Xiaomi Redmi Note - Part 2

Despite my fondness of my new Xiaomi Redmi Note phone, there are still some deficiencies which I will highlight in this second post.

Slow Order Processing

I made my order for the phone on 2014-08-05 (Tuesday). The phone was delivered on 2014-08-14 (Thursday), a whopping 9 days later! This is just too slow!

In most of my internet purchases, goods that are shipped via air are typically delivered within 1 week. As Xiaomi does not have brick and mortar stores, they really need to invest more in their logistics operation. They should take a leaf from Amazon operations, which can typically ship goods much faster than Xiaomi, despite the fact that Amazon ships from USA, while Xiaomi is shipping from Hong Kong.

Flip Case Was Not What I Expected

When I made my order for the Redmi Note, I also ordered both a soft case as well as a flip case. While the soft case meets my expectation, I was extremely disappointed with the flip case.

The main problem with the flip case is that unlike other flip cases that I have bought for my first Samsung Galaxy S and my Shanzhai phone, the Redmi Note flip case uses ADHESIVE to adhere the phone to the case!

The problem is that if you want to change the battery, or insert a different microSD card, you must then peel the phone from the flip case adhesive! According to the pamphlet that came with the flip case packaging, the ADHESIVE can be re-used 300 times. But I don't buy this bullshit. Almost every kind of glue hardens and lose their stickiness after a while, particularly in the hot and humid weather we have in Singapore. Also, the main idea with having interchangeable cases is to change them. Suppose I want to switch from my flip case back to my soft case. Once I peel my phone from the flip case, the flip case adhesive will be unprotected and exposed to the air. Exposure to air will cause the adhesive to lose its stickiness even faster. This adhesive design makes the flip case unsuitable for interchangeable use.

Unfortunately, because all the flip cases I have used previously do not use adhesive, I was under the impression that the Redmi Note flip case would be the same. So I was very disappointed on receiving the package to learn that Xiaomi has decided to cut corners and use this kind of sub-standard design for their flip case.

I subsequently went to the Xiaomi web site, and saw that although they made no mention that the Redmi Note flip case uses this cheap and lousy adhesive bonding, the flip case for the Mi 3 uses the same cheap and lousy adhesive bonding, and which is documented in the Xiaomi web site.

http://store.mi.com/sg/item/3141000008

If you are considering buying the Redmi Note, take my advice and just buy the soft case. Don't waste your money on the flip case. It is a very disappointing piece of accessory from Xiaomi.

Non-Standard Micro USB Connector

I wasn't aware of it at first, because my existing micro USB cables which I was using for charging my Samsung Galaxy S phone, Samsung Galaxy Note tablet, and the Shanzhai phone, could also be used to charge the Redmi Note. Until one day when I realised that although the cable was "connected", it was not charging the Redmi Note. Apparently, I had touched the cable just a smidgen, and that effectively dislodge the seating of the micro USB connector.

I then became aware that the micro-USB connector always appear to be "loose" when plugged into the Redmi Note, unlike the very snug fit with all my other Android devices. When I examined the Redmi Note phone, I realised that the socket is actually a rectangle instead of trapezium shape as on all my other smart phones.

It turns out that whereas almost every Android phone uses the Micro B USB connector, the Redmi Note actually houses a USB socket that supports both the Micro B USB as well as the Micro A USB connector.

The Micro B USB connector used by almost every Android phone manufacturer.

The Micro A USB connector, which can also used for the Redmi Note.

Because the Redmi Note socket has to accommodate both types of connectors, the side effect is that it actually makes using the Micro B USB cable a looser fit! Unfortunately, the cable that Xiaomi provides is also an industry standard Micro B USB cable. This makes me wonder why in the world did Xiaomi decide to use a Micro A+B USB socket on the phone in the first place?

Bug

Although the MIUI is at version 5 (the phone is currently running version MIUI-JHDMIBF29.0), I have encountered a bug that require the phone to be shutdown and restarted.

