Gadgetory

this is Danberg with the birch and this is the new samsung galaxy note 10.1 2014 edition sure there are a ton of different tablets available but Samsung's Note tablets are key for the stylus aficionado the new Tab 10.1 continues the tradition of a powerful Android tablet with advanced stylus support but the tablet is not without its troubles Samsung has completely redesigned the Note 10.1 from last year besides being slightly smaller thinner and lighter the note has lost the smooth fingerprint prone plastic backing in favor of a faux leather texture there's actually quite pleasant to hold the borders around the display are a lot thinner and there's now Samsung's trademark physical home button sandwiched between two capacitive buttons at the bottom overall the tablet feels much more mature it's not just the industrial design that's gotten better the Note 10.1 now has a 2560 by 1600 LCD display which is double the pixels of last year's model the screen looks great with text and images looking sharp and bright but this quality screen is nothing too special anymore the Note 10.1 is finally caught up to tablets like the Nexus 10 and the iPad inside the Note 10.1 everything has gotten an upgrade there's a 1.9 gigahertz quad core Exynos processor with a whopping 3 gigabytes of RAM and the rear facing camera is now 8 megapixels the 10.1 comes pre-installed with Android 4.3 jelly bean with of course Samsung's TouchWiz interface right on top as expected the s-pen plays a new-and-improved role with a note tablet there's now a widget called Air Command that opens whenever you pull the pen out or can be conjured by hovering over the screen and pressing the S pen's button this allows users to take a quick screen capture jot a new note open a search or open an app in a tiny window by drawing a rectangle on the screen handwriting can also be used for any text field by hovering the pen and tapping a small button that appears and the transcription is pretty accurate the biggest addition to the notes user interface is the magazine style interface that's reminiscent of the HTC ones blinkfeed but better powered by Flipboard there's a different column for different types of content titled news personal here now and social the biggest issue with the 10.1 is that the interface is still frustratingly slow despite the big boost in power there was still trace amounts of stuttering when swiping between home screens especially if I hadn't used the device for a few min it's the magazine interface was the worst offender sometimes taking a second or two to recognize a swipe up gesture we had the same issues with last year's Note 10.1 and while this is an improvement it's by no means fixed even last year's Nexus 10 felt faster to me the 2014 edition Note 10.1 is definitely faster and better looking than last year's model and if you've got to have a stylus there is absolutely no better tablet on the market right now but 540 999 is quite a lot of money for a tablet that just doesn't feel cutting-edge especially when you can get an iPad for $4.99 or the Nexus 10 for 399 the s-pen support is handy but doesn't make up for what feels like last year's technology