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Samsung Series 5 Hybrid (Ativ Smart PC) W8 tablet - Quick Review for Note 10.1 owners

Alright. I've been playing with a Series 5 hybrid for a couple of hours now. This is a quick review with 2 pictures showing both units together (sorry for the grain in the pictures; I'll take better ones with my DSLR once I have more time), since some of the Note 10.1 owners might be interested in this particular model due to the Wacom digitizer and the S-Pen. It costs $649 (Staples is selling it for $599 at the moment).
First of all, the built quality is great. Yes, it has the same polycarbonate back panel as Note 10.1 and it moves little bit if you press on it in the center (which is not part of the typical tablet use scenario), but it feels really solid and not flimsy. Probably little better than Note 10.1, due to the fact that the back is one piece and wraps around the screen nicely and having less plastic parts merging into each other creates less movement and creaks. The full glass front with the integrated speakers on each side works very well.
The Series 5 hybrid is definitely designed for a landscape use. It's too narrow and awkward if you hold it in portrait mode. The thickness is similar to Note 10.1 and it doesn't feel particularly heavier. It comes with a power block (very similar to what you get with laptops), so while traveling, that will add some extra weight.
The stylus is smaller than the one that comes with Note 10.1. (it's slightly chubbier), and it's white. I played with S-Note for a while and it works very similar to what we have on the Note. Palm rejection may not be as accurate as on the Note 10.1, because after writing few sentences, there were 3-4 small lines under my hand where it was resting on the screen.
As for the performance of the Atom, it feels perfectly fine for browsing, e-mail, etc. I haven't noticed any lag while navigating from screen to screen, but when installing programs, moving to something else took a bit extra. It includes a 64GB SSD, but out of the box it has 34GB free. The screen on the Note 10.1 is more brighter compared to Series 5. I would say the resolution is similar in terms of sharpness, pixellation, etc. Since the labels are a lot more smaller in the desktop mode (see below), you can see the pixels in the letters under icons.
Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a preview of Office 2013 that was going to be upgraded to full version when released (this was mentioned for RT devices, but I remember reading it somewhere for the X-86 tablets, as well). It doesn't include Office 2010 either (you have to buy/install it separately). Since office 2010 is not touch optimized, using the stylus is a must. From this aspect, it feels like it was rushed to meet the Windows 8 launch date. This is a mistake on Microsoft's and Samsung's part, because the X86 machines are marketed as "productivity oriented" models as opposed to the Windows RT models, and the lack of touch-optimized Office suite takes away from it significantly. You can use Office 2010 on it without any problems in terms of functionality, but it's not tablet/touch optimized, and you'll definitely need that stylus.
This is my first encounter with Windows 8, so part of the learning curve is due to Windows 8 itself. Although, it's very easy and enjoyable to use it in the tablet mode, I find myself hitting that "Desktop" tile and using it as a "regular" computer. Over time, I'll probably move away from this habit. Once you are at the Desktop, you become aware of what's running in the background and it's a full Windows on a 11.6" screen. I thought the navigation would be a problem without the stylus, but it works OK, even though things look a bit small. After spending few minutes with it, you immediately realize that you're in Windows territory (pop up windows from Norton, security update reminders, restart reminders after installing the updates, etc.).
As of know, it feels more like a "computer" rather than a "tablet" if that makes any sense. Until I spend about a week with both, I won't form any opinions. I wish Office 2013 was included, since it's one of the most important factors for people considering an X-86 based tablet.
Let me know if you have any questions. Once I have some time, I'll make a more detailed side-by-side comparison of both tablets and add some more pictures.
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Thanks, looks cool.
Yeah, I'm gonna wait for these to ripen in the marketplace for 6 months or so before I consider anything seriously. Once I do I will get either a 13.3" or 15" convertible ultrabook, 15" preferred and use it as a true laptop replacement.
As a tablet I would find having the tall skinny portrait mode disturbing I think. I greatly prefer holding my tablet in portrait mode for some reason.
Anyway, hope you enjoy it. So far sounds like you think it's ok but aren't blown away. I think that is the challenge W8 faces. For the premium price, people need to feel blown away. Even though the critics ripped the SGN10.1, users LOVED it and the device was saved, but if users themselves start giving weak reviews of the W8 tablets that will spell big trouble.

Thanks for the mini-review. Do you by chance have Photoshop? I'm curious how the Atom processor handles it.

It's bigger than I thought. I also never thought about what you mentioned in using it in portrait mode. Is Windows S-Note a program in the control panel and are Android and W8 S-Note's compatible? Being able to share my Note's S-Note's via the desktop would be huge for me. Play some HD movies and games on it. I'm curious to see how the new Atom holds up without a discrete GPU. By all means share your experiences. I and I'm sure others are interested.

thanks for the quick thoughts. I'm interested in the series 7 version of the tablet which should be similar but faster than this one.

fella1 said:
thanks for the quick thoughts. I'm interested in the series 7 version of the tablet which should be similar but faster than this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually the series 7 (with core i3 /i5 ) isnt the same , it is thicker , larger and have ugly cooling fins at the back (core i5 gets really hot ) and they start at double the price (1500$ for WiFi only core i3 ) and the camera has no flash also
Sent from my GT-N8000 using xda app-developers app

mitchellvii said:
Thanks, looks cool.
Yeah, I'm gonna wait for these to ripen in the marketplace for 6 months or so before I consider anything seriously. Once I do I will get either a 13.3" or 15" convertible ultrabook, 15" preferred and use it as a true laptop replacement.
As a tablet I would find having the tall skinny portrait mode disturbing I think. I greatly prefer holding my tablet in portrait mode for some reason.
Anyway, hope you enjoy it. So far sounds like you think it's ok but aren't blown away. I think that is the challenge W8 faces. For the premium price, people need to feel blown away. Even though the critics ripped the SGN10.1, users LOVED it and the device was saved, but if users themselves start giving weak reviews of the W8 tablets that will spell big trouble.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'm not blown away by it, for sure. It seems more and more that I'll be waiting for v2 as well.
jedah said:
Thanks for the mini-review. Do you by chance have Photoshop? I'm curious how the Atom processor handles it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll install it later tonight and see what happens, but don't get your hopes up (see below).
BarryH_GEG said:
It's bigger than I thought. I also never thought about what you mentioned in using it in portrait mode. Is Windows S-Note a program in the control panel and are Android and W8 S-Note's compatible? Being able to share my Note's S-Note's via the desktop would be huge for me. Play some HD movies and games on it. I'm curious to see how the new Atom holds up without a discrete GPU. By all means share your experiences. I and I'm sure others are interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's definitely bigger than I thought as well, especially when you put the Note 10.1 on top of it. I like the overall design of the Series 5 better than the Note 10.1 (more streamlined and clean), but the portrait mode is really awkward. It might be good for taking long notes, but I can't see any other use for it. After reading your post, I tried to find a way to export the notes from the S-Notes, but the only option was jpeg. I'll look into the file structure and try to open them on Note 10.1. The S-Note is a program in the control panel. For some reason, the S-Note feels sluggish. Opening and saving notes take a bit longer than Note 10.1. For instance, the "S-Note tips" file took a while to load, and when opened, moving from page to page was very slow (i.e., "hit the right arrow, wait 2 seconds, page #2 is delivered, and so on for the remaining 5 pages). The exact same file on the Note 10.1 flies. In addition, there's no "page turn animation" on the Windows version.
I haven't played any games other than the Plants vs. Zombies that's included (trial version). By the way, the game played in its own window and there was no way to play it full screen, which was annoying.
One thing that I was really skeptical was the Atom processor, and unfortunately, it interferes with the usage of the tablet often enough to remind you that you are using a device with a slow processor. Just to test it out, while Windows update was running in the background, I started Windows Movie maker and imported 4, 3-4 minute long 720p files from my digital camera. It took a while to add the movies to the "Project" and once a timeline formed, I hit "Play" to preview the movie. The small video playback was stuttering. Then I hit the full screen button on the preview window, it was painful to watch the processor trying to keep up with background installation of updates and ongoing video playback. I tried the same thing without any background processes running; the small preview window was better, but full screen continued to stutter.
I'll keep testing it with some other tasks, but so far it seems underpowered.
fella1 said:
thanks for the quick thoughts. I'm interested in the series 7 version of the tablet which should be similar but faster than this one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on what I've observed so far, Series 7 might be a better choice for people who wants to have full Windows 8 in a tablet form. It won't be an option for me because of the weight, thickness and the price point. As long as you don't push the processor, Atom works fine for "general" stuff, but anything "extra" shows its shortcomings.