I have a 2G SIM card which I used for making voice calls, and a 3G SIM card which I use for mobile data. The 3G SIM card is provided with a monthly allotment of 1 GB of free mobile data, so I only wish to use it for internet surfing. However, the 3G card can also make voice calls and send SMS, but these are not free. Unfortunately, if I leave the 3G card in standby mode, I keep receiving spam SMSes, and also spam voice calls, which are chargeable. Thus, to avoid paying for these spam voice calls on the 3G SIM card, I always disable the 3G SIM card if I do not need to use the 3G card to access the internet.

Thus, if I need to use the 3G  SIM card to access the internet, I will first enable the 3G SIM card, then enable mobile data. When I have finished surfing the internet, I will disable mobile data, and then disable the 3G SIM card.

However, many a time, when I disable the 3G SIM card, I will also effectively cut out the 2G signal, as if I had also disabled the 2G SIM card. The phone will then not be able to receive SMSes and voice calls on the 2G SIM card. I tried to "re-enable" the 2G SIM card, but the phone will show that the 2G SIM card has not been disabled. But there is nothing I can do to re-enable the 2G network through the Settings app. The only way to restore the 2G signal is to reboot the phone.

Because I normally use wi-fi to access the internet, this is not so problematic. But the 3 times I had to enable the 3G SIM card to access the internet using mobile data, I ended up having to reboot the phone so that I can restore the 2G voice service after I disabled just the 3G SIM card.

I don't have this problem with the Shanzhai phone, where I can always disable the 3G SIM card without affecting the voice network on the 2G SIM card. This problem only occurs with the Redmi Note.

Perhaps the new MIUI version 6 will resolve this problem. However, I don't know whether the Redmi Note will be getting MIUI 6, although by all indications, it will be available. This is one good thing about Xiaomi. Customers are constantly receiving new versions of the MIUI software. This is unlike Asus or Samsung, who do not provide firmware updates even to relatively new devices.

Xiaomi Redmi Note

I recently bought the Xiaomi Redmi Note smartphone from the Xiaomi Singapore site (http://www.mi.com/sg/note/). Although at S$199, the phone is considered a "budget" (read cheap) phone, I don't have many complaints with it. I mean, it's S$199, man! What premium features do you want! Anyone who harbours deep-seated grievances about missing features or features they consider inferior to those on competing phones should just go and buy the competitors' phone and be done with it. My personal opinion is that despite some minor issues, the Redmi Note is absolute value for money. If you are not too picky, you won't regret it. At S$199, the Redmi Note is very good! Period.

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Super difficult to buy the phone from Xiaomi's website

Of course, nothing in this world is perfect. Although the pictures of Xiaomi's phones usually display the caption "Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen", it is terribly ironic that you will not get this feeling while trying to buy the phone from their website.

At incredible bargain prices, Xiaomi's phones are always sold out within minutes when they are put up for sale at the Xiaomi's website. When the Redmi Note was introduced to Singapore 6 weeks ago (8 July 2014), they sold out a batch of 5000 Redmi Notes within 42 seconds when sales were opened at 12 noon (link). This was to be repeated over the next few weeks, as Xiaomi appeared to be bringing in 5000 Redmi Notes every Tuesday. I know because I was trying to get one, and failed the first 4 times. I was lucky that on my 5th try on 5 August 2014, I finally beat the internet hordes and managed to ensnare a Redmi Note.

For the moment, this is a great marketing tactic for the company. There is a huge demand for cheap and good smartphones. By restricting supply to 5000 units every week, the 5000 units are guaranteed to be sold out each and every time. Supposing that Xiaomi continue doing this for 52 weeks, Xiaomi will be able to sell 52 x 5000 = 260,000 units in 1 year. Is this level of demand realistic? Perhaps. I don't know. It may be much higher. 

However, I do know that if users keep failing to buy the phone from Xiaomi's website, the users may feel jaded, and finally give up on acquiring a Xiaomi phone, and simply buy a competitor's phone instead. I think this is bound to happen. Already, phone makers like Asus and ZTE are starting to sell budget phones in the same market segment that the Redmi Note currently occupies. At the moment, Asus and ZTE budget phones cannot match the price/value ratio of Xiaomi's phones. But a new competitor might be able to do so. When that happens, this will be an interesting area to watch. 

