Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

When Samsung first introduced the Galaxy Note in late 2011, the company floated the idea that the funny device with the 5.3-inch screen and a stylus wasn't a phone or a tablet, but something in between. At the time, Samsung claimed it had launched an entirely new class of device, the premiere entry in the "Note" category.

Once we actually got our hands on the Note however, the marketing speak evaporated and it was clear that the Galaxy Note was indeed just a big phone and a few gimmicky apps engineered to take advantage of the stylus. While we didn't think highly of the Note (we gave it a 5 out of 10) the massive handset went on to sell millions of units worldwide.

Less than a year later, Samsung has delivered a second Note. But this isn't a phone, nor a "phablet." Rather, Samsung has taken the Note's proven DNA and embiggened it to create the Galaxy Note 10.1, a Wi-Fi-only, Android 4.0 tablet with a 10.1-inch screen and a stylus. It also ships with some specialized apps for drawing and taking notes that have been optimized to work with the pen-like appendage.

The Note 10.1 is available this week, starting at $500 for the model with 16GB of storage, and $550 for the 32GB model.

It arrives at a time when Samsung is in desperate need of some momentum within its tablet line-up. In 2011, shortly after the Galaxy line of Android tablets launched, Samsung reported it sold more than 2 million units worldwide. But it has since come to light, according to documents from the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial, that the company only sold 339,000 Galaxy tablets in the U.S. – the largest market for tablets by a wide margin – during that time: 262,000 in Q4 2010 and 77,000 in Q1 2011. Newer sales data from the first half of 2012 is more promising, but Samsung is still far, far behind Apple in the tablet market, with a 9.6 percent market share compared to Apple's 68.2 percent.

So Samsung is eager to earn some swagger with this release. But while the Galaxy Note 10.1 wears a different name that its Galaxy Tab predecessors, it's still essentially the same tablet, offering largely the same experience, as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 2 10.1.

The only real differentiators that separate the Note 10.1 from its Tab brethren are the S Pen stylus and Samsung's suite of stylus-compatible apps. The S Pen uses Wacom's conductive stylus technology to allow you to easily write and draw on screen, and also interact with websites and on-screen menus. If you hold the S Pen just above the display, you'll see a small cursor floating around the screen, just like you're moving a mouse. You maneuver the cursor into position, then actually bring the stylus to the screen with a tap. It's very intuitive, and it's easy to use for basic navigation, to scribble words or pictures, or to interact with an app. The S Pen requires no battery, and a raised button near the tip brings up contextual menus, just like the right-click of a mouse.

The stylus included with the Note 10.1 features 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, up from 256 levels on the Note phone's S Pen. It's 4.5 inches long and slightly thinner than a no. 2 pencil, so it's comfortable and natural to hold. Also, when the pen is near the screen, the display switches off the touch sensitivity, so you can rest your palm on the screen without interfering with the pen's input. It's not perfect – it didn't always pick up my intended pen strokes, and drawing or writing on such a large, slick surface took some getting used to. But, without a doubt, using the S Pen on a tablet feels much more natural, much more "right" than using the stylus on the Note phone. Also, if you're a Wacom devotee and you have a few stylii kicking around, they should work with this tablet, since the same technology is being used.

The Note 10.1 comes pre-installed with four stylus-optimized apps: Samsung S Note, which recreates a legal notepad; S Planner, a calendar app you can control with the S Pen, but you unfortunately can't doodle on; a game called Crayon Physics, which allows you to draw objects that then interact with one another as they might in the real world; Adobe Photoshop Touch; and Kno, a textbook-reading app that allows you to take notes and highlight text with the S Pen. Some unique stylus interactions have been added to the stock web browser as well, but if you buy this, you're probably going to install a better browser (like Chrome), and those functions will go unused.

I sketched out a couple drawings in Samsung's S Note app – one of the Hulk using a couple different shades of green, and another of an older man with a scared look on his face – and I was mostly happy with the results. Pinching and zooming in and out on the digital notepad allowed me to add in some detail, and the selection of digital pens, pencils and brushes is solid.

