Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Review
by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on October 1, 2013 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Samsung
- Mobile
- Galaxy Note 10.1
Display
The 2014 Edition features a 10.1-inch 2560 x 1600 Super LCD display. Looking at the subpixel structure of the panel we get an idea for exactly what Super LCD means: RB,GW.
Instead of a standard RGB stripe we get a combination of red, green, blue and white subpixels for each pixel. The white subpixel helps increase light throughput, an obvious problem with these ultra high resolution displays. The downside is that you get a lower subpixel density than a traditional RGB stripe. At these ultra high pixel densities however, the theory is that you wouldn’t notice the difference - hopefully making the power savings by having better light transmission, particularly when displaying lots of white (e.g. web pages), worth it.
In practice the display looks pretty good, although a carefully trained eye will be able to recognize that this isn’t a standard RGB stripe. I quickly realized something was different about the display, something I later verified when looking at the subpixel structure.
Color accuracy is pretty decent on the Note 10.1’s display. As always I’m reporting color data using Samsung’s Movie mode, which remains the most accurate setting of those offered. Grayscale performance is excellent, but our GMB and saturations tests put the Note 10.1 on par with the original Nexus 7. It’s definitely a better calibrated display than any other Samsung Galaxy Note tablet we’ve reviewed. Not quite on par with the new Nexus 7, but getting very close.
Camera
The 2014 Edition features a rear facing 8MP camera with AF and LED flash and a 2MP front facing camera. Image quality out of the rear camera was pretty good for a tablet. I took some photos using the tablet and tossed them in the gallery below, as well as embedded a sample 1080p video recorded using the tablet.
Battery Life & Charging
The Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) ships with an integrated (non-removable) 31Wh battery, that’s substantially smaller than the iPad 4’s 42.5Wh battery - helping it maintain a more svelte figure. The question is how power efficient the combination of RB,GW panel and Exynos 5420 are in combination with one another.
We’ll start with our typical WiFi web browsing battery life test. Here we see a good combination of regular spikes in CPU usage with idle time, hopefully simulating constant, reasonably paced usage.
The 2014 Edition does a bit better than the Nexus 10, but clearly worse than the original Note 10.1 (and obviously worse than the much smaller Nexus 7). There’s not much you can do here other than to point out that we’re talking about an extremely high resolution panel, with an extremely power hungry SoC. The fact that we’re talking about more cores running at a higher frequency than the Exynos 5250 used in the Nexus 10 is good news, but Exynos 5420 also enjoys the benefits of being on Samsung’s 28nm LP process as well.
The video playback story is much better however. With the power hungry Cortex A15 cores able to power down (and hopefully remain there), we’re really testing the display and video decode engines here:
The Note 10.1 beats the new Nexus 7 and is only 10% behind the iPad 4, despite having a much smaller battery.
Like the Nexus 10, the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) takes an incredible amount of time to charge with the bundled 2A charger. A full charge from 0 to 100% took just over 7 hours.
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Davidjan - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link
Really love it. I would use it to see movies with Meenova MicroSD Reader: http://goo.gl/U6IyYPessimism - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link
No phone call ability no care.ASEdouardD - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link
I usually prefer Anandtech's reviews over other websites because of their great analysis of raw performance, but here I find it lacking. Every other review I've read of this tablet mentioned (and made a pretty big point of it) that it stutters a lot and generally feels choppy even though the specs says it should run great. At some point the bigger picture is more important than performance results. There's a also a pretty big lack of discussion on the software side of things, which is something Samsung has a habit of screwing up (see lackluster performance despite insane specs).SentinelBorg - Monday, November 4, 2013 - link
Maybe Anand had a newer version of the software? According to posters at XDA, Samsung already improved the performance a lot with the last updates. A new one was released these days btw, that also enabled multi-user-mode.tushar001 - Thursday, November 28, 2013 - link
I consider myself as Layman turn Techie, I am being a Biology grad its tough to be techie but I try to simplify terms. I am considering to buy best tab which can lead gadget & OS update race for next 2 years. So I'm studying all web updates of 10.1 2014 & ipadair since few month. I have all outdated gadgets like N72(brought in 2006) & Dell inspiron 15R i5 1st gen,Win7(brought in 2011). As I have decided to update my gadgets with best phone & tab in market so I got into all this stuff. Here in India we don't have Apple craze, but I do agree Apple provide best built quality in their products but hamper lot in iOS with iTunes monopoly & other hand is cheap but practical Samsung's flexible range. As price don't affect me I want the best in phone & in tab. So my detail study hints me toward Samsung but concern for its longevity in market survival. Current issues with Samsung is worth concerning. This recent delisting incident puts me in doubt, but on considering other benchmark Samsung did well. This create question in my mind.1.Will Note 3 & Note 10.1 2014 will get kitkat update, if it get so will current hardware support new kitkat OS?