Hey man, really appreciate you going out of your way to give us this comparison, much welcomed
Hope im not out of line in asking, if its possible to get some of the things you've mentioned, on video, if its not a bother that is

tenderidol said:
I tried to find a way to export the notes from the S-Notes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're "snb" files (on the Android Samsung Note's). Use Astro or ES Explorer to upload them from your Note to Dropbox and see if the Ativ is able to open, read, and edit them. If it is, and there's a program in Control Panel, we should finally be able to use and edit S-Notes from the Note on a PC. I'm guessing the S-Note for W8 app is on the backup and restore CD. Thanks for the time you're spending on this.

Thanks for your quick review.
I'm considering this tablet.
Can you test some 1080p mkvs with the S Player?
How do other players (vlc,.....) work on this atom processor?

please test adobe illustrator CS5, Thank you very much.

Its has RT version of Windows CS5 or for that any other legacy windows applications will not work on it

samir_a said:
Its has RT version of Windows CS5 or for that any other legacy windows applications will not work on it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's running full Windows 8, and I already installed Adobe Design and Web Premium CS6.

BarryH_GEG said:
They're "snb" files (on the Android Samsung Note's). Use Astro or ES Explorer to upload them from your Note to Dropbox and see if the Ativ is able to open, read, and edit them. If it is, and there's a program in Control Panel, we should finally be able to use and edit S-Notes from the Note on a PC. I'm guessing the S-Note for W8 app is on the backup and restore CD. Thanks for the time you're spending on this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I copied one of the .snb files over to the W8 tablet. It's recognized as an S-Note file (the icon is the same), and if I double-tap on it, it attempts to launch the S-Note, but it never passes the "splash screen". If I launch S-Notes, minimize it, and double-tap on the .snb file from Note10.1, it maximizes S-Note, but it doesn't open it. It appears that they are not compatible. Furthermore, sorry for the misinformation; S-Notes is not under the "Uninstall Programs" list in control panel.
It would have been nice to share notes between platforms.

Onenote performance?
tenderidol,
Thank you so much for this comparison (I'm going to hit your thanks button quite a few times, I think ) I want to buy one of these tablets but don't want to decide until I know some more about the Atom performance. So if you have time (you get snowballed with requests, I'm sure) to install Office 2010 and test how OneNote inking performs in a big file (with quite some pictures inserted), a few pdf's open and internet explorer running in the background? I think there are many people interested in whether the Atom will be sufficient for notetaking in big files with some stuff in the background.
BTW, I read on another forum that some people use the extra length in portrait mode for multitasking: one window on top and the other below. Could be useful for copying-pasting things from internet explorer to notes. I think I would prefer 16:10 though.

I have an issue not offence ment to anyone but this forum is for Note and lately all I the post I see are about W8 tablets and nexus 10 to an extent we have reviews of W8 tablets being posted. Need the focus back

samir_a said:
I have an issue not offence ment to anyone but this forum is for Note and lately all I the post I see are about W8 tablets and nexus 10 to an extent we have reviews of W8 tablets being posted. Need the focus back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Non taken. However, this thread is targeted towards people who currently own Note 10.1 and are -or may be- interested in the Ativ Smart PC due to its stylus, S-Pen and the productivity aspect of it that may not be present in Note 10.1 (e.g., full Office suite, legacy Windows programs, additional ports, etc). The way both tablets are designed, I won't be surprised if most people end up owning both for different purposes. No offense, but the content of these threads are very clear with their titles, and anyone who is not interested about the products being discussed can easily avoid them.

lord69 said:
Thanks for your quick review.
I'm considering this tablet.
Can you test some 1080p mkvs with the S Player?
How do other players (vlc,.....) work on this atom processor?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made some mkv movies and played them on the W8 tablet. S-Player did not open the file (it said it was unsupported). Cyberlink Power DVD (non-full, "light" edition) is pre-installed and played the movies perfectly fine without any stutter, sync issues or degradation in audio and/or video performance. Actually, I just played them from the USB stick without transferring to the internal memory. I installed VLC Media Player, and the movies were played without an issue with VLC player, too. I didn't try any other media players. Just to make it clear, I created the movies from my Blu-ray discs using MakeMKV without changing any settings.
As for the other requests, I'll try to answer everything. I already installed the Adobe Suite and will report back on the performance of Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver, soon. The next will be Office 2010 w/ OneNote (the pre-installed trial doesn't contain OneNote, so I need instal my own copy).

Again did not mean to offend you or anyone nor do i find it offending or bad its I feel that it would help in two ways there would many on this site who would want to know your review on Ativ and if you created a category they would have been able to do the same over here your audience is only limited to note owners secondly as a note owner I come to this thread to get information specific to note and if do others will start doing so and start posting reviews. Let me just give an example if everyone post about each and every tablet in market you will not find a post of not in pages and hence I feel its does not help.
Personally I like what you are doing because I would believe your review then that done by various so called tech sites as they are biased
Hope you understand the point i am trying to make and again this my personal feeling and I am expressing it and in no way forcing it on anyone

Thanks for all the great impressions! Sounds like the atom based unit is a little underpowered. Do you have any comics? I read those a lot on my note in portrait mode and wonder how they would look on the extra long portrait mode of the series 5.

Will Microsoft surface pro kill this tablet and all Android tablets?

just wondering if the release of Microsoft surface Windows 8 pro will render all the Android tablets outdated...
what would be the fate of g note 10.1, when the surface hits the shelf Feb 9th? Will you dish your note?
let's talk about its pro and cons

Will it be the finished article is the usual MS new release question .
jje

First of all, windows 8 sucks.
Ring out, Galaxy Note 10.1 is still the winner. Dont see anything useful in the surface pro and win8. too complicated for me as a win7 user, and the surface pro is too expensive. I still dont regret that I have bought the note 10.1
There's nothing to discuss about.

I don't like Windows 8 at all. This is the first Windows OS that I haven't updated my home systems to as soon as they are available. And it's not a matter of cost since I have access to 10 licenses at no cost. I installed it on my laptop and tried to use it for a few weeks and went back to 7.
While I think it's an OS that's more suitable for a tablet or phone than a desktop, I still think it's awful. I just think MS made a huge mistake with this thing.
IOW, my Note isn't going anywhere in the near future. And when it goes, it won't be for a Surface anything.

Yes. The gnote wasn't that good of a tablet anyways and the only thing appealing about it was the wacom digitizer, in which case the Surface Pro has it outclassed because you can run full fledged applications such as photoshop on it. ARM tablets are toys compared to x86 tablets but it in the future you'll still see low cost tablets from the Nexus series being popular.
Really even atom tablets today does tremendously more than what $500 android tablets are capable off and they often cost only $50 to a $100 more. And with incoming Haswell it'll address any negatives such as battery life. But with that being said atom tablets are already well within 10 to 11 hours of battery life while i5 variants are ranging around 5 to 7. Unless manufactures see this as a method of profit and start to include smaller and smaller batteries, (or razor thin ones) x86 tablets in the future will be comparable if not better in battery life while offering substantially more power.

simple answer.
NO.

Lol
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda app-developers app

In before stupid gNote zealots attack and flame any attempt to have a honest conversation about the Pros & Cons of the gNote.
Just like before http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1869148
Because the gNote has no Cons and does no wrongs.

BBlax said:
Yes. The gnote wasn't that good of a tablet anyways and the only thing appealing about it was the wacom digitizer, in which case the Surface Pro has it outclassed because you can run full fledged applications such as photoshop on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Surely using a stylus on ps touch, is 10x better than using your finger on a surface pro. Outclassed :laugh:

BBlax said:
... But with that being said atom tablets are already well within 10 to 11 hours of battery life while i5 variants are ranging around 5 to 7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which i5 tablets get 5 - 7 of actual use? As a previous owner of one who just ditched it for the note I am very curious. My biggest problem was by far sub par battery life.
I think surface pro is the future of the Windows branch of "PC" for the masses....even though it will take a couple of years before they are palatable. But unfortunately I also think that the market is much larger for casual users (those who initially only want web and email). IPad, Asus, Samsung tablets are going to become even more prevalent. 20 years ago only ultrageeks used computers, today grandma has a Facebook acct. There are so many people that mobile computing is being used by now.
People who want to run Photoshop and other real warez will be fulfilled by the new surface pro types that I think eventually will become laptop and desktop replacements as well. At the same time the Apple and Android apps are slowly closing the gap. There is much more complex software available for mobile platforms than there was just a few years ago. This is where many new developers have emerged and it is a market where traditional softwares are dying to get into.
Microsoft is wayyyyy to late to the game, and they will never capture the casual users. I think they will hold a smaller market of business and previous PC users who haven't yet completely jumped ship. Apple and Android are here to stay as the majority, and Microsoft unfortunately as the minority.
That being said I still use my custom built Intel Z77/i5 3570K-based PC with 32GB RAM and Samsung 830 SSDs for RAW photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop, using MATLAB, Visual Studio, Mathematica, Sony Vegas, Handbrake, Acrobat, etc, etc, as well as an occasional game of BF3. I use my phone and tablet for everything else.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

