Gadgetory

we recently reviewed the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 3 twice and we loved it both times but how is its larger sibling let's find out I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition Samsung once again has managed to trim the physical footprint of its flagship device but thankfully not at the expense of specifications the Note 10.1 2014 edition is quite small in comparison to its like sized counterparts 240 3.1 millimeters wide 170 1.4 millimeters tall and 7.9 millimeters thick it also hits the scales at an impressive 540 grams there's much to be said for how great and meticulous Samsung is when it comes to conserving and making the absolute most of every last bit of space the outer shell of the Galaxy Note 10.1 is nice well as nice as the device made almost entirely plastic can be like the smaller galaxy note 3 the Note 10.1 was the recipient of a refreshed design the trim is lined as to resemble the pages of a closed notebook and the backside is covered in a faux leather plastic which offers a nice amount of grip but like the white model note 3 the backside is less tacky than we'd prefer to no surprise the face pairs the navigation button pattern we can't help but feel is out of place on a 10-inch tablet it encourages landscape use and makes the tablet admittedly awkward to use in any other orientation and that's unfortunate but the internals are certainly nothing to scoff at the 2014 edition Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with some of the best specifications we've ever seen in a tablet it's powered by Samsung's in-house Exynos octa-core CPUs which work together one clocked at 1.9 gigahertz and the other at 1.3 it has three gigabytes of RAM and the eight megapixel camera and a 31 watt our 80 220 million power battery we have the 32 gigabyte model on hand though it also comes in 16 and 64 gigabyte capacities with the ability to expand via microSD the display is one of the best-looking displays we've ever had the pleasure of using at 10.1 inches and a resolution of 2560 by 1600 pixels it bears an impressive density of 299 pixels per inch it's similar to the Nexus 10 display in that it's unbelievably yet this pedal builds on all the shortcomings of last year's extra high-resolution display the Super Clear LCD on the Note 10.1 provides vibrant colors wide viewing angles passable contrast and black levels and it's incredibly bright in fact we'll venture to say the display is the absolute best part of this tablet period the other key piece of hardware in this tablet is the s-pen love it or hate it there's no denying the 2013 S Pen is a market improvement over older s pins the rubberized tip provides a more natural friction wood riding the shape makes it easier to hold it's easier to sheath considering you can be inserted in either orientation and the notch on its button makes it easier to find without too much filling around put simply the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition is the best tablet hardware we've seen out of Samsung's Android tablet lineup the internals are impressive and the design has greatly improved unfortunately there's still a significant gap between this hardware and the tablet hardware we've seen out of competing firms such as a soos or Apple in many ways the software experience has been enhanced as well but there's certainly room for even more improvement this year's Note 10.1 comes with Android 4.3 out of the box that means it brings support for Bluetooth low-energy trim and OpenGL ES 3.0 but Samsung's skin has once again been slapped atop Google's firmware and squandered some of Android 4.3 standout features for instance multi-user support and Android 4.2 feature is completely absent word has it this particular feature will be included in a future update but we wouldn't suggest holding your breath while TouchWiz nullifies some of androids stock value adds it brings a handful of its own most of which are less useful than Samsung would have us believe smart stay smart rotate smart Paul's and smart scroll are all present as well as many motion controls chat on Knox s translator s voice s note and many of Samsung's other applications come pre-installed - and of course Samsung's content libraries Samsung hub and Samsung Apps are available with their comparatively sparse offerings if we were to pick the absolute worst part of the TouchWiz experience on the latest Note 10.1 however it would have to be a toss-up between the settings application a confusing combination of tabs and a two pane view and the notification shade for Samsung to have gone the extra mile to make full use of the 10 inch display the full screen notification shade is a major oversight that said there are a few software features which more than make up for the unnecessary bloat first multi window the list of compatible applications is sparse without some hackery but it's growing slowly but surely and Samsung has added two very useful traits to the multi window experience saved pairs of applications and the ability to drag and drop data between windows the other is Air Command which is accessed by long pressing the S Pen button and hovering it over the display this reveals action memo scrapbooker screen right s finder and pen window the last two being the most compelling and useful pairing pin window with multi window is a true testament to the note 10.1 utility over any other Android tablet this combination allows you to run upwards of six applications at once if you so wish this is something no other Android tablet can do at all so sure the software has the very same flaws every recent Android device from Samsung has had but matters could certainly be worse for this tablet performance is where this review diverts a bit we'd like to say the note 10.1 performs incredibly well but while it performs great the majority of the time the lag and stutters are impossible to overlook at times the tablet would freeze while opening an application especially when using multi window or even more simple things like having a pin window open and flicking through home screens eventually the tablet catches up and things begin to smooth out where performance issues like these should not exist on a tablet that's powerful we can't help but feel the optimization or lack thereof of the exodus octa chip is to blame the global no 3 unit suffered from similar issues while the Snapdragon 800 bearing No 3 did not it's performance and benchmarks is passable yet nothing terribly mind-blowing and it's gaming performance paired with the gorgeous display is great one of the best we've ever experienced the side facing speakers add to that gaming experience they're surprisingly loud and while they're not quite as tinny as we expected there easily muffled their placement is admittedly not the best and no they're not the best speakers but they're passable battery performance while in use is impressive we were unable to kill the battery in a single day even through rather heavy usage patterns pulling a handful of social accounts three Gmail accounts web browsing gaming downloading apps and even benchmarking we averaged about two full days per charge but it can't go without saying that the standby is not great the tablet dropped between 10 or 20 percent over a single night this however was less painful with the power saver mode enabled the camera performance as with any tablet isn't worth getting excited over either the 8 megapixel camera on the back side of the Note 10.1 is mediocre at best images like proper saturation detail contrast and air on the cool side it will work in a pinch for stills and 1080p video but there's a great chance your smartphone will take better pictures so where does that leave us well with a high powered Android tablet with a ton of value proposition but it does nothing to fight the long-lasting stigma of poor performing Android tablets with project butter and chipsets which seem to have very little trouble powering high-end smartphones and tablets through the worst abuse you can throw at them even occasional freezing and lag is unacceptable on a premium tablet that retails for 550 dollars put simply if you can deal with the occasional performance hiccup in exchange for the most advanced experience on an Android to date you can't go wrong with the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition else maybe you should stick to a stock Android tablet or save up for the Snapdragon 800 powered LTE note 10.1 and for that we give the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition and eight point seven out of ten that's going to wrap up this review if you enjoyed it and found it helpful be sure to click the thumbs up button below and comment if you have a question or a suggestion be sure to subscribe to the channel to see more videos like this one in the future and find us on facebook twitter and google+ at pocket now I am Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time