[Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) General] Ettepetje:
My response was about the product I have in front of me, the 2014 Note 10.1, it's strengths and weaknesses. It currently IS the fastest tablet available and with the best screen. It wins this competition easily.

All the talk of (cheap) "plastic built" and such (popular on this forum), but all 15 or so people I handed it too were highly impressed by its slender, light-weight built. So I should have added that too, besides speed and screen quality.

It could be that several English language reviews (local to you?) mostly ignored the S-Pen, but the ones I read of those and the local reviews where I live all weighed it in in their appraisal.

Looking at the S-Pen and looking at its market I see a professional grade device (at least potentially so) at a consumer level price. It very probably is going to become a bombshell in an overpriced market for graphical artists who up till now didn't have such a device and would have to pay 2-3 times as much (if not more) from traditional brands like Wacom. In fact such products were announced recently by Wacom, and at a relatively ridiculous price level.

Graphical artists are only a small market segment however, even if you add in the bigger group of "drawing enthousiasts". The biggest group of users who potentially benefit from the S-Pen are families with children, few of whom would buy such a device for that purpose alone. With movies on its sd card even that group would mostly use it for playing movies, besides games, internet browsing and social apps.

Unfortunately Samsung marketing is trying to broaden the market by aggresively targeting businessmen and students with both dedicated (note taking) apps and a huge marketing campaign. As I stated I see that market as not ideally suited, just looking at what these people get versus what they need. A regular blocknote is still a lot more handy, or a small laptop in case they need to email stuff based on the meeting they are in. Most of these people are imo better of using a device (tablet or laptop) without using an S-Pen, unless for minor things. Maybe coupled to an electronic whiteboard it would make sense.

[UPDATE]

Having used LectureNotes for a bit the last two days I now have to agree that the (old and new model) Note 10.1 can be quite useful for taking notes. The approach of LectureNotes is straightforward enough to just open the right notebook and start scribbling. Being used to S-Note and numerous note taking Apps on the iPad, all of which are cumbersome to a various extend, LectureNotes is a breath of fresh air.

(this is not intended as a plug for LectureNotes, but me coming to grips with a Note taking App that IS truly useful for students and businessmen)

[/UPDATE]

Coming back to the strenghts of the 2014 Note 10.1 [for the general public] it's main attraction is its screen, and the (cpu/gpu) processor power to back it up. Besides the (much) slender built and weight I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it comfortably outclasses even the iPad 4 in these 2 areas (screen/speed).

Learning its strenghts (and the weaknesses of Android) and having other options lying around people will use this new Note 10.1 for movie watching, stuff they are too lazy about to grab their laptop or iPad for, fast games, etc.

Those who like drawing (or professionals who are forced to ;)) will also, or in some cases preferably use it for drawing. Even adding students and businessmen the S-Pen will in general be considered a nice added feature, but effectively most will forget about it once the newness wears off.

That YOU consider the S-Pen to be the main distinguishing feature [for people in general] does not make it so. I could just as easily point towards the open structure of Android, where you are allowed to copy your downloaded movies onto and do all kinds of other things Apple won't allow on its gear. Android is much like a pc in its heydays, when you could do whatever you wanted on it making it much more popular than (higher priced) alternatives by for instance Apple.

Being on a forum where Android rules I might have forgone mention of this "openness" factor also. :)

There are a lot of negative posts on the 2014 Note 10.1 forum, very much similar to a whole slander campaign, by (what comes across as) mostly ignorant people complaining about lag and creaking. Of course some of these units could be defective or filled with bloatware my region didn't get. Trying to help get some more sense into this mess has been my main driving force on this (sub) forum these past few days.

EDIT: erased some stuff (with strike-through), included an updated section (clearly marked as such) and added 2 short line sections marked between '[' and ']'.