I love my note 10.1 I look at all info on tablets cause of curiosity but so far I want for nothing my note does all I want it to be able to do
Sent from my GT-N8000 using Tapatalk HD

I think my desktop is enough for windows . I dont need windows tablet . My note 10.1 enough for me outside my house

just like others have said a big NO, i'm sure you have heard recently android is growing fast in terms of market share, microsoft dropped everything and tried to catch up with windows 8, too little, too late, microsoft are not only alienating thier pc gamer userbase with such a horrofic UI in windows 8 but most gaming card drivers don't work on 8 so why should they upgrade and loose features?
lets see if anyone will take something like that outside to work and be a laughing stock, the app store is nothing compared to ios and android, microsoft will never compare to either of them, not even a child can use windows 8 properly check out youtube and see for yourself, windows 8 is overcomplicated sqeezing tablet features into a desktop is the dumbest idea i have heard in my life, what the were they thinking?

Been Waiting on Microsoft Surface Pro for Work
Well, I own a Galaxy Nexus and N7 and have owned an iPad4. I am anxiously awaiting the MS SPro because I am hoping that the stylus integration will truly eliminate the use of pen/pad of my note taking. I also look forward to the integrate of the stylus with One Note.
The MS SPro stopped me from buying a Google Nexus 10 (no pen); Galaxy Note 10.1 (pen but less than ideal integration with Google Drive - i.e., no editing of slide presentations in the Drive).
If the writing experience is good; if I can access my PowerPoint presentations within the SkyDrive and edit them with the stylus, or touch screen, or keyboard and if the integration with One Note is good, particularly using the pen .... the MS SPro may become the preferred business tablet ...
with Google Tablets occupying the purely consumption space.

VERY Good point about annotating Power Points.
So far it's been basically impossible to do on Android.
No one wants to have to convert to PDF all the time.
Until SoftMaker remakes their Office Suite to the same level of functionality as their Windows Mobile 6 version (which basically WAS MS Office) Android can never be a serious productivity tool.
So far lots of Office Suites miss a majority of functions and even LOSE document data you originally had put in the document from the official MS Office, if you save.

With the gazillions MS spent on advertising Surface RT and even opening pop-up stores in malls to sell it they sold fewer than 1MM over the holidays. Samsung canceled plans to bring to bring the Ativ RT to the U.S. because of lack of consumer interest. Surface Pro is nothing more than Surface RT with the ability to run legacy Windows apps. The devices are twice as thick, twice as heavy, and battery life is unknown. The real change in personal computing is the addition of touch screen interaction and you'll see most new ultrabooks and notebooks including it. When that happens it's really just a choice of picking the Windows device that best suits people's needs - a small light ultrabook with a touchscreen with better battery life or a heavy Surface Pro with limitations and a removable display. Legacy Windows with all of its viruses and maintenance chores really isn't a competitor to consumption devices like iPad and Android tablets. And unless something changes Surface RT is already a fail. Samsung canceling the Ativ RT and releasing updated G-Tab's next month is a pretty good that Android will be around for awhile.

well, February 9th is just around the corner.... let's wait and see if Microsoft will surprise us.

I actually have a surface rt as well. It's inferior to the Note in almost all ways, but it definitely has two advantages.
1 the type keyboard is extremely nice to use and convenient
2 native ms office support is great when you need to work with word, ppt docs, and etc
Sent from my GT-N8010 using xda app-developers app

padesy said:
well, February 9th is just around the corner.... let's wait and see if Microsoft will surprise us.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no surprise, here's the specs from their site. In the 64GB version, because the OS and installed apps are huge, there's only 23GB left for the user. And it's already confirmed to get half the battery life of Surface RT.
http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/surface-with-windows-8-pro/specifications
So...
$999 - 128GB Surface Pro (23GB is way too little available storage)
$250 - Office 2013 license (it's not included in Surface Pro)
$130 - "Type" cover (the "touch" cover included would drive productivity users nuts)
$1,379
I don't see people lining up for it.
Here's an interesting article comparing the RT to Pro...
http://www.zdnet.com/why-im-not-trading-my-surface-rt-for-a-surface-pro-7000010132/

dhd1802 said:
Surely using a stylus on ps touch, is 10x better than using your finger on a surface pro. Outclassed :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except the Surface Pro has a full sized pen power by a Wacom digitizer.
Full HD too. No 800p crap.
299792458 said:
Which i5 tablets get 5 - 7 of actual use? As a previous owner of one who just ditched it for the note I am very curious. My biggest problem was by far sub par battery life.
I think surface pro is the future of the Windows branch of "PC" for the masses....even though it will take a couple of years before they are palatable. But unfortunately I also think that the market is much larger for casual users (those who initially only want web and email). IPad, Asus, Samsung tablets are going to become even more prevalent. 20 years ago only ultrageeks used computers, today grandma has a Facebook acct. There are so many people that mobile computing is being used by now.
People who want to run Photoshop and other real warez will be fulfilled by the new surface pro types that I think eventually will become laptop and desktop replacements as well. At the same time the Apple and Android apps are slowly closing the gap. There is much more complex software available for mobile platforms than there was just a few years ago. This is where many new developers have emerged and it is a market where traditional softwares are dying to get into.
Microsoft is wayyyyy to late to the game, and they will never capture the casual users. I think they will hold a smaller market of business and previous PC users who haven't yet completely jumped ship. Apple and Android are here to stay as the majority, and Microsoft unfortunately as the minority.
That being said I still use my custom built Intel Z77/i5 3570K-based PC with 32GB RAM and Samsung 830 SSDs for RAW photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop, using MATLAB, Visual Studio, Mathematica, Sony Vegas, Handbrake, Acrobat, etc, etc, as well as an occasional game of BF3. I use my phone and tablet for everything else.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Acer W700. It has a 1000mah larger battery than the Surface Pro.

Super Dilemma! Buy Dell Latitude 10 Now or Wait for Haswell! – Tablets!

I absolutely love the new super long battery life of the Atom Z2760. By reading reviews of the Tablets I am finding out that all day battery life is absolutely no problem. Especially with the battery upgrade you can do with Dell on the Latitude 10 optional “60 WHR 4-Cell Battery”. People are getting like days of battery life.
I was really torn between the Microsoft Surface Pro which seems like a beast with all the loves and kisses of an amazing tablet but the battery life is horrid. I am currently going back to college and am looking for a note taking power house that will absolutely last all day, let’s say 8 hours. I know the Microsoft Surface Pro will be fast and the perfect size but will not last all day maybe 4 to 5 hours.
So battery life is my absolutely main objective. Even though I would love to have the Surface I prefer battery life. Other people might only need 4 hours of battery life and the Surface will be fine for them.
So back to my main question about the famous Haswell chip. I really want to pull the trigger on the Dell Latitude 10 because of the upgraded battery but I am reading about the Haswell chip and it seems to be everything tablets are not right now. I know you will always be in a 6 month loop with technology with something always better around the corner but this is something different. They say this is revolutionary and will increase performance and battery life by leaps and bounds. They are building the chip and tablet from the ground up with the Haswell.
What do I do? I mean will the Haswell actually be the amazing new Tablet revolution that everyone is talking about or is it just a bunch of hype? I mean how much more battery life can you pour into a Tablet over the Clovertrial.
I really do not need the performance upgrades of Haswell so much because I will be mainly using the tablet for note taking. I do not care about gaming, but same price and better performace is always nice in case you ever need it.
Please give me your thoughts or similar experiences. Will you be buying a Tablet now or waiting? Do you think it’s worth it to wait or just buy now? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. I only want a full blown windows 8 experience as well, not RT, Android, or anything else.
Best,
Needspractice

