Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Revealed at MWC
by Jason Inofuentes on February 27, 2012 11:45 AM EST
.jpg)
The Galaxy Note, in 5.3" guise, has just hit the States after decent sales in Europe and Asia; and now we have a new member of the Note line, a 10.1" variant. We mentioned speculation yesterday that the Note 10.1 could have a high-density display and next-generation SoC. Turns out the speculations were most likely wrong on both counts. The Galaxy Note 10.1 brings a 1.4 GHz dual-core SoC, probably Exynos 4210, to a OG Tab 10.1 sized tablet along with the stylus and S Pen interface introduced in the Note. Though the tablet is listed as featuring an HSPA+ radio, telephony is likely not on the cards, so the 'phablet' designation doesn't come into play, thankfully.
The display is the same 10.1" WXGA (1280x800) PLS panel we've seen on all of Samsung's 10.1" tablets, and runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) with the requisite TouchWiz layer in tow. If this is Exynos, this will be the first time we'll have seen that particular SoC in a 10.1" tablet. The hardware, then, is not the big advance, rather Samsung is playing up the improved productivity opportunities that result from applying the original Note's S Pen interface, along with the new S Note software on a larger screen. We haven't spent a lot of time with either Note, so it's hard for us to judge how successful this effort is likely to be. If marketing is to be believed, though, the S Note software should bring the kind of multitasking previously only seen in a 'windowed' interface to the tablet space.
The announcements keep rolling in, and we'll hopefully have a hands-on with all of the new devices soon. Until then, follow the source for the full press release and peep the gallery and full specs below. As a treat for all our readers, we're going to be working on a series of Pipeline posts that will lay out the full specs (as we know them) for as many products and manufacturers as we can muster. It'll be your one stop to compare a particular manufacturers line-up.
| Tablet Specification Comparison | ||||||
| Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 | Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) | ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime | |||
| Dimensions | 256.7 x 175.3 x 8.7mm | 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6mm | 256.6 x 175.3 x 9.7mm | 263 x 180.8 x 8.3mm | ||
| Display | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 PLS | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 PLS | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 PLS | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 Super IPS+ | ||
| Weight | 583g | 565g | 588g | 586g | ||
| Processor | 1.4GHz Dual-core SoC | 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (2 x Cortex A9) | 1GHz Dual-core SoC | 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 (4 x Cortex A9) | ||
| Memory | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB | ||
| Storage | 16GB/32GB/64GB + microSD slot | 16GB | 16GB/32GB + microSD slot | 32GB/64GB + microSD slot | ||
| Pricing | $??? | $499 | $??? | $499/$599 | ||
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
_thumb.jpg)
Source: Samsung Mobile
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
10 Comments
View All Comments
dagamer34 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
If you have to look at a detailed spec sheet to understand the difference between two products, that company has failed.bplewis24 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
Well said!lilmoe - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
if you ask me, then i'd say that the fail is the tegra3... it's still using last year's 40nm process with slight improvements and optimizations. the exynos 4212 they probably plan to put on those is built on the 32nm process with a higher gpu/bus clock, and arguably faster than the tegra3... these tablets probably will outperform the transformer prime. wait to see benchmarks before you reach a decision...Jeff7181 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
My fear as smartphones and tablets get more powerful is that there will be less and less emphasis on writing efficient code and the applications that end up running on these devices will be just as fat and heavy as some written for PC's. One of the great things about such devices today is that the software they run was designed for very sparse hardware... now that we're getting more and more powerful hardware, it'll be easier for a developer to write sloppy fat code that still works because there's a quad core CPU and multiple GB of memory available.seamonkey79 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
We're already on our way there... take the Facebook app for instance. That silly thing still shows exactly the same information the Facebook app of 2010 showed, only takes longer to load, is more complicated to do simply things like comment on a post, and according to 'reviews' on the market, crashes far more often than the app of yesteryear. On my Rezound, it loads quite a bit faster than it did on my Dinc, but it does crash somewhat often and sometimes just can't pull info. The app's file size is 5x greater than it was two years ago, and at least that much worse.JasonInofuentes - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
I'll agree with this. In the console gaming space the argument for releasing a game on one console is that your developers can focus their efforts on wringing the very most out of the hardware, without worrying about other hardware. Whether the results are better games or not, I think it's fair to say that as this console generation has played out and more games are released on multiple consoles and the PC at launch, bugginess and corner-cutting is pretty rampant.The same thing is playing out to a certain extent in the mobile space. Modern apps on iOS target just three hardware platforms, and one OS framework. Apps on Android are developed to target as many hardware platforms as possible, and have multiple OS frameworks to target (Android 2.x, Android 3.x/4.x). Now, that doesn't mean that all iOS apps are well optimized; lazy coders write for iOS, too. But for Android the challenge is that even tightly written code can have random conflicts with particular hardware, or software quirks. My favorite conflict is Torque, an ODB scan tool, which has a conflict with Pandora over utilization of the Bluetooth stack.
And you're right, Jeff7181, bad code can be pushed through fast hardware; what I'm hoping is that developers will recognize that having to chase their tails working out bugs after release is wasted time vs. coding it right the first time.
tayb - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
The pen input seems pretty cool but it seems like they've just tacked this on to their existing lineup. Would have been nice to see this with tegra 3 and a 1920x1200 screen.B3an - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
This is a disappointment. I was expecting way better specs than this. Samsung need to bring out a 1080p tablet, with Krait or some A15 based SoC.JasonInofuentes - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
The rush to succeed in the next-gen SoC race has one huge bottleneck: foundries. We're never privy to the deals that TSMC and GF have with OEMs, nor will we necessarily know what challenges they're experiencing with 32nm/28nm fabrication. Samsung, has their own fabs, and are just as private about their contracts and fabrication difficulties. What I'm curious about is, what will these items be priced at, if they're not going to have the next-generation panels and SoC's that others will, will they price them the same as, say a Krait tablet? If so, will these devices be EOL'd when the next-gen SoC's are released?doobydoo - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
This device is such a fail. Barely better than the original, which was also a fail.What is Samsung playing at?