Samsung Note 10.1 Tablet
So my dad's been wanting a tablet since the beginning of the year. Background: let's just say his forays into technology haven't exactly been successful. He's still not comfortable around smart phones, and he's one of those dads who insist on turning off any motion sensor in any device for fear of some kind of disease-inducing radiation. We tried getting him a tablet earlier this year, and it ended up in my possession.
Now that I have the Samsung Note 10.1, though, he says he's ready to try again.
Here are the top 5 reasons why I JUST might not give him the Note:
5) It can make phone calls.
It took me a moment to pick up the pieces of my blown mind after I discovered this feature. I'm almost pretty sure I missed some pieces of said mind, because when I was testing it, I couldn't at first figure out how to answer the phone call. I kept clicking the green phone icon and ignoring the arrows that indicated a swiping motion should do the trick.
Seriously, someone should do a review of how dumb I amsometimes.
I'm excited about this feature because I've never tried phone calls on a tablet. I think it's one of those features that you didn't know you needed until it's actually there. I love that about technology companies - trying out new things that no one else has tried before. In fact, I love it when people do that, too. It's the main reason I got involved in GeekFest Jeddah.
4) The Samsung Note app.
YOU GUYS. You can sketch on this thing, using the S-pen that comes with the tablet, and RECORD YOUR SKETCH. This is big.
A few years ago, I got into making comics and I loved this one website that recorded the entire process of my comic-making. Since then, I haven't found anything else like it (I didn't really try that hard) until now. I love the multi-screen feature - you can have a picture of, I dunno, your ex, on the one side, and sketch his ugly mug on the other screen. Or maybe get some therapy and get over your ex.
3) The camera is a proper camera.
You can adjust exposure and white balance LIKE A PRAWW, and you can take duck-face pictures of yourself ready for Facebook posting WSUUUP. My favorite photo effect is the cartoon one.
Uhh... WHO IS THIS HOT CHICK?!
It has fun features like smile-detection (it takes a picture when it detects a smile, not for the emo-hearted), and the now-requisite face recognition feature in digital cameras. At this point of discovery, I actually got a little scared that my gadgets have become way smarter than myself. (This is not difficult to achieve in any case.)
2) Not only is the interface smooth, I love how it's very easy-to-use.
There are buttons on the bottom of the screen that lead you straight to Home and the Task Manager, plus there's a Back Button that takes you to the previous page. I liked the screenshot button being readily available because I obviously love me my screenshots, but I did end up with a bunch of screenshots that were the result of my mistaking it for the zoom button (which doesn't exist).
1) THIS FEATURE is the number one reason I will try my best to convince my dad I should be the owner of this tablet instead of him.
The MicroSD.
I loaded my MicroSD with movies and episodes (of How I Met Your Mother, judge at will), deployed the MicroSD, and played the videos.
I PLAYED THE VIDEOS. No converting-the-video-to-blahblahblah, no hassle, no hitch. Played the videos in 3 different formats and basically gave the mp4 the finger.
I mostly use my tablet for entertainment. It's such a hassle to do so when I have to do extra work converting music and videos into the only format that my tablet can use. No such problem with the Note 10.1. This also applies to my photo management.
---
There ARE a couple things I wasn't happy about with the Samsung Note, though, and they kinda tip the favors over to my dad's ownership of the tablet.
* I'm not comfortable with my Arabic. The Samsung App service automatically "speaks" to me mostly in Arabic just because I'm signing in from Saudi Arabia.
There really should be an option to have it all-English for non-Arabic speakers. It's true, there's the Play Store for another option, which is almost all in English, but STILL.
* I also read a lot on my tablet. In fact, most of the time I spend on my tablet is on reading. I couldn't find a good app to read my e-books from. I tried a couple of the popular ones, and they're either buggy, or not easy to adjust. This isn't directly a fault of the Samsung Note, but it does factor in a lot.
Having said that, though, I'm pretty happy with the Samsung Note. It does everything well - browsing the internet, all my basic apps are on there (Facebook, Twitter, my fitness apps, etc), and it's a smooth ride.
