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  • Da W - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Consistently beaten by the iPhone 5s on benchmarks, says a lot about apple's SoC.
    Otherwise for productivity i'll go with a 899 surface pro 2.
  • chewyqc - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Indeed, but still, the iPhone 5s SoC is manufactured by Samsung and design by ARM. It's perfermance are very good.
  • darwinosx - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    The iPhone 5s chip is designed by Apples chip engineers. Spanks Samsung's new flagship tablet hard of course which you seem concerned about.
  • identity - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Here comes the Apple fanboy vs Android fanboy wars. Go troll that garbage somewhere else.
  • kevith - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Ye Hear!
  • Samus - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    Why does ANY of this matter?

    The A7 doesn't run Android.

    The Exynos doesn't run iOS.

    Who cares which is faster. In the end they're on completely different OS's. Anybody who buys a CPU without consideration for the OS is completely dense.
  • Origin64 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    Any claim about how "fast" the new iPhone is is negated by how slow it actually moves from screen to screen. 60fps is great, but taking 120 frames to slide in a new windows takes too long. So does having to go back to home and then three menus deep just to turn on wifi. Contrast Android where that is a matter of sliding a bar down and pressing a button. Sure, it stutters, but it is quicker. People care too much about subjective smoothness instead of absolute productivity.
  • steven75 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    Someone needs to Google "iOS Control Center" and update their anti-Apple propaganda. ;)

    Speed is definitely useful in the many high quality content creation apps on iOS like GarageBand and iMovie.
  • misfit410 - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link

    I have to imagine after Apple sued so many people for making similar UI elements, and so many Apple folks backed Apple for doing so, they just never imagined Apple would steal so many UI elements from Android in one update.
  • sundragon - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    What are you talking about?

    What do you think Project Butter was supposed to correct? They spent all that money to fix the amazingly smooth OS, no - compared to iOS, it stuttered. 4.2 made a huge difference but it still stutters on the Nexus 7 V1 and is somewhat smooth on the 2, by comparison my first gen iPhone was smooth and it had a crappy ARM 11 CPU...

    Oh and here's something to chew on ;)

    http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/19/apples-iphone-5-...
  • misfit410 - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link

    I have an iPad 3 and an iPad mini, my experience is not smooth on either.. can't even browse engadget or Gawker without crashing safari.
  • badcode - Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - link

    I thought that was only occurring on my ipad 1 because it was so old. Now I know I will either wait for a Tegra 4 tablet or get a surface pro 2. Thanks for the info
  • crankerchick - Saturday, October 12, 2013 - link

    Late reading the review, but I wish you guys had touched on how the device runs in actual use. Benchmarks are nice, but some want to know how laggy the tablet feels using it, especially in multi-window mode or with the stylus. That's what makes this tablet unique, and it doesn't seem to be touched on at all.
  • sundragon - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    Interesting as this is typical excuse I read when people blast Apple for being slow but when when someone introduces a faster Android based device, the same excuse isn't used.

    A 1.3 GHz ARMv8 based dual core CPU (designed by Apple, fabbed by Samsung) is beating a 1.8GHz Samsung ARMv7 A15 quad core CPU (designed by ARM, fabbed by Samsung).

    All the excuses for javascript, multi-threaded performance, etc are BS.

    Will you use the same excuse when Samsung introduces an ARMv8 64-bit Exynos next year in the Samsung Galaxy 5?
    If it beats the 5S willl ya all be making excuses for Android being different from iOS?

    I think not, I think admitting to being biased is a bit better than making excuses...

    P.S. the chart Anand created to show the cheating on the Android side of things (except Motorola/Google) is telling as to the business ethics of the companies listed...

