By Lance Ulanoff For Mashable
Samsung’s newest 10.1-inch tablet, the Galaxy Note 10.1, is thin, light and powerful, but it’s also among a rather rarefied — but growing — group of stylus tablets. Like its little sibling, the 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note, the new tablet features a Wacom digitizing tablet interface and stylus. Unlike the smaller notepad, the 10.1 stylus does not slip inside the slate. It’s also kind of fun to use.
We got to spend a little time with the 1.29 lb. tablet and found it comfortable to hold (it’s 8.9mm thick) and responsive. Using the stylus is not exactly like using one with an Apple iPad. The big difference here is that the Notepad 10.1’s screen is pressure-sensitive, so your line weight can vary — if you’re drawing. It’s also notable that Samsung has already updated its pen technology to recognize even more degrees of pressure than you could on the original Notepad.
Inside the Android 4.0 device is a dual-core 1.4GHz mobile CPU, a 3-megapixel camera on the back and a 2 megapixel camera on the front. The device, though, is also packed with a bunch of pen-ready software, including the just-announced Adobe PhotoShop Touch, and a bunch of S-Pen Samsung apps.
We tried out the S-Note app, where we could mark up documents and draw images from scratch. Samsung warned us that while the hardware was final, the software was not. Even so, drawing on the tablet felt good and the Notepad 10.1 had no trouble keeping up.
Other notable features include a micro-SD card slot, full HD video support and the ability to work with other Wacom digitizing pens.
Samsung execs said the tablet will ship globally with HSPA+ (no LTE for now) and Wi-Fi — as well as a Wi-Fi-only version — some time in Q2. Pricing has not yet been set.
Do you want a full-sized tablet with a stylus, or did you agree with Steve Jobs when he said, “nobody wants a stylus”? Let us know in the comments.
