All right -- so how 'bout that stylus? Samsung's Wacom-powered S Pen is clearly the star of the Galaxy Note show, and it adds a lot of interesting elements into the tablet-using experience.

The S Pen is just over 4.5 in. long and weighs next to nothing. It feels like you're holding one of those tiny miniature golf course pencils. You can use it in place of your finger for regular tablet tasks -- swiping and scrolling, tapping icons, selecting links on Web pages -- but the S Pen's true value lies in its drawing and writing capabilities.

These capabilities are highlighted in a series of S Pen-optimized apps Samsung has bundled in with the Note's software. The most prominent is a program called S Note, which allows you to scribble notes, write messages and even perform math problems using the stylus.

The S Note interface isn't exactly intuitive -- I frequently found myself tapping around to try to figure out what functions were where -- but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty cool. The handwriting-oriented elements strike me as more of a novelty than anything; the software is supposed to be able to recognize what you write and convert it into typed text, but its accuracy was hit and miss in my experience. And with all the excellent virtual keyboard options available on Android, not to mention the platform's feature and possibilities, it's hard to imagine many situations where inputting text by writing would be more practical.

The creative uses of the S Pen software, on the other hand, could definitely be useful -- especially for folks interested in drawing, doodling and manipulating images. Some of these things can be done in the S Note app, but even better is Adobe's Photoshop Touch application, which normally but comes preinstalled on the Note 10.1.