Galaxy Note 10.1 vs iPad 3: What Will You Buy This Holiday Season?

By Prarthito Maity | Dec 05, 2012 09:12 AM EST

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Samsung and Apple have declared a full-fledged war on each other for quite some time with legal patent battles happening for quite some time. While these legal proceedings occur in the background, both the companies have released their respective tablets in the market to bring the fight among users and their choices. Two such tablets are Apple’s iPad 3 and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1.

While the iOS-based iPad 3 made its way to users back in March this year, the Galaxy Note 10.1, supported by Google’s Android, arrived a little later in August. Both the tablets are still hot in the market and users are confused as to which will be worth their money.

Here’s a complete breakdown comparison between the Galaxy Note 10.1 and iPad 3:

Display

The iPad's Retina display sporting dimensions 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4 mm (9.50 x 7.31 x 0.37 in) is truly amazing, and even more when its 2048 x 1536 resolution eliminates the 1280 x 800 resolution found on the Galaxy Note 10.1. The iPad's 9.7-inch IPS LCD panel, without question, offers a sharper look along with breathtaking viewing angles.

However, 10.1-inch Super PLS LCD panel of the Galaxy Note 10.1 with dimension of 262 x 180 x 8.9 mm (10.31 x 7.09 x 0.35 in) is no push-over as well. Although it’s not really inclined to provide anything great with its lower resolution and not-so-great viewing angles, it still provides higher accurateness and precision thanks to the tablet’s S Pen functionality that makes use of the Wacom technology, and there is no tablet as of now in the market that offers that kind of technological support.

Operating System

The biggest question here is iOS or Android. While the iPad based on iOS offers the simplicity and low learning curve of the platform that has since appealed to people, unluckily, it lacks the personalization fundamentals to make the experience unique. The iPad 3 comes with iOS 5 out of the box which can be upgraded to iOS 6.

The Galaxy Note 10.1, on the other hand, boasts deep personalization elements and extensive sharing functionality, and that’s something standard amongst all Android devices. The tablet comes pre-loaded with Android 4.0 ICS.

Camera

Both the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and the iPad 3 feature a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, with the Apple version arriving with a backside illuminated sensor. Furthermore, the Galaxy Note 10.1sports a 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera whereas the iPad 3 has a VGA camera.

Although there’s not much of a difference between both the device’s cameras, the new iPad holds a slight advantage because of its ability to handle low light better. As far as high definition video quality is concerned the iPad sports 1080p recording, while the Galaxy Note 10.1 still sticks to 720p.

Processor

On paper, the quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos processor with 2GB of RAM inside the Galaxy Note 10.1 may seem like a pretty good bet, but people who have already acquired the tablet will know that although the Samsung tablet packs a punch, it still doesn't have the same level of consistency found with the iPad's dual-core 1GHz Apple A5x CPU with 1GB of RAM.

Both the tablets are available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variants, but the iPad 3 lacks an external microSD card slot unlike the Samsung tablet (upto 64GB additional memory support), and this is a major drawback for Apple.

Connectivity

Both the devices feature a Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, with the Galaxy Note 10.1 sporting a Wi-Fi Direct with dual-band and Wi-Fi hotspot. Similarly, both of them sport Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP with USB v2.0.

Battery

It is being said that users might be able to get a full day of normal usage out of both tablets with their batteries fully charged. However, it has also been stated that the iPad retains more juice at the end of the day over its competition, but not by much.

In conclusion, both the tablets have their own advantages and functionality and everything depends on the user as to how they will want to spend their money and go for the right tablet. It also depends on which OS the user will be more comfortable, because both Android and iOS offer their special functionalities.