Gadgetory

the Galaxy Note 10.1 is Samsung's most powerful feature packed and expensive Android tablet but as I'll show you today it's also a snap to open easy to service and has a few design improvements over last year's 10-inch Galaxy Tab I'm Bill Detweiler and this is cracking open after cracking open Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 last year I criticized the tablet for feeling flimsy and having tamper resistant screws on the back cover thankfully Samsung addressed both these concerns in the new 10 inch note now opening the note 10.1 isn't difficult but there is a trick to it you must remove the piece of trim that runs along the device's upper edge and the three Phillips screws underneath then starting at the top of the back cover and working your way down each side pop loose the tabs with each side free you can then lift the cover off from the top now that we're inside a few things jump out at us first the notes internal design is very similar to last year's 10-inch Galaxy Tab the battery sits in the centre of the case with the motherboard at the top and speakers on either side the ribbon cables for the digitizer display and docking connector run from the bottom edge across the battery to the motherboard ii like the tab most of the notes hardware is easily accessible and can be removed with a triple zero Phillips screwdriver unfortunately also like the tab the display and front panel assembly are a single unit the notes internal frame which holds the LCD in place is attached to the front panel assembly with a process called thermoplastics taking now to remove the frame and get to the display you must break these steaks now if you're careful you can do this without damaging the display or the internal frame so technically you can replace one without replacing the other but it's clear that Samsung meant for the screen front panel and frame to be replaced as one piece despite their similarities there are a few important differences between the note and the tab first are the storage slot for the notes S Pen and the embedded contact which tells the tablet when the stylus is in use second is the piece of molding that runs around the tablet's outer edge and is mounted between the front panels bezel and internal frame those plastic stakes I mentioned earlier are actually part of this molding the older Galaxy Tab didn't have this molding its front panel was attached directly to the internal frame now given that the notes back cover feels just as flexible as the tabs and their internal frames are so similar I suspect this molding helps give the note a more rigid feel which is a big improvement over the Galaxy Tab overall the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is a solid Android tablet it has a 1.4 gigahertz quad core Exynos processor two gigs of RAM front and rear cameras a micro SD card slot and comes with either 16 or 32 gigs of storage our test unit was a Wi-Fi only model but an HSPA+ global version is also available as CNN's Eric Franklin wrote this is the best Samsung tablet yet now for more information on the Galaxy Note 10.1 including real world use and performance tests check out Eric's full review and to see more teardown photos and read my full Hardware analysis go to TechRepublic comm forward slash cracking open I'm Bill Detweiler thanks for watching