Xiaomi can sell phones at incredibly low prices because they have very low overheads. You seldom see them advertise their phone in the newspapers or traditional media. They get their advertising for free because editorial blogs/websites and news organisations are giving them free publicity by telling the world how affordable their phones are for the hardware specs they are providing. And Xiaomi have earned very good word of mouth from their customers. With low prices and high end specs, the phones generate a very good feeling among the extremely satisfied customers, who then go on to spread the gospel to the rest of the public. It is really the Apple iPhone phenomenon all over again.

However, this playbook can be copied by a new player. And I hope someone does. Personally, I think phones selling at S$998 (Samsung Galaxy S5) is ridiculous. That is just too expensive. I think S$500 to S$600 is about right for a high-end phone. For S$1000, a premium phone ought to be made of diamond or some rare element.

However, when a single company have tremendous success selling a budget phone like the Redmi Note, the competitors get skewed into thinking that the hardware features on the Redmi Note is the standard, and their own budget phones ought to match the exact same standards. This is flawed, but because of the incredible market success of Xiaomi, the competitors become blindsided into doing exactly the same thing that Xiaomi is doing, instead of offering even more competitive budget phones!

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Hardware

Let's Talk Specs

If you are making/selling a smartphone, what areas should you focus on?

• Should you concentrate on fast CPU processing? Which is more important: a higher GHz but lesser CPU cores, or slower GHz but more CPU cores?

• Should you concentrate on long battery life? Is a 2000 mAH battery sufficient, or a 3100 mAH battery?

• Is the display important? What constitutes a good display? A large screen? A high resolution?

• How much focus should you spent on camera technology? Is 8 mega-pixel adequate? Or should you go the whole hog for 13 mega-pixel shooters?

• How much storage should the phone provide?

• How much RAM should the phone have?

• What other components should make up the phone?

CPU

The Redmi Note comes with a 1.7 GHz Eight-Core Mediatek MT6592 CPU. 

If you are making a budget phone, I think this is a good enough CPU. I think that buyers of budget phones primarily needs a device that is more phone than computer. Thus, high GHz speed or high number of CPU cores might be overkill. However, the CPU must provide a good UI response when doing swiping motions - a bugbear of Android which still "stutters" despite the Project Butter enhancements made to Android 4.1. A slower CPU mars the UI experience.

I have found the Redmi Note to be quite responsive using Google Now voice search, Google Maps, internet browsing, and general swiping. But I notice the phone tends to get warm when using Google Maps with GPS and Navigation. My Shanzhai phone with a single core 1.2 GHz CPU doesn't generate as much warmness, but it isn't as responsive the the Redmi Note.

Competitors of budget phones should offer similar performance as the Redmi Note. But I don't think most users can discern slight differences in CPU performance. In real life, most Android apps require internet access, so internet speed is actually more critical than a minor speed improvement in the CPU.  

Battery Life

The 3100 mAH battery in the Redmi Note is awesome. In standby mode with just one SIM card activated (for 2G voice calls) and wifi enabled, I notice a 1% drop in battery level after every 2 hours. This is quite good.

I love removable batteries. I like the fact that users can self replace a dead battery with a new one, without having to send the phone to a servicing centre to have the dead battery replaced. 

However, I wish that all manufacturers making phones with user replaceable batteries would standardise on the battery form factor. It is already the year 2014. Why can't manufacturers just standardise on the smartphone battery form factor, just like the standards we have in AA and AAA batteries? Then, a battery pack can be interchangeable between Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, and the myriad of Android shanzhai brands out in the market. Proprietary battery packs are bad simply because they are proprietary.

Many years ago, phone chargers came in all shapes and sizes. The EU got together, and force the different phone manufacturers to standardise on the micro-USB interface for charging the phone. Now, you can use the same micro-USB cable to charge almost every modern Android smartphone, which is a boon to everyone, as well as the environment.

Likewise, someone should do something about standardising smartphone batteries. If Google and the major phone manufacturers can do something about it, they could agree to a common standard on the form factors of batteries. For example, there will be fix form factors for batteries for phones, tablets, notebooks. Batteries will be interchangeable between different manufacturers phones, tablets, and notebooks. Innovation is allowed where the same phone battery form factor can be used to pack different mAH capacities. Thus, the same phone battery form factor may come in capacities of 1000 mAH, 2000 mAH, or 3100 mAH (the capacity of the Redmi Note battery). 