needspractice said:
I absolutely love the new super long battery life of the Atom Z2760. By reading reviews of the Tablets I am finding out that all day battery life is absolutely no problem. Especially with the battery upgrade you can do with Dell on the Latitude 10 optional “60 WHR 4-Cell Battery”. People are getting like days of battery life.
I was really torn between the Microsoft Surface Pro which seems like a beast with all the loves and kisses of an amazing tablet but the battery life is horrid. I am currently going back to college and am looking for a note taking power house that will absolutely last all day, let’s say 8 hours. I know the Microsoft Surface Pro will be fast and the perfect size but will not last all day maybe 4 to 5 hours.
So battery life is my absolutely main objective. Even though I would love to have the Surface I prefer battery life. Other people might only need 4 hours of battery life and the Surface will be fine for them.
So back to my main question about the famous Haswell chip. I really want to pull the trigger on the Dell Latitude 10 because of the upgraded battery but I am reading about the Haswell chip and it seems to be everything tablets are not right now. I know you will always be in a 6 month loop with technology with something always better around the corner but this is something different. They say this is revolutionary and will increase performance and battery life by leaps and bounds. They are building the chip and tablet from the ground up with the Haswell.
What do I do? I mean will the Haswell actually be the amazing new Tablet revolution that everyone is talking about or is it just a bunch of hype? I mean how much more battery life can you pour into a Tablet over the Clovertrial.
I really do not need the performance upgrades of Haswell so much because I will be mainly using the tablet for note taking. I do not care about gaming, but same price and better performace is always nice in case you ever need it.
Please give me your thoughts or similar experiences. Will you be buying a Tablet now or waiting? Do you think it’s worth it to wait or just buy now? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. I only want a full blown windows 8 experience as well, not RT, Android, or anything else.
Best,
Needspractice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm like you and was stuck and didn't know what to do. After researching online it seems Haswell tablets wont be out until the end of this year, but I needed a tablet now. I went with the Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2. It's faster than my SurfaceRT was and I absolutely love the digitizer. I use the pen mainly as a mouse when in the full desktop. It makes a huge difference having the pen to use as a mouse. If they refresh the Thinkpad2, I plan to sell my current one to acquire the haswell version. You always have that choice if you don't mind ebay/craigslist.

I absolutely love the new super long battery life of the Atom Z2760. By reading reviews of the Tablets I am finding out that all day battery life is absolutely no problem. Especially with the battery upgrade you can do with Dell on the Latitude 10 optional “60 WHR 4-Cell Battery”. People are getting like days of battery life.
I was really torn between the Microsoft Surface Pro which seems like a beast with all the loves and kisses of an amazing tablet but the battery life is horrid. I am currently going back to college and am looking for a note taking power house that will absolutely last all day, let’s say 8 hours. I know the Microsoft Surface Pro will be fast and the perfect size but will not last all day maybe 4 to 5 hours.
So battery life is my absolutely main objective. Even though I would love to have the Surface I prefer battery life. Other people might only need 4 hours of battery life and the Surface will be fine for them.
So back to my main question about the famous Haswell chip. I really want to pull the trigger on the Dell Latitude 10 because of the upgraded battery but I am reading about the Haswell chip and it seems to be everything tablets are not right now. I know you will always be in a 6 month loop with technology with something always better around the corner but this is something different. They say this is revolutionary and will increase performance and battery life by leaps and bounds. They are building the chip and tablet from the ground up with the Haswell.
What do I do? I mean will the Haswell actually be the amazing new Tablet revolution that everyone is talking about or is it just a bunch of hype? I mean how much more battery life can you pour into a Tablet over the Clovertrial.
I really do not need the performance upgrades of Haswell so much because I will be mainly using the tablet for note taking. I do not care about gaming, but same price and better performace is always nice in case you ever need it.
Please give me your thoughts or similar experiences. Will you be buying a Tablet now or waiting? Do you think it’s worth it to wait or just buy now? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. I only want a full blown windows 8 experience as well, not RT, Android, or anything else.
Best,
Needspractice
me too.
customise 128GB SSD.
on dual booting 7 and 8:good:
too use separated.

I would definitely consider an iPad for educational use. They're excellent for note taking and reading textbooks. No, I'm not kidding.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

But he wants Win 8.

veeman said:
I would definitely consider an iPad for educational use. They're excellent for note taking and reading textbooks. No, I'm not kidding.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, let's pay more than a Win8 tablet to get a fourth of the usability (and I'm being generous with the iPad's usefulness)
I am in the same boat. I want a windows 8 tablet sooooooo much. I want to trade my laptop which weighs 7lbs for a nice, light tablet and I want to build a cheap pc for home gaming. However I don't want the Atoms. Not enough performance. And I wouldn't mind paying 600-700 bucks for an i3/i5 tablet right now, but I would hate myself if the Haswells came out with almost double the battery life and more performance for the same price.
So I've decided to be patient and work through this school year using my laptop. All the while saving up for my upgrade. Then at the end of next summer the Haswells should be on sale or cheaper. Or if they weren't as much of an improvement as we expected I can get the current tablets for dirt cheap. Next summer the surface pro will probably be around $500 at some places.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Censura_Umbra said:
Yeah, let's pay more than a Win8 tablet to get a fourth of the usability (and I'm being generous with the iPad's usefulness)
I am in the same boat. I want a windows 8 tablet sooooooo much. I want to trade my laptop which weighs 7lbs for a nice, light tablet and I want to build a cheap pc for home gaming. However I don't want the Atoms. Not enough performance. And I wouldn't mind paying 600-700 bucks for an i3/i5 tablet right now, but I would hate myself if the Haswells came out with almost double the battery life and more performance for the same price.
So I've decided to be patient and work through this school year using my laptop. All the while saving up for my upgrade. Then at the end of next summer the Haswells should be on sale or cheaper. Or if they weren't as much of an improvement as we expected I can get the current tablets for dirt cheap. Next summer the surface pro will probably be around $500 at some places.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A fourth of the usability of a Windows RT tablet? Heck no. The iPad has way more stable, useful apps.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

veeman said:
A fourth of the usability of a Windows RT tablet? Heck no. The iPad has way more stable, useful apps.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
shows how much attention you've been paying.
Educational use, the RT has a full blown office suite, printing and usb storage, all useful and unavailable on an iPad. Well, office suites there are some but none even nearly match Microsoft office. Printing on RT is no different from a normal PC, no specialised printers required (my old school would have had to spend £40000 on printers if they were to replace with an iPad compatible model, the RT tablet a classmate bought in worked fine already). Usb storage, hah, you don't even get a usable file system let alone mass storage.
But we aren't using RT. We're talking windows 8, you know, that OS on your laptop or desktop. Intel atom, ivy bridge and haswell tablets as discussed here are all full blown x86 tablets and will run your full PC software which I would love to see you do on your iPad. That and many have active digitiser pens which are even better for nite taking than a capacitive screen which has no way to palm block (and I cannot contort my hand in such a way to write with a stylus on a capacitive screen without wearing gloves as a palm blocker).
So, cheaper and more useful for productivity which seems to be what was desired.

veeman said:
A fourth of the usability of a Windows RT tablet? Heck no. The iPad has way more stable, useful apps.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahahaha more useful apps than every single "app" I use on my PC everyday? Like gimp and Photoshop? Sony Vegas? Real games like DmC and Call of Duty? Wow. What are you even doing in this part of the forum?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

Censura_Umbra said:
Hahahaha more useful apps than every single "app" I use on my PC everyday? Like gimp and Photoshop? Sony Vegas? Real games like DmC and Call of Duty? Wow. What are you even doing in this part of the forum?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You aren't going to be able to run any of those apps on Windows RT tablet. And if you do go up to the x86 windows 8 tablet, unless you're willing to spend $1000+, you won't get a tablet that runs Photoshop or Call of Duty well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
---------- Post added at 10:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 AM ----------
SixSixSevenSeven said:
shows how much attention you've been paying.
Educational use, the RT has a full blown office suite, printing and usb storage, all useful and unavailable on an iPad. Well, office suites there are some but none even nearly match Microsoft office. Printing on RT is no different from a normal PC, no specialised printers required (my old school would have had to spend £40000 on printers if they were to replace with an iPad compatible model, the RT tablet a classmate bought in worked fine already). Usb storage, hah, you don't even get a usable file system let alone mass storage.
But we aren't using RT. We're talking windows 8, you know, that OS on your laptop or desktop. Intel atom, ivy bridge and haswell tablets as discussed here are all full blown x86 tablets and will run your full PC software which I would love to see you do on your iPad. That and many have active digitiser pens which are even better for nite taking than a capacitive screen which has no way to palm block (and I cannot contort my hand in such a way to write with a stylus on a capacitive screen without wearing gloves as a palm blocker).
So, cheaper and more useful for productivity which seems to be what was desired.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Apple has a very good Office Suite for iPads
2. Most universities will have printers that are compatible with wireless printing.
3. You seem to be misinformed as you can connect USB mass storage devices to iPads. (Though it does require jailbreak)
4. You said it's cheaper but for a tablet to have all the features you listed, the price point is close to $1000 or more.
5. Many medical fields write their software specifically for iPads. I know the hospital my mom works at does.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

