Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Review: Can It Make A Difference In The Tablet World?

Tablets are versatile gadgets. They give you more flexibility. Instead of turning on the laptop or the desktop for typical operations like checking of emails, online transfer of money and Facebook updates, you can comfortably use tablets.

Samsung has a substantial share in the Smartphone and tablet industry. Let us check the features, pros and cons of Samsung Galaxy Note 800.

Features

Samsung has nicknamed Galaxy Note 800 tablet as Phablet. Samsung Galaxy Note 800 is also called as Galaxy Note 10.1 in some countries as it is being marketed with that name. It is powered by 1.4 GHz quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM and Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) operating system.

It weighs 600 grams. It comes with Touchwiz user interface on top of the OS. You can expect upgrade for Android 4.1 by the year end.

It is a totally plastic-built tablet that comes with decent appearance. The lightweight 0.35” thick Galaxy Note 800 comes with 10.1” display (1200 x 800).

You can have a decent view both in indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. The color reproduction is good.

However, it lags behind the current generation tablets. The latest trend goes with the HD display screen.

Power button, volume control, SIM & SD card slots, infrared sensor and audio (3.5mm) jack are positioned on the top. The charging-cum-data transfer port is positioned at the bottom of the tablet.

As soon as you pull out the pen, application menu will appear on the screen. If the tablet is in sleep mode, it will wake up.

The tablet comes with an ordinary rear camera (5 MP) and 1.9 MP front facing camera. You can make video chats and video calls by utilizing the cameras through 3G connectivity.

You can make minor changes through the camera application. You can record videos of 720p quality.

The OS is customized to deliver a different taste than the stocked OS. Touch sound is one of the customizations. It is enabled by default.

The default Calendar, browser and email applications that are provided with the OS are tweaked and they are replaced by Samsung versions. The mini applications arrayed on the screen are Alarm, calendar, email, messaging, music player, phone, S note, S planner, task manager and world clock.

You can take advantage of the multiscreen mode which is part and parcel of the Samsung customization. Only limited applications will work in multiscreen mode.

The tablet comes with reader mode where you will be able to view web pages without being annoyed by various advertisements, links and menus. There are Samsung customized applications like Adobe Photoshop Touch, dropbox, Polaris Office and My Education.

Even though the tablet is powered by a quad - core processor, the software is not optimized to take advantage of the processing capability. This resulted in the poor performance of the tablet as it takes long time to switch between applications when you are working in multiscreen mode.

Samsung Galaxy Note 800 sports S-pen stylus. It is more responsive than earlier versions. There is improvement in the software as well. S-pen can withstand pressure strokes of up to 1200 degrees.

Even though it is large in physical size, it is light in weight. S-Pen is supported by S Note and Adobe Photoshop Touch applications. S Note can recognize your handwriting. However, this feature can be improved.

Pros

• Smart Stay shows the screen when you look at the screen
• S-pen stylus
• 7000 mAh gives long battery back
• Voice calls and messaging facilitated
• Good loudspeakers
• Decent overall performance

Cons

• It is better to replace the proprietary data card with micro USB
• Tablet struggles to work in multiscreen mode
• Poor build quality
• Unpleasant customization by Samsung
• Poor display system
• No HDMI out

Conclusion

The performance of Galaxy Note 800 can be summed up as good even though there is large scale scope for improvement. There is room for improvement in the user interface, software optimization (as per the processor capability).

If S Note does not make much difference for you, you can go for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 by which you can save one fourth of the amount. The tablet can surpass the quality of Asus Transformer Prime.

Samsung Galaxy Note 800 comes with great processor, great battery backup and a decent display. The build factor is a definite downside. However, it is priced less than 32 GB iPad.