Gadgetory

Oh Apple and Samsung it's most recent flagship tablets compare I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the Apple iPad air vs. a samsung galaxy note 10.1 2014 edition the two current tablet kings Samsung and Apple recently released their most impressive tablets yet the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition and the iPad air we've now reviewed both tablets and they each received respectable scores but which is the better buy is Samsung's productivity and multitasking focused tablet were capable or it's Apple's famed content selections still give the iPad a slight advantage that's what we're here to find out both Samsung and Apple took the last year to redesign their flagship models the Galaxy Note 10.1 bears a strong resemblance to its much smaller sibling the Galaxy Note 3 it features sharp edges more squared corners and aligned faux metal trim instead of the faux brushed metal trim the back side is also made of a faux leather plastic the iPad air now supports the same exact design as the iPad Mini the tapered edges have been traded for rounded edges for the chamfered trim along the front it's prettier slimmer and lighter than all full-sized iPads before it speaking of size and weight the physical footprints of the iPad air and the new Note 10.1 are remarkably similar the Galaxy Note 10.1 measures 243 millimeters wide 170 1.4 millimeters tall and 7.9 millimeters thick the iPad air is 3.1 millimetres narrower 1.9 millimeters shorter and only 0.4 millimeters thinner the biggest difference is weight the iPad air and only one pound is unbelievably lightweight that's 478 grams to the Note 10.1 is 540 grams the more interesting part while producing a marginally smaller and notably more lightweight device Apple was still able to capture an in hand feel like no other the Galaxy Note 10.1 feels nice but not incredible it still has that hint of a toy-like field for far less so than previous models the iPad air is undeniably Apple's most premium tablet yet looking inside these tablets the contrasts are far more obvious the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition with some monster specifications at least comparatively the iPad air for example has 1 gigabyte of RAM the note 10.1 has tripled that both come in either 16 32 or 64 gigabyte capacities though the iPad also comes in 128 gigabyte option while the note 10.1 has a microSD expansion slot for an additional 64 gigabytes the iPad air has a 5 megapixel camera while the note 10.1 has an 8 megapixel shooter they also come with comparable batteries inside the note 10.1 with a 31 watt hour battery and the air with a 32 point for one hour cell and the iPad air comes with an a7 chipset which is composed of a quad-core GPU and a dual-core CPU clocked at 1.4 gigahertz the Exynos 5 octa inside the note 10.1 is composed of two quad-core CPUs one clocked at 1.9 gigahertz and the other at one point three and a hexa core GPU finally the displays at nine point seven inches the iPad Air's Retina display comes with a resolution of 2048 by 1536 pixels for a total density of 264 pixels per inch the 10.1 inch Super Clear LCD on the Note 10.1 bears an even higher resolution 2560 1600 pixels with a density of 299 pixels per inch suffice it to say if you're having to choose between these two no matter which you choose you're gonna walk away with a beautiful display the Galaxy Note 10.1 spano is a higher resolution and therefore more crisp and sharp the iPads smaller and slightly lower res panel is more true to life and accurate yet both are comparable in brightness contrast and viewing angle you can't really go wrong with either display though we favor the Note 10.1 to display for one main reason aspect ratio at 4:3 the iPads display still isn't perfect for video playback but that's truly a minor issue lest we forget the Note 10.1 comes with an integrated stylus tucked away in its upper right corner paired with the Wacom digitizer is far more accurate and useful than the run-of-the-mill capacitive stylus one might use with the iPad not to mention it comes with its own software suite frankly both of these tablets work great hardware and specifications however we have to give the hardware and design edge to the iPad for the far superior build quality and appearance but know that it's only a slight edge we like the note 10.1 display more and the fact that it comes with an inductive stylus software between these two tablets in particular is a tough subject to tackle we could talk for days about how poorly optimized and over encumbered the touch with software is we can also praise the amount of content games apps movies and television music books magazines etc available to the iPad for hours on end and to be fair those are very valid points not to be overlooked the iPad has a virtually endless supply of content beautiful content and access to one of the most expansive digital catalogues period the tablet app situation on Android is maturing quite rapidly but they're still admittedly room for further growth and improvement but these are tablets and unlike their smaller smartphone relatives they have a whole lot of display real estate to work with to be blunt the Galaxy Note 10.1 makes better use of the additional pixels by allowing multiple applications to run side-by-side with the multi window software feature further using the s-pen and its software suite you can open multiple floating applications atop the current running application meaning you can have a total upwards of 6 applications running at once theoretically with the iPad sadly you could not only one application can run at a time however the iPad uses multitasking gestures to make