DeviceGuru

[Updated Jan 24, 2013] — I recently spent a month using Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, running Android 4.0. Let’s find out what the tablet’s “Note” rather than “Tab” designation means, and how it compares to its less-expensive sibling, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and to Google’s Nexus 10.

 

Meet the Galaxy Note 10.1
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What’s special about the Galaxy Note 10.1?

When I heard about this new 10-inch Samsung tablet with pen capabilities, my initial reaction was to wonder why I’d want a tablet that packs a snap-in stylus and comes with a handful of pen-enabled apps.

Some Galaxy Note 10.1 pen capabilities
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Now, after playing with its pen capabilities a bit, I doubt that I would ever actually use the pen features, other than to demonstrate them to friends and fellow geeks. But pen features aren’t the only innovations that Samsung baked into the Galaxy Note 10.1.
 

Multiwindowing Android extensions

The Galaxy Note 10.1’s Android 4.1.2 firmware update provided a pumped-up version of Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz user interface, featuring expanded multiwindow and multitasking Android capabilities relative to the tablet’s earlier firmware. In particular, the Galaxy Note 10.1 now supports two multiwindow app display modes, and can run as many as 16 multiwindow-enabled apps simultaneously on a single screen.

Each of the tablet’s multiwindow-enabled apps can be operated in three viewing modes: full screen, dual view, and cascade view, as shown below.

Fullscreen view	Dual view	Cascade view
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To accomplish this, Samsung added a multiwindow app framework to its proprietary Android “TouchWiz” user interface, and jiggered a variety of Android apps to support the framework. Currently, there are 18 multiwindow-enabled apps, spanning browser, email, contacts, calendar, alarm, calculator, YouTube, video player, office suite, and other frequently-used functions. Presumably, the list will grow over time; in fact, hackers have already figured out how to add their own.
 

Running multiwindow apps

Multiwindow apps can be launched in the normal manner, from the homescreen or All Apps screens, in which case they initially run in fullscreen view, just like normal Android apps. Alternatively, the multiwindow apps can be launched from a pop-open “multi window apps tray” located at the bottom of any screen.

The apps tray opens up when you tap the up-arrow in the middle of the screen’s lower panel. The screenshot below shows what the multiwindow apps tray looks like after it’s been opened up.

Multiwindow apps tray
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(click to enlarge)

Two buttons at the lower-left of the apps tray select whether apps launched from the tray begin in dual- or cascade-view. Multiwindow apps that are already running will switch one view to the other when the tray’s view mode setting is changed.
 

Manipulating multiwindow apps

(click to enlarge)

When they are running in either cascade- or dual-view mode, multiwindow apps have three control widgets along their top border, as shown on the left.
 

Here’s how those controls are used:

• Tap the “pin” widget to pin the app in the foreground; after it’s tapped, it turns green.
• Tap the empty square widget to maximize the app; this places it in fullscreen view mode.
• Tap the square-with-X widget to close the app.

You can also resize and reposition multiwindow apps. For apps in cascade-view mode…

• Press-drag the app’s top panel to move the app around on the screen.
• Press-drag one of the app’s borders horizontally, vertically, or diagonally to resize the app’s window.

And, for apps in dual-view mode…

• Swipe the app’s top panel to the right or left to swap its position with the other dual-view app.
• Press-drag the border between two dual-view apps to the left or right to adjust the two app-areas relative width.

 

Launching multiwindow apps the normal way

When you launch a multiwindow-enabled app from an icon located on a homescreen or All Apps screen, it runs in fullscreen view, just like a normal Android app. However, once it’s running, you can move it into multiwindow view mode by tapping the multiwindow widget in its upper-right corner (shown on the left). At that point, it will go into cascade- or dual-view format, depending on the current view selection setting in the multiwindow apps tray.
 

Current set of 18 multiwindow apps

The screenshot below shows the launcher-icons for the 18 multiwindow apps that were included in the Galaxy Note 10.1’s recent Android 4.1.2 firmware update.

