[Galaxy Note 10.1 General] twospirits:
i do already.

I mention a while back in the other thread about the reviews that I went to Best Buy to check it out since there were a few reviews (especially the AP one) that said it sucked. I spent a whole hour playing with it. I brought a writing pad with all the issues raised from those reviews and in each and every one, I did not see any problem, here are my Notes (pardon the pun).

Design:

their view: Them: they claimn that Apple is forcing Samsung to make their tablets not look like iPads and they hate the result.

my Notes: I felt that the design looks much better. Now with the Apple vs Samsung case over I really don't want anything looking like an iPad. It doesn't have the usb or mini/macro usb port like my Thinkpad tablet but due to the size its obvious why it doesn't. It has the power button on top (which I wish my Note 5.5" had it there). The speakers in front do not make the design look bad and I like the sound coming out of it.

Materials & Build

their view: bad construction, glossy plastic junk, squishy, creaks.

my Notes: I now the material is polycarbonate which is more flexible but stronger but it does look a bit like plastic that might break on a fall. Tried to make it creak, did not noticed any, Pushed in the back and it was not as bad as the videos and reviews show.

S-Pen

Their view: feels cheap, too light in the hand, pen button doesn't do anything. Tracking is laggy.

my Notes: Could not test the S-pen of the Note 10.1 since best buy doesn't leafve them out since folks steal them so i whipped out my own Note 5.5" pen and was using it to go around the screens. If the actual Note 10.1 S-pen is anything like my 5.5" S-pen then i am going to be happy, since my Lenovo stylus is just so damn noisy when it hits the glass of my Thinkpad.

Screen:

their view: they all complain on the resolution being too low, unusable outside in sunlight,

my notes: Its not as bright as the Transformer or an iPad but for my eyes, its fine. Viewing angles are good. Videos came out clear. Couldn't take it out side since its locked to the display table but unless any tablet has a Pixel Qi screen seeing it in direct sunlight wouldn't make a difference. knowing that a wiacom does not make any digitizer with any resolution higher than what is on the Note just makes those reviews look stupid.

Performance

did not test but in the hour there, no lag, smooth and it seems quite fast. Whether that's a placibo effect or not I don't know but reviews show its in the top of its class.

Camera

Could not test Gmail video chat since I did not want to add my account on the device and the tie down holding the tablet to the display table restricted me from taking any good images. but then again, I really do not see myslef holding this thing up to take images.

NFC

their views: They complain it doesn't have any

my Notes: i have yet to use NFC on my smaller Note or any of my Sprint phones either yet. So I won't miss it but i agree it should be there for those that use it.

TouchWiz:

Their view: They all hate it

my Notes: its not that bad. I actually like some of the TouchWiz stuff. Calendar is awesome,

Multi-view mode

Their view: 50 like it 50 hate it, most complain only a few apps can be place in multi-view mode, laggy when switching between apps

my Notes: awesome, finally multi windows (even if it is only two side by side) on an android tablet. Granted the Notion Ink Adam had this in their Eden UI but it never was supported by Google, NvIdia and NI's marketing and support did in that product. Still what Samsung did here is nothing short of amazing. Yeah only a few apps, but until Google sets this up in code for all to do and or devs start applying the code to their apps, this would have to do for now and what I see i like. The lag between switching between the apps is there, but not as bad as some claim it to be. For a 1st generation design I think its awesome.

After an hour, I left with being >this close< to almost buying it. but I didn't since I am really hoping Samsung comes out with a white 32GB WiFi version. but I know myself, I really don't think I would wait for that to happen. So it boils down to getting the 16 white or the 32 deep grey.

While there are quite a few tablets one can compare the Note to I kept referring back to my Lenovo Thinkpad tablet and the Note 10.1 runs circles around it. Now mind you, this was only one hour of using it and I'm sure after owning it I might find things that i don't like about it. I did the same thing with the Lenovo Thinkpad tablet last year at B&H photo, fell in love with it and ended up buying it.

Coincidentally, I pissed off two customers that wanted hands on time with it, the BB rep and other one customer asked me what i was doing and actually got into what I was doing.

TS