    Now go polish a turd and try to sell it to me...
  • IUU - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link

    Apple is not slow but its intentions are sinister.
    I would rather buy "a polished turd" from any other "incompetent Apple rival" than let Apple destroy the progress of computing.
    And by the way... Apple has offered a palatable computing performance only with its recent mobile products. Yet, they can't get over the fact that they actually had to incorporate performance parts into their devices, and they started to iterate the same old crap about "user experience", hoping they ultimately sell outdated tech with high profits.
    I won't say more, I am fiercely anti-apple, but there are some very good reasons for this, whether you want to believe it or not.
  • ESC2000 - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link

    Or to put it more simply, competition is good for us all. Consumers would be screwed if everyone bought only apple, but I get the sense from the rabid apple lovers that ideally we'd all use apple products for everything. Thank God that's only a fantasy. Apple's awesome hardware is totally wasted on its closed down gimp OS.
  • jasonelmore - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link

    That's the thing, 90% of the gains werent from amazin soc design, it was from moving to a 64 bit instruction set, which dropped laggy legacy support of the past 20 years that slowed things. Moving forward, all these oem's will do the same, and that's when we truly see how good apple's new soc is.
  • ddriver - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Not really, while it is not a reference ARM design, apple have only modified it slightly, but it is still a conventional arm v8 chip.

    Note that the benchmarks the 5s is better at are:

    1 - JS benchmarks using different browsers with different JS engine implementations
    2 - single threaded, which plays in favor of apple, since they have lower core count

    The snapdragon 800 is actually considerably faster in HPC workloads. The A7 has better single threaded performance, but not that much higher to make up for it...

    Naturally, I don't expect from someone with your screen name to be capable of objectivity. And no, I don't own a single samsung device, so I am not biased even a little bit. If anything, I am a Dell and Asus guy...
  • MrSpadge - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    I really dislike Apples closed software environment - but you have to give credit where it's due. The 2-core A7 at 1.3 GHz beating this 4+4 core with A15's at a maximum of 1.8 GHz is really impressive. Apple is doing something right here! And seriously, who cares about HPC workloads on a tablet?
  • ddriver - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    So why do you need high performance on a tablet if high-performance computing is not needed on a tablet(or a phone for that matter)?

    I mean it is either that we need and care about performance or not. If we don't why would a faster chip be considered an advantage? Because it can do something in 0.002 seconds rather than 0.0025?
  • danbob999 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Not only HPC. Pretty much any multi-threaded CPU test. And these do not include javascript benchmarks, which as stated many times on this web site, tests the software more than the hardware.
  • AndreiLux - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    In the end MHz and number of cores is irrelevant because:

    http://chip-architect.com/news/Apple_A7_Samsung_54...

    Their two cores are as big as four A15's. Clocks are also irrelevant as seen with Qualcomm vs ARM designs.

    What in the end matters is perf/mm² and that dictates the better design.
  • MySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    so according to you apple's MINOR modifications has improved performance to such a level that even a quad core cannot beat it. Damn Apple engineers must be super geniuses.
  • ddriver - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    No, it does not beat a quad core, one core of the A7 beats one core of the snapdragon 800 by about 20%. Anand only uses single threaded tests to compare the two processors, and not even native code, but JS running on different VMs.

    Using all the cores, the snapdragon is way faster than A7, that is why no such benchmarks are present to ruing the myth of A7's performance.
  • KPOM - Friday, October 4, 2013 - link

    And how many mobile apps make full use of multi-core processors? Furthermore, thermal limitations prevent the quad-core processors from achieving maximum performance all the time, hence the whole controversy over "rigged" benchmark results. Let's face it. Apple made the right decision in sticking with a dual-core design with faster single-core performance. For what people use mobile devices to do today, it's the best balance between performance and power consumption.
  • ESC2000 - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link

    But then they stuck a tiny battery in there (guess they had to because of the iPhone tiny size) so there's no actual battery life advantage. In fact, the first night I had my iPhone it died over night and the alarm didn't go off, causing me to be late to work. The reason appeared to be that it couldn't handle pushing email every fifteen minutes. So yeah I don't think the iPhone stands out for its battery... Look at the Motorola phones for amazing battery life.
  • abazigal - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link

    How much battery life did your iphone have when you went to sleep? I typically plug in my iphone to charge before turning in for the night, and even if I didn't, it boasts impressive standby capabilities and the battery life dipped very little throughout the night (around 5-6% max for 6 hours, or 1% per hour).
  • abazigal - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link

    Either that, or the engineers in the other companies are totally inept for failing to make those small changes to optimise their chips for better performance and energy savings.
  • name99 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Please tell us which ARM reference design it is that Apple "modified slightly"...