LCD Display

If you are making a budget phone, I think a high-resolution LCD display is superfluous. I think a cheap display with 160 dpi resolution density is adequate. If you think 160 dpi is too low resolution, go up to 300 dpi. Anything higher is really overkill for budget phones.

Screens with higher resolutions are more expensive to make. If a display has more pixels, it draws more power, runs hotter, and also reduces battery life. Besides, can the human eye really discern images at 300 dpi? 

Competitors should not compete on pixel resolution, but on display attributes like large viewing angles, good brightness control to allow easy readability under direct sunlight, good colour reproduction. 

The Redmi Note's 1280 x 720 resolution, 5.5" IPS screen (267 dpi), is a good compromise. My Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) tablet with its ridiculously high 2560 x 1600 resolution, 10.1" screen (299 dpi) is drawing too much battery, making the tablet runs shorter per battery charge than it need to. It can only run about 8 hours per full charge. For comparison, the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 with its 1900 x 1200 resolution, 10.1" screen (224 dpi) can last an astounding 18 hours. Just simply because the Lenovo Yoga doesn't need to waste so much battery on the power draining LCD screen.

Camera

One of the things that drew me to the Redmi Note is its 13 mega-pixel rear camera. 

However, the few photos that I have taken with this camera is not impressive. Even photos taken under good sunlight looks grainy. I have photos taken with a 4.5 mega-pixel Fuji digital camera that looks better than the 13 mega-pixel shooter of the Redmi Note.

Just because the camera has 13 million pixels doesn't mean pictures taken will be good. In actual fact, the size of each of this pixels might be more important than the total number of pixels. If the pixels are larger, then more light can be collected by the pixel, which may result in a better photo overall. If the pixels are smaller, less light falls on the pixel, which results in poorer photographs.

I am not impressed by the photos taken by the 13 mega-pixel rear camera, or the 5 mega-pixel front camera. Perhaps this deficiency in the Redmi Note can be addressed by a software update of the camera app. I understand that Google Nexus phones/tablets also suffer from poor photos initially, which were subsequently fixed by a software update. I am not sure if Xiaomi has the capability to improve on the graininess through a firmware update. I doubt it.

Unfortunately, there is a flaw in the default Camera app that comes with the Redmi Note. Photos are saved in the Phone Storage area, which is ridiculous. After installing many of the Android apps, I only have about 2 GB free in the internal Phone Storage area. However, I have large swathes of free storage on my 32GB SD card. But the Camera app cannot be configured to change the default save location from the Phone Storage to the SD Card!

Luckily, I have previously purchased the Camera Zoom FX Premium app from the Google Play Store, and this 3rd party camera app allows me to configure the default save location.

My friend owns a Redmi 1 phone (the first version, not the Redmi 1S). I checked her Redmi 1 contents, and was surprised to see that on her Redmi 1, the Camera app saves the photos on her SD Card! 

I don't know why the default Camera app doesn't allow users to change the default save location to the more sensible 32 GB SD card. I suspect that Xiaomi is just using the default stock Android Camera app written by Google, and we all know that Google just doesn't like users to access cheap SD cards storage (all Google's Nexus devices do not provide external SD card slots). I hope that in future, Xiaomi would provide their own camera app that users can configure the default save location. But if they don't, it is still possible to overcome this problem through 3rd party apps like Camera Zoom FX or special MIUI patches (link).

Storage

The Redmi Note comes with 8 GB of internal storage. 

Personally, I think that even for budget phones, 8 GB is insufficient. I think that 32 GB should be the minimum storage.

I do not understand why in this day and age, phones still come with so little internal storage. Is there a gouging exercise going on? 

The cost of a Class-10 32 GB SD card is a mere S$20. Class-10 cards presumes a write-speed of 10 MBps (megabytes per second). The same capacity 32GB card with a faster write speed of 90 MBps sells for S$70, while a 32GB card with a write speed of 280 MBps sells for S$160. I presume that for internal storage, manufacturers must be using flash memory at the highest speeds, and may be using the type with 280 MBps write speed. Since this is very expensive, they resort to giving the minimal internal storage, which is why only 8 GB internal storage is provided.