veeman said:
You aren't going to be able to run any of those apps on Windows RT tablet. And if you do go up to the x86 windows 8 tablet, unless you're willing to spend $1000+, you won't get a tablet that runs Photoshop or Call of Duty well.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
---------- Post added at 10:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 AM ----------
1. Apple has a very good Office Suite for iPads
2. Most universities will have printers that are compatible with wireless printing.
3. You seem to be misinformed as you can connect USB mass storage devices to iPads. (Though it does require jailbreak)
4. You said it's cheaper but for a tablet to have all the features you listed, the price point is close to $1000 or more.
5. Many medical fields write their software specifically for iPads. I know the hospital my mom works at does.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did I say university anywhere? I'm not there until september. And besides, wireless printing does not mean an iPad will print to it, has to support some stupid apple protocol which although many do, most don't. And besides, in my old school the printing was not inherently wireless. The entire school was covered with a local network (a very large network which is also a rather convenient example of mixed topology within a network for computer science lessons), all printers were normal network printers. If you found a wireless access point then any windows device had no problem printing, if you had an ethernet connection then you could print fine from any normal computer too, a few of the printers in the school were even recognised by some android devices (although that was hit and miss), windows RT was able to print to them fine, iPads insisted that there was no printer present, even for the wireless one over in A11. There were only 2 iPad compatible printers in the building, 1 in the head masters office and one in my computer science room which my tutor bought himself.
The only office suites for iPads (pages is probably best and I presume the one you mean) are all far inferior to MS Office in terms of available functionality. Credit where credit is due, pages does work rather nicely as a basic office suite but leaves alot to be desired for things like .DOC support etc. Openoffice was able to open my 130 page coursework fine, MS Office was fine, Pages loaded a few pages, then gave up. The demo surface RT in john lewis, loaded it into MS office fine, no lag, nothing broken. Then on top of that, all RT tablets have office pre installed already, iPad its a seperate purchase. Same for windows 8 admittedly, but at least on windows 8 there are incredibly good free alternatives which are all fully fledged yet run fine on the atom processors of the CHEAPER tablets.
USB mass storage even on jailbroken iPads is buggy, its a native feature in Windows (for storage one can assume RT and 8 to be the same thing, as they do use the same feature set on this front). Windows supports more file systems, try using an NTFS drive on your iPad, or even on OSX for that matter, OSX has read only support, iPad apparently is hit and miss for that. You have to jailbreak which most users appear incompetent enough to not be able to do. Windows you get support for various forms of network storage too. Windows 8 you get FTP etc, with jailbreaks that is available on RT although not everyone wants to jailbreak (although those that need FTP are probably capable of jailbreaking). You get a normal file system presented on desktop, with apps in Start too, a proper file system, excellent, even android has that.
You will find that most establishments (including medical and educational, I know people from both backgrounds) who are migrating to iPads from existing windows solutions already have software for windows devices. Well, newsflash, a full windows 8 tablet will run these systems no porting required. But this is a hugely irrelevant point as we are not discussing the medical profession. In most cases these businesses are having to write their new shiny iPad apps from scratch, well if they are writing new software anyway they can just as easily write it for android or windows Start, so that further nullifies your point.
And no, a Asus vivotab smart costs less than an iPad. And does what needs to be done. Photoshop, devil may cry and call of duty were not on the criteria list, he said note taking and that he specifically is not gaming. Another newsflash, photoshop actually runs on the atom surprisingly well, sure your not going to be editing 500 megapixel images and applying 42 filters to it and having them done in 1 second, but quickly touching up the contrast on a 5mp phone photo is well within its abilities, more than that is but thats another null point as thats not a criteria so it doesnt matter.
I understand you want to defend your over-priced purchase but if your going to slate a windows tablet, use actual or relevant facts.

SixSixSevenSeven said:
Did I say university anywhere? I'm not there until september. And besides, wireless printing does not mean an iPad will print to it, has to support some stupid apple protocol which although many do, most don't. And besides, in my old school the printing was not inherently wireless. The entire school was covered with a local network (a very large network which is also a rather convenient example of mixed topology within a network for computer science lessons), all printers were normal network printers. If you found a wireless access point then any windows device had no problem printing, if you had an ethernet connection then you could print fine from any normal computer too, a few of the printers in the school were even recognised by some android devices (although that was hit and miss), windows RT was able to print to them fine, iPads insisted that there was no printer present, even for the wireless one over in A11. There were only 2 iPad compatible printers in the building, 1 in the head masters office and one in my computer science room which my tutor bought himself.
The only office suites for iPads (pages is probably best and I presume the one you mean) are all far inferior to MS Office in terms of available functionality. Credit where credit is due, pages does work rather nicely as a basic office suite but leaves alot to be desired for things like .DOC support etc. Openoffice was able to open my 130 page coursework fine, MS Office was fine, Pages loaded a few pages, then gave up. The demo surface RT in john lewis, loaded it into MS office fine, no lag, nothing broken. Then on top of that, all RT tablets have office pre installed already, iPad its a seperate purchase. Same for windows 8 admittedly, but at least on windows 8 there are incredibly good free alternatives which are all fully fledged yet run fine on the atom processors of the CHEAPER tablets.
USB mass storage even on jailbroken iPads is buggy, its a native feature in Windows (for storage one can assume RT and 8 to be the same thing, as they do use the same feature set on this front). Windows supports more file systems, try using an NTFS drive on your iPad, or even on OSX for that matter, OSX has read only support, iPad apparently is hit and miss for that. You have to jailbreak which most users appear incompetent enough to not be able to do. Windows you get support for various forms of network storage too. Windows 8 you get FTP etc, with jailbreaks that is available on RT although not everyone wants to jailbreak (although those that need FTP are probably capable of jailbreaking). You get a normal file system presented on desktop, with apps in Start too, a proper file system, excellent, even android has that.
You will find that most establishments (including medical and educational, I know people from both backgrounds) who are migrating to iPads from existing windows solutions already have software for windows devices. Well, newsflash, a full windows 8 tablet will run these systems no porting required. But this is a hugely irrelevant point as we are not discussing the medical profession. In most cases these businesses are having to write their new shiny iPad apps from scratch, well if they are writing new software anyway they can just as easily write it for android or windows Start, so that further nullifies your point.
And no, a Asus vivotab smart costs less than an iPad. And does what needs to be done. Photoshop, devil may cry and call of duty were not on the criteria list, he said note taking and that he specifically is not gaming. Another newsflash, photoshop actually runs on the atom surprisingly well, sure your not going to be editing 500 megapixel images and applying 42 filters to it and having them done in 1 second, but quickly touching up the contrast on a 5mp phone photo is well within its abilities, more than that is but thats another null point as thats not a criteria so it doesnt matter.
I understand you want to defend your over-priced purchase but if your going to slate a windows tablet, use actual or relevant facts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually don't have an iPad. My mom, however does have an iPad that was given to her by her work.
The Asus vivopad does not have a digitizer (which you were saying is a big plus on Win8 tabs) And according to a review I just read, it lags once a few apps are open so I doubt a resource hungry application like Photoshop will even run on it. I believe the comment about gaming and Photoshop were in response to someone else.
But the problem is that the medical companies aren't moving to Android because of security issues, build quality, and reliability.
USB mass storage works fine on the iPad. My mom uses it to type her papers. (A lot of which are well over 130 pages) Also I was not talking about you when I mentioned university. I assumed that the person I originally asked to consider an iPad was moving on to higher education. There are printing apps that allow you to print to almost every printer as well as accessories for USB only printers.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

So going back to the original question and ignoring iPads...
I would say that you should wait for Haswell. It's literally right around the corner and you will get much better performance than Atom currently offers with the same, if not better, battery life. Also keep in mind that Intel just announced that Atom will be released with the newest architecture AFTER Haswell, meaning that the current generation is already very obsolete.

needspractice said:
I was wondering if anyone knew of the latest or best phone that has the greatest ROM rooting following at the moment greater than the Galaxy Nexus?
I have a Galaxy Nexus right now and its great but I am just bored with it. I would like to upgrade. The only problem is that I use [GNEX TOOLKIT V11.1.0] Drivers, Backup, Unlock, Root, Recovery, Flash + MORE [SPRINT] which is the best tool around.
I was wondering if there are tools like this or better for other newer phones that I may upgrade to or should I just stay with my Nexus for while?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm wondering: WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ASKING IN THIS THREAD.

