Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 inch Tablet - White (ARM Cortex A9 1.4GHz, 16GB, Wi-Fi, BT, Android 4.0)

***As of January 3rd 2013 Jelly bean update has been available***

I'll start by saying that I previously acknowledged tablets as being mostly a novelty device but could also see some of the media benefits also.

My birthday is in two days and my fiance surprised me by saying I could have any tablet that I wanted and of course I went into 'research mode' and looked at the Samsung tab 1 and 2, iPad 1, 2 and 3, the Asus tf300 and both transformer tablets. All of them have their positives and negatives, although I was never going to get an iPad is I'm not an apple fan, I'm always inclined towards power under the hood rather than the 'look its shiney' approach.

The galaxy note 10.1 offers the power, the looks and the functionality that anyone could possibly desire. Some review sites say this tablet is cheap looking and feels worse, I implore you to ignore them, its usually apple fans who say this, even I was a tad worried but the moment I held it in my hands I knew I'd made the right choice.

Amazon's listing of this product is wrong at the moment, this is indeed the quad core, 2gb ram and 16gb internal storage. I almost purchased this from another company due to poor listing but i have informed Amazon of their mistake and hopefully they will alter the listing.

One thing I do like on this tablet is the use of the pen, I've downloaded a free app called sketcher off the play market and it's brilliant. I would recommend people to download the Google chrome app straight away as the built in internet app can throw a few hissy fits now and then and chrome seems to work nicely on this tablet.

Now, onto the screen, I cannot believe that some reviewer websites said it wasn't good, are they looking at the back of the tablet, the pre loaded video shows how vibrant it truly is, the viewing angles are very good also, cannot complain at all.

Just for anyone who is curious, the pre loaded Photoshop app only allows editing from what I can tell, you can't start sketching in it, but it's free so have a play with your photos and it's a nifty little app. (someone has informed me that you can in fact create work from the PS app as well)

I would recommend that when you get this brilliant tablet you also order a 32GB micro sd card that is class 10, you've then got a lot of storage space for films, music and pictures you want on the go.

I've only had this tablet for about 4 days now and I haven't been able to make the most out of all the facilities it offers such as the multitasking split screen, and from what I have researched it is the only tablet on the market that truly multi tasks.

On a foot note, no need for a kindle anymore, downloaded the app and works great.

All in this has been a great purchase for me, and I'm very happy I took the plunge, who needs a laptop anymore!

EDIT 15th September - I have now been using this device more and more each day, I set up "Peel Remote" which comes pre-installed o nthe device which enables you to turn on, change channels, volume up down on many many TV's and blu ray players, i linked it up to two LG TV's very easily and also a Sony Blu Ray player. I'm a bit disappointed that it doesnt work on Playsations 3's but it is still a possibility for an update in the future!

I've carried out a few different battery life checks. I charged my Galaxy Note 10.1 up to 100% before i went to sleep at midnight and by morning (8 hours later) it had dropped to only 97%. That very day i used it very sparingly to just check the time and to do a quick browse whilst at work between 9AM and 5PM and the battery only dropped down to about 90%. Yesterday I used it a lot at work, setting up routers, browsing the web, watching some videos on youtube and netflix, the Note started the day on 52% and by the time I had gotten home It was still on 35% even though I'd not been cautious with it.

Pretty much what I'm saying is the battery seems excellent to me, I couldn't be more happy with it.

I've been spending a lot of time trying to fill up my 32GB Micro SD card with digital copies of the blu rays i possess and 99% of them have gone across very easily, my only fripe is that digital copies provided are not 720p or 1080p so im looking into some blu ray ripping software and a converter so I can at least play my films in HD otherwise having such a lovely screen is pointless!

EDIT - I have now put Avengers 1080p onto my tablet now and wow, it looks SO good on this tablet, and the best thing is, i wasn't suprised, i expected it to be good and it looked as great as i anticipated. The audio is the best ive heard on any tablet so far and actually much better than most laptops on the market (excluding the HP laptops with the beats audio)

I have ordered a 3rd party Case since my last edit and it seems to be sufficient for now until the official Samsung case is released, which i would imagine will be very well put together.