Samsung’s current set of 18 multiwindow apps
(click image to enlarge)

 

The screenshot above shows the multiwindow apps tray in “edit mode,” with which you can determine which apps you want to appear in the tray. To accomplish that, you tap the icons in the tray to move them to the upper area, after which they are hidden from the tray; or tap the ones in the top area to move them down to the tray. You can also drag icons around in the tray to change their position.
 

Multiwindow apps demo

The YouTube video below demonstrates the Galaxy Note 10.1’s new multiwindowing capabilities, based on its Android 4.1.2 firmware update.

 

Whither multiwindowing?

The new multiwindow features in Samsung’s Android 4.1.2 update for the Galaxy Note 10.1 push Android’s user interface into new territories, adding Windows-like capabilities that are sure to delight many users — and aggravate others.

From a practical point-of-view, I don’t find Samsung’s multiwindow apps to be of much interest, other than for a few pop-up functions such as a calculator, alarm clock, or other occasional use. That’s because I make a habit of organizing my tablet’s homescreen — as shown below — such that any tool or app can be launched in a tap or two.

Clearly, Samsung has been pushing the Android OS envelope, and it will be interesting to see if any of these innovations eventually get integrated into the standard Android OS.
 

Back to basics

Whether or not you care about its fancy drawing or enhanced multi-windowing capabilities, the Galaxy Note 10.1 turns out to be a highly capable, well designed Android tablet.

Overall, it’s a full-featured, high-performance 10-inch Android tablet with a bright, hi-res IPS (in-plane switching technology) display. The tablet’s computing engine is based on a Samsung Exynos 4412 system-on-chip processor, which contains a quad-core 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU supplemented by a quad-core ARM Mali-400 GPU. Memory resources include 2GB of RAM, 16 to 64 GB of flash storage, and a microSD slot for user-added removable flash.

From the hardware perspective, the Galaxy Note 10.1 overshadows its lower-cost Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 sibling in several ways:

• Significantly faster processor
• Double the RAM
• Available with up to 64GB internal flash
• Higher resolution front and rear cameras
• Next generation Bluetooth (v4.0)

The table below provides a more detailed comparison between Samsung’s two 10-inch Android tablets.

Features & specs: Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 vs Galaxy Note 10.1

	Galaxy Tab 2 10.1	Galaxy Note 10.1
Processor	1.0GHz dual-core	1.4GHz quad-core
RAM	1GB	2GB
Internal flash	16GB	16/32/64GB
microSD expansion	yes	yes
OS	Android 4.0	Android 4.0
Apps market	Google	Google
Display	1280×800	1280×800
Front camera	0.3MP	1.9MP
Rear camera	3MP	5MP
Video output	yes	yes
WiFi	yes	yes
Bluetooth	v3.0	v4.0
GPS	yes	yes
Battery	7000 mAh	7000 mAh
Size (in.)	10.1 x 6.9 x 0.4	10.3 x 7.1 x 0.4
Weight	21 oz	21 oz
Price (*)	$350 (16GB)	$500 (16GB) $550 (32GB)

* Note: Prices retrieved from Amazon.com on Dec. 11, 2012.

To see how the Galaxy Note 10.1 compares to some other popular 10-inch Android tablets, including the Google Nexus 10 and Lenovo IdeaTab S2110, check out our 10-inch Android tablet smackdown.
 

Out-of-box user experience

Now let’s take a look at how the Galaxy Note 10.1 appears when you unpack it and boot it up for the first time. The sets of screenshots below show the tablet’s out-of-box homescreens, homescreen widgets, pre-installed apps, and default folder function.
 

Default homescreens…

Default homescreens
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Default widgets…

Default widgets
(click images to enlarge)

 

Pre-installed apps…

Pre-installed apps
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Default folder function…

Default folder function
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Customizing and tweaking

If you’ve read my other Android tablet reviews, you’ll already be familiar with the steps I go through to configure and customize my Android tablets. These include…

• Installing about 200 favorite Android apps
• Installing an alternative homescreen folder function
• Installing an alternative onscreen keyboard

The screenshots in the next three sections demonstrate the results of performing that process on the Galaxy Note 10.1.
 

