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
Final Words
Starting from the inside out, the new Galaxy Note is better in pretty much every way. The industrial design is much improved compared to its predecessors. The new Exynos 5420 is quite fast on both CPU and GPU fronts. Battery life is ok for normal usage but great for video playback (just behind the big iPad). You get tons of RAM (3GB) and super fast WiFi. Then there’s the display. The 2560 x 1600 panel is easily the best Samsung has shipped in a tablet. Although not the best in the industry, it’s in a different league compared to Samsung tablet displays of years past. Even compared to the Galaxy Tab 3.0 lineup, the 2014 Note 10.1’s display is so much better.
With a relatively good story across the board in terms of hardware, the only difficulty in this conclusion boils down to a discussion of price vs. functionality.
The Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) arrives at an interesting time for the 10-inch tablet market. It’s definitely the high-end offering we’ve always hoped to see from Samsung in their 10-inch family, but the world seems to be moving toward smaller tablets for consumption, while toying with the idea of a 2-in-1 for productivity. Samsung attempts to straddle both lines with the inclusion of the S Pen, something we found surprisingly useful in our review of the Galaxy Note 8.0, but a feature that comes at a steep price.
There are really two key tablet price points/devices that you have to compete with in this world: the 2013 Nexus 7 at $229, and iPad at $499. The Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) continues Samsung’s trend of charging a premium for the S Pen/Note experience and shows up at $549 for a 16GB WiFi-only model. That is a healthy premium over the non-Note model, but easily worth the adder given what you get (assuming you're limiting yourself to shopping exclusively in Samsung's tablet lineup). What I'd really like to see is a 2014 Edition of the Galaxy Note 8, with the same sort of hardware but at a much lower price point.
At the end of the day, the new Note’s pricing paints it into a niche just like the rest of the big Note lineup. If you love the S Pen experience and want it on some of the best 10-inch tablet hardware available, the new Note 10.1 is perfect. It's arguably the best 10-inch tablet Samsung has ever built, but it's also priced as such. If you're not married to the S Pen, there are definitely cheaper options out there.
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sundragon - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
"Not really, while it is not a reference ARM design, apple have only modified it slightly, but it is still a conventional arm v8 chip."Please state the ARM chip that corrolates to it?
It's not an ARM 53/57... It is, however, an Apple designed chip using the ARMv8 architecture...
The Exynos is a plain ARM 15... It's baked into a Samsung designed SOC...
Shootergod - Sunday, December 1, 2013 - link
I don't know that Note 10.1 2014 beat both iphone 5s and ipad air in geekbench 3 scores and Note 10.1 2014 LTE ver. which runs Snapdragon 800 with Adreno 330 beats out every single behcnmark of apple latest devices,so? what is your point? sounds more like you are a butt-hurt ish**p filling with so much insecurities to give reasons and bash others at any time LOL! take care noob,don't say something just by reviews(made up by apple fanboys).Google some real-deal performence and multitasking skills of this tablet before you even begin to bark :) ok?apandya27 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Actually the A7 isn't designed by ARM, its a custom design by Apple (they license from ARM). Its been custom since the A5 I think.teiglin - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
You should be clear if you want to refer to the Apple A7 SoC (with its Cyclone cores) in an article about a chip that contains four ARM Cortex A7 cores. Cyclone is the second generation of fully custom cores designed by Apple--the Swift cores in Apple's A6 SoC last year were the first, while the A5 featured a pair of Cortex A9s.apandya27 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
My mistake. Yes I was referring to the Apple A7 chip being custom designed. Thanks!Sarav - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link
Only since A6 which used 'Swift' cores. A5 just used regular ARM cortex A9 cores I think.MySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
According to article here at anandtech. Apple A7 is indeed Apple designed CPU that implements the ARM ISA. it ISN'T designed by ARM. it was clearly mentioned by anand when he talked about the A7.ananduser - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
It says more about ARMv8 vs ARMv7. It also says more about benchmarks not being able to use multiple cores. The Mali GPU however is surprisingly decent. I expected Imagination's PowerVR, that Apple uses, to be an order of magnitude better.Kevin G - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
The iPhone 5S GPU is surprisingly decent for a phone though. Apple's A7X expected in the iPad 5 would have either 6 or 8 PowerVR clusters following tradition. This would be a 50 to 100% boost in theoretical GPU performance. There is a chance that Apple's A7X would be a triple or quad core CPU too.danbob999 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
It's not about ARMv8 vs ARMv7. The benchmarks are probably still compiled for ARMv7. Apple almost always lead in javascript benchmark. Even when they used a standard ARM design (such as Cortex A8) at lower clock speed. So all we know is that even with a slower CPU, Apple still comes ahead in javascript benchmarks. It doesn't mean their CPU is any faster.