switching between applications quicker and rather intuitive a four finger swipe upwards reveals the tasks which are menu four finger swipes left and right will switch between recent apps and chronological order of being opened and a five finger pinch will bring you back home sadly while Samsung has gone the extra mile to make better use of the display it somehow failed to optimize the notification shade for additional real estate both TouchWiz and the iPad version of iOS 7 are nothing more than scaled up versions of the software found on the note 10.1 s and iPad Air's smaller counterparts the note 3 and the iPhone yet it's impossible to overlook the amount of innovation Samsung has done like it or not things like smart say smart Paul's smart rotate and smart scroll allow you to control the tablet to some extent without ever touching it and that's really only the beginning of the Note 10.1 software features for a more in-depth look at these be sure to check out our for review of the Galaxy Note 3 and Note 10.1 on the PocketNow site it's difficult to call either tablet a winner here the Note 10.1 is undeniably more advanced and optimized for tablet use but it also comes with a ton of bloat that many may never take advantage of the iPad on the other hand is little more than a scaled-up iPhone yet it comes with a bevy of applications games and other content which is beautifully optimized for the tablet form factor the ironic part and all this while Samsung spent its time building tablet software it clearly through performance to the wind the Exynos 5 octa chipset is a powerful combination of CPUs and GPU it posts numbers and synthetic benchmarks with some of the best but in real world performance things aren't so cheery there are intensive multitasking the tablet stutters and lags even completely freezing from time to time and sometimes something as simple as opening a pin window and flipping between home screens is enough to make it drop frame rates dramatically we've installed the latest firmware which brought multi-user support but no notable improvements in performance the iPad with its seemingly meager dual-core CPU is a complete opposite it's always snappy applications open quickly switching between applications happens the instant use the forefinger gesture and it's virtually impossible to bog this tablet down in benchmarks both perform well though we're not typically inclined to believe the story benchmarks tell since we don't live in a vacuum fortunately the note 10.1 is performance close don't carry over into gaming or multimedia playback in fact it's fantastic in that regard as is the iPad air speaker performance is sort of the same story the Galaxy Note 10.1 speakers have a slight advantage in two areas location and volume they're noticeably louder than the speakers on the air and being positioned on opposite ends of the tablet they provide true stereo sound the iPad air speakers both found along the bottom edge only separated by the Lightning port are not quite as loud yet provide a more full sound with more emphasis on the low-end battery life however is far more comparable between these tablets at least while in use during our time with the tablets we were typically able to last about two days to a single charge and we were unable to kill either tablet in a single day no complaints there that said the iPad air was particularly great at standby only dropping 1 to 2% charge over an eight-hour span over the same length of time the Note 10.1 typically dropped anywhere from 10 to 20% lastly the cameras the note 10.1 may come with an 8 megapixel camera but out of the box is set to capture images at 6 megapixels for the 16:9 aspect ratio the iPad shooter is only 5 megapixels the note stock camera app comes with quite a few more software options out of the box particularly an image stabilization software for low-light shots and real time filters frankly none of this matters 1 these are tablets and they're not optimal for taking pictures in the first place 2 the iPads camera is simply put better in general it provides images with more contrast better more accurate colors and more detail the Note 10.1 just as we found in our review was susceptible to blurry images thanks to a slight shutter lag if you need a better camera in your tablet for whatever reason the iPad is the winner here but not by a lot a smartphone will ultimately take better pictures and just about any scenario what it boils down to is the iPad is a far more well-rounded tablet Samsung has come a very very long way in the past year and the Note 10.1 2014 edition is evidence of just that it's an impressive leap for Samsung and has us hopeful for the future of Galaxy Note tablets but the Note 10.1 is unmistakably poorly optimized the Exynos 5 octa chip is problematic and we can't help but feel it would be a different story if Samsung opted for Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip in this Wi-Fi model over its in-house brand but that's not the case and once again Apple walks away the victor in the tablet space at least in terms of the final product it's lighter thinner faster more reliable and performs incredibly that said we'd like to see Apple adopt some more tablet friendly software maybe true multitasking in a not too distant future that's gonna wrap up this comparison if you enjoyed the video click the thumbs up button below to let us know and leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions subscribe to the channel to see more videos in the future for myself and the rest of the PocketNow team and follow us in all the usual places twitter google+ and facebook at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time