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Hands On: Samsung Galaxy Note 800

The Samsung Galaxy Note 800 has finally arrived at Digit’s test labs and before we go ahead and put the device through its paces, we thought we’d give it a detailed first look.

We have already seen the device during the launch and had some hands on time with the device then. For those of you that are interested in reading our initial impressions of the device can do so here.

One look at the device and it really does look good. It has the 10.1-inch display, which is nice, crisp and looks rich. It has fantastic viewing angles and the resolution is 1280x800. It is nowhere near the third generation iPad whose 9.7-inch screen has a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels but the Note 800 is still impressive nonetheless.

The display on the Note 800 is 10.1-inches and has a resolution of 1280x800 pixels.

Pick up the device and you will notice how light it is. It is very light, weighing in at 597 grams. The trade-off is that its rear is very plasticky and nowhere near the build quality when compared to the iPad 2012 or the Asus Transformer Prime.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 800 runs on Android 4.0.4 ICS and is skinned with Samsung's TouchWiz UI.

Traditionally, tablets have their speakers at the bottom or the rear, but the Note 800 has them in the front. There are 2 speakers on either side of the screen and the audio from them is quite good.

The speakers on the device are on the front panel as opposed to the sides or rear as found on other tablets.

Apart from being just another Android tablet, the Note 800 brings the original Note’s S-Pen feature to the 10.1-inch device. When you remove the stylus from its holder, a quick menu appears that gives you access to S-Note, S Planner, Crayon Physics, PS (Photoshop) Touch, Polaris Office and the settings. The down side is that these options cannot be edited with your preferred choice of apps.

The Galaxy Note 800 brings with it the S-Pen stylus that can be used with a variety of apps.

Samsung has brought the cool multiscreen feature to this tablet, something first seen on theGalaxy S III smartphone. The downside is that this will not work with all the apps, but expect that list to grow as developers are working to make their apps work with this feature. It works well for the most part but there are times when the multi screen lagged despite the stupendous power under the hood.

The device also has the ability to house a SIM card and can be used as a phone as well.

Put simply, the Samsung Galaxy Note 800 is the love child of the original Samsung Galaxy Note and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1! As a tablet it works smoothly and quite well from what we’ve seen. The only downside it that apart from the bundled apps, there is little you can do with the S-Pen. There is little third party support, as yet.

The S-Pen is housed in the device itself.

For Rs. 40,000, you can get yourself the third generation iPad and for Rs. 10,000 more, the Transformer Prime, with the keyboard and battery dock. Do remember though, this is the first tablet that boasts of 2GB RAM and is quite an eye catcher despite the somewhat lacklustre build. Stay tuned, as we will bring you a detailed review of the device soon.