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Samsung’s Note 10.1 is a premium tablet with premium performance

SINGAPORE — Apple’s new iPad Air is the talk of the tablet town at the moment, but Android fanboys who refuse to lay a finger on anything Apple will be glad to know that there is a high-end Android tablet out there to meet their needs.

Images were bright and sharp on the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Photo: Samsung

Images were bright and sharp on the new Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Photo: Samsung

SINGAPORE — Apple’s new iPad Air is the talk of the tablet town at the moment, but Android fanboys who refuse to lay a finger on anything Apple will be glad to know that there is a high-end Android tablet out there to meet their needs.

The latest edition of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet — also known as the 2014 edition — is only 7.9mm thick and weighs 547g, making it slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. It also sports the same faux-leather back cover seen on the Galaxy Note 3.

When you switch on the Note 10.1, it is difficult not to be blown away by its 2560 x 1600 screen, which provides wide viewing angles and vibrant colour. I compared the 10.1-inch display with that of an iPad with Retina display and found that images were both brighter and sharper and text was better rendered on the Note 10.1.

The LTE version of the tablet we reviewed is shipped with the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system, 3GB of RAM and a 2.3GHz quad-core processor. I thoroughly enjoyed playing games and sketching on the Note 10.1, which runs smoothly with little or no lag over long hours of use.

But what makes the device truly stand out from the competition is Samsung’s very own stylus, the S Pen.

Removing the stylus from its slot will start the Air Command feature, which allows users to quickly access features such as Action Memo, Scrapbook and S Finder.

The Action Memo feature was able to recognise my almost illegible handwritten phone numbers and call them straight from the memo, while the device very quickly located addresses written on the maps app.

The Scrapbook feature lets users collect and save a range of media, including videos, memos, pictures and websites, onto a single location, while the S Finder searches for all sorts of information on the tablet via a range of parameters such as date or location.

But the best of the lot was the Multi-Window feature, which allows users to open and view two apps on the screen at the same time to better share and communicate information.

This is one of the top Android tablets on the market now, thanks to its spectacular screen and excellent S Pen support, and it could just be the biggest threat to Apple’s upcoming iPad Air, which launches on Nov 1.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition (32GB) is now available in classic white and jet black and the LTE and Wi-Fi versions retail for S$998 and S$798 respectively. HIRANAND SUNNY

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