This is the first time I've ever used an Android, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't expecting it to be unimpressive, since I've become used to other OSs. It proved to be competitive, and I'm very open to using it long-term. (Note: I am neither a developer nor a computer person, and many of my friends have told me that they prefer the Android as a developer.)
I'm also a heavy Google user and this system makes my life a whole lot easier as I can sync ALL THE THINGS.
So there's that.
Would I recommend it to my friends? Hell yeah.
Would I hand it over to my dad? I dunno, check back here on my blog a few weeks from now. He has tried using the Note 10.1 for a few days, and he is much more comfortable with it than with any other tablet I asked him to test. Its user-friendliness is definitely a point to his favor.
But we'll have to see. I'm seriously jonesing for this one.
In the meantime, here are the techie specs of the device, in geekspeak.
Now that I have the Samsung Note 10.1, though, he says he's ready to try again.
Here are the top 5 reasons why I JUST might not give him the Note:
5) It can make phone calls.
It took me a moment to pick up the pieces of my blown mind after I discovered this feature. I'm almost pretty sure I missed some pieces of said mind, because when I was testing it, I couldn't at first figure out how to answer the phone call. I kept clicking the green phone icon and ignoring the arrows that indicated a swiping motion should do the trick.
Seriously, someone should do a review of how dumb I am
I'm excited about this feature because I've never tried phone calls on a tablet. I think it's one of those features that you didn't know you needed until it's actually there. I love that about technology companies - trying out new things that no one else has tried before. In fact, I love it when people do that, too. It's the main reason I got involved in GeekFest Jeddah.
4) The Samsung Note app.
YOU GUYS. You can sketch on this thing, using the S-pen that comes with the tablet, and RECORD YOUR SKETCH. This is big.
A few years ago, I got into making comics and I loved this one website that recorded the entire process of my comic-making. Since then, I haven't found anything else like it (I didn't really try that hard) until now. I love the multi-screen feature - you can have a picture of, I dunno, your ex, on the one side, and sketch his ugly mug on the other screen. Or maybe get some therapy and get over your ex.
3) The camera is a proper camera.
You can adjust exposure and white balance LIKE A PRAWW, and you can take duck-face pictures of yourself ready for Facebook posting WSUUUP. My favorite photo effect is the cartoon one.
Uhh... WHO IS THIS HOT CHICK?!
It has fun features like smile-detection (it takes a picture when it detects a smile, not for the emo-hearted), and the now-requisite face recognition feature in digital cameras. At this point of discovery, I actually got a little scared that my gadgets have become way smarter than myself. (This is not difficult to achieve in any case.)
2) Not only is the interface smooth, I love how it's very easy-to-use.
There are buttons on the bottom of the screen that lead you straight to Home and the Task Manager, plus there's a Back Button that takes you to the previous page. I liked the screenshot button being readily available because I obviously love me my screenshots, but I did end up with a bunch of screenshots that were the result of my mistaking it for the zoom button (which doesn't exist).
1) THIS FEATURE is the number one reason I will try my best to convince my dad I should be the owner of this tablet instead of him.
The MicroSD.
I loaded my MicroSD with movies and episodes (of How I Met Your Mother, judge at will), deployed the MicroSD, and played the videos.
I PLAYED THE VIDEOS. No converting-the-video-to-blahblahblah, no hassle, no hitch. Played the videos in 3 different formats and basically gave the mp4 the finger.
I mostly use my tablet for entertainment. It's such a hassle to do so when I have to do extra work converting music and videos into the only format that my tablet can use. No such problem with the Note 10.1. This also applies to my photo management.
---
There ARE a couple things I wasn't happy about with the Samsung Note, though, and they kinda tip the favors over to my dad's ownership of the tablet.
* I'm not comfortable with my Arabic. The Samsung App service automatically "speaks" to me mostly in Arabic just because I'm signing in from Saudi Arabia.
There really should be an option to have it all-English for non-Arabic speakers. It's true, there's the Play Store for another option, which is almost all in English, but STILL.
