Tablets | New Nepal

MSRP: $499.00
Price Range: $409.00 – $619.99

Overview:

The good:

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
sports a proven, sensible design, a bevy of
useful features, and fast performance. The S
Pen Stylus is a unique addition.

The bad:

Only a limited number of apps make
full use of the S Pen and some of the ones that
do can be buggy and confusing. Some S Pen
features aren’t enabled by default and others
don’t work properly.
The bottom line: The Samsung Galaxy Note
10.1 is the best Samsung tablet yet. If you can
get over its somewhat high price, it’s a sound
Android tablet investment.

Design, Features & Performance (out of 10)

Design: 6.0

Features: 8.0

Performance: 7.0

Review:

With the inclusion of a stylus, the Samsung
Galaxy Note 10.1 attempts something different
for full-size tablets. In certain apps the S Pen
(as the stylus is called) does improve precision
and can make note taking a much faster affair.
Also, if you’re willing to put in the time learning
the apps and gestures, the S Pen can deliver a
useful and rewarding interface experience. But
if you’ve no artistic aspirations and typing out
your notes is your preferred method, does the
S Pen offer any real benefit?
Not really. For general tablet usage your finger
is still the best tool for the job, and unless you
have a specific need for an electronic pen (say,
you’re an artist) or are willing to a take long
hike over a slow, steep learning curve, there’s
really no benefit to using it.
Thankfully, even if you don’t use the pen, the
Note 10.1’s fast overall performance, sensible
design, great-looking screen, and useful
features make it the best Samsung tablet yet.
Editors’ note: Due to the increasingly
changing tablet landscape, we’ve lowered
the score of the Note 10.1 from 7.5 to 7.3.

Design:

If you’ve ever held the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
10.1 in your hands, then you’ll have a good
idea of what to expect from the Galaxy Note
10.1. Aesthetically, the tablets are nearly
identical, with only a few physical differences
to speak of: the Note 10.1 comes in a white
model and a black model (as opposed to only
gray), sports a wider bezel, is a bit thinner, and
weighs slightly more than the Tab 2 10.1.
Speakers grace the right and left bezel and the
top bezel sports a 1.9-megapixel camera that
sits right next to an ambient light sensor.
Directly opposite, on the back, is a 5-
megapixel LED flash-supported camera (up
from 3 megapixels on previous Galaxy Tabs).
The top edge holds a power button, a volume
rocker, a microSD slot (supporting cards of up
to 64GB), an IR blaster, and a headphone jack.
On the bottom edge are the dock connector
and a microphone pinhole. The tablet is fairly
light and comfortable to hold and while it does
feel like smooth plastic, it doesn’t feel
unpleasantly plasticky or cheap.
Samsung
Galaxy
Note
10.1
Samsung
Galaxy
Tab 2
10.1
Asus
Transformer
Tab Infinity
TF700
Apple iPad
(third
generation)

Weight in
pounds 1.32 1.28 1.32 1.44
Width in
inches
(landscape)
10.3 10.1 10.4 9.5
Height in
inches 7.1 6.9 7.1 7.3
Depth in
inches 0.35 0.38 0.33 0.37
Side bezel
width in
inches
(landscape)
0.9 0.74 0.8 0.8

Lastly, there’s a 4-inch-long, ill-placed holding
space in the tablet’s bottom-right corner for
the S Pen Stylus. The problems with this
placement are, one, the S Pen can easily fall
out if you’re holding the tablet up while
removing it, and two, when the tablet sits in a
docking station, the holding space is too close
to the desktop for the S Pen to be removed
unless you undock it first. Not a huge design
faux pas, but just a strange choice not to place
the holding space on the top.
The S Pen has gotten a redesign since its
appearance on the original Galaxy Note . The
new stylus is longer and thicker, and has its
sides squared off to keep it from unexpectedly
rolling away. Also, the pen button is now
grooved to make it a bit easier to find with
your fingertips; however, I found myself
consistently pressing the button by mistake.
The point of the S Pen is to give you an
alternative to using your fingers, and while this
feels fine for navigating menus and swiping
through pages, when it comes time to type, I
prefer using both hands, as it’s faster and
more comfortable than the search-and-peck
routine the S Pen forces you into. Also, the
stock S Pen is a little too light and thin for my
tastes. I much preferred using the original S
Pen encased in the S Pen Holder Kit with its
extra weight and mass making it feel much
more like a actual, quality, ink pen.
Samsung also built some shortcut gestures
into the pen, making tasks like screen capture,
calling up an app’s menu, and going back to
the previous screen a simple act of holding
down the pen button and swiping or tapping
the screen in the appropriate way.