But while S Note made sense for brainstorming or jotting out a quick list, the app and the S Pen weren't capable enough to really be used for professional creation. It was fun, but it's nowhere as accurate or as comfortable as using Wacom's Cintiq or Intuos tablets, which are designed and built for graphic designers, illustrators and animators, and cost a helluva a lot more too. A pencil or pen and a sheet of paper remain the better option for professional-grade work.

The same can be said for Adobe Photoshop Touch. Using the S Pen, it's easy enough to do a quick edit on a photo – to create a mask, to move layers around to create whole new images, or to paint over the top of a background. But while this is useful for something quick, this isn't a viable replacement for Photoshop on a laptop or desktop computer combined with a mouse or a purpose-built drawing tablet.

But just as it was clear that the Note phone wasn't truly a new class of device, it's clear that the Note 10.1 tablet isn't seeking to replicate or replace drawing tablets built for art pros. Really, all the Note is doing is adding a quick and easy layer of scribbling and sketching functionality for on-the-go productivity, when detail and precision aren't as important.

On the Note phone, the screen was too small for me to do any real drawings, and I've found that typing notes via an on-screen keyboard is easier than trying to write out notes by hand using the S Pen. On the Note 10.1, I actually had fun writing and drawing on the tablet, despite the tech largely feeling a bit like a gimmick more than a full-on artist's tool.

For some, the S Pen and its apps may be reason enough to buy a Note 10.1. However, taken solely as a tablet, the Note 10.1 isn't compelling enough to recommend over its more powerful rivals such as the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity and Apple's third-generation iPad, or even the smaller and cheaper Nexus 7.

Among the things holding the Note 10.1 back is its lower-resolution display. The Note 10.1 has a 1280 x 800 display (same as the 7-inch Nexus 7). The Transformer Pad Infinity sports a 1920 x 1200 resolution and the third-generation iPad has a 2048 x 1536-pixel display. The Note 10.1 doesn't look nearly as good as its rivals, and the hardware feels about a year behind the times.

Another downside, oddly enough, is speed. The Note 10.1 is the first U.S. device to feature the company's quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos 4 processor. And indeed, the Note 10.1 feels quick, but not noticeably faster than the dual-core processor found in the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, and not even close to as fast the the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU in the Transformer Pad Infinity or the A5X dual-core chip in the newest iPad. While swiping between home screens and scrolling vertically in apps and the browser, there's a disappointing lag.

Stylistically, the Note 10.1 looks almost exactly the same as the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, with an attractive plastic body. It feels durable, but the thin plastic isn't as luxurious as the metals and high-quality plastics used on the Nexus 7, Transformer Pad Infinity and the iPad.

Like the Tab 2, the Galaxy Note slate has front-facing speakers which sound better than the rear-facing speakers on most tablets. One small point of difference between the new Note 10.1 and the older Tab 2 10.1 is the small slot on the back to hold the stylus. It's unobtrusive, and the thing stays put.

On the software side, the Galaxy Note 10.1 also takes a few cues from Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone. In all, Samsung's alterations to stock Ice Cream Sandwich are minimal, though the changes don't improve the user experience much at all. The water-drop sound effects from the S III are present in the Note 10.1, and sharing features, such as AllShare Play, are here, too. With AllShare Play, you can share photos and videos (for viewing, not saving or editing) with as many as six other S III phones or Note 10.1 tablets nearby. But sharing with others is clumsy, as it requires each person in the group to accept your invitation one by one – never mind the fact that they're also required to own a compatible Samsung device.

Again, just as with the S Pen itself, while these gimmicks make the Note 10.1 different, they don't lift the tablet above the competition.

WIRED Drawing and writing on the Note 10.1 feels much more natural than on the Note phone. Front-facing speakers aren't better than good headphones, but they're better than most tablet speakers. A MicroSD card slot allows for expanded storage, and an IR blaster allows you to use the Note 10.1 as a TV remote.

TIRED The S Pen and a slick screen lack the accuracy to make this a tool for professional artists. The Note 10.1 is quick, but not as fast as rival tablets from Asus and Apple. The 1280 x 800 pixel display falls short in today's post-Retina world. Samsung's software changes make Android different, but not necessarily better.