Bulking up on apps

After setting the tablet’s homescreen wallpaper to my favorite nebula image, I loaded it up with about 200 of my favorite Android apps. In the App Drawer screenshots below, you can see the app-launchers for all the apps that now reside on the tablet, including both pre-installed apps and those that I added.

Contents of the tablet’s App Drawer pages
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For brief descriptions and demonstrations of many of the apps I installed on the Galaxy Note 10.1, visit DeviceGuru’s Favorite Android apps screenshot tour.
 

Getting organized

Next, I used the Android Folder Organizer app to organize all the apps I just installed into folders, and to build a single primary homescreen from which I could launch any of the tablet’s 200+ apps with one or two taps. Folder Organizer provides many more features and much greater flexibility than the default folder function that comes on the Galaxy Note 10.1. Using it, you can create customized folders, app launchers, and bookmarks, and assign standard or custom icons to each.

The finished result, thanks to Folder Organizer, was a single primary homescreen having 15 folders, 46 app launchers, and three widgets. The screenshots below show the tablet’s primary homescreen and its lockscreen.

Tweaked primary homescreen (upper) and lockscreen (lower)
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The screenshots below show the contents of the tablet’s 14 apps-by-category homescreen folders, which I label with all-upper-case names so it’s easy to tell folders from app-launchers on the homescreen.

Contents of the homescreen folders
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Keyboard alternatives

One great feature of Android is that you can install alternative onscreen keyboards. Samsung has already substituted its own Samsung Keyboard for the standard Android keyboard; the Samsung alternative has much in its favor, including a stylish appearance and a pen-enabled handwriting recognition option. However, I still prefer the alternative Hacker’s Keyboard over both the Samsung and standard Android virtual keyboards, based on its inclusion of cursor positioning keys, Function keys, and specialized keys such as Ctrl and Esc. The two keyboard alternatives are demonstrated in the screenshots below.
 

Samsung Keyboard…

Samsung Keyboard demo, including handwriting recognition
(click images to enlarge)

 

Hacker’s Keyboard…

Hacker’s Keyboard demo
(click images to enlarge)

 

Google Voice Typing…

And then there’s the excellent Google Voice Typing capability that’s built into Android 4.x. It can go along way toward easing and accelerating the process of entering text on your tablet — just be sure to proof read what it types, since some potentially embarrassing goofs will occasionally occur!
 

Google Voice Typing demo
(click image to enlarge)

 

Bluetooth keyboards…

Despite all these virtual keyboard alternatives, I much prefer typing with a Bluetooth keyboard when I’m seated at a table or desk. Here are two keyboards that I’ve used successfully with the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Using a Bluetooth keyboard: Logitech (left); Zagg (right)
(click images to enlarge)

The keyboards shown above are the Logitech Android keyboard and the Zagg ZaggKeys Flex. Both work well.
 

The bottom line

So what’s my overall impression of the Galaxy Note 10.1, after using it for several weeks and comparing it to several other 10-inch Android tablets?

Here’s a list of the Galaxy Note 10.1’s principal pros and cons…

• Pros:
  • Quad-core 1.4GHz apps processor delivers snappy performance
  • Bright, wide-angle IPS (in-plane switching) display
  • Decent sound quality/volume through the front-facing speakers
  • Decent cameras and user-friendly photography app; LED flash, too
  • Innovative multi-windowing support
  • Serious pen-input hardware, plus several pen-aware apps
  • MicroSD flash storage expansion
  • Built-in universal IR remote
  • Thin and lightweight
• Cons:
  • 1280×800 display lags current expectations for a high-end tablet
  • USB/power and video-out connections require Samsung-specific cables

On balance, the Galaxy Note 10.1 offers excellent performance and a market-leading set of features, with the exception of its 1280×800 display. To justify the tablet’s premium pricing you’d need to really care about its sophisticated pen-input capabilities. Otherwise, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is overpriced relative to the Nexus 10, which boasts a gorgeous 2560×1600 (300ppi) IPS display.

If Samsung plans to continue offering a line of high end, pen-oriented Android tablets, the company needs to upgrade the line’s display resolution asap. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the arrival of a “Galaxy Note 2 10.1” early in 2013, followed by a price reduction of today’s model by about $100, bringing it line with other current 10-inch Android tablets.
 