I switched to Windows 8

I have to start by saying I've been a long time Windows guy. I've had many tablet PC's and liked the ability to use a stylus for both ink notes and ink to text. However, tablet PC's were always too heavy for real portable use. I've never been a fan of Apple products and really have considered the iPad more of a toy than a business machine.
When I first saw the Galaxy Note 10.1 I figured this was what I had been waiting and for. I like many features of the Note. Particularly the ability to take ink notes with LectureNotes. However, after using Android for a full year, I realize there are many shortcomings if you are trying to use as your main portable computer. I use all the Microsoft Office products and Android just falls short on all of them. So I tried using Remote Desktop to simulate Windows. However, all the apps I found are glitchy.
I stopped in my local Windows Store and discovered Windows 8 has pretty much all the capabilities I need. I tried the Surface Pro but found it to be too heavy, runs hot and is loud. Then I discovered Samsung makes a series called ATIV Tab 5 or 500T. I bought one from a store that gives a 15 day return trial. This thing is really cool. It has built in USB and HDMI ports, has an 11.5" screen, is light, runs fast yet stays cool. I can do all my Office stuff plus load full programs, which is a huge plus. The HDMI port allows connection to a monitor and Windows 8 has the built in ability for dual screens. This ends up being a full blown computer when I need it to be!
I'm not sure that I understand the huge angst for Windows 8. So far I think it is fast and I just got the 8.1 update, which is supposed to make it faster.
Long story short - after trying the Android for a year I found it just isn't capable enough as a work computer. Try the Samsung 500T, I think you'll like it.

The 500T is excellent but Windows 8 lacks the integration with Android phones (Note II, and I have had a Windows phone and felt trapped) as well as many of the customization options that are available on Android. Plus I prefer native Google Maps and search to Bing.
But yeah I mean if you need a full OS it's a good way to go and Samsung has made it compatible with things like S-Note.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

i to have been considering the switch. ..as really i need the desktop option for power point and you can also use bluestacks for Android apps on w8
recently been scouting the pro 2, but also lookef at some of asus offerings and Samsung as well including the ones yo mentioned
battery still concerns me so i may keep my note for those long plane rides, but the multi tasking on windows 8 i feel brings something great to the table
just waiting to se what option is best for me
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

The surface pro 2 is looking good to me. Having a tablet and a laptop in one, 8gb of ram lots of storage, usb 3.0. Being able to use lightroom, photoshop and other full software would be great. This tablet is great and for the price I paid well worth it but I need more. I'm gonna sell this and probably go for the new surface or an ativ with my Christmas bonus.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda app-developers app

Mr. bird said:
The surface pro 2 is looking good to me. Having a tablet and a laptop in one, 8gb of ram lots of storage, usb 3.0. Being able to use lightroom, photoshop and other full software would be great. This tablet is great and for the price I paid well worth it but I need more. I'm gonna sell this and probably go for the new surface or an ativ with my Christmas bonus.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can even use usb 3.0 external hard drives on pro 2, they are sweet but very pricey also.

I picked up a Dell Latitude 10 from the outlet store for £250 iirc to do an experiment in Windows tablets (couldn't justify the cost of a Surface Pro) and I must say, having used it for a couple of months now I love having a fully fledged OS on a tablet. The version I got came with the 4 cell battery which gets me over 18 (YES I did say 18) hours of productive use. When used as a laptop/desktop replacement I get over two days between charges, if I use the productivity dock you can double that easily. In real world terms, one charge can last a week depending on what you are doing. Using the Note in the same way I'd need to charge it daily.
I still use the Note 10.1 but more as a secondary/backup/internet device. The weirdest thing I've found since going over to a Win 8 tablet is how it has sentenced my desktop AND laptop to the dust bowl with only the latter getting out for the odd gaming session.
As a predominately Linux user (mainly used windows for gaming) I think what Microsoft have done with Windows 8 is genius and I am one of those weirdos that actually love the simplicity of Metro for basic things and desktop mode for everything else. I would love to be able to switch between Linux and Win 8 like I'm used to, but tbh I have not missed using Linux too much since getting it.

whats a good priced win8 tablet with pen and good battery life
also keyboard would be nice that has a battery
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

I like the 500T but do not like that you cannot use the pen to navigate around (webpages etc).
Touchwiz has alot of nice touches with the s-pen and mobile use.
Only thing need Win8 for is MS office. Android options are garbage. tied of professors getting mad about sloppy formating.
Once MS puts office out for Android(if ever) then no point.
But Samsung will soon have Dual boot with WinRT...though I was shocked the 500T has full Win 8.
I heard the Tab3 is garbage tho..

nymviper1126 said:
I like the 500T but do not like that you cannot use the pen to navigate around (webpages etc).
Touchwiz has alot of nice touches with the s-pen and mobile use.
Only thing need Win8 for is MS office. Android options are garbage. tied of professors getting mad about sloppy formating.
Once MS puts office out for Android(if ever) then no point.
But Samsung will soon have Dual boot with WinRT...though I was shocked the 500T has full Win 8.
I heard the Tab3 is garbage tho..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed..really need ms office more importantly in the enterprise sector...still dont get why the dont offer the surface pro for 500

On the other hand I switch to Android from Windows 8 tablet!
Windows 8 tablets are:
Top slow, terribly slow on multitasking
Still don't have multiwindow
Touch response is just not as good as note 10
Battery life is just out of any discussion.! More powerful the tablet, less battery it has, means the worst usage, per to pocket. ?
No real mobile applications, keep on the browser alive and you will end up with even worst battery
Keyboard is just from primitive ages. ?, don't mention about the swipe...But you can be a dreamer. ?.
Pen calibration issue all the time forever. ?.
Gogogo ms soon will be really micro! Company...With overpriced products that just can't make it
And please stop that productivity thingies, w8 tablets are just in stage of touch enabled net books, and no you can not make anything on Netbook Eexcept editing office docs and being fun of ms office... Because others out there so the same thing, On THE GO
?.All those written by note 10.1, used for business purposes, by swyping, just on a cafe table. ..

you know i actually had this same reasins for not switching ...but the bluestacks came along and i have all the the tablet apps i need and google stuff plus a full desktop to book
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app

karaern said:
On the other hand I switch to Android from Windows 8 tablet!
Windows 8 tablets are:
Top slow, terribly slow on multitasking
Still don't have multiwindow
Touch response is just not as good as note 10
Battery life is just out of any discussion.! More powerful the tablet, less battery it has, means the worst usage, per to pocket. ?
No real mobile applications, keep on the browser alive and you will end up with even worst battery
Keyboard is just from primitive ages. ?, don't mention about the swipe...But you can be a dreamer. ?.
Pen calibration issue all the time forever. ?.
Gogogo ms soon will be really micro! Company...With overpriced products that just can't make it
And please stop that productivity thingies, w8 tablets are just in stage of touch enabled net books, and no you can not make anything on Netbook Eexcept editing office docs and being fun of ms office... Because others out there so the same thing, On THE GO
?.All those written by note 10.1, used for business purposes, by swyping, just on a cafe table. ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Old windows 8 tablets are crap. New ones (depending on what) aren't bad at all. Im actually now looking at the lenovo yoga 2. 13in screen, i7 processor, 8gb ram amd 256gb ssd usb 3.0. Full windows 8 so I can use lightroom and photoshop. Battery life is decent. Good enough for me. I don't need all the android apps. I need full programs. I have my phome for the little android apps.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using xda app-developers app

I've been considering switching from my note tablet to a surface tablet. I really like Windows 8 and as someone who has been using computing devices since the mid 1980's , I just want one device to rule them all. I love my note, it is a great device. But it doesn't have one note. I really like the s-note program, but onenote is far superior.
Sent from my GT-N8013 using XDA Premium HD app

I'll tell you this, we still need windows 8 tablets. Unfortunately Microsoft having been to late to understand the mobile trend acted slowly. The 2 giants Microsoft and Intel dominated the world for 20 years, but both giants are now having difficulties in adapting.MS could have adapted its phone OS to a simple tablet, but waited to release the RT. I own a smartphone (Note2) which I use when I am on the road. At office I depend on my GN 10.1. Since I love technology I constantly change devices. Nevertheless last february I started with Vaio Duo 11 which I returned in a week, got a Samsung XE700T, which I sold to a friend in two months. I was a bit confused and about windows 8 and the tablets had not been matured... until Haswell. Now I am also a proud owner of a Vaio Duo 13 which I love. I am not using my GN 10.1. It just sits there on the table. After 8.1 update and the recent wifi driver update Duo 13 has been my first choice in mobility. With 8 gig RAM, 256 gig SSD and a i7 processor... I think we will see more windows tablets, hybrids in the future. I am an Android fan, but seriously they are just toys and gadgets.

