Samsung chose the design used in its smaller Galaxy Note 3 to help unify the family's look. Gone are the glossy backs of previous Galaxy tablets. Instead, we have the faux-leather, plastic-molded back—fake stitching and all. Similar to the Note 3, this is a huge improvement over the HyperGlaze finish of previous Galaxy devices.

Drawing additional inspiration from the phablet, Samsung's Note 10.1 2014 sports the same ridged, faux-metal sides, which somewhat resemble the pages of a closed book.
As with any tablet, the device's weight and thickness are of utmost importance. At 540 grams (1.2 pounds) and 7.9 mm (0.3 inches) thick, the Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Wi-Fi is a fairly slim, light package that's great for content consumption.
The iPad Air, in comparison, is a meager 469 grams (1.03 pounds) for the Wi-Fi version and 478 grams (1.05 pounds) for the LTE version. Both are a slender 7.5 mm (0.3 inches) thin.
On the top of the Galaxy, you find a power button and volume rocker toward the left edge, along with an IR Blaster in the center.

As with most Android tablets, the Note 10.1 is designed for use in landscape mode. Bezels are thinner on the sides than on the top and bottom. That's a bit odd; if you have wider thumbs, it becomes easier to mistakenly trigger the touch screen. The 16:10 aspect ratio makes it awkward to use the Note 10.1 2014 in portrait mode.

One of the stereo speakers and a 3.5-mm headset jack occupy the left side, transitioning from front-firing drivers to less-than-ideal side-firing speakers. But we'll have more on that later in the review.
The right side of the Galaxy Note 10.1 holds the S Pen dock, the other stereo speaker and the microSD card slot.
The faux-leather back dominates the device's back side, and is surrounded by faux stitching. Samsung's branding is also back there, along with an 8-megapixel camera and an LED flash.
The bottom of the unit hosts a pinhole mic and a micro-USB port, which doubles as the power plug.
While we personally prefer the 7- to 8-inch form factor, enthusiasts looking for a 10-inch Android-powered tablet will have a hard time finding something thinner or lighter than the 540-gram (1.19 pounds) Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Wi-Fi or 547-gram (1.20 pounds) Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) LTE. Then again, if mobility is of primary importance to you, and you're not averse to iOS, you might prefer the lighter 469-gram (1.03 pounds) iPad Air.
In the end, we're pretty happy with the Note 10.1 2014's overall build, and its looks are more refined than previous Galaxy tablets'. Although the bezels could use some refinement, the fact that the Note is thinner and lighter than a lot of other Android tablets makes it easier to handle over prolonged periods.
- Samsung's S Pen Attack On The Full-Size Tablet Market
- Look And Feel
- Camera, Display, And Speakers
- TouchWiz: Samsung's Take On Android
- Samsung's Galaxy Note Enhancements
- Benchmark Suite And Test System Specs
- Results: CPU Core Benchmarks
- Results: GPU Core Benchmarks
- Results: Web Benchmarks
- Brightness, Black Level, Contrast Ratio, And Gamma
- Results: Battery Life
- Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) Wi-Fi Or LTE?






