Galaxy Note 12.1 Pro review

The best of Samsung's new 'Pro' tablets is a tantalising glimpse of the future - and a reminder of why we need laptops says Matt Warman

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The Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 claims that it can be your primary device for almost every professional task - it may be a tablet but the suggestion is that this is a product that , with a 12.1-inch screen and a fast processor, can basically be the closest thing a tablet can get to a laptop.
And for better or worse, the company doesn't seem to be too far wrong either. Although this is still typing on a glass screen, it's as good an experience as I have ever encountered thanks to the larger area and some tweaks to the software. For serious writing I would prefer a physical keyboard, but the extra space afforded on a wider device makes it exceptional. Add to this the additional “Magazine UI” interface Samsung installs, providing a friendlier way with documents, news and email, and it's clear that the company is making a serious effort to improve the Android experience that continues to put Google's tablets behind the iPad. Although some will say it’s not as flexible as the Android interface, it’s neater to look at. The fact that it’s not removeable is a shame but not a crisis.
As this is a Note tablet, the Pro 12.2 also offers the S Pen stylus as a way of entering text. Although try that sentence with handwriting recognition and I got: “As this is a note tuaeeo then It also off as the S Pen Stylus as a way of entering tub.” Perhaps it’s better for people with better handwriting.

Samsung's new Magazine UI interface makes Android look a little like Windows 8

Although the stylus is more useful than is on even the excellent Note 3, the real appeal of the Pro series of tablets is in the way it allows users to multitask. The emphasis is on getting stuff done. So you can split the screen four ways between a range of apps, and you can use the pen to annotate documents in a more plausible way than on the smaller devices. The octacore processor and the enormous 9,500mAh battery keeps you going for more than most will require. Although there is a lag in the bundled remote PC software, for instance, that’s as much to do with connecting networks as it is to do with the device itself. Such hiccups highlight primarily that we still have some way to go before we can really replace laptops with tablets. Similarly, its version of Office is OK, but not really better than, say, Google Drive.
At 750g and nearly 296mm wide, this is a big device. Solidly built, even though you can find it online for £541, that's for early adopters rather than for people in the market for a new laptop, which they could probably get cheaper anyway. The 2,560-by-1,600-pixel display is almost as good as the iPad Air’s, with 247ppi versus 264ppi. As this is less likely to be a tablet used for watching films, perhaps that is so small a difference as to be insignificant. Elsewhere, the 12.2 offers the latest WiFi standards, a microSD slot and an 8MP camera.


The stylish back of the tablet

All of these are features are more than welcome. They make the 12.2 a tablet that offers really uses and comes at a size hard to find elsewhere. But the extra size and weight does not come with enormous rewards; it’s an excellent tablet but also one that shows why we still need laptops for truly portable, productive computing.

Manufacturer’s specifications
Dimensions (W x H x D) 295.6x7.95x204 mm
Weight 750 g
Software Android 4.4 (KitKat), plus TouchWiz
Processor 1.9 GHz Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5420
RAM 3072 MB
Storage Internal 32000 MB + MicroSD slot
Display TFT touch-screen (active matrix)
Display size 12.2 in
Native resolution 1600x2560 pixels
Ports Micro-USB 3.0
Wi-Fi 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac
Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
2nd camera resolution 2 megapixels
Main camera resolution 8 megapixels
Battery capacity 9500 mAh
Claimed battery life 13 h

Source: The Telegraph