peare said:
I'll tell you this, we still need windows 8 tablets. Unfortunately Microsoft having been to late to understand the mobile trend acted slowly. The 2 giants Microsoft and Intel dominated the world for 20 years, but both giants are now having difficulties in adapting.MS could have adapted its phone OS to a simple tablet, but waited to release the RT. I own a smartphone (Note2) which I use when I am on the road. At office I depend on my GN 10.1. Since I love technology I constantly change devices. Nevertheless last february I started with Vaio Duo 11 which I returned in a week, got a Samsung XE700T, which I sold to a friend in two months. I was a bit confused and about windows 8 and the tablets had not been matured... until Haswell. Now I am also a proud owner of a Vaio Duo 13 which I love. I am not using my GN 10.1. It just sits there on the table. After 8.1 update and the recent wifi driver update Duo 13 has been my first choice in mobility. With 8 gig RAM, 256 gig SSD and a i7 processor... I think we will see more windows tablets, hybrids in the future. I am an Android fan, but seriously they are just toys and gadgets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably will have just Several hours of real usage time and Soon I count the time that ms Will be a history as the term→ pre-pc era! Shall be said pre-mS era
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karaern said:
Probably will have just Several hours of real usage time and Soon I count the time that ms Will be a history as the term→ pre-pc era! Shall be said pre-mS era
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Not really. Standby time of Vaio Duo 13 is quite good, not as good as Ipad or GN 10.1, but 10+ hours of continuous usage, near 2 days standby getting e-mails or social media updates.
As for MS... Gates is only good at marketing. In mid 90's he said multimedia was not important, later he didnt care about Internet, but every time he made a comeback. We know that there is a huge decrease in desktop and laptop sales lately, but this is also a great danger for the future of technology, unless portable devices would be capable of doing whatever those machines are doing. If PC market dies who will financially backup the future supercomputers? Are we going to send men on Mars relying on Ipads?

Although I make my living developing/building Android devices, I hope the Windows Tablet market remains viable as without competition you get stagnation, which isn't good for anyone.
peare said:
If PC market dies who will financially backup the future supercomputers? Are we going to send men on Mars relying on Ipads?
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No, but I suspect they'll be using more ARM chips (i.e., Android/iDevice) chips than x86 chips (PC/Surface) to do so as time goes on- your question will likely be more reality than fiction.

Temetka said:
I've been considering switching from my note tablet to a surface tablet. I really like Windows 8 and as someone who has been using computing devices since the mid 1980's , I just want one device to rule them all. I love my note, it is a great device. But it doesn't have one note. I really like the s-note program, but onenote is far superior.
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Yes it does. I use One Note on all my devices. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.onenote&hl=en :good:

Note 10.1 2014 or Surface pro 2

Hi.
As a Note 3 users I've been thinking of getting the LTE version of the Note 10.1 2014 for some time now, but waited for a good deal. Next week MediaMarkt here in the Netherlands is having their anual 21% of everything. Here the Lte version costs about 720 euro. Now I've been thinking of the surface pro which is in the 800+ euro category. Especially since its faster, runs full desktop apps. On the other hand its thick and battery doesnt last long.
I also have a series 7 chronos laptop.
What do you guys recommend?

blue13x said:
Hi.
As a Note 3 users I've been thinking of getting the LTE version of the Note 10.1 2014 for some time now, but waited for a good deal. Next week MediaMarkt here in the Netherlands is having their anual 21% of everything. Here the Lte version costs about 720 euro. Now I've been thinking of the surface pro which is in the 800+ euro category. Especially since its faster, runs full desktop apps. On the other hand its thick and battery doesnt last long.
I also have a series 7 chronos laptop.
What do you guys recommend?
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Had the same problem as you currently got. I went for the Note 10.1.14 because I got the Note 3 and both are the perfect couple. However, I missing being able to run my desktop apps whilst on the road so now I have decided im going to purchase the SP2 & keep the note which will give me the best of both worlds.
The problem you got is what ever one you choose you will always find a reason why you should have chosen the other one.

Surface (and all their ilk) are pretty crappy entertainment devices compared to Android (and iOS). It also weighs 2 pounds without its paraphernalia. It's also as big as a house.
I have a 13" laptop which I tote around when I'm going to be on the road for a while or if I know I'm going to be doing a lot of productivity work like document creation; especially Excel and PPT. You can't do heavy productivity work on anything less than a 13" display IMHO (the Surface Pro 2 is 10.6") The N10.1-14's powerful enough that I can leave my laptop home quite a bit of the time and use RDP and faux-Office to meet my light productivity needs (editing and reviewing). It's also a fantastic entertainment and media device. Mine's 3G so it's always connected which is invaluable when traveling. The Surface(s) to me aren't great as laptop replacements and their entertainment capabilities are at best acceptable. I don't consider going in to the non-Modern interface and accessing entertainment via native IE a good media experience or a replacement for the simplicity of multiple dedicated media apps in Android. I have IE on my laptop. Maybe someday Windows tablets will evolve so that they're better all-round tablets and less biased toward the utilization of (captive) MS products like Office. Until then I'm fine with my two device (laptop/Android tablet) set-up and each fulfill their missions fine (at least for me).
P.S. - Samsung calling their high end tablets "Pro" and loading them up with productivity s/w isn't going to change the fact Android's as bad at productivity as Windows tablets are at entertainment.
Just my opinion, people should buy what makes them happy.

If you are going to be taking a lot of notes and pen offset bothers you then I would say go for the note. Every surface 2 pro that I've come across has had some offset on the stylus, and it gets pretty bad at the edges.
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I pondered this for awhile. I've been on android since mytouch3g and have a couple hundred dollars tied into premium software. Since I can use team viewer to access my laptop from my android device, I don't need a Windows tablet.
I also own an iPad. I bought it to help troubleshoot clients who couldn't figure out how to get "the only device that requires no manual" on a network. That quote was by Black Eyed Peas, fyi. I only used my Apple slab for magazine reading now. My note 10.1 2014 is much more user friendly and again I don't have to buy all my apps again.
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Note
For a tablet I'd rather have android. I have a thinkpad for when I want portable windows - and I'd much rather run Windows 7 than 8 on a tablet if I am trying to write. The Note is nice for reviewing and .pdf mark-up.

Me, as a developer who is living on "Microsoft World" I definetly prefere surface pro 2 because it is i5 intel laptop without a keyboard not tablet
Having note 3 and note 10.1 at the same time is like, eating two sizes of hamburgers on the same meal which both tastes same. If you are fanatic about hamburgers it's ok but for extending posibilities, I would recommend surface pro 2 or maybe just surface 2 or lumia 2520.
As a s4 user, I just bought note 10.1 for everyday use (I could not buy surface or lumia because they are not on market at my region) and planning to exchange my s4 with a Windows mobile now.
It is my opinion for nonuniformity...

Here's what I've arrived at, as a sort of a hiearchy of usage when mobile.
1. When I am just going to the shops etc - Note 2, phone only
2. When I expect to be doing little work if any but want to browse etc - Note 10.1-2014
3. When I expect to do some work but not a lot - Note 10.1-2014
4. When I expect to do a moderate amount of work - Note 10.1-2014 plus MS Wedge KB and Mouse
5. When I expect to do a ton of work - HP Envy 14.
I have Andropen Office and various other Office substitutes on the Note 10.1-2014. I also have RDP to a virtual machine on my server at home. This gives me a full Windows experience when that is crucial, for example creating a clean new .docx document in "real" MS Word. RDP works really well on this tablet. It is like using a windows machine, but with some slowness as it's remote.
I have to tell you that the MS Wedge KB and mouse, plus the Note 10.1-2014, is a fricking awesome looking combo. They look like they were made to go together. It is such a fine looking set-up to have on a desk, and it is also very pleasant to use and incredibly portable.
I considered a Surface Pro 2 but it's too expensive, not portable enough, and not, for me, necessary. And it is a Windows 8 device, which basically makes it a steaming pile of [email protected] no matter how you look at it. If I didn't also have an okay laptop maybe it would be a candidate. But honestly, the occasions when I will get out my laptop now are getting very infrequent. The 10.1 tablet is far nicer and just as practical 99% of the time.
Jason

Decided im going for the Note 10.1 2014. The Surface pro is superior, but its too large and battery life just isnt as good.
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On the other hand...the surface pro 2 is superior when it vomes to power and performance. basically full windows app. Its more for people that dont have a laptop. As a side device the note for me is better.
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This question has been in my head for a few months now. My Asus Transformer Prime (3G) just isn't as good as it used to be. I did wipe it and it's better but still sluggish. I have had many Samsung phones, currently the S4 Google Edition so I like Samsung products. As a business owner and software developer the surface Pro makes sense but the batter ife and bulk just don't make sens to me. The biggest hurdle either way is getting one in 3G or 4G for my ATT plan. Fortunately I have enough time to decide because my current tablet is still working.
Edit - Or I suppose I could be the geek that I am and use my phone as a hot spot when I need to......

