Consider it the fallout from a decade-plus of reality TV, but our made-by-the-masses approach has expanded into new territory: technology R&D. Or so Samsung's very public handling of the Galaxy Note 10.1 would have us believe. Thrust into an American Idol-like spotlight at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, the still-unfinished slate, a follow-up to the pen-enabled Galaxy Note phone, was forced to perform for hordes of skeptical insiders. Sure, there was raw talent on display and we could see the promise of this 10-inch contender (we said as much in our exhaustive preview), but it was also clear the company was testing consumer waters, fishing for a vote of confidence before continuing down the development track.
Does this make Samsung's latest flagship the Kelly Clarkson of the tablet category? It's an apt analogy, if you think about it: Kelly wants to be country, the Note 10.1 wants to be a pro-designer tool, but neither are allowed. Why? Well, simply put, products sell better when they're made more palatable for a wider range of tastes. Which is why the company used MWC to gauge popular opinion before molding its untested product into something wth a broader appeal. Ultimately, that meant a drastic makeover: since MWC, the Note 10.1 has received a slot for that S-Pen, streamlined software, a quad-core Exynos 4 chip and two storage configurations: 16GB / 32GB, priced at $499 and $549, respectively.
So it now has more horsepower under the hood, that much is assured, but is that chip enough to boost the Note 10.1's mass appeal? Will savvy shoppers be able to forgive that relatively low-res 1,280 x 800 display? Will its Wacom digitizer elevate this slate past its more generic Android and iOS rivals? Or will that feature hamper its widespread appeal, attracting mainly creative professionals? Meet us after the break to see if the Note 10.1 can succeed as the multitasking everyman's go-to tablet.
HARDWARE
For better or worse, Samsung's sticking to the durability of its signature plastic enclosures. Brushed aluminum backs, it would seem, are for other OEMs. So if premium builds are tops on your checklist, you can safely stop reading now. In its prototype form, the Note 10.1 felt like a luxury item, thanks to its matte enclosure (then gunmetal gray). But in a surprising reversal of course, that subdued finish has since vanished, only to be replaced with the same sort of glossy backing used on the OG 10.1. It's no small wonder that the company made this change, given its bloated lineup of near-identical tablets. This is an Android slate that calls attention to itself, though it might not be the right kind.
There's no two ways about it: the Note 10.1 looks and feels kind of cheap. Starting with our most serious complaint, it's prone to the squeaks and creaks of inferior budget devices, which is definitely not something you'd associate with a $499 product -- let alone a flagship. Despite our protestations, though, this is Samsung's M.O. But, as with the company's other halo product, the Galaxy S III, we ultimately decided it's best to make peace with this lack of design flair and instead try to appreciate the feature set that makes it a stand-out device.
Back when it was still in development, the Note 10.1 had one glaring flaw: the lack of an S-Pen slot. That oversight's since been remedied and as a result, the chassis is a tad wider at 0.35 x 7.1 x 10.3 inches (8.9 x 180.4 x 261.6mm), allowing it to accommodate that housing along the bottom right edge. On the surface, that's about that's about the extent of the tablet's alterations (take note: the HSPA+ global version adds a SIM slot for voice and data use).
The arrangement of its ports and hardware keys have remained unchanged, matching the layout on the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. There's a proprietary charging slot on the bottom edge, a dual-speaker setup flanking the screen and a power button, volume rocker, microSD slot (supporting cards up to 64GB), an IR blaster and 3.5mm headphone jack up top. Around back, the Note 10.1 is completely blank, showcasing only Samsung's logo. You will, however, find a silver strip along the upper half of the lid, which houses the 5-megapixel rear camera (up from 3 megapixels when it was first announced) and a single LED flash. As for the module's companion 1.9-megapixel front-facer, it sits above the display along with an ambient sensor.
Perhaps the most important changes here are the ones Samsung made to the Note 10.1's internals. Whereas it was announced with a dual-core CPU, the company's swapped that out for the more powerful quad-core Exynos 4 clocked at 1.4GHz -- and what a difference four cores makes. To complement this processing might, Samsung threw in a healthy 2GB RAM and a 7,000mAh battery to keep the experience afloat. We'll delve deeper into the performance later on, but rest assured this tab can take whatever you throw at it and then some.
