Samsung has announced yet another tablet at MWC, this time one we’ve already known about, which is a bigger version of the 5.3″ Galaxy Note, only that this one is 10.1″ large. But that’s not everything . It also comes with a pretty heavily customized Touchwiz skin on top of Android 4.0. We don’t know if this is Touchwiz 5.0 or not, Samsung wouldn’t say either way, but it’s definitely not the same as Touchwiz 4.0. I’d assume Samsung will keep the 5.0 name for Galaxy S3, which is usually the device to introduce a new version of Touchwiz.
The Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with a dual core 1.4 Ghz Exynos chip, has 1 GB of RAM, 1280×800 resolution, 3 MP rear camera, and a 2 MP front-camera for video-conferencing, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 and HSPA+ connectivity. The tablet will also feature an S-pen, Samsung’s custom stylus for the Note devices.
Since Android 4.0 received a lot of new drawing and stylus-oriented API’s, this tablet looks perfect for people who want to draw on their tablets. The iPad is closed to what developers can do with the drawing apps, and an Android 4.0 tablet should allow for much more accurate digital drawings. The Galaxy Note 10.1 will come in 16/32/64 GB in storage, at different price levels. Samsung doesn’t say at what price they all start, but I’d assume around $400-$500 and go up $50-$100 for each level.
Samsung’s new tablet is causing a lot of confusion in the Android world, because now Samsung is releasing not only difference sizes, but different, or supposedly different devices with the same size and specs, and yet some of them have names like they would be some kind of sequels to other previous devices, even though the specs don’t really say that.
After Samsung’s great year in 2011, I fear that they may shoot themselves in the foot in 2012 because of all this confusion that HTC and Motorola also went through last year. I think they will do great with Galaxy S3 and their next gen Exynos chip based on Cortex A15, but this confusion will surely hurt their potential for growth this year.