[Galaxy Note 10.1 General] mt6272:
I am a former Lenovo Thinkpad owner - after my first android tablet experience on the transformer prime, I found that the capacitative stylus allowed me nowhere near the amount of precision that I would be allowed with an active digitizer. Thus, I made the switch to the Lenovo Thinkpad based on the android community consensus that although the tablet didn't offer much, it did offer decent handwriting input via the integrated n-trig system. However, I soon got rid of it because I ran into many of the same problems you did. Having heard the news that a new tablet with an active digitizer was released, the Galaxy Note 10.1, I sprung $500 for it 3 days ago - the difference between the Thinkpad and the Note is night and day in all aspects. If you are on the fence, give it a try. I got mine at best buy knowing that they offer 30 day returns. Right now it is looking like I am keeping it.

You seem to have about all of the questions that I have had on my road to the Note; I'll try to answer them as best I can keeping in mind you are a thinkpad owner.

1) Start-up is FAST. Reboots are no problem. Unlocking the screen is quick as any modern android device.

2) This thing is beautifully constructed - slim and sexy. The Thinkpad is so bulky to me. You won't be replacing any parts on the Note - I'm fairly positive they're all staying in place

3) The stylus response, arguably the most important aspect in a Galaxy Note review, is magnificent. The pressure sensitivity is right on. As an added bonus, the integrated software, S Note, does a great job at capturing the Note's potential for taking notes. Just look up a youtube video of its features. I am currently taking good looking notes at near the speed of pen and paper ( it takes a little practice, as writing on any new medium might, to get precise with it). One thing you may be used to with the Thinkpad is the clicky clacky sound it makes against the tablet screen. The Note's stylus is very quiet.

4) It is a pretty fast tablet. Never have had a problem multitasking or handling large pdf's and a little more. For example; I am taking organic chemistry and I solely rely on the etextbook which is easily a 500 page pdf file. On top of this, I multitask with S Note either to the side or under it, copying information from the text to my note almost seamlessly. Minimal page lag for such a large file. Take note of the hardware - the note has 2GB Ram and a quadcore processor. It is going to be an improvement over the dated thinkpad tablet.

As for quill, I have not tried it yet. However, I have used S Note, Papyrus, and Lecture Notes thus far. S Note is wonderful for all of its features and that it can multitask in the OS. Papyrus has wonderful input, especially for sensing how hard you are pressing down and writing very accurately. But ultimately, S Note does the trick for me right now (Papyrus is missing a few key features at this stage in its development, but try it out if/when you get a Note tablet because it displays some things that the tablet really is capable of doing).

The stylus itself is much smaller than the Thinkpad stylus. Here it is really a matter of preference: to me it feels great in the hand. From what I hear, they sell accessory styli which have some sort of imbedded eraser but I don't know much about this. The Note stylus has a single button which in my opinion is a little bit to easy to accidentally touch, but this doesn't both me. So far the only use I have made of it is to take screenshots.

I should note that I actually prefer using the Note Stylus to navigate through the OS. It allows me a great deal of precision in clicking links that on other tablets I would have first had to pinch and zoom to accurately select. I even like typing with it, as the Note offers a smaller optional keyboard which is just the right size for accurately selecting what you want to type with it.

Like the Thinkpad, there is an integrated silo for putting the stylus in. It fits sleekly in the corner of the device.

As far as Wacom vs N-Trig, what I know is that they are similar technologies. Wacom is a little older, and has the reputation of being further along in its development. Don't discriminate on a tablet because it has one or the other technology - sometimes wacom is better; sometimes n-trig is better. You can't quantify which is better based on their name, but by how well they are implemented in the technology. You can easily say that you want to stay away from a capacitative system on a tablet, but you can't say you want to stay away from either ntrig or wacom because they are basically the same technology (active digitizers), to my understanding.

Lastly I should mention some things you haven't asked about.

- The speakers are some of the best I have found on any similar tablet ( they are front facing)

- The camera quality seems to be pretty much consistent with other competing tablets. Not the best, but not bad at all.

- The screen resolution is something people have griped about, but I think they screen looks beautiful personally. Sure it isn't ipad or tf infinity resolution, but it looks really good to me. On a scale of 1-5, it gets a 4 on the screen to me. Such a minor tradeoff for such accurate stylus recognition.

Above all, do your research before purchasing. As a student and casual artist, it fits my needs - like any technology it is going to make you wish you had something a little more. The Thinkpad let you do things no other android tablet could do at the time when it came out. The same can be said for the Note, but in so much more of a great way.