We see how the Samsung Galaxy Note ‘phablet’ compares to Google’s brand new Nexus 7 slate.
Form
Google Nexus 7 - 198.5x120x10.5mm, 340g
Samsung Galaxy Note - 146.9x83x9.7mm, 178g
At first it might seem a bit daft that we’re comparing a tablet to a smartphone, but when you consider the size difference between the two is only a couple of inches the line between phone and tablet really is beginning to blur here.
Google’s
Nexus 7 is built by Asus, a manufacturer we’ve come to expect excellent build quality from and with this flagship Android Jelly Bean device the company doesn’t disappoint. It’s as robust as any of Asus’ own Transformer tablet devices with the same high-level of fit and finish.
The back panel has been rubberised and textured to ensure it won’t slip out of your hand during use and round the edge of the device is a sturdy metal bezel.
The front looks much like any other 7-inch slate but the proportions are decent-looking – Asus has made the screen bezel narrower on the longer sides while still keeping it a fairly standard thickness along the sorter edges.
This does give it more of a smartphone-like style and could mean it’s easier to grip in landscape view than portrait mode, though we doubt the portrait orientation would give you much trouble really.
The Nexus 7 measures 10.5mm thick so it’s a fairly svelte device and at only 340g it’s one of the lighter tablets out there.
The Samsung Galaxy Note takes many style cues from its smaller
Galaxy S2 cousin and considering that particular device looks as contemporary as ever (despite being usurped by the Galaxy S3) this can only be a good thing.
The proportions are much the same, although scaled up, meaning it has a thin bezel along the edges and wider sections at the top and bottom of the front panel. In fact, there’s more than a passing similarity to the Nexus 7’s shape albeit in a slightly smaller package.
Overall the handset has a very solid feel to it and seems well-built, although the back panel is very thin, springy and plasticky when you remove it, but when it’s actually seated on the device it doesn’t detract from the otherwise ‘premium’ finish.
The back panel also has a textured surface making it both attractive and easier to hold. Naturally being a smaller device the Note is also thinner and much, much lighter device than the Nexus 7 at 9.7mm and 178g respectively.
Both form factors are very solid and well put together as well as being highly portable while having flattering proportions and styling.
It has to be said, however, that the Galaxy Note is certainly the more portable of the two being smaller, thinner and lighter and yet still boasting a sizeable 5.3-inch screen.
Of course, that is still a compromise as you lose a few inches from the Nexus 7’s larger display, as well as other factors such as the difference in processing power, which we’ll come to in more detail later.
In the end, these are equally viable on form factor due to the quality of build and design.
Winner – Draw
Display
As we mentioned, the Galaxy Note features a 5.3-inch display using Super AMOLED technology. It is, as might be expected, of the capacitive multi-touch variety and is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass.
The screen resolution clocks in at 1280x800 pixels and gives a pixel density of 285 pixels-per-inch (ppi), which is well up there with some of the clearest and sharpest displays on the market.
Not only that, but the Super AMOLED means it has excellent contrast together with deep blacks, rich colour reproduction and decent brightness.
It wasn’t long ago that most tablets had very lacklustre displays, but Apple’s iPad 3 really broke away from the pack with its 264ppi Retina display. Now, however, the Nexus 7 appears to be joining this new standard of high-quality tablet touchscreens thanks to the use of a 7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD number.
It boasts a 1280x800 pixel resolution, the same as the Galaxy Note, but at this larger size the pixel density comes in considerably lower than its opponent at 216ppi. Even so, by tablet standards this is impressively sharp and the use of IPS technology means there’s plenty of brightness to be had along with colours that pop.
You’re going to get a crisp visual experience with either device as both have large, high-quality screens. The real question is whether you want to sacrifice some screen space for a bit of extra sharpness or not. If so, the Note cranks out more pixels-per-inch and should be a good deal clearer.
That said, the Nexus 7’s larger expanse of glass might bring its own rewards depending on your preferences.
Winner – Draw
Storage
Google’s Nexus 7 has two storage variant with either 8GB or 16GB depending on whether you want to spend £159 or £199 respectively, either option will also land you with 1GB of RAM for the processor to chew on. Unfortunately, there’s no micro SD slot so you’re not going to be able to beef up your storage space with cards.
The Galaxy Note has no such issue with its micro SD capability supporting cards up to 32GB. This is on top of a pair of internal storage options for 32GB or 64GB, again depending on price. Like the Nexus 7, the Galaxy Note also has 1GB of RAM onboard.