Software features:

The Note 10.1 ships with Android 4.0.4, the
latest version of the OS before Jelly Bean
(version 4.1). Samsung says the tablet will be
upgraded to the new OS in 2012, however. If
you’re familiar with Samsung tablets, the
inclusion of the company’s custom UI,
TouchWiz, on the Note 10.1 will probably not
shock you. Thankfully, Samsung toned down
the oppressively Fisher-Price-ian look, giving a
more natural, quieter aesthetic. Along with
TouchWiz comes the only reason for the UI to
exist, in my opinion: the mini apps tray, now
upgraded to support limited customization.
You can now swap apps (chosen from an
increased, but still very small pool) in and out
from the tray, and the Task Manager, which
lets you kill apps and clear the RAM, is still the
most useful app in the tray.
The only other notable included apps are the
ones most compatible with the S Pen: S Note
and Photoshop Touch. However, while these
apps reward those willing to deal with learning
how to use them, jumping right into it feels like
the equivalent of diving 30 feet off a cliff into
an ocean only to find a bed of jagged rocks,
just under the water’s surface, waiting for you.
Figuratively speaking, of course.
In S Note, while there are eight templates to
choose from, there’s no clear way to open a
new, completely blank sheet of “paper.” Also,
there are icons in the app that have no
obvious purpose. I know that the pen icon in
the upper right corner has a function, but the
app doesn’t explicitly let me in on the secret
and only after attempting to draw with my
fingers did I discover that the icon turns on
pen-only mode. It may have other functions,
but I don’t know. Other tools like formula
match, shape match, and text match were
initially not the easiest features to find. The
functionality is there, but it’s unfortunately
hidden under a thick veil of inhospitableness.
While Photoshop Touch thankfully has a very
useful tutorial and according to Samsung is
optimized for S Pen use, it’s strange that the
pen’s pressure sensitivity features isn’t turned
on by default. This is a feature Samsung
should want to be completely obnoxious in
touting, but the only reason I know about it is
because a Samsung rep told me about it
during a demo. Samsung needs to bring this
level of education to the masses of people
interested in this product who have never used
Photoshop or a tablet. Let’s hope the company
finds a way to do so.
There’s a general writing-to-text feature that
works across most apps that include a typing
component, but again, though it’s a simple
thing to enable, it’s not turned on by default
and instead I found it necessary to go to the
reviewer of the original Note, Jessica Dolcourt,
and have her show me how she enabled it on
the phone. Even then, I still had to translate
that procedure to a tablet interface. After a few
minutes of near-apoplectic teeth grinding,
some yelling, and maybe a few tears (yes, from
me), we discovered the procedure: when the
Samsung keyboard is onscreen, hold down on
the gear icon and select the “T” symbol. Like I
said, it’s simple, but not obvious. It should be
both.
The translation software itself isn’t the most
accurate, but that wouldn’t be such a problem
if the accompanying UI weren’t as clunky. The
writing space is at the bottom of the screen,
with the software spacebar and Backspace
buttons above that. Once again, it’s a simple
solution, but in actual practice can quickly
become frustrating, especially after your third
try spelling a word. On second thought? The
translation software is just as much to blame
here.
The Note 10.1 is the first tablet to include a
feature called multiscreen. Multiscreen allows
you to run two apps at once on the same
screen; however, the apps you can can choose
from are limited to a specific six (S Note,
Polaris Office, Video Player, gallery, Email, and
the Android 4.0 browser) — unfortunately you
can’t swap in any app you’d like. The thought
behind the feature is to give you the ability to
create content by pulling assets from one app
into another. At least that’s the most useful
purpose. You can also create a birthday card in
S Note on the left side of the screen, while a
movie plays in Video Player on the right, but
thanks to the palm rejection feature not always
working properly that becomes a bit of a
problem.
With palm rejection, as long as the S Pen is in
your hand, the screen will not recognize any
other capacitive parts of your body, in
particular your palm. So unlike other stylus
pens, where your palm disables the pen, with
the S Pen’s technology, you can place your
palm flat down on the screen and still write to
your heart’s content. Or at least, that’s how it’s
supposed to work.
There are times when placing my palm with
pen in hand on the screen has no adverse
effect, but there are other times when it does.
Sometimes it’s your palm inadvertently
contributing to your latest art project and
other times (as when running S Note and
Video Player in the manner described above),
severe lag can occur as your palm interacts
with the video while you’re attempting to write.

Peel’s Smart Remote app

The Note 10.1’s IR blaster, in conjunction with
Peel’s included Smart Remote app, helps turn
your tablet into a remote control for your TV.
Peel can take the place of your cable or satellite
channel guide and display a list of shows
currently playing locally on your provider’s
channels. Go to the currently playing tab and
click on a show, and your TV switches to the
appropriate channel. Peel does a great job of
holding your hand initially through a step-by-
step setup wizard. The setup only requires that
you know your TV manufacturer’s name, your
cable/satellite provider, and your ZIP code.
Thankfully, Peel spares us from having to know
any more-detailed information; however, be
aware that Smart Remote does not work with
regular monitors, only TVs or monitor/TV
combos. Though it’s well-implemented overall,
I’m still waiting for Hulu and Netflix integration,
and an actual search feature would be useful.