I shall add more to this review when I learn more things, I just think its such a shame that reviewing websites do not give this the recognition it deserves when I myself absolutely LOVE IT!

EDIT 23/11/2012 Had this Tablet for quite a while and used it pretty much everyday and still loving every second of it. Now, don't get me wrong I'm not one of these people who just praise an item without giving the negatives, but so far I've only experienced very few. One fault that I have noticed that occurs once in a blue moon is whilst using the Google Chrome Web browser, it can sometimes lock up, but the best way of rectifying this is by pressing the upward facing arrow located at the bottom centre of the screen which opens up multiple things such as calculator emails etc, but it also loads up task manager. If you select task manager and clear the RAM and close down the Google chrome application it will restart the browser where it left off and continue to work absolutely fine.

One thing that has been pointed out to me is not many people have commented about audio on the device. The device comes with a pre-installed application that plays music once transferred onto it, which if you are used to Android based devices you should be familiar with. The actual quality of the audio is decent, I'm not saying "wow who needs surround sound" but it plays the music well, it gives out better audio than my HTC One X which has beats audio.

One last thing I have noticed is that with a screen protector on, sometimes it does not like to smoothly scroll the screen when you have it landscape, but if you alter the device to portrait it seems to be absolutely fine. I'm going to put this down to perhaps my lack of talent in applying a screen sover to the tablet.

Once again, If I learn any new tricks or helpful hints I'll update this review further.

I don't often write reviews, I know that I should as I am a "techy" and buy pretty much everything I own from Amazon (approximately 100 items in the last 6 months alone). Although I didn't buy this from Amazon for 2 reasons:
1. I was impatient, it was payday and John Lewis had it in stock at the same price as Amazon (£318 at the time) and
2. it was suddenly unavailable from Amazon for reasons you can see if you read some of the 1 star reviews here (I'm not talking about the 1 star review by the Apple fan boy who would probably buy a car made by Apple if it cost four times the price of a Ferrari, would only allow you to drive it at times when Apple say you can drive it and did 3 miles to a gallon) But I digress, I am here to review the Samsung Note 10.1.

THE REVEAL

On opening the box the first thing you notice is the size of it. iPad's have a 9.7" screen, this beauty has 10.1" of high definition loveliness. OK so .4" doesn't sound like much but the larger the screen then the more HD goodness you can squeeze into it. You will also notice that it is COVERED in protective film. I was still finding small pieces of it on the edges 3 hours after opening it. This is something that has some importance to people like me who are OCD but love shiny things; a bad combination.
A few months ago I bought a very expensive Logitech Keyboard to find that on opening the brand new sealed box the logo on the wrist rest had a rather deep scratch. Yes, it went back.