For sheer quantity of storage you get much more on the Galaxy Note and it has greater flexibility through micro SD, which the Nexus 7 lacks.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy Note
Processor
This is a real dividing factor between these two devices. On the one side you have the Google Nexus 7 with its quad core ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1.3GHz on Nvidia’s powerful Tegra 3 chip, with a ULP GeForce graphics processing unit (GPU) bundled in.
While benchmark tests might show other premium chips to be a little quicker on paper, there’s no arguing with the Tegra 3’s fearsome capabilities and it will run Android as fast as you’ll ever need, along with all the multi-tasking and high-end gaming you could possibly want.
Samsung’s
Galaxy Note is a dual core device, also based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 processing architecture. It’s clocked at 1.4GHz and uses Samsung’s excellent Exynos chipset together with a Mali-400MP GPU.
Let’s be perfectly clear, dual core can be as good as or even better than quad and this is a perfectly competent setup, the same hardware runs very well indeed even by contemporary standards on the Galaxy S2 clocked at 200MHz slower.
However, while that spec line-up is ticking all the right boxes, when it comes to actually using the device it’s a very different story. The Galaxy Note isn’t slow by any means – it’ll run high end games with no problem, but for general use, navigation and multi-tasking it is lacking. We’ve seen the potential of this hardware before and the Note doesn’t live up to it.
There is some noticeable lag and juttering with normal operation, even when updating to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) which, on most other devices, actually delivers a performance increase. The problem here is: we know the stuttering shouldn’t be there, the Note should, by all accounts, perform better.
It’s worth pointing out that whether the Note is on Gingerbread or ICS you can see a considerable performance improvement by using a third party launcher program and you’ll still keep all the S-Pen stylus functionality. The sad part is this really shouldn’t be necessary to unlock the handset’s true power.
This doesn’t make the Galaxy Note a write-off at all, but it does mean that before you consider getting one you’ll have to take into account that in order to get the most out of it you’ll need to get into the Android spirit and do a bit of minor tweaking before it’s up to scratch.
If that isn’t an issue for you, you should be fine.
All that said, the Nexus 7 is looking like a much better prospect straight out of the box.
Winner – Google Nexus 7
Operating System
The Samsung Galaxy Note shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread but it can now be updated to version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Meanwhile, the Nexus 7 is the flagship device for the latest build of Google’s Android platform, version 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Many of the points we raised in criticism of the Galaxy Note’s performance based on its processing power are equally relevant here as the two aspects do go hand-in-hand to quite an extent. Likewise, the point on third party launchers is particularly pertinent – you will get a faster and smoother experience by opting for a launcher program than sticking with Samsung’s TouchWiz interface.
In terms of features, Android Ice Cream Sandwich is packed with enough good ones over Gingerbread that it’s well worth taking the time to upgrade. It’s a more stable build than its predecessors, for one thing, but also has a re-jigged menu layout which is far easier to use.
On top of this there’s the fast-app switcher control which brings Android’s legendary multi-tasking right to the surface – from any point within the interface you can now bring up a carousel of active or recently used apps which you can flick between easily and you can also swipe them away to close with the flick of a finger.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has all this and then some. The Google Search interface has been revamped to be more intuitive and now includes a faster voice search tool to boot. You also have the added bonus of the Google Now application which can be setup to feed you alerts based on information important to your daily life, such as weather reports, traffic information and news.
The touch keyboard is now easier to operate and, best of all, Google has incorporated the ‘Butter’ interface which is a series of changes to make touch control, performance and responsiveness smoother than ever, something it achieves with aplomb from what we’ve seen.
The deciding factor here is that the Nexus 7 delivers better operating performance than the Galaxy Note while at the same time incorporating a range useful new features.
Winner – Google Nexus 7
Final Thoughts
This is a tough one. There’s a lot to like about the Galaxy Note as a tablet and a phone. It’s a great little device – solidly built and highly portable with a massive, crystal clear display and plenty of storage space. It does have a few pitfalls though, most notably in the performance stakes. The fact is it can be made to run very well indeed but only with some tweaks, although these are about as minor as you could hope – it’s nothing too complex. But, it shouldn’t need it and that’s the sad part.
The Nexus 7 runs much better straight away and has a wealth of extra features. Although the display isn’t as sharp it is still clearer than average and is larger, which has a value of its own. The only area where it falls behind is storage and even then it’s quite adequate for most purposes. On the whole we feel it is the better product ‘as is’.
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6:40 AM
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