I would think that with the volume of smartphones being sold, the price of such fast flash memory should have dropped significantly by now. But it didn't. So phones and tablets still come with low internal storage space.

This is why the microSD card slot is a godsend, and a requisite for every budget phone. 

Unfortunately, to keep the price down, the microSD card slot in the Redmi Note can only support SD cards up to 32 GB capacity. It would be nice if the slot supported SD cards up to 64 GB or even 128 GB capacities.

Despite Google's insistence on not having SD card slots, and they always recommend users to save their data in the cloud, the reality is that mobile internet charges is extremely expensive. In Singapore, a phone plan with 2 GB of mobile data costs S$40 per month. Excess data is charged at S$10 per GB, making it very expensive to use cloud storage. If a phone has only 8 GB of internal storage and no SD card slot, just retrieving 2 GB of files from the cloud via mobile internet will bust the bundled mobile data capacity for the month. With an SD card slot, you can always buy a cheap Class-4 SD card and carry around all the files you will need in the SD card. Since budget phones are typically targeted at consumers who are not as well off, cheap SD cards make absolute sense as compared to paying for expensive mobile data.

Besides, many new Android apps are very storage hungry. Some games have asset files as large as 2 GB. Most videos - especially movie length films in high-definition - are about 1 to 2 GB. Thus, the hunger for more storage space is never satiated. Buyers of budget phones are often taking public transport, and during long commutes to and from work, they will use the commuting time to watch videos. The SD card slot allows the phone owner to store more videos on the phone itself, and not have to juggle with the limited internal storage space on most phones by deleting old files to make room for new ones constantly.

All budget phones must come with SD card slots because of the above reasons. The Redmi Note only supports 32 GB SD cards. Competitors should come up with budget phones that support higher SD card capacities.

RAM

I am very surprised that the Redmi Note came with 2 GB of RAM. I am not complaining of course. More RAM allows more apps to stay resident, and makes the Android OS run more fluidly.

Thus, budget phones from competitors that only come with 1 GB of RAM will be threatened by the new standard that Xiaomi has set. 

I think it is not necessary to increase the RAM to 3GB or even 4 GB for phones, particularly budget phones which probably could have run pretty decently even with 1 GB RAM. But I have no issues with Xiaomi delighting it users with such a generous amount of RAM on this budget phone. There is really no downside to having 2GB of RAM on the Redmi Note.

Miscellaneous Hardware

I think miscellaneous stuff like GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, compass, proximity sensors, bluetooth, wifi hotspot tethering, USB slot with USB On-The-Go, should be standard on all phones, whether budget or premium. These should be pre-requisites.

However, I was pleasantly surprised that the Redmi Note came with FM Radio. But for a budget phone targeted at less well off consumers, FM radio makes sense. Although I seldom listen to radio nowadays, I am still happy that the choice is available should I need to.

Now, one of the reasons I bought a Redmi Note instead of the more premium Mi3 phone is because the Redmi Note comes with dual SIM slots, whereas the Mi3 has just a single SIM slot. I wanted a dual SIM phone because when I subscribed to my fibre-broadband plan, I was given a free mobile broadband SIM card with 1 GB of mobile data. By using this free mobile broadband SIM card for my mobile internet access, I can subscribe to a cheaper voice-only 2G mobile plan.

Thus, on my Redmi Note, I put my 2G voice-only SIM card in the SIM2 slot, and the 3G data-only SIM card in the SIM1 slot. As my voice plan costs me S$20 per month, with the free 1 GB of mobile broadband, I can lower my monthly telecommunication costs significantly as I don't need to subscribe to a voice+data plan - where the lowest such plans starts at S$40 per month. 

Should budget phones always be dual-SIM ones? I don't think so. But I am glad the Redmi Note has dual slots. 

Recently, Asus introduced their budget phones - the ZenPhone 4, ZenPhone 5 and the ZenPhone 6. They too are dual-SIM phones, which seem to reinstate the market sentiment that budget phones should be dual-SIM phones. 

Interestingly, the Asus ZenPhone uses micro-SIM slots, whereas the Xiaomi phones (the Redmi 1, Redmi 1S, and the Redmi Note) uses mini-SIM slots. 