2.As stated 10.1 2014 has 1.8GHz Samsung Exynos 5420 (4 x Cortex A15/4 x Cortex A7, Mali-T628MP6) processor. As per functional Cortex A15 or Cortex A7 either of one works at a time by running at 1.8GHz or 1.3GHz respectively, providing processing power to specifically required as per apps. But not works simultaneously. Now my doubt is, in future considering the need, would these two Quad core run at same time to provide enough Octa core processing power to run 2015 or latter version of apps? If it is coded so then this tab will be powerful enough to last couple of more updates of OS & sustain hardware capabilities to run future ready heavy apps. As overclocking of CPU & GPU was done in benchmarks it does provide massive power, so would that power be juiced out to run future coming apps? Once the warranty is lapse then I won't mind to safely tweak the hardware to its limits.
What you think will this scenario be practical enough? & function smoothly with bearing more heating limit then current one?
While I consider the views to optimistic towards benchmark issues to sort out in coming days, thanks for your views. This found to be good website.
ckkee - Sunday, December 1, 2013 - link
hi Anand, I have been an avid reader for several years, and always enjoy your insightful thoughts and attempts to push the envelope.Just bought a Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) Edition. Noticed there is a power saving function easily accessible from notification menu, and can be set to reduce CPU performance only (i.e. leave screen brightness unchanged - under settings|general|power saving mode). Ran Quadrant Standard Edition - 14000 (power saving mode with only CPU constrained) / 18000 (normal), about 22% reduction in CPU performance. In web browsing, watching HD videos and even playing clash of clans, I can't discern the lower performance ie. power savings mode should work well for most people and use cares.
I'm hoping you can re-run the battery tests to determine the potential increase under power savings mode. Assuming there is significant / proportional increase in battery life, this is a salient feature of interest to many readers Iike myself.
Manufacturers like Samsung should also be commended for making such options available in an easy to use manner.
Agm1111 - Saturday, January 4, 2014 - link
I am a very unique user. My computer career began with the RCA Spectra 70, 256KB (yes, KB), 6 gigantic tape drives, a punched card reader and hard drives the size of a washing machine! All of this glorious hardware took up the space of a room and needed a raised floor with a huge A/C unit cooling the whole room. I wrote apps in on COBOL (remember that)?That was, of course, many years ago. I've been in the 'computer' business ever since.
Thing have changed for sure. I'm holding in my hand a Samsung Note 10.1 2014, high has as much computing power and storage as 100 of those rooms.
I've also changed. I gave leukemia and less than 50% eyesight, 40% hearing, ability, I'm mute and have too many other ailments to mention here.
Several years ago my nurse suggested that I by a tablet. We went to my cell phone carrier and I traded in my phone for a Samsung Tab (7") and it was the best purchase I've ever made.
For 3 long years that Tab helped me do countless things with the plethora of apps I could get (mostly free!) I was used to paying thousands of dollars for applications for both mainframes and PCs.
The Samsung Tab helped me to communicate with others, purchase via the Net anything I needed and so many other things.
But alas, the Tab finally started to show it's wear and age, so I needed to upgrade. As a PC guy, I've always been anti-Apple, mostly because of their closed architecture. They also had very expensive hardware and very little professional level software for their computers. Frankly, if it wasn't for Steve Jobs introducing the iPod, Apple probably would have went out of business years ago. That certainly may be an arguable point, so I'll get back to my account.
When I needed to upgrade from my Samsung Tab, I did some research and decided to purchase an iPad 3. I have to say I was very impressed with the tablet construction, performance and screen/video. There were a few apps that I really liked on my Android that weren't available on the iPad. Meanwhile, my wife followed the current trend and bought her first smart-phone, the iPhone 4s. She loved it.
I used the iPad for about a year and just knew I hand to go back to Android. I did a LOT of research and decided I had to wait for Samsung to release it's next flagship 10" tablet. I waited about 3 months and FINALLY the Samsung Note 10.1 2014 was released.
What I needed was speed and visual clarity, the latest Android (oops, missed "kit-kat") and quality construction.
My phone carrier didn't have the Note 2014 so I went to a big-box store and bought my new Samsung Note 10.1 2014.
While I'm impressed with all the 'hard-core' specs that reviewers have to offer, for me it gets down to real-life usability (for which there is no benchmark). The iPad is a great product, but the long and short of it for me is that the Note 10.1 2014 provides more functionality land usability than any tablet I've researched (and used).
I am working with the S-pen right now, while writing this. The keyboard layout is significantly better than the iPad and the overall design of both hardware and software are excellent. Many of these things are subjective in nature, but for me, in my physical condition, they are a little more than that.
All things said and done, the Samsung Note 10.1 2014 is a GREAT product and deserves the respect it deserves. Apple users, buy the latest and greatest iPad and you'll be happy. But if you are truly objective, give a good, hard look at the latest Samsung 10" tablet.