Your bar graph "MobileXPRT 2013" seems to be in error.
For example, the text says, "Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Wi-Fi leads with 300 points . . ."
but the bar is the shortest and indicates less than 150 points.
Samsung's Exynos-based Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Wi-Fi holds its own against the Tegra Note 7, while the LTE version of the Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) again falls significantly behind its Snapdragon 800-powered Wi-Fi counterpart.
And this happens all throughout. The LTE is a Snapdragon, the Wifi is an Exynos. Keep repeating that to yourself as you re-write the descriptions and it will make this easier to read.
Your bar graph "MobileXPRT 2013" seems to be in error. For example, the text says, "Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Wi-Fi leads with 300 points . . ." but the bar is the shortest and indicates less than 150 points.
This benchmark's sub-tests produce scores in seconds (lower is better), and the overall score is given as a typical higher-is-better score, so the lowest bar indicates the fastest completion. Sorry about the confusion, I'll look into other ways to represent this test.
Samsung's Exynos-based Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Wi-Fi holds its own against the Tegra Note 7, while the LTE version of the Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) again falls significantly behind its Snapdragon 800-powered Wi-Fi counterpart.
And this happens all throughout. The LTE is a Snapdragon, the Wifi is an Exynos. Keep repeating that to yourself as you re-write the descriptions and it will make this easier to read.
Good catch, thanks! Fixed.
Actually, you'd think this has been phased out, but it's the current 10-inch Galaxy "Note" product, meaning it has the S Pen. The Galaxy "Tab" S does not - still unclear to me what makes the "S" stand out. I believe Samsung is literally attempting to offer an alternative product to every single other device in existence - complete mobile domination. I lost count of their current "Galaxy" line at 11 products, and that was awhile back.
The duo of Note 10.1 (2014)'s came in very handy both as comparison data in other articles and as testbeds for compiling our benchmark suite. Unfortunately, the article had to be pushed back several times, but the huge hardware difference between products carrying the same name was always something we wanted to illustrate, initially for the chipset-vs-chipset angle, but later for the optimization aspect as well. We're currently working through a small backlog of mobility articles, but each will be more timely than the last. My apologies.
It is a good review for apples to apples on the Samsung hardware options.
Would you suggest that this is "as-good-as-it-gets" for the few who prefer pen-based tablets? Any foresight in other pen based tablets?
Ninjawithagun,
Tablets are not modular like a pc... whilst it may have been good for the author the resolution issue with these benchmarks, an apples to apples comparison of the individual components would NOT help the user decide which unit as a whole is the fastest as indeed, they are NOT modular.
Ninjawithagun,
Tablets are not modular like a pc... whilst it may have been good for the author the resolution issue with these benchmarks, an apples to apples comparison of the individual components would NOT help the user decide which unit as a whole is the fastest as indeed, they are NOT modular.
Not true. Most (not all) tablets are in fact modular in that the CPU and GPU operate independently of one another. Case in point, the Apple A7 uses a dual-core 64-bit SOC processor and PowerVR G6430 graphics chip. The Samsung uses the Exynos 5 Octa processor with a Mali-T628 MP6 graphics chip. Your definition of modular is fundamentally flawed in that you think it pertains to physical ability for individual items to removed/replaced. Modular infers to the actual architecture of the system in that several different parts from different manufactures are integrated together to function as a whole unit.
Ninjawithagun,
Tablets are not modular like a pc... whilst it may have been good for the author the resolution issue with these benchmarks, an apples to apples comparison of the individual components would NOT help the user decide which unit as a whole is the fastest as indeed, they are NOT modular.
Not true. Most (not all) tablets are in fact modular in that the CPU and GPU operate independently of one another. Case in point, the Apple A7 uses a dual-core 64-bit SOC processor and PowerVR G6430 graphics chip. The Samsung uses the Exynos 5 Octa processor with a Mali-T628 MP6 graphics chip. Your definition of modular is fundamentally flawed in that you think it pertains to physical ability for individual items to removed/replaced. Modular infers to the actual architecture of the system in that several different parts from different manufactures are integrated together to function as a whole unit.
This does not argue to the point. Here's a fact and the crux of the matter... An apples to apples comparison of gpu's and processors does NOT tell the user how apps will perform on tablet x when constrained by their other components be it amount of ram, screen res, gpu, cpu etc.
i.e. benchmarks are not "fundamentally flawed" (nor is my understanding and use of the term modular)
FYI, the KitKat update makes the SD card practically useless. Rooting these tablets is frustrating at best, and the KNOX system is the most terrible idea Samsung ever came up with.
Looking back, I should have gotten a Nexus.
FYI, the KitKat update makes the SD card practically useless.
How can it be useless having 128 gb for music and videos/pictures? Maybe you can afford spotify and paying 15 dollars every month for an upgraded dropbox account, but many people don't, or even if they do, they do not have a reliable LTE signal 24/7.