THE BODY

So once you do get the protective films off you can be sure your new Note 10.1 will be in mint condition.
Other noteworthy points, in regards to aesthetics, are the stereo speakers placed either side of the screen and the front and back cameras; 5MP on the back and 1.9MP on the front. Not mind-blowing admittedly but if you want a camera then go and buy a camera. The cameras on the Note 10.1 are sufficient for the purposes of the tasks you would perform with a tablet camera, i.e Skype etc. All tablets are too unwieldy to be using them as a camera like you would a phone.
More importantly I need to stress that this tablet does NOT feel cheap.
It has a good weight to it, not overly heavy but you do feel like you are actually holding £400-ish worth of kit. It's sturdy, nothing creaks, as certain iSheep have been known to say, and everything feels of good quality. The iPad does have a brushed metal back, and I may seem like I hate the iPad but I assure you I do not, but being made of plastic doesn't make the Note 10.1 feel any less expensive.
The design is also quite satisfying. The iPad looks to me like Apple gave up on any kind of design effort years ago and are happy to churn out the same square shape over and over again. The Note 10.1, whilst hardly being light years ahead in regards to design, is a bit curvier and feels more comfortable in your hands.
So on to the important stuff, and I'll try to cover all the points as best I can.
The first thing to do is, obviously, switch it on. Duh. This is done by a not-too-obvious button on the top. The Samsung Note 10.1 is designed with the idea that it will be used in landscape as opposed to the iPad which looks like it should be portrait, with the home button at the bottom, and so on the Samsung "the top" could be considered "the side". Either way, it's on the top to the left. This isn't something that makes either tablet better or worse, it just is.
Next to the on/off button is a volume rocker. These are the only physical buttons to be found on the tablet.
Around the edges you will also find a 3.5mm headphone jack, an Apple style power socket, a tiny pin hole that is the microphone, a micro SD card slot and an IR LED (which I will get to later).
The battery life so far is much better that I expected, owning the Galaxy SIII which has a rather poor battery life I expected a similar affair with the Note 10.1. After charging all night on my second day of owning the tablet I turned it on at about 10am, used it for most of the day (testing everything from games to apps to Photoshop and Skype) and was still using it at about 9 or 10pm when it bleeped at me to say low battery (it bleeps when it reaches 15% remaining).
So far, so good. But how does the Samsung Note 10.1 perform?

THE BRAIN

Once turned on it takes mere seconds to load everything up, even now when I've installed tons of crap on it and synced it with hundreds of Dropbox pics. On the first switch on it takes a little longer as you need to input the date/time location and set up WiFi etc, but this is the case with all tablets.
The Multiscreen function is a great and innovative idea. If you are reading your emails and need to open a document at the same time, then Multiscreen it. This pops one app to one side and the other to the opposite side meaning you can see/work on both simultaneously. The same applies to movies. Watching a movie and you receive an email? No worries. Shrink the video screen down to a smaller box and read/reply to your message whilst continuing to watch your film.
In regards to how it performs in comparison to the iPad (and it has to be in comparison to the iPad as the Samsung Galaxy's/Note 10.1 and the iPad's are the best tablets on the market without a shadow of a doubt) I have to concede that, yes, the iPad's OSX is more reliable. Meaning that apps will crash less often and the screen will be more responsive for a larger majority of the time.
BUT, this doesn't mean what some suggest it means, i.e the Note 10.1 is worse/less powerful/not as awesome as the iPad.

What it means is this:

Apple limit what their consumers are allowed to do with their products. I am not saying this is a bad thing; it means that many who are less tech savvy need not worry about doing something that might turn their shiny new tablet into little more than a very attractive door wedge.
It means that Apple are well aware of the limits of the hardware and don't allow anything to overstep those limits. They only approve the apps that they like and there is NO chance whatsoever of installing anything third party or messing around with the settings in any way other than how Apple say you can. Which is pretty much no way.
Samsung however actually have settings on their Galaxy and Note devices that allow the device to be open to development. Check the settings. Its right there under Developer Options! Turn this setting on and you could even flash install a beta version of the new Android OS, at your own risk of course.
I wouldn't suggest it unless you know what you're doing but the option is there. When I pay £400-£500 for something, I want to do with it as I see fit; it is, after all, mine.
So all this means that sometimes the Samsung device you are using, be it Note 10.1, Galaxy Tab or whatever, might lag ever so slightly, making it seem a little unresponsive for the merest of milliseconds. An app might crash unexpectedly but this is almost always more to do with the OS (operating system, for those that don't know) than it is to do with the hardware and when it is to do with the hardware it's simply because you, the user, are probably giving it a little more to be doing than it can cope with. We have all had moments like that. For me personally, the very occasional glitch is an acceptable sacrifice for more freedom and choice in what I do with my gadget.
The Note 10.1 uses the Android OS which is used across countless devices and means that there is a massive range of apps available. You have the choice of the Samsung Apps store, which to be honest has sweet FA going for it other than the occasional gem; i.e. the Polaris Office Suite that allows you to read/edit/create MS Office documents on your tablet/phone and is free from SA Store. It is however already installed on the Note 10.1.
The other choice is Google Play Store, which is where all the best apps can be found. Pretty much anything you can get on OSX you can get on here.
The Note 10.1 is also, of course, compatible with Flash Player. Meaning that you can access and view any websites that use flash. Which is something Apple, in their infinite, god-like wisdom, decided to omit from the, otherwise generally exceptional, iPad. Apple decided that one day soon nobody would use Flash anymore. That was a while back. People still use flash. iPad's still aren't compatible with it. Go figure.

