Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review: Testing the stylus-toting tablet

20.08.2012

The stylus works wonderfully in the Photoshop environment: The pressure-sensitive technology is both accurate and responsive (it boasts 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, a substantial upgrade from the 256 levels present in Samsung's original Note phone). It also prevents the tablet from sensing other touches while you're using the pen, which means resting your palm on the surface won't mess things up. My only complaint is that the Note's mediocre display is far from ideal for image-based work.

The stylus also excels at marking up PDF documents: While Samsung's own S Note software isn't too great for this -- its PDF-import function failed to properly import some text during my tests, and it was able to export files only as blown-up, fuzzy-looking images instead of proper PDF documents -- I found a free third-party app called that worked quite well with the S Pen.

Using iAnnotate PDF, I was able to modify documents as if I were using actual markers on paper. The stylus made it easy to highlight text and make handwritten notes in the margins. Users may or may not locate this app on their own -- it took a bit of searching and experimenting to discover it, and other third-party PDF apps I tried didn't work at all with the stylus -- but if found, it can add an important element into the S Pen experience.

Samsung suggests a handful of other S Pen-compatible apps -- about two dozen in all -- via a built-in app-recommendation tool called S Suggest. Most of the apps are sketching, painting or writing programs -- essentially subtle variations on the S Pen apps already on the device. There are a few games, too, most of which are drawing-related.

(Incidentally, Samsung's S Suggest utility didn't actually perform properly in my experience: Every time I tapped on an app it recommended in order to start a download, the utility gave me an error informing me that the app did not exist. I ended up having to make mental notes of its recommendations and then search the Google Play Store manually to find and download those titles.)