Hardware features:

The most obvious and significant hardware
feature on the Note 10.1 is easily the S Pen.
The S Pen looks like a traditional stylus and
pretty much feels like one too, but
differentiates itself from lesser digital pens. The
pen’s tip sports a pressure-sensitive sensor
that recognizes 1,024 levels of pressure.
Samsung says the original Note only got as
high as 256. So, depending on the app you’re
using (not all apps support this), the harder
you press the pen on the screen, the thicker
the resulting lines.
This may be appealing with those (unlike
myself) with actual artistic talent who know
how to use shading to approximate three-
dimensional figures in a two-dimensional
space. Again, if you’re like me and you have no
idea what I just wrote, the Stylus has limited
appeal as simply a tool used to navigate. I
mentioned a difficult learning curve before;
that really isn’t limited to any one app. There is
depth here for those willing to take the time to
delve deeply, but the sharp jagged rocks of the
confusing UI will scare many off. Also, for the
most part, my fingers still work better.
The Note 10.1 houses a 1.4GHz quad-core
Exynos 4410 CPU and 2GB of RAM. Tablet
mainstays like 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and
5GHz) Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS
are included as well as gyroscope,
accelerometer, and a digital compass.

Performance:

Whether I’m using the pen or my fingers,
tapping through menus is as swift a process as
I’ve seen on any Android tablet, with no
noticeable hangs or stops. Switching between
apps also matches the fastest Android tablets
available. However, from an aesthetic
standpoint, I was disappointed by how stuttery
scrolling through pages and apps looked
compared with the ultra smoothness most
Tegra 3 tablets demonstrate.
I used Riptide GP as my real-world games
benchmark. The game delivered frame rates
roughly on par with what I’ve seen on 1.4GHz
Tegra 3-based tablets like the Asus
Transformer Prime, but doesn’t include the
Tegra 3-specific graphical effects. Also, the
frame rate isn’t as consistent or as high as on
either the iPad 2 or third-generation iPad .
Web speeds on Wi-Fi were about typical using
either Chrome or the default browser. App
downloads over Wi-Fi at 5 feet away from the
router were pulled down at a rate of about
1.8MBps, compared with the Google Nexus 7 ‘s
2.3MBps, with the scores averaged over three
iterations.
The screen responds quickly to the S Pen and
scrolls just as quickly as it would under a
finger; however, the screen may be a bit too
heavily calibrated toward accepting precise
touches from the pen. Attempting to scrub
through videos using just my finger didn’t
always work.
The screen’s 1,280×800-pixel resolution is fine
for most purposes, but I must admit to being
spoiled by recent Android tablets like the Asus
Transformer Infinity and Acer Iconia Tab A700
with their sharper 1,920×1,200-pixel
resolutions — a resolution I feel would have
been beneficial on a tablet so focused on
creating content.
The front camera won’t wow you with its
quality, but at 1.9 megapixels, it won’t distract
you either as long as you’re not planning to do
more than some videoconferencing on it. The
5-megapixel back camera isn’t capable of the
same level of clarity or color saturation I’ve
seen on higher-quality cameras like the
Transformer Infinity’s or the iPad’s.
Tested
spec
Samsung
Galaxy
Note
10.1
Samsung
Galaxy
Tab 2
10.1
Asus
Transformer
Pad Infinity
TF700
Apple iPad
(third
generation)
Maximum
brightness
(Super IPS
+)
411 cd/
m2
380 cd/
m2
422 cd/m2
(644 cd/m2) 455 cd/m2
Default
brightness
175 cd/
m2
213 cd/
m2 112 cd/m2 160 cd/m2
Maximum
black level
(Super IPS
+)
0.47 cd/
m2
0.39 cd/
m2
0.34 cd/m2
(0.53 cd/m2) 0.49 cd/m2
Default
black level
0.22 cd/
m2
0.22 cd/
m2 0.10 cd/m2 0.17 cd/m2
Default
contrast
ratio
874:1 974:1 933:1 941:1
Maximum
contrast
ratio
(Super
IPS)
795:1 968:1 1,241:1
(1,215:1):1 928:1

Here are our official CNET Labs tested battery
life results. More tablet testing results can be
found here .
Video battery life (in
hours)
Samsung Galaxy Note
10.1 9.6

Conclusion:

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with
16GB of storage for $500 or 32GB for $550,
and thanks to its fast performance, sensible
design, and a bucketload of features, it’s the
best Samsung tablet yet.
However, as Jessica Dolcourt implied in her
review of the original Galaxy Note phone, the S
Pen’s potential far outreaches its
implementation and that price, no doubt
driven by the inclusion of the stylus and its
supporting technologies, should be about $50
lower. Especially given the limited usefulness of
the S Pen for most people, the lack of the Jelly
Bean OS at launch, and a lower-res screen
than tablets are capable of.
If you’re looking for a full-size tablet, the Asus
Transformer Infinity is still the Android tablet
to get because of its beautiful, high-res screen,
fast performance, and useful features;
however, artists looking to take their portfolios
on the go or those willing to put in the time to
learn a new type of interface will want to give
the Note 10.1 serious consideration.