[Galaxy Note 10.1 General] TheWerewolf:
FREE! Freee from Asus!!!

My Note 10.1 came in yesterday. :)

So, here's MY rebuttal to the bad review

1. The back is a softer plastic than say on the Tab 2 10.1 - but it's not actually THAT soft. The video shown would make it look like jelly. The 'aluminum is better' argument is highly specious - my Prime has lots of 'burnished' spots similar to the ones show and they took a little longer - but they're still there. My recommendation: get a Note 10.1 'Book-case' from Samsung.

2. The Note is nicely balanced and thin. I'm not sure where the complaints of the edges being too sharp come from. On my unit - the build is fine. No creaking.

3. The SPen is light - but not weirdly so. I actually don't use it - I use a stylus from my Samsung Slate - but any penenabled pen works fine and gives you an eraser to boot. So I use the SPen more as an emergency pen I leave in the dock.

4. Screen - Looks good to me. Colours are vibrant. I can see the screen in daylight if cranked up. Honestly, other than it not being a QXGA or HD screen, I'm not at all sure what this guy's issues are here.

5. Performance - again, I have NO clue what his problem is here. It may not be the zippiest around (although it feels at zippy as my Prime), it's more than good enough for most use.. so unless he's running something really weird on his system - I'm at a loss to see where this is coming from.

6. NFC. I addressed this in my previous comment. No one uses it. While it would have been a very nice feature - and for future proofing the Note, it would be a major plus, currently, very few things actually use the NFC for anything useful that would be appropriate for a slate. So, yes, he's right - it should be there, but it's just not the big thing he's making it out to be.

7. Camera - I wish the camera from the Prime were in the Note. The 5MP camera is ok - but it's just not as good as the 8MP one both in terms of image size (obviously) and image quality. Still, as noted, most people won't be using their slates for high end photography - but for AR, QRCodes, barcoding and quick snaps - all of which this is more than good enough to handle.

8. TouchWiz - this is a personal preference thing. Some people want stock Android with nothing on it. Other people want all the bells and whistles. I reconfigured my Note fairly easily to remove most of the TouchWiz I didn't like - what's left does throw me off from time to time but I like the features like multiwindow. Personally - I really like the little floater apps.

9. Apps - Floater apps in particular. I don't think he grasps the idea behind these. They're not *supposed* to be full function apps. They're quick little 'get something into the system now while I remember it' apps. You go to the full app when you want to do more. So, yes, you can't delete an alarm there - but you can from the main alarm app. It's really not that difficult.

10. Split Screen - he brings up something here that he also mentioned in the floater apps part - that you can't use split screen with just any old app - but only with a small set of apps. Guess why? Floaters and Splitscreen aren't standard Android features. This means no one else's apps will work without modification. Hopefully, these features will make their way into the main Android source base and Samsung will let everyone use their API (same with the SPen - more on that in a moment). But his argument seems to be 'either EVERYTHING or NOTHING'. Me - I like the split screen - I'm happy to take what we have now until more apps come out.

*MY* complaints and compliments about the Note...

1. SPen. It's supposed to have 1024 levels of pressure - but it's really quirky. This is Wacom - it should be smoother. I'm betting this is because it's a wholly new API that's only ever been used on one other device: the Note phone. I'm hoping that Photoshop Touch in particular gets better at this. If you don't like the stubby pen - get a replacement stylus for the Samsung Series 7 Slate - works fine and you get an eraser.

2. The camera app. PLEASE give us the standard one - its panorama mode is so much nicer and you can turn off shutter clicks. I DO like the ability to change the 'fourth icon' to camera. I REALLY like the improved POP email client. FINALLY - YOU CAN EMPTY THE TRASH IN A COUPLE OF CLICKS. That alone endears Samsung to me. :)

3. The Galaxy Tab Note 10.1 is 1/4 inch wider and taller than the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Which means that allll the cases out there are just a wee bit too small.

4. I wish they'd included email and weather widgets similar to the ones included on the Prime... but I'm sure there's something in Play I can find to get close.

5. The GPS is insanely good. I got a lock on the very first time within seconds - and with 13 satellites (two Glonass, eleven regular). It works inside my apartment which is in a concrete building with no easy sky visibility. (Guess it must use a 'commercial' GPS, right Asus?)

6. The official Samsung accessories are kind of pricey. $55 for their 'universal multimedia dock' - which isn't really a multimedia dock - it's just audio out. It's a thin sheet of plastic with an L connector stuck into it. Weirdly - their bigger Tab 10.1 multimedia dock is only $39... but it's just a bit too narrow for the Note 10. $65 for the hard shell Note-book cover is nuts. Oh well, I'm sure more options will appear as this becomes more widely available.

Overall, this is the device I'd hoped the Asus Transformer Prime would have been. If Samsung makes a docking keyboard that can fold into a kind of clamshell, that would be the icing on the cake.