* I also read a lot on my tablet. In fact, most of the time I spend on my tablet is on reading. I couldn't find a good app to read my e-books from. I tried a couple of the popular ones, and they're either buggy, or not easy to adjust. This isn't directly a fault of the Samsung Note, but it does factor in a lot.
Having said that, though, I'm pretty happy with the Samsung Note. It does everything well - browsing the internet, all my basic apps are on there (Facebook, Twitter, my fitness apps, etc), and it's a smooth ride.
This is the first time I've ever used an Android, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't expecting it to be unimpressive, since I've become used to other OSs. It proved to be competitive, and I'm very open to using it long-term. (Note: I am neither a developer nor a computer person, and many of my friends have told me that they prefer the Android as a developer.)
I'm also a heavy Google user and this system makes my life a whole lot easier as I can sync ALL THE THINGS.
So there's that.
Would I recommend it to my friends? Hell yeah.
Would I hand it over to my dad? I dunno, check back here on my blog a few weeks from now. He has tried using the Note 10.1 for a few days, and he is much more comfortable with it than with any other tablet I asked him to test. Its user-friendliness is definitely a point to his favor.
But we'll have to see. I'm seriously jonesing for this one.
In the meantime, here are the techie specs of the device, in geekspeak.
Network
|
HSPA 21 Mbps / HSUPA 5.76Mbps
Quad Band 850/900/1900/2100 MHz
|
Processor
|
1.4 GHz quad-core processor
|
Display
|
255.8mm (10.1”) WXGA(1280x800) LCD + Digitizer
|
OS
|
Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
|
Camera
|
Main(Rear): 5 Megapixel Auto Focus Camera with LED Flash
Sub(Front): 1.9 Megapixel VT Camera
|
Video
|
Codec: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, VC-1, DivX, WMV7, WMV8, WMV9, VP8
Format: 3GP(MP4), WMV(ASF), AVI, FLV, MKV, WebM
Full HD(1080p) Playback & HD Recording
|
Audio
|
Codec: MP3, OGG, WMA, AAC, ACC+, eAAC+, AMR(NB,WB), MIDI, WAV,
AC-3, Flac
Music Player with SoundAlive
3.5mm Ear Jack
|
S Pen Optimized Features
|
S Pen Experience (S Note, S Planner, My Story)
(* more S Pen optimized apps are available via Samsung Apps)
|
Multiscreen
|
|
Adobe® Photoshop® Touch
|
|
Shape Match, Formula Match
|
|
Polaris Office
| |
Sharing Features
|
Samsung AllShare Play / Samsung AllShare Cast
|
Samsung Kies /Samsung Kies Air
|
|
Content Features & Services
|
Samsung TouchWiz / Samsung L!ve Panel
|
Samsung Apps
|
|
Samsung Hub
- Music Hub / Game Hub
- Learning Hub* / Readers Hub* / Video Hub* / Media Hub*(US only)
(Availability of Learning Hub and Video Hub are limited by market.
Readers Hub will be available to download from Samsung Apps later this year)
|
|
Samsung S Suggest
|
|
Samsung ChatOn mobile communication service
|
|
Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude
Google Play Store, Google Play Books, Google Play Movies Google Plus, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Places, Google Navigation, Google Downloads | |
Enterprise Solutions
|
Exchange ActiveSync
On-Device Encryption
Cisco VPN (Virtual Private Network)
Juniper Junos Pulse VPN
|
GPS
|
A-GPS(3G version)
S-GPS(WiFi version)
Glonass
|
Connectivity
|
Bluetooth technology v 4.0 (Apt-X Codec support)
USB 2.0 Host
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 & 5 GHz), Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Channel Bonding
mHL, 3.5mm, IR LED(Smart Remote: Universal Remote Control)
|
Sensor
|
Accelerometer, Digital compass, Light, Gyroscope
|
Memory
|
16/32/64GB User memory + 2GB (RAM)
microSD (up to 64GB)
|
Dimension
|
262 x 180 x 8.9 mm, 600g (3G), 597g (WiFi)
|
Battery
|
Standard battery, Li-ion 7,000mAh
|
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