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Rise of the turncoat, the (not) Xperia z4 tablet review...

viridis
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Galaxy Note pro 12.2 wifi 

 

"You see, an android user is more educated in value than their fruity counterparts."

 

It was set in stone, a dead cert, weeks of building up enough free funds to be able to do this had finished and I now had disposable funds of £499, the Tablet z4 was mine...

as I logged on the Sony pre order store and loaded my basket with the tablet with free keyboard I fished around in my coat looking for my debit card and pulled it out, I even filled out all the numbers. Just one click, one final click and I'd have pre ordered the slimmest, most powerful tablet on the planet, ready to land on my doorstep just 20 days later.

then in a nano second, a fleeting whisper of a thought crossed my mind, it was literally a blink of consciousness. "What else is available" it was as if my own beliefs and my own criticisms of isheep had prevented me from finishing the purchase. You see, an android user is more educated in value than their fruity counterparts, we often criticise the ifan for aimlessly queueing up on release day like a well oiled herd ready to part massive sums of money for something inferior.

that's what I was doing, without even looking for the best deal, I was ready to part with 500 quid on a name. The hypocrisy alone was shameful.

I kid you not, I then got anew email from pc world about their Usual "offers"......

 

 

SPECIFICATION

Samsung Exynos 5 Octa (1.9 Ghz + 1.3 Ghz, Octa core)
3 GB Ram
32 GB storage

SCREEN 

12.2"
Super Clear LCD
2560 x 1600
247.5 ppi
Multi-point touchscreen
LED backlighting

CONNECTIVTY 

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with WiFi Direct
Bluetooth 4.0
USB 3.0
3.5 mm jack

MEDIA

microSD card reader up to 128gb

FEATURES 

- 8.0 MP camera 
- Integrated webcam
 

POWER 

Lithium-polymer
Up to 13 hours

 

now only £324!

 

So I think I'll go and take a look at this tablet after work and see how it stacks up.

very well is the outcome it would seem......

 

Opening the box of this mahoosive tablet you are greeted by its gigantic screen, and that's no exaggeration as you can see,

that's a note 3 on a note pro 8.4 on a note pro 10.1 all sitting on the note pro 12.2, it's huge it really is, in fact my tablet z entire body will sit inside the screen.

turning it on you are greeted by the Samsung boot logo with usual sound but coming out of stereo speakers the sound is superb,  the speakers are really good quality. Setting it up was easy too, entering usual Google log in and Samsung account login took no time at all and the tablet was ready for use in just a few minutes.

 

As well as the screen, the Tablet takes a lot of its design from the note 3, with its faux leather rear panel, aluminium STYLE surround and usual samsung curves, there is also the s-pen located in the rear panel which you can use For writing on websites such as this or any other text entry.

 

you can also use the pen for gestures and other functions which I'm still in the process of learning. 

The display is crisp and sharp, as you'd expect from a 2k display and the colour is reproduced well on the LCD panel, so while it's not an amoled display, it is a very capable screen indeed, in fact the following shows not only the great colours, but also just how much you have to actually try and see a pixel





 

It really is that nice.

 

The inside guts of the note pro contain a Samsung Exynos 5 cpu and is the same Exynos found inside the more popular Tab S,  whilst not the fastest cpu around its still an Octa core powerhouse capable of running multiple tasks, apps, videos all at once, in fact the note pro allows multiple windows to be opened and running at the same time, not just held in a state in the recent apps screen. 

 

As mentioned before the sound quality is amazing and I suspect the sound system is the same audio processor found in the Galaxy s5 which has amazing audio properties.

The camera was quite a surprise, usually tablet cameras are cap by default, no really, they are,  we just have grown to accept it. But the camera on the note pro is actually quite good. Capable of 8 mpix hdr shots in a variety of scenes the camera also comes with a very bright led flash. All of the above being pointless though as I can't imagine anyone on earth using this monster as a camera, I just can't. 

 

The battery life is good, with a full charge taking absolutely yonks to run out, I watched 3 films the other day at 1080p so both screen and cpu were being used a fair bit and it still had 30% left after, that's pretty damn good.

 

Do I regret not getting the Xperia? Yes of course but I'm also intelligent enough to know that the £200 difference is not justified based on waterproofing or cpu, I use my tab for watching films and Web browsing, it's not gonna get wet, I don't need the 64bit 810. What I needed was a superior viewing experience and more information on the screen.

and after a 3 year hiatus, Samsung have ticked my boxes.

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Anonymous
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Amazing review, amazing pictures. Fantastic

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version7point0
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Great review and extra brownie points for using the S-Pen to do it.
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viridis
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The S pen is really good, the way it works seamlessly with the auto correct means even unregistered letters are corrected.
To be honest though I've not noticed it miss a letter yet.
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Anonymous
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viridis ... to me, a tech novice ... I was so surprised at myself at how much I actually understood the technical stuff & that young Whizz Kidd viridis is uniquely what you have written ^^^^^ inclug your visual presentation text & glorious pix (fave that one of Manhattan [spotted my fave skyscraper = the art dekko one]) with the interesting colouful sky, wonder date of that pic

 

underestimated is the word which comes to mind which what U have wrote ^^^^^

 

That single line ..... = ..... is a viridic classic

 

you coin the word isheep (which cracked me up for more than one reason)

 

I do have several questions such as the word amoled ..... = ..... is it pronounced ammo-led ..... = ..... amoled as in annealed ..... this is important to me please you wouldn't know

 

Best Review Ever ..... to skit off 1D song ..... you, to me, have melded diverse stuff together with of course humour & acheived something for which you aughtta get May's O2C special award, as you did last month, barring you surpassing yourself to date by a furthermore outstanding review in the future 

 

the lad did good, thank you for the unique ^^^^ which you have created & shared

 

way to go viridis slight_smile

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Anonymous
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Well I have to agree with everyone @viridis, it is really well written and it makes a good read and you can feel the "personal experience" side of it.... I think I can actually imagine you using it!

I'm not a tablet fan, but recently I've been thinking about getting one and I have to say the processor and the Camera quality have impressed me! If I was to get a tablet I would definitely consider this one!

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