THE FACE

The other stick that Apple lovers use to beat down Samsung's tablets is the one that reminds us how the iPad has a Retina Screen...OOOOHH. Exciting huh? Well..kind of.
Let's lay this one to rest.
Yes, the iPad does have a much higher resolution in comparison to the Samsung Note 10.1 but we are talking about 2 screens here that are each approximately 10" in size.
One could argue that 1080p resolution on a TV is far better than 720p but if you are viewing it on a 19" TV how much of that are you going to genuinely notice? Not a great deal is the answer.
So although the Note 10.1 has a resolution of 1280X800 and the iPad has, an admittedly higher, 2048X1536 you are unlikely to notice it unless you hold them up side by side, use a magnifying glass and play the same HD film on each. I have done this (without the magnifying glass) and was underwhelmed by the huge (not) difference in the two.
Add to this the likelihood of you finding anything (in regards to films and honestly when we talk about HD, films are all we care about) that actually supports the level of HD the Retina screen has and it suddenly seems less of a big thing.
You certainly wont be sighing into your cornflakes as you watch an HD download of Wall-E on your Note 10.1 and wishing you had got the iPad because the picture just isn't crisp enough. Not going to happen my friend.

THE...HANDS? Read more ›

The big choice in 10" tablets is between the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Note. If you're reading this you probably know already which camp you're in. The iPad oozes quality but forces you into doing things "the Apple way". Having used both I do think the iPad is slicker, faster and has that amazing Retina display. However I ended up buying the Samsung for its greater practicality. The features that swayed me are the touch sensitive pen, the on-board GPS and the ability to take a micro-SD card for extra storage.

Overall this is a workmanlike tablet with a lot of useful features. The most welcome surprise has been how good the GPS is. This is a true GPS that doesn't need any internet connection in order to work. It picks up a signal almost instantly, even indoors or in a moving car the signal is often locked on within 5 seconds. In combination with an app like Osmand which allows you to download free open source maps you have something that is as good as (and with a much bigger screen than) many dedicated GPS units. The Note also functions well as an e-reader (using Kindle) so for these two functions alone you've got your money's worth.

The Note is good for browsing the web but so far I haven't really got the hang of the included productivity apps. The pop-up keyboard is pretty slow to use by touch; maybe I have large fingers, but I seem to constantly hit the wrong key and then editing the entered text without a mouse to reposition the cursor is tedious. Selecting keys using the stylus is much more accurate. I've tried to take notes with the stylus in a meeting but the handwriting recognition - while mightily impressive - is too slow and not accurate enough to be really dependable. I'm writing this review on the tablet with a USB keyboard plugged in via an adapter - yes, an adapter. Why on earth Samsung chose to fit their fiddly proprietary connector instead of a USB port is beyond me.

One problem I've experienced is the often variable response of the touchscreen. Occasionally you have to stab repeatedly at the screen with your finger to get a response, but at other times just accidently brushing the screen lightly with a fingertip will cause an unwanted action like selecting a link, enlarging the view or taking a screen capture. This could be due to using a screen protector, but surely most people will choose to do this. Other foibles are due to the Android operating system rather than the tablet itself. For example, being left-handed I tend often to touch the screen capture icon near the bottom left of the screen by mistake when I pick up the tablet, and keep having to delete these unintended captures.

In summary this tablet offers great value for money and some unique features (did I mention the GPS??) but has some rough edges that just stop me giving it 5 stars.