    You seem deeply confused about what CPU design is and how it works. What would you define as a non"conventional arm v8 chip"?
  • steven75 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    You should probably read Anandtech's own review of the A7 chip.
  • sundragon - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    "Not really, while it is not a reference ARM design, apple have only modified it slightly, but it is still a conventional arm v8 chip."

    Please state the ARM chip that corrolates to it?

    It's not an ARM 53/57... It is, however, an Apple designed chip using the ARMv8 architecture...

    The Exynos is a plain ARM 15... It's baked into a Samsung designed SOC...
  • Shootergod - Sunday, December 1, 2013 - link

    I don't know that Note 10.1 2014 beat both iphone 5s and ipad air in geekbench 3 scores and Note 10.1 2014 LTE ver. which runs Snapdragon 800 with Adreno 330 beats out every single behcnmark of apple latest devices,so? what is your point? sounds more like you are a butt-hurt ish**p filling with so much insecurities to give reasons and bash others at any time LOL! take care noob,don't say something just by reviews(made up by apple fanboys).Google some real-deal performence and multitasking skills of this tablet before you even begin to bark :) ok?
  • apandya27 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Actually the A7 isn't designed by ARM, its a custom design by Apple (they license from ARM). Its been custom since the A5 I think.
  • teiglin - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    You should be clear if you want to refer to the Apple A7 SoC (with its Cyclone cores) in an article about a chip that contains four ARM Cortex A7 cores. Cyclone is the second generation of fully custom cores designed by Apple--the Swift cores in Apple's A6 SoC last year were the first, while the A5 featured a pair of Cortex A9s.
  • apandya27 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    My mistake. Yes I was referring to the Apple A7 chip being custom designed. Thanks!
  • Sarav - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    Only since A6 which used 'Swift' cores. A5 just used regular ARM cortex A9 cores I think.
  • MySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    According to article here at anandtech. Apple A7 is indeed Apple designed CPU that implements the ARM ISA. it ISN'T designed by ARM. it was clearly mentioned by anand when he talked about the A7.
  • ananduser - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    It says more about ARMv8 vs ARMv7. It also says more about benchmarks not being able to use multiple cores. The Mali GPU however is surprisingly decent. I expected Imagination's PowerVR, that Apple uses, to be an order of magnitude better.
  • Kevin G - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    The iPhone 5S GPU is surprisingly decent for a phone though. Apple's A7X expected in the iPad 5 would have either 6 or 8 PowerVR clusters following tradition. This would be a 50 to 100% boost in theoretical GPU performance. There is a chance that Apple's A7X would be a triple or quad core CPU too.
  • danbob999 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    It's not about ARMv8 vs ARMv7. The benchmarks are probably still compiled for ARMv7. Apple almost always lead in javascript benchmark. Even when they used a standard ARM design (such as Cortex A8) at lower clock speed. So all we know is that even with a slower CPU, Apple still comes ahead in javascript benchmarks. It doesn't mean their CPU is any faster.
  • Diogenes5 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    So because of some arbitrary benchmark, you want to spend almost $400 dollars more on a device that will get even less support, has a worse resolution, and has even fewer dedicated apps?

    Ok fanboy, please leave the intelligent community at Anandtech alone and go back to the kiddie pool.

    As always, Anandtech provides the best reviews. Looks like I'll be getting one write off the bat. As a student, I've been using last year's Note 10.1 as my daily driver along with LectureNotes and ezPDF. I could really use the upgrade in resolution and cpu/gpu in order to browse through my textbooks more quickly and precisely.
  • Da W - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    "So because of some arbitrary benchmark, you want to spend almost $400 dollars more on a device that will get even less support, has a worse resolution, and has even fewer dedicated apps?"

    Looks like you are posting worst fanboy comments than me.