Further information

For more details on the Galaxy Note 10.1, including full specs and further descriptions of its pen and multi-windowing capabilities, visit these pages on Samsung’s website:

• Features
• Specs
• Getting started guide
• Samsung S Pen SDK

 

 

Multiwindow apps support prior to Android 4.1.2 firmware Note: The information in this box describes the Galaxy Note 10.1’s initial multiwindow apps support, prior to the tablet’s January 2013 firmware upgrade to Android 4.1.2. In the update, Samsung significantly expanded and generalized the tablet’s multiwindow apps support.   Multiwindow apps support The Galaxy Note 10.1 also sports a pumped-up version of Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz user interface, with newly added split-screen multitasking capabilities. Currently available on a limited set of apps, Multiscreen mode places two such apps side-by-side on the screen, so that both apps are running on the screen simultaneously.   Multiscreen Apps… Six Multiscreen Apps currently come with the Galaxy Note 10.1: Internet (the tablet’s default browser); Email; Gallery; Polaris Office; S Note; and Video Player. Surprisingly, Samsung’s S Planner calendar/tasks app currently is not a Multiscreen App; however, the company is likely to grow its family of Multiscreen apps on an ongoing basis, so S Planner may not be far behind. Here are some screenshots showing the Galaxy Note 10.1’s Multiscreen capability: Multiscreen lets you view two apps at once, side-by-side (click images to enlarge)   Mini Apps… In addition to the new Multiscreen feature, the Galaxy Note 10.1 builds on Samsung’s proprietary pop-up Mini Apps capability, which debuted on the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s August 2011 TouchWiz update. Mini apps are launched from an up-arrow that’s always present in the middle of the bottom panel on the tablet’s display. Once launched, each Mini app occupies a small portion (perhaps 30%) of the screen, can be repositioned in front of whatever else is on the screen, and remains in the foreground until you close it. Mini apps can be moved around in front of normal apps (click images to enlarge)   Video Pop… There’s yet another proprietary multi-windowing function on the Galaxy Note 10.1, dubbed “Video Pop.” Currently this feature is exclusive to the tablet’s non-standard default Video Player app. In the screenshot below, you’ll find the Video Pop launch widget directly to the left of the Multiscreen mode activation widget. The “video pop” widget is the one on the left If you play a video using the tablet’s default Video Player app, and then tap the app’s Video Pop widget, the video window gets converted into what essentially is a video Mini App, except unlike the tablet’s official Mini Apps, the resulting foreground mini video window can be resized using pinch-to-zoom methods; also, the mini video window vanishes when the video finishes playing. The screenshots below demonstrate the Galaxy Note 10.1’s innovative Video Pop feature. “Video pop” creates a resizeable foreground video Mini App Cool, eh? But here too, I doubt that I would ever actually use the tablet’s Video Pop capability, in light of how easy it is to switch among apps in the standard Android manner.   Multitasking madness? As you can see, Samsung’s latest TouchWiz UI offers three distinct — and non-standard — ways to simultaneously view multiple, concurrently-running apps. With what’s available today, you could load up the Galaxy Note 10.1’s screen with eight Mini Apps, two side-by-side multiscreen apps, and a Video Pop all at once. Are you feeling dizzy imagining all that multi-windowed multitasking? The screenshot below shows how it actually looks on the tablet. Two Multiscreen Apps, eight Mini Apps, and a Video Pop (click image to enlarge) The trouble is, the Galaxy Note 10.1’s multi-windowing features aren’t part of Android’s standard infrastructure. Currently, there are only eight Mini Apps, five Multiscreen apps, and one Video Pop app, and the three types of apps are activated in three different ways: Mini Apps — from a special widget on the tablet’s ever-present lower panel Multiscreen apps — from a special widget on the app’s upper panel Video Pop — from a special widget on the Video Player’s upper panel

 

Be sure to check out DeviceGuru’s continually updated Android tablet comparisons: Which 10-inch Android tablet is best? Which 7-inch Android tablet is best?