Galaxy Note 10.1 First Impressions

So today I took delivery of my galaxy note 10.1 tablet. I've had it for about eight hours now, and so far I'm very impressed. Read on for unboxing details, and my first impressions.

The note is very well packaged. The box is colour coded to match your device, (white in my case) and is very simple in design. The box gives you enough information to let you know exactly what's inside, but not so much that your head exploeds. Included in the box are: x1 Galaxy Note, (obviously) x1 USB cable complete with 12v power adapter, x1 quick start guide/warranty card, x1 high quality headphones.

The tablet itself is the first thing you see when you open the box. It is very well protected, I lost count of how many pieces of plastic I had to peel from the screen and panels. The first thing you notice when you lift it out of the box, is how light it is. It's much heavier than my SII of course, but for a 10 inch tablet it's amazing.

Design: The tablet is made mainly of plastic, which some will argue makes it feel cheep. I really don't mind if I'm honest. It feels pretty sturdy to me, and its lightness makes it comfortable to hold. In fact , as I write this article, I'm laying in bed holding the device in portrait mode. The device I have is white, with contrasting grey panels around the camera and speakers. The design is rather simple, screen, power/lock key, volume rocker, 3.5mm headphone jack, camera and speakers.

Screen: The screen is an 10.1 inch PLS TFT display with 149ppi which, although not as high as the competitors, is more than adequate. (I didn't notice much difference) The screen is a capacitive ten-point multi touch, and is quick and responsive. It is extremely bright and clear, which makes gaming and movie watching a joy.

Performance: The Note has a 1.4GHZ Cortex-A9 quad-core processor, and 2GB of RAM. The chipset is a   Exynos 4412. This means the Note can crunch data as fast as the cookie monster at the Mcvities factory. Games run smoothly, browsing is fast, and homescreen transitions are slick and buttery. It also has enough grunt to let you have two apps open at the same time, browser and Snote for instance.

UI/OS: The Note comes with Samsung's latest touchwiz with nature ux. That means everything is inspired by nature. When you slide your finger across the lockscreen for example, it causes a ripple effect, as if you've dipped your finger in a pool of water. Touchwiz has gotten better and better since the Galaxy SII, and this is the best version yet. The device comes with Android 4.0.3 ICS, but an upgrade to 4.1 Jellybean is on the way. ICS is quick, and very user friendly.

















Music: The main speakers are adequate for most things, but can get a bit tinny at higher volumes. I'd recommend using either the headphones that come with it, which feature a volume rocker and play/pause button, or another pair of decent headphones. The Note comes preloaded with Samsung's Music Hub, which allows you to buy music, and the Music Player, designed primarily to play the music on the device. Both work well, but I prefer Google Play Music, something that was only available in the US, but has now made it to Europe. Play Music baisicly combines a music store, with a player. It doesn't come installed, so it must be downloaded from the Play Store.

Gaming: Gaming is slick and fast. My favorite game so far is Air Hockey. The large screen make playing with another person easy, and fun. It can handle much harder graphics too, F18 Carrier Landing plays beautifully on the Note. I can't stress how good the graphics are, as demonstrated by this screenshot.

Movies: The Note is great for Movie watching. It comes with Samsung's Video Hub, and Google Play Movies pre-loaded, which offer high quality streaming. I tried watching Dark Knight on Flixter, and it worked perfectly. The beautiful and rich display provides beautiful and vibrant colours, making movie watching a pleasure.

S-Pen: S-Pen is the Note's party piece. It recognizes handwriting with ease, and drawing using S-Note is
extremely fun! It takes some getting used to, but it's well worth the effort. S-Note has a built in diary mode, that lets you input weather information, handwritten notes, and pictures. This really is more than a gimmick, in fact, I'm taking into college to make handwritten notes.

















Browsing: Not much to say here. Browsing is extremely fast, faster than my PC in fact. The Quad-Core works amazingly.

Well, that's all I really have to say about the Note 10.1 right now. I'll update this blog when I've messed around with it a bit more. If my first day with the Note is anything to go by, then the next few weeks will be great fun. This is by far one of the best pieces of technology I've used, and has confirmed what I have always believed. Samsung make the best products, end of story.

Galaxy Note 10.1 overall rating: 9.5/10

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy my other articles about Samsung devices, and apps I recommend using on them.

Samsung confirm Jellybean for Galaxy SII

Galaxy SII Extended Battery

Nova Review

How to Make it Look Like You Have Jellybean






Update: I've now had the note 10.1 for almost three weeks and I still love it. My only gripe is that there is a scratch at the bottom of the screen. Don't know how it happened as I have never dropped it. Samsung said I could book it in for repair, but it'll cost £75-£145 so I'm not gonna bother. It still works okay, and you can't really feel it when you touch the screen. My advice is that you buy a screen protester or case. Other than that I absolutely live this thing and wouldn't trade it for the world.