    I just said the point that jumped in my face was how good the iPhone's 5s SoC was in the benchmarks, compared to a 10" tablet!
    As for the other point, i used a tablet PC since 2000 something, and to that point the Surface Pro is the note-taking tablet perfected, WAY more useful for work or college work with a full office suite. I think MS has that niche covered better than Samsung. (price excluded, but a Baytrail surface pro would be perfect).
  • Impulses - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Bay Trail belongs on the regular Surface, and I imagine it'll show up as soon as they give up on RT... But other OEMs are soon gonna be seriously undercutting MS by offering Bay Trail on devices that are sold at the current price point of the original Tegra 3 Surface RT ($350, see ASUS), WITH keyboard dock even. Windows tablets would spread so much quicker if they'd just give up on RT already imo, and started pricing them appropriately (Pro's fine, but Surface's overpriced for what it is and what it's competing with).
  • Da W - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    RT is a long term plan to be platform agnostic. *IF* Windows 8.X sees enough success, *IF* enough developpers build Metro apps for it, *IF* office and other popular windows software are translated to Metro format and *IF* the convergence between widnows phone and windows 8 succeed, then in 2-3 years Microsoft will be free of intel and just pick whatever best SoC the market has to offer at that time. Which may or may not be Intel's.

    However, in order to do that, Microsoft had to push Windows RT to see widespread adoption, and they had to force Metro down a few peoples' troat in windows 8 desktop. In retrospect, may be they are failling, but they had no choice to do what they did in order to acheive their goal. Otherwise, if intel dies, they die. And yes when you look at the trend, ARM is picking up quickly and charging cheap.

    Problem is: they have to improve Metro by a wide margin and open it up. Windows 8.1 is not nearly enough. Then developers need to adapt their software to it.

    I'm surprised so few people picked that up.
  • Diogenes5 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Baytrail runs Android just as well as Windows 8.1 if Intel marketing is to be believed. For platform agnostics, if a company can come out with a good baytrail tablet with an active stylus and dual boot with both Android and Windows, then count me in. I'll wait and see if that actually happens though.
  • Diogenes5 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Phones often beat tablets all the time. They all use the same SOC's for the most part. Samsung used basically the same Exnyos chips in its Galaxy Note II, Note 8.0 and Note 10.1 2013. Apple did the same with it's dated Ipad 2 chip when it released the Ipad Mini. Saying that the current Iphone 5s chip beats the Note 10.1 2014 really doesn't mean that much to most people. They are about the same speed and the Iphone 5s beats most other devices on the market right now.

    Congrats for using a tablet PC when Microsoft poorly underserved the market with its bulky form factors, bad battery life, and poor application support in the mid-2000's.

    The surface Pro is indeed not perfect. The few people that I knew owned one complained that it ran hot, ran loud sometimes, and had only about 4-5 hour battery life even for in-class note-taking. It's nice that you get a full x86 chip but it also costs twice of what most Android and iOS tablets do. Maybe the Surface Pro 2 will improve upon some of these things. It will probably get about 20-30% more battery life and having a battery in the keyboard dock will help longevity. Unfortunately, 64gb of SSD space (about only half of which will be available) and only 4gb of ram for an OS with much more overhead than Android is not at all impressive for an $899 device.

    I, for one, will happily use my galaxy Note 10.1 2014 in class just like I have with my Galaxy Note 10.1 2013 and sync my lecturenotes and pdf's to dropbox for later viewing on my other devices. At half the price and half the headache of a microsoft device.
  • ESC2000 - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link

    The benchmarks don't tell the full story though since they're running single threaded JS which doesn't allow the note to demonstrate its six-core advantage.
  • djboxbaba - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    "Apps" "Support". Really? surface PRO, aka the full windows environment. Please tell me when you can serious applications on the galaxy note.
  • abazigal - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link

    The fact that tablets (be it IOS or Android-based) get touch-optimised apps that were designed from the ground up already gives it the advantage compared to the Surface Pro, which has to contend with desktop apps wholly unsuited to a touch interface.

