Samsung unveils fourth-generation Galaxy Tabs Samsung has announced this year's Galaxy Tab range and as has become the case in the world of fondleslabs, not much has changed. At some point in 2014's second quarter Samsung will emit a 10.1 inch, 8 inch and 7 inch tablets, all under the “Galaxy Tab4” moniker. All will be a little thinner and lighter, offer 1280x800 …
Because bigger screens at high resolution consume more power?
A better question is why are people so obsessed with weight and depth when it comes to devices? Anyone who isn't a moron puts an Otterbox or comparable on their phone anyway.
I'd rather have a heavy, thick tablet that runs for days and is more durable than a thin light one that lasts 8-10-12 hours.
I have an 8" Tab 3 and it's a slick little tablet. Resolution isn't anything special but the screen is very sharp, bright with no bleed. There is a higher res Tab Pro model but IMO it costs too much. Biggest gripe is the cost of the covers - although there are some really good covers on EBay for much less.
Do you want to watch a video in full 720p 1280 x 768 or on a 'lets crap on the sheep' pixely + big black bar alternative ? Apparently some people still buy the iPad Mini at 1024 x 768.
Its barred and on the black(bar) list in my household
Purchased two Note 10.1 devices almost a couple of years ago. One of them is working flawlessly without a single issue. The other one started to reboot by itself and lose all configuration information from time to time, the lapse between these incidents becoming shorter and shorter.
When it became unusable because you could not watch a 10 minute clip without the device locking out, I sent the tablet for repair.
The first time I sent it it came back with note saying that they had swapped the motherboard. The problem appeared again after a few weeks of use. I sent it to repair again and came back. Four iterations later and the problem continues. Service notes came back with comments like "no problem found" (of course if you're not willing to wait five or ten minutes you'll not see anything wrong when you just boot the device) or "charge battery" (like I can ensure the kit arrives at the repair shop with full charge!!!) or says "upgrade software" (as sometimes you can only get out of the reboot cycle by wiping to factory defaults and you don't bother to enter the profile info again so that the technician can enjoy looking at your browsing history)
After four, count them, four times I've given up. Samsung does not want to replace the device, and refuses to acknowledge any problem because their technicians can't bother to leave a device on long enough to see it.
I've asked around a found at least two other Note owners with the same problem, sporadically losing profile info or rebooting, and they have not been able to have Samsung fix it. In general, Samsung owners either have not experienced any problems with their kit or have given up on the brand after trying to get any problems fixed.
I'm astonished as to how Samsung is still in the market. Their range of problems start at poor design, poor quality control, poor technical service and finally poor customer commitment. At least if all else fails, after a customer sends you four times a device with exactly the same problem you'd consider there's something wrong with it?
Contrast this with my experiences with other brands, one more expensive brand, the other is even cheaper than Samsung: both have serviced kit sent to them in a matter of days. One fruity company even swapped one phone with a flaky battery after 15 months of purchase without questions.
So in light of these experiences, I'm recommending against the Note. And against Samsung consumer electronics in general. I don't want to have a TV rebooting sporadically and be told that "there's no problem" is the solution.
After four, count them, four times I've given up. Samsung does not want to replace the device, and refuses to acknowledge any problem because their technicians can't bother to leave a device on long enough to see it.
Film the problem, stick the vid and pics in an email whilst record delivery a letter with dates and times of returns and breakdowns with a threat of small claims court* - the threat is usually enough but be prepared to follow it up.
The reasons companies pull this shit is because we as consumers can't be arsed to follow it up - we have protections but we need to use 'em.
* Assuming you're based in the UK
As I have said here previously, their TVs are poor in design and reliability, anecdotal evidence of two purchases, different types, LCD and Plasma, different sizes, 60 and 32. One was a dead loss with no repair possible even with 4 different boards replaced (almost certainly the screen connector according to a TV guy). The other, replacement MB needed, fortunately cheaper on eBay second-hand but otherwise 250 quid.
Waiting up to 10s for the input selector to display something is crackers. Stopping playback of a TV show just because the recording has stopped is barking.
My original TiVo with 16MB RAM could do more (albeit only up to 720) and responded with alacrity apart from the reordering of season passes (in which I assume the swap space went nuts and affected performance 1000-fold).
I wish TiVo wasn't a monthly service at a high price.
Why do they bother with these tiny annual releases? I know why (money) but they offer so little over the previous years model and the year prior to that ad infinitum. I know someone with a Galaxy Tab 7 - 3 and it's stuck on Android 4.1 but only came out last year. The specs for it are underwhelming at best and it just feels like Samsung are the landfill Android manufacturer that I keep hearing about.
Wasn't there supposed to be an update to the pretty decent Nexus 10? The new Nexus 7 was great but not for me and I'd rather not spend money on the Nexus 10 given its age now.
"Why do they bother with these tiny annual releases?"
Because unless you're an Apple moron, you don't update every year. The tiny difference from a 2013 tablet to a 2014 tablet is big when you plan to use it for 2-3-4 years.
/I still use my HP TouchPad, dual booted cyanogen
//Want to upgrade to a Samsung Tab Pro but don't want to pay more than $200
I know someone with a Galaxy Tab 7 - 3 and it's stuck on Android 4.1 but only came out last year
Don't worry there will be someone along shortly to tell you that if you void the warranty, circumvent the boot loader and spend 4 hours messing around on spyware ridden developer forums with ROMs and APK files there is a slight chance should the sun and moon align that you may be able to get the tab upgraded to Android 4.3 in under 4 hours
If it was my tablet or even a family friend's tablet I'd have it updated in no time but this is someone who is new to tablets and Android that I'm helping where I do voluntary work so that isn't an option. As for your insinuation that it would take a great deal of effort to update with unofficial updates I'd have to disagree strongly. Custom ROMs may not be for all but they are far easier to install than you make out.
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