So the overall construction holds fast to the tried-and-true approach of Samsung devices past, but how does it feel in hand? Well, considering its dimensions have expanded, it still feels reassuringly light and manageable. Weighing 1.31lbs (0.6kg), it's comfortable to hold in one hand while you grip the S-Pen in the other, though the edges could do with a bit of softening.
And how about that S-Pen? Has it seen an evolution? Are there any additional bells and whistles packed into it? Does its oblong shape make for a natural fit in-hand? Well, yes, no and sorta kinda. Allow us to elaborate. For all its girth, the S-Pen still feels as light as a feather -- and that's not necessarily a good thing. Like the tablet itself, the pen conveys an inferior and ultimately disposable feel. For what it's worth, there's a well placed function button located on the side of the pen that's easy to find with your finger. If that's not impressive enough, Samsung will sell two additional pens -- one with an eraser tip and the other a larger holster for a more natural grip.
Ding, ding, ding. That's how many times the bell should ring to count out the Note 10.1's 1,280 x 800 TFT LCD display. Samsung obviously made a compromise to keep costs down, but there's really no reason for the company to have settled on such a middling display. When we previewed the tablet it was a work in progress, so the forgettable display was easier to forgive -- Apple's new iPad had just seen a public launch, leaving Samsung plenty of time to rejigger its part list and potentially bump that screen to 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. Yet, the company didn't and we remain confused.
Still, it's a serviceable panel: its colors are balanced (helped by a Dynamic and Movie mode) and viewing angles are sharp, though the screen does fall prey to a little washout and glare. Mainly, we're frustrated by the tab's pixel density, and we can't imagine graphic designers and other creative types will be impressed either.
Performance and multitasking
The guts of the Note 10.1 should be a source of pride for Samsung's engineers, and nowhere is this more evident than in the tablet's slick multiscreen implementation (more on this in a moment). But while anecdotal software impressions can paint an abstract picture of what's happening under the hood, benchmarks lay out a blueprint for what's truly possible, and hint at what potential might be lying untapped. Since the tab's spec list is an uneven mix, we pitted it against a range of contemporary Android slates that share some of the same traits -- be it a similar resolution, multi-core CPU or Android 4.0 as an OS. In this instance, many of the rivals we selected -- Acer's Iconia Tab A700, ASUS' Transformer Pad TF300 and Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 -- pack Tegra 3 internals. (The dual-core Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 does not.) Yet, despite being armed with such considerable horsepower, none proved a fair match for Samsung's proprietary chipset. That's not to say the Note 10.1 notched undisputed wins across the board; we logged a marginal AnTuTu loss and a Nenamark result that put in on par with all those Tegra 3 tablets we mentioned.
So about that multiscreen option. This feature, which wasn't demoed on the original model announced at MWC, affords a convenient split-screen view. All told, you can choose from six apps -- S Note, Gallery, Video, Browser, Polaris Office and Email. But the multitasking fun doesn't end there: power users can load a pop-up video player on the upper half of the screen, call up various of mini apps from an onscreen shortcut or drag and drop clipboard content from the browser or Gallery to S Note and Polaris Office. During our testing, we launched as many as eight apps simultaneously, which appeared to have no detrimental effect on video playback and only slightly hampered the slate's overall response time. In real-world usage, you'd be hard-pressed to find a scenario where such extreme multitasking is even necessary, and we suspect that workhorse potential will satisfy even the most discerning power users.
As you might expect, the Note 10.1 delivers consistently solid performance unless burdened with an unrealistic workload (see above). All told, the tablet delivers a snappy, fluid experience, which happily doesn't include many jarring transitions.
So about that multiscreen option. This feature, which wasn't demoed on the original model announced at MWC, affords a convenient split-screen view. All told, you can choose from six apps -- S Note, Gallery, Video, Browser, Polaris Office and Email. But the multitasking fun doesn't end there: power users can load a pop-up video player on the upper half of the screen, call up various of mini apps from an onscreen shortcut or drag and drop clipboard content from the browser or Gallery to S Note and Polaris Office. During our testing, we launched as many as eight apps simultaneously, which appeared to have no detrimental effect on video playback and only slightly hampered the slate's overall response time. In real-world usage, you'd be hard-pressed to find a scenario where such extreme multitasking is even necessary, and we suspect that workhorse potential will satisfy even the most discerning power users.
As you might expect, the Note 10.1 delivers consistently solid performance unless burdened with an unrealistic workload (see above). All told, the tablet delivers a snappy, fluid experience, which happily doesn't include many jarring transitions.
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