    All the computing power in the world means jack squat when your apps suck to use, which in turn ensures that nobody will use it.
  • eiriklf - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    It says a lot more about safari compared to samsungs browser.
  • eiriklf - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Just to elaborate, the nexus 10 on chrome 30 beta pretty much matches the 5s in mozilla kraken and is not far behind in octane either, and I expect the nexus 10 will see regular performance improvements in the coming months.
  • ESC2000 - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link

    You mean they both suck?
  • KateMfield10 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Another Android tablet with impressive features and price that launched this week is from tabletmaker Pipo Electronics and the new 9.7-inch Pipo M6 Pro($297) is getting much notice for its slim design and packs in a solid device that compares to the new Kindle Fire HDX and iPad for much less -- the Pipo M6 Pro offers 32GB and built-in GPS -- plus a 2048X1536 Liquid Crystal display, along with a Quad-Core processor - 1.6 GHz / 2GB Ram; it also features premium front speakers, Bluetooth 4.0, a truly large capacity 10,000 mAh battery, a MicroSD memory card slot, and high speed WiFi; and also offers quality dual cameras, Google Play preinstalled and an option to use standard Android 4.2.2 O/S or a user-friendly Windows style interface.

    One of the first sites in the U.S. with more details for this new model is-- TabletSprint
  • carlinafrelich - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    til I looked at the check which was of $6274, I did not believe that...my... mother in law truly erning money part-time from their laptop.. there friend brother has been doing this for only about 18 months and recently cleard the debts on their home and got a new BMW 5-series. look at this website>>>>>> url.ℳn/23bb7d0
  • XFire99 - Sunday, October 13, 2013 - link

    U joking right? Since when is IP5S a tablet? It shouldnt be in this test at all and when the score is bad for IP5S. They didnt even incl it on the tests.
  • Shootergod - Sunday, December 1, 2013 - link

    Hi noob,surely they didn't list the geekbench 3 which they've used to mention before guess what? it has been helpless defeated there,beaten by Note 10.1 octa core version, and Note 10.1 2014 LTE ver. which runs Snapdragon 800 backed with 330 Adreno beats iphone 5s and ipad air hellishly in every single benchmark as usual. How about camera? ipad stucks with sucky 5mp camera which can't take any quality video and images while 8MP camera with flash can take so much better image s and vids with stereo sound recording. After apple introduce 64 bit chip,wow I see many apple fanboys popping out to bark at any tech lovers but before that they are the one saying nobody buys because of benchmark and nobody cares about it because of their shitty devices form ipad to ipad 4 and from iphone to iphone 5 lose to any Android devices,quite pathetic though,but what can I say since it is a world with freedom,everyone can choose whatever they want! Cheers!
  • liahos1 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Guys,

    Have you guys noticed stuttering / laggy performance of any sort. Verge and Engadget were pretty explicit on this. Just wondering if you've seen the same thing.
  • nerd1 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    I don't think they reviewed any android product which they claim to be 'laggy'
  • Squuiid - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Does the note 10.1 2014 cheat benchmarks in the same way the Note 3 does?
    http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/10/galaxy-note...
  • darwinosx - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Anand seems reluctant to come straight out and call it cheating. If any site should do that it would be this one.
    The horrible faux leather and stitching is bad enough on the Note 3 but just horrendous on a full size tablet.
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Yep, I believe so (need to confirm with Brian since I don't have the device in front of me) - all modern non GPe Samsung devices (as well as those from other OEMs) do the same manual DVFS setting upon benchmark detect unfortunately.
  • Squuiid - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Anand, I do hope you'll consider flagging this issue more prominently. You obviously have your reasons for not calling out Samsung explicitly, so instead include the other cheaters in your expose, be it Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, HTC, along with Samsung.
  • Sarav - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Hey guys, was wondering how good the screen on the Note 10.1 is in terms of colour reproduction compared to the Nexus 10?
  • bleh0 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Is there a baytrail tablet with digitizer support? I was thinking about the surface pro 2 but that is out of my price range and while the note 10.1 does seem decent the programs that I use just aren't available on android.
  • nerd1 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    One japanese tablet has 2560*1440 display, wacom and waterproofness. :D
  • TheEvilBlight - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link

    Which tablet would that be?
  • darkich - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Anand, why didn't you point out that this very SoC will get the likely software update for enabling the simultaneus octa-core operation, hence probably a pretty dramatic improvement in both efficiency and compute?
  • abazigal - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link

