
the most out of your Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, you'll be making numerous
visits to Google Play up with all the latest must-have apps and games.
You can download and install APK files if you wish, but we'd recommend
keeping within Google's app portfolio, or at least using reputable
third-party app stores. Samsung
also highlights some of its favourite apps through the S Suggest
portal, and the Game Hub is constantly updated with titles that the
company thinks that you might like. Getting
your game on with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is great, not just
because of the quick performance of the quad-core processor, but because
the tablet is light and easy to hold. This
means both onscreen-controlled games and accelerometer-based titles are
suitable, and we didn't experience any lag, even with more demanding
titles. Perhaps
the killer app of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 setup is the inclusion
of Adobe Photoshop Touch out of the box. By combining this premium app
(which usually costs £6.99) with the S-Pen, you could be knocking up
works of arts in the comfort of your living room in no time.
Look,
nobody in their right mind would base their tablet buying decision on
the quality of the camera onboard; for a start you'll look like a bit of
an idiot if you use a 10-inch slate as a camera when you're out and
about and, ultimately, the quality of the image and videos captured -
despite what the spec sheet says - is usually pretty atrocious.
Saying
that, the quality of the 5-megapixel camera (complete with LED flash)
on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is surprisingly good. It's no compact camera replacement, that's for sure, and it's nowhere near on the brilliant level of the top smartphones (such as its Galaxy S3 brethren) but it's a marked improvement on its tablet rivals. The
usual noise, grain and blur associated with tablet photography is kept
to a minimum on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, and there are plenty of
different shooting modes on the custom Samsung camera UI to get excited
about. We particularly liked the Cartoon mode.
Focusing is auto or
macro, you can mess around with the exposure, alter the white balance,
change the ISO, set the scene mode and much more. In short, it's a
Samsung smartphone quality setup on a tablet, even if the images aren't
quite up to the same level.
It is nice that you can customise the
icons that appear on the sidebar as well, making it easy for you to
play around with the settings that you like to change the most with
ease. Click here to see the full resolution image
Despite it being a dank day, the image produced was surprisingly sharp. Click here to see the full resolution image
By tweaking the settings, it is possible to get a decent shot - even with the elements against you. Click here to see the full resolution image
Not a very well lit room here, and the result is a bit of over exposure and some blurriness. Click here to see the full resolution image
The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1's flash helps, but it's not ideal. Click here to see the full resolution image
The macro mode resulted in an incredibly sharp image for a close-up subject. Click here to see the full resolution image
There
are some funky shooting modes on offer on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1,
and also the option to directly share using Wi-Fi Direct.
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