It depends on the majority of how you are going to use it. The sp2 is more of a laptop replacement in a form of a tablet. It's not as comfortable to hold and easy to operate as an android tablet. If you just want to surf the Web on the couch and be able to entertain yourself on the go then get the note. If you are looking for a laptop replacement that you can do work on then the sp2 is a beast. It is actually a full functioning computer with windows. You can install any program on there that you can on your home
Pc. Few cons are the weight, thickness, and battery life. Also there aren't as many apps as Google play store. And using regular windows with your fingers is sometimes a hassle unless i connect a mouse because everything is small with the high resolution. I had the type cover keyboard but the mouse pad on there is too small. So lot of times I would just take out my phone and click on app instead of dealing with that.
I ended up returning the sp2 because I noticed I wasn't using it that much. Also because of the size and weight it was not that comfortable using it for simple things that I can comfortably do on my note 3. I exchanged the sp2 for a note 10.1 and I'm using the note 10.1 much more than I was the sp2. I just like to browse the Web on the couch and simple stuff. If I need to use a Pc I just hop on my desktop with much bigger monitor. The thing that bugs me most about the note 10.1 is the lag that everyone talks about. I'm still contemplating on whether I should return this and try something else. Either that or wait for note pro 12.2. Kind of disappointed that it's going to have the same specs though.
So I think it just depends on what, where and how you'll be using the tablet. I've read the sp2 is very useful for people that work in the IT industry. But if your just like me and use the tablet for mostly entertainment then note 10.1 would be a better choice.
Hope this helps and good luck on your decision. They are both good devices with different pros and cons.

Guys im going to purchase the SP2 and was wonder how it runs to the version with only 2GB of ram? I don't really need the 128GB drive version but if it runs better on 4GB of ram then I guess its worth spending that extra money
Thanks

fyew-jit-tiv said:
Guys im going to purchase the SP2 and was wonder how it runs to the version with only 2GB of ram? I don't really need the 128GB drive version but if it runs better on 4GB of ram then I guess its worth spending that extra money
Thanks
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You might get more perspective if you ask that in a SP2 forum.

I believe the 64 gb and 128 gb come with 4 gb of ram and the 256 gb and 512 gb version come with 8 gb of ram. Both are enough for most things. If you use lot of memory intensive apps then go with the 8 gb. How many gb of ram do you have on your desktop/laptop you are using now?
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sgvnut said:
It depends on the majority of how you are going to use it. The sp2 is more of a laptop replacement in a form of a tablet. It's not as comfortable to hold and easy to operate as an android tablet. If you just want to surf the Web on the couch and be able to entertain yourself on the go then get the note. If you are looking for a laptop replacement that you can do work on then the sp2 is a beast. It is actually a full functioning computer with windows. You can install any program on there that you can on your home
Pc. Few cons are the weight, thickness, and battery life. Also there aren't as many apps as Google play store. And using regular windows with your fingers is sometimes a hassle unless i connect a mouse because everything is small with the high resolution. I had the type cover keyboard but the mouse pad on there is too small. So lot of times I would just take out my phone and click on app instead of dealing with that.
I ended up returning the sp2 because I noticed I wasn't using it that much. Also because of the size and weight it was not that comfortable using it for simple things that I can comfortably do on my note 3. I exchanged the sp2 for a note 10.1 and I'm using the note 10.1 much more than I was the sp2. I just like to browse the Web on the couch and simple stuff. If I need to use a Pc I just hop on my desktop with much bigger monitor. The thing that bugs me most about the note 10.1 is the lag that everyone talks about. I'm still contemplating on whether I should return this and try something else. Either that or wait for note pro 12.2. Kind of disappointed that it's going to have the same specs though.
So I think it just depends on what, where and how you'll be using the tablet. I've read the sp2 is very useful for people that work in the IT industry. But if your just like me and use the tablet for mostly entertainment then note 10.1 would be a better choice.
Hope this helps and good luck on your decision. They are both good devices with different pros and cons.
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Good points and that is part of the problem I have yet to decide. I prefer to use my transformer any time I can vs my laptop which I am on now. I run a meeting at least once a month and while I like typing on the laptop, I hate lugging it around. If i get a SP2 I can connect to my sky drive. If I get a note then I have to email and convert or paste to a new doc.
The lag worries me. I have a horrible lag in my transformer and at best it's good for reading and some light games.
I'm still leaning towards the Sammy just because I know to many people that have returned them. I'm familiar enough with Win 8 and while I'm not a fan, I can run it without issue.
I'll keep reading and pondering but I'm afraid I'll miss my android if I go SP2. (I have had the iPads in the past and left for Android).

Pure power yeah and desktop apps are true. But you need to weight your actual use for them. I use word for my business. I don't have to send it to anyone else (well rarely) and polaris is really awesome. If i really need to set the format straight I can just rpd to my desktop and check the format there. If it all looks well I can print straight from my tablet. I honestly rarely see any issues with polaris format. I think 99% of the time it gets it right. The only way I see word being necessary is if for you work or school you need some of the extra formatting ability in it. But even then I don't see it as a big hurdle. Really other than that I rarely ever use my desktop. I go to it when I need odin or something similar.I live on my note 2014
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I currently use (daily):
Galaxy S4 (rooted, adblocked) + Galaxy Gear (stock); Primary mobile phone
Galaxy Note 3 (rooted, adblocked); Quick notes (using 'write' which saves the note in html, available on Google Play), email, occasional gaming
Microsoft Surface Pro 2 8GB/512GB; daily work (I get about 8 hours without trying to conserve battery power).
All are reliable. I do want an android tablet, and normally I don't mind bloatware (Microsoft is calling it JUNKWARE lol!) as long as the 'disable' function has not been locked out.
The KNOX function is an annoyance. I would never use it in any of my managed SMB environments. If you want real control and security, provide a device and don't let people use their own.
Samsung has been getting more and more into skeezy information gathering practices and not cooperating with regards to disclosure.
Example: On my S4, I can disable WatchON. On the Note 3, the disable function is locked out, and the latest update for WatchON wants to be able to send SMS text messages. Hundreds of people are asking why, yet Samsung's response is always "please register on our site, agree to the privacy terms, and submit a support request". I would like to know who the moron is at Samsung that actually signed off on this thief-like untrustworthy tactic thinking it was a good idea.
Every manufacturer that provides a locked down, modified version of Android should be FORCED into ALSO providing the option to have the OS in its unaltered form, based on the users' preference.
The Junkware lock-in is the only reason I won't be purchasing a Note 10.1 and also why corporate users I deal with will be offered only pure Android devices.
I apologize in advance if my blunt comments hurts any feelings, but come on... it's 2014. Get with the times already! (I know... pipe dreams...)

RDA3440 said:
Get with the times already! (I know... pipe dreams...)
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Your post is pretty naïve and a bit out of touch with the direction corporate IT is going toward both mobile security and BYOD. I take it you're a consultant of some type. Your position(s) wouldn't allow you to be taken seriously by the three Fortune 100 companies whose five highly managed networks I connect to (with my own devices). Three out of those five networks are now reading the KNOX flag to validate incoming network connection requests and one of the three companies has limited Android BYOD to "Samsung devices only" running 4.3 or higher (KNOX-equipped). Just some food for thought.

BarryH_GEG said:
Your post is pretty naïve and a bit out of touch with the direction corporate IT is going toward both mobile security and BYOD. I take it you're a consultant of some type. Your position(s) wouldn't allow you to be taken seriously by the three Fortune 100 companies whose five highly managed networks I connect to (with my own devices). Three out of those five networks are now reading the KNOX flag to validate incoming network connection requests and one of the three companies has limited Android BYOD to "Samsung devices only" running 4.3 or higher (KNOX-equipped). Just some food for thought.
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Possibly - but I'm thinking more along the lines of SMB's - 100's of users vs. 1000's. I should have clarified but thanks for that input - it's always good to hear alternative opinions.