    Because, like you said, it will "likely" get the update.
  • Taracta - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Being that this is a pentile display with pseudo square pixels I would put the DPI/PPI at ~232 when compared to an actual RGB display of the same resolution and size which would have ~299 DPI/PPI. So how much of a difference does the Nexus 10 display and this have in rendering graphics, text, etc.? This is what I would like to know, especially as these are larger displays compared to the smartphones.
  • name99 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    "The latest iteration of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1, aptly named the 2014 Edition"

    So Samsung copies Apple yet again! :-)

    (For those who don't understand the joke:
    http://support.apple.com/specs/
    Note how pretty much every item has a name and year number...)
  • lilmoe - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    You guys do realize that Sunspider, Octane, Kraken, and other similar benchmarks are all BROWSER benchmarks, right? They reflect the javascript rendering performance of the browser more than anything... This isn't comparing apples to apples, and it most definitely doesn't show actual difference among different CPUs, ESPECIALLY that they're not running on the same platform, let alone the same browser!
  • dwade123 - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    I just can't find a use for Android tablet. Like literally. Can't do work, and only superficial entertainment at extremely low standards. It's a shame Windows 8.1 tablets are overpriced.
  • thesavvymage - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    Seriously. The only things I do on mine are browse reddit, watch videos, and use emulators. Anything else I want to do I can't because of limitations with the browser, or the browser being slow, or Android not having the apps I want.
  • nerd1 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    You can browse the web and annotate documents and slides. I won't buy any tablet without active digitizers.
  • AEdouard - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link

    Yeah, but you know, with its great display and low price, the New nexus 7 is a good buy even if it's just to browse the web, consume content, check emails and play some games. When I want to do more complicated stuff, I use my Macbook.
  • Streamlined - Saturday, October 5, 2013 - link

    It's a shame Windows tablets are so big and heavy.
  • ESC2000 - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link

    I can't find use for an iPad: expensive (no good cheap option like the nexus 7 2013) and very limited functionality from a productivity standpoint (no multi window, no stylus, no swype, no useful windows programs like office).... It's literally a blown up iPhone. You can't do anything more on it. Since it's not a productivity device (aside from the determined hipsters who I see slowly pecking out their papers on their iPads even though it's taking them twice as long without multi window and office), it must be a consumption device. That it does well but why spend so much more money when you can get a great android consumption device for much less?
  • abazigal - Friday, October 11, 2013 - link

    The problem then comes when consumers are not getting more of what they want (in an Android tablet), but instead being saddled with more issues that they need to contend with. Apple devices just work right out of the box.

    The next issue is that you need to understand and accept that different people have different definitions of productivity. For example, I am using my ipad quite extensively in the classroom, from recording screencasts in educreations to annotating on pdfs through notability.

    Third, Android still lags behind IOS when it comes to optimised tablet apps. Are you really going to pay so much for a tablet, only to run blown-up phone apps?

    I can go on, but all in all, people get what they pay for.
  • XFire99 - Sunday, October 13, 2013 - link

    Right out the box is total bull.
    1. Iphone/Ipad need to be activated before can use.
    - Itunes that need a computer.
    - WiFi that needs internet access.
    - Cellular that are not available in all areas.

    Also I NEVER understand in which way android devices is not working direct out of the box? Configurations/widgets isnt a must to start to use the device.

    2nd issue is u self do ned to understand that android tabs can also do same thing.

    3rd issue.Is the only thing u are right about. Android tabs apps are way behind iOS tabs apps. The problem there are way more android tabs with different resolutions and iOS have only 2 tabs models. Much way easier to optimize then android tabs.
    But iOS starts to face this problem too, with IP5S/C release and iOS 7. Sooner IPad5/mini.
  • pSupaNova - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link

    The Dimensions on the table for the Galaxy tab 3 10.1 don't look correct.

