... Note 10.1.
I saved for this purpose for some months. I tested two ebook readers last week, one I lend from friends, with e-ink, one with LCD display, which I ordered but sent back - for my purpose they both were awfully terrible. And that purpose is large PDF files. Displays are not satisfying, even the e-ink, and the handling when looking for certain passages, are a terrible and inhumane torture of my sense of reason, of my patience, and my human nature in general.
I considered several models, the Tab 2, for it was cheaper, the Iconia 700 by Acer due to the highres display, and the Toshiba at300. But the Acer has almost no system reserves, gets hot, and the display is pretty dark. The Toshiba was nowhere to be located in stores around here. The Tab 2 has two now old cores @ 1GHz and 1 GB at working RAM - the Note has 4 cores withnew CPUs @ 1.4GHz, and 2 GB RAM. I thought, and was encouraged to think like that by others,m that very large PDF may benefit from the performance reserves.
And they do. It's a piece of Star Trek stuff I hold in my hands!
Everything in the hardware I like, and the display is - well, if they do it even better these days, than at least you do not see it easily. The display is perfect. Handling, voice and handwriting recognition, the first tried in German, English and French, works extremely well, better than I knew was possible today (I have no smartphone).
What I do not like is that it is almost impossible to avoid opening a Google account.
Surprise is the battery. I have the WiFi version only, and I switched of all constant synchroniszing stuff, GPS, switch of unneeded apps, reglate the display so that it is no searchlight but still looks well, and I have no energy-hungry 3G. Second day today, using the uploaded Tab for excatly 5 hours in one row, WLAN active - at by the end of the 5 hours the battery is still 65% full. By projection, that gives it 15 hours of very mixed acivities with and without online time. Wowh!
I got EZ PDF, Sketchbook Pro,Schredder (chess) by now, installed some gratis tools, and maybe get twop or three more. Looking for a good painting (oil, watercolours) software, Artrage is still not ready for Android. It is very impressive to draw and probably also to paint on these touchscreen devices, Sktechbook already does a very good job for drawing.
Perfct buy of what by many is considered the best tab at the moment. I can full heartly recommend it so far, nothing,m really nothing negative to say about the hardware. It came with Android 4.1.2. I expect a 32GB micro SD and a clever protective cover to arrive tomorrow.
Will now see if I can get Opera as a browser installed. Would allow me to synchronise with my favourites from PC. The Google browser - I do not like it.
Any recommendation for a good painting program?
Also, security wise, what is a good advise to pick as an AV? What shoulöd be taken into account, security-wise? Many seem to say that Android is "safe haven". I do not buy it.
And do I overlook something: many apps that I leave via return button, just do not close down, this is something that irritates me tremendously, and yesterday made the difference between having 17 apps suddenly running in the background, with a warming-up tab and 75% RAM used, and shutting them down: and having a cool tab and just 25% RAM used. I like the hardware, but I must say the software philosophy I do not like, apps, appstores and all that.
Very good kit. I so far give a 100% verdict.
If you plan to get a tab soon, look no further. I compared the 1280x800 to the Iconia-700's 1920x1200, and I really must say that the resolution difference easily escapes the eye. And colours and contrast of the Note are way ahead.
( Apple never was considered by me, and a Google Nexus, which surpasses the Retina'S resolution, I did not find to check the display. Should be a very good kit, I read - but expensive. Also considered that the more energy the display consumes, the heavier becomes the battery, the hotter, and the shorter the battery's legs).
As a PDF reader, perfect - the rest is total and absolute overkill! But I enjoy the freedom to show some decadence here.
Oh, the price, I got it at the local Media markt, in white, as WiFi only, for 379 Euros. Wanted the red one, but the boxes were all opened and unsealed.