I am a graduate student in engineering and I was looking for a tablet that can be an alternative for papers. And I was debating between ipad and galaxy note 10.1 and I decided to go for the Note. I am really happy that I chose this tablet.
First of all, the S note app is amazing. It is very responsive and accurate. And it's really fun as well! When I am bored, I just take the Note and write random things. Somebody below complained about the auto handwriting conversion to text. But I think it is almost impossible to convert the handwriting to text in a blink although I think it's still fast enough. And I could figure out the most of the problems that he had..
And because I'm studying in engineering, I need to draw a lot of graphs , shapes, and formulas. And the auto shape match feature is the best part. I can draw anything very fast and it just makes them in the exact way that i want. Unfortunately, S-note is not pdf file friendly. Even though you can import pdf files into S-note, there are not many useful feataures for S-note. But of course you can download any pdf annotation app from the market. I found this app, EZpdf, and they optimized the app for galaxy note so that when the stylus pen is near the screen, your palm is not recognized like S-note so the annotation is perfect. Also, you can organize your files and you can search the meaning of words that you select in either dictionary or wikipedia right away.
So trust me. If you are a student, I don't think there is any other tablet that can satisfy you than this one. I know that ipad has many good note apps but what is the point of using them if there is no palm rejection feature?
Other than taking notes, the performance is also blazing fast. I always complained that even screen scrolling is not smooth for androids compared to ipad but I think Samsung optimized this tablet very well. Even when you are doing the multiscreen, there is no lag at all (except that it takes 0.5 seconds to move to another screen). With the 2gb rams, you can open unlimited number of tabs in your web browser.
About the resolution.. If you are not going to read the Bible which is full of very tiny letters, i don't think you will have any problem to read articles or papers. And this resolution doesn't make any difference for vidoes since 1080x720 is a standard resolution for tablet. Correct me if i'm wrong.
For watching videos or netflix, I really like that they put a dual speakers in front of the screen. It's very loud and clear. In my opinion, it's a huge difference from other tablets in terms of watching movies or listening to musics.
I am not an art person but I take pictures a lot. And the phothoshop touch that comes with this is amazing. There are a lot of tutorials inside and it's easy to learn. With the s-pen, it is very fun to edit pictures. It is another thing that I like the most.
The only downside is that you need enough time to get used to the software. Since there are a lot of features, you have to play around with it for a while. For me, it took about 2 hours to be friendly with the interface. But it's like when you are new to android and have to spend some times to get used to the interface.
Summary. If you are a student who needs to take notes and annotate pdf or slides, you SHOULD get the Note 10.1. With this, I am not going to bring any backpack and notes. I am reallllly happy with my new tablet!
Good Luck !