    Good review as always.
  • prime2515103 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    How does using the S-Pen effect battery life?
  • Kathrine647 - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    like Gregory said I am alarmed that a stay at home mom able to earn $5886 in 1 month on the internet. visit their website............B u z z 5 5 . com open the link without spaces
  • alex3run - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    Any words about GPU clock speed?
  • five_seven - Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - link

    Wow, this is one of the instances where I need a lasting battery life coupled with a short recharging time. I've already got the Note 10.1 from last year, and it looks like I'll hang on to it and skip this upgrade. Bummer. :(
  • Streamlined - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link

    FYI, the iPad 4 benchmarks are all old. Many post iOS 7 scores were all up on the magnitude of over 50%.I know my Google Octane was over 3200 and Sunspider 1.0 was around 615.Ice Storm Unlimited was over 11,000
  • CrushingBore - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link

    Underwhelming for the price. Really hope Asus Nexus 10 will be as good as Nexus 7 2013 is. [ P. S. Apparently people aren't yet bored to death discussing childish iOS vs Android stuff. Note that this is almost the end of 2013 and less and less people care about that crap. So you can really stop it - because if for nothing else, it really prevents any interesting discussion.]
  • Davidjan - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link

    Awesome!!! It always can use Meenova MicroSD reader to expand storage: http://goo.gl/U6IyY
  • twizzlebizzle22 - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link

    What is with these huge charge times! 7 hours is ludacris!!!!
  • ESC2000 - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link

    .....Ludicrous.....
  • ESC2000 - Sunday, October 6, 2013 - link

    Thanks for an unbiased realistic review unlike the others I've read.
  • Davidjan - Monday, October 7, 2013 - link

    Really love it. I would use it to see movies with Meenova MicroSD Reader: http://goo.gl/U6IyY
  • Pessimism - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link

    No phone call ability no care.
  • ASEdouardD - Thursday, October 10, 2013 - link

    I usually prefer Anandtech's reviews over other websites because of their great analysis of raw performance, but here I find it lacking. Every other review I've read of this tablet mentioned (and made a pretty big point of it) that it stutters a lot and generally feels choppy even though the specs says it should run great. At some point the bigger picture is more important than performance results. There's a also a pretty big lack of discussion on the software side of things, which is something Samsung has a habit of screwing up (see lackluster performance despite insane specs).
  • SentinelBorg - Monday, November 4, 2013 - link

    Maybe Anand had a newer version of the software? According to posters at XDA, Samsung already improved the performance a lot with the last updates. A new one was released these days btw, that also enabled multi-user-mode.
  • tushar001 - Thursday, November 28, 2013 - link

    I consider myself as Layman turn Techie, I am being a Biology grad its tough to be techie but I try to simplify terms. I am considering to buy best tab which can lead gadget & OS update race for next 2 years. So I'm studying all web updates of 10.1 2014 & ipadair since few month. I have all outdated gadgets like N72(brought in 2006) & Dell inspiron 15R i5 1st gen,Win7(brought in 2011). As I have decided to update my gadgets with best phone & tab in market so I got into all this stuff. Here in India we don't have Apple craze, but I do agree Apple provide best built quality in their products but hamper lot in iOS with iTunes monopoly & other hand is cheap but practical Samsung's flexible range. As price don't affect me I want the best in phone & in tab. So my detail study hints me toward Samsung but concern for its longevity in market survival. Current issues with Samsung is worth concerning. This recent delisting incident puts me in doubt, but on considering other benchmark Samsung did well. This create question in my mind.

    1.Will Note 3 & Note 10.1 2014 will get kitkat update, if it get so will current hardware support new kitkat OS?

    2.As stated 10.1 2014 has 1.8GHz Samsung Exynos 5420 (4 x Cortex A15/4 x Cortex A7, Mali-T628MP6) processor. As per functional Cortex A15 or Cortex A7 either of one works at a time by running at 1.8GHz or 1.3GHz respectively, providing processing power to specifically required as per apps. But not works simultaneously. Now my doubt is, in future considering the need, would these two Quad core run at same time to provide enough Octa core processing power to run 2015 or latter version of apps? If it is coded so then this tab will be powerful enough to last couple of more updates of OS & sustain hardware capabilities to run future ready heavy apps. As overclocking of CPU & GPU was done in benchmarks it does provide massive power, so would that power be juiced out to run future coming apps? Once the warranty is lapse then I won't mind to safely tweak the hardware to its limits.

