Can Samsung's Big Note Bring the Stylus Back in Style?

Samsung on Monday announced that its Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, which primarily uses a stylus for input, will hit the market this month.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 has a 10.1-inch screen, a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, and a multiscreen feature that lets users run two applications simultaneously.

"I think it's an interesting differentiator for Samsung against the iPad and has worked for them so far with the [smaller Note smartphone]," Danielle Levitas, a group vice president at IDC, told TechNewsWorld.

Samsung "is clearly looking to establish its own identity in the tablet space, and while Apple has talked about things such as style and image, the one area that Samsung's looking to corner with its Galaxy Note products is versatility of user input," Jeff Orr, a senior practice director at ABI Research, suggested.

Notes on the Galaxy Note 10.1

The Galaxy Note 10.1 runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). It has a 5 MP rear autofocus camera with LED flash and a 1.9 MP front facing camera. It runs on HSPA+.

The tablet comes preloaded with various Google applications. For the enterprise, it offers Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, on-device encryption, and virtual private network capabilities from Cisco and Juniper Networks.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with an accelerometer, a digital compass, a light and a gyroscope. The tablet weighs about 21 ounces.

Features include the Smart Stay eye-tracking feature; Pop Up Play, which lets users watch videos onscreen while running other tasks; and AllShare Play, which lets users share content in real time when the tablet is connected to Samsung HD TVs, or other consumer electronic devices on the same network.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 will be available in a WiFi-only and a WiFi with 3G HSPA+ versions at launch. A WiFi and LTE version will be available later in the year.

Pricing and the exact launch date have not yet been disclosed.
More on the Stylus

The Galaxy Note 10.1 uses Samsung's S Pen stylus. This launches various applications, including S Note, S Planner, Crayon physics, Adobe Photoshop Touch and Polaris Office, automatically when taken up for use. Alternatively, users can set their preferred apps for automatic launch.

S Note lets users combine notes and sketches with other digital content in preset templates. It's also integrated with knowledge search engines so users can search for, and drag and drop, information into S Notes.