    What you think will this scenario be practical enough? & function smoothly with bearing more heating limit then current one?

    While I consider the views to optimistic towards benchmark issues to sort out in coming days, thanks for your views. This found to be good website.
  • ckkee - Sunday, December 1, 2013 - link

    hi Anand, I have been an avid reader for several years, and always enjoy your insightful thoughts and attempts to push the envelope.

    Just bought a Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) Edition. Noticed there is a power saving function easily accessible from notification menu, and can be set to reduce CPU performance only (i.e. leave screen brightness unchanged - under settings|general|power saving mode). Ran Quadrant Standard Edition - 14000 (power saving mode with only CPU constrained) / 18000 (normal), about 22% reduction in CPU performance. In web browsing, watching HD videos and even playing clash of clans, I can't discern the lower performance ie. power savings mode should work well for most people and use cares.

    I'm hoping you can re-run the battery tests to determine the potential increase under power savings mode. Assuming there is significant / proportional increase in battery life, this is a salient feature of interest to many readers Iike myself.

    Manufacturers like Samsung should also be commended for making such options available in an easy to use manner.
  • Agm1111 - Saturday, January 4, 2014 - link

    I am a very unique user. My computer career began with the RCA Spectra 70, 256KB (yes, KB), 6 gigantic tape drives, a punched card reader and hard drives the size of a washing machine! All of this glorious hardware took up the space of a room and needed a raised floor with a huge A/C unit cooling the whole room. I wrote apps in on COBOL (remember that)?
    That was, of course, many years ago. I've been in the 'computer' business ever since.
    Thing have changed for sure. I'm holding in my hand a Samsung Note 10.1 2014, high has as much computing power and storage as 100 of those rooms.
    I've also changed. I gave leukemia and less than 50% eyesight, 40% hearing, ability, I'm mute and have too many other ailments to mention here.
    Several years ago my nurse suggested that I by a tablet. We went to my cell phone carrier and I traded in my phone for a Samsung Tab (7") and it was the best purchase I've ever made.
    For 3 long years that Tab helped me do countless things with the plethora of apps I could get (mostly free!) I was used to paying thousands of dollars for applications for both mainframes and PCs.
    The Samsung Tab helped me to communicate with others, purchase via the Net anything I needed and so many other things.
    But alas, the Tab finally started to show it's wear and age, so I needed to upgrade. As a PC guy, I've always been anti-Apple, mostly because of their closed architecture. They also had very expensive hardware and very little professional level software for their computers. Frankly, if it wasn't for Steve Jobs introducing the iPod, Apple probably would have went out of business years ago. That certainly may be an arguable point, so I'll get back to my account.
    When I needed to upgrade from my Samsung Tab, I did some research and decided to purchase an iPad 3. I have to say I was very impressed with the tablet construction, performance and screen/video. There were a few apps that I really liked on my Android that weren't available on the iPad. Meanwhile, my wife followed the current trend and bought her first smart-phone, the iPhone 4s. She loved it.
    I used the iPad for about a year and just knew I hand to go back to Android. I did a LOT of research and decided I had to wait for Samsung to release it's next flagship 10" tablet. I waited about 3 months and FINALLY the Samsung Note 10.1 2014 was released.
    What I needed was speed and visual clarity, the latest Android (oops, missed "kit-kat") and quality construction.
    My phone carrier didn't have the Note 2014 so I went to a big-box store and bought my new Samsung Note 10.1 2014.
    While I'm impressed with all the 'hard-core' specs that reviewers have to offer, for me it gets down to real-life usability (for which there is no benchmark). The iPad is a great product, but the long and short of it for me is that the Note 10.1 2014 provides more functionality land usability than any tablet I've researched (and used).
    I am working with the S-pen right now, while writing this. The keyboard layout is significantly better than the iPad and the overall design of both hardware and software are excellent. Many of these things are subjective in nature, but for me, in my physical condition, they are a little more than that.
    All things said and done, the Samsung Note 10.1 2014 is a GREAT product and deserves the respect it deserves. Apple users, buy the latest and greatest iPad and you'll be happy. But if you are truly objective, give a good, hard look at the latest Samsung 10" tablet.

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