I think Xiaomi is correct and Asus is wrong. If you are making a budget phone, then your target market is primarily the ones in lesser-developed economies such as India, Africa, Asia, where most people are still using the old feature phones with SIM cards that are primarily of mini-SIM form factor. 

A budget smartphone with a mini-SIM slot can thus accommodate the mini-SIM cards from the feature phones without any problems. If the customer has a micro-SIM card, the micro-SIM card can be easily fitted into a mini-SIM adapter which is then inserted into the mini-SIM slot.

For the Asus ZenPhone budget phones, because they are using mini-SIM slots, customers migrating from feature phones to the Asus phones will need to either CUT their existing mini-SIM cards to micro-SIM dimensions, or have their telco transfer their existing mini-SIM card to a micro-SIM module.

Also, in less developed countries, most mobile customers are on prepaid cards (as opposed to postpaid plans). However, most prepaid cards uses mini-SIM cards, which are again more suited to Xiaomi's budget phones than Asus's.

Personally, both my 2G voice-only SIM card and my 3G data-only SIM card are of the mini-SIM form factor. If I were to buy the Asus budget phones, I will have to either cut my existing SIM cards to the smaller dimension (a task that I do not relish), or pay S$35 per card to migrate them to micro-SIM modules. With Xiaomi's budget phones, I do not have to make any such anguishing decisions. This is one of the reasons why I did not consider getting the Asus phones at all.

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Software

MIUI Interface

The similarity of Xiaomi MIUI interface with the iPhone iOS is uncanny. I am sure if Apple had their way, they will sue Xiaomi for the look and feel. So many icons look iOS-rish.

Another thing that I do not like about MIUI is its lack of the Android App Drawer. There are several disadvantages without the App Drawer:

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Disadvantage 1

I cannot see a complete listing of all the apps and widgets that I have downloaded, and then open the app from that list.

It can be argued that if you run the Play Store app, the app will show a list of all the apps you have downloaded, and there is an [Open] button to execute the app from there. However, I discovered that the Play Store app doesn't work without an internet connection!

I then thought of the Settings > Apps option, which also list all the apps on the phone. However, Settings > Apps  doesn't allow the execution of a selected app. You can only terminate/stop its execution, or uninstall it.

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Disadvantage 2

Without the App Drawer, every application that you install will have its icon thrown in the Home Screen automatically. The problem is that only 1 icon is allowed per app. This was problematic for me because of the way I have been using Android phones.

In all my other Android devices, I need to create multiple shortcuts for the same app in many different folders.

For example, I have an app called SG Buses that provides me information about public bus routes and services.

I created a shortcut to this app in a folder called "Transport",  which also groups other shortcuts like Google Maps , Singapore Map (previously called Singapore Street Directory), and MyTransport Singapore .

However, I also created a second shortcut to the SG Buses app in a folder called "Singapore", which also groups shortcuts to all apps that are Singapore related (e.g. AsiaOne News, Channel News Asia etc). With most Android launchers that uses an App Drawer, multiple shortcuts to the same app can be created, and this suits me to a tee.

Also, some auxiliary apps that is very seldom used can be left out of the home screen completely. Should I need to execute these apps, I can just open the App Drawer and then execute it from there. I can thus maintain a very organised and clean Home Screen.

Without an App Drawer, the MIUI causes a problem because I can only put the icon in one folder. Then the categorisation problem starts. Should I put the Google Maps icon in the "Google" folder, or should I put it in the "Transport" folder? I can't have both like I use to.

I find this very irritating and am not used to it.

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Luckily, Android allows you to use different launchers if you are not satisfy with the default launcher. I am currently still using the MIUI launcher with the Redmi Note. However, I may switch to an alternate launcher that includes a proper App Drawer in the future.

Someone published an AppDrawer app for MIUI. Although this app displays a list of all installed apps which can then be executed, AppDrawer is unable to create multiple shortcuts. Thus, it is still not a panacea for the missing App Drawer in MIUI.

Lock Widget / Power Off Widget

The power button on my old Shanzhai phone became flaky, and it sometimes became very tricky to turn on or turn off the phone (you must depress the power button in the right way...). It was also difficult to turn off the screen by quickly depressing the power button.

I found a Lock Screen widget that allows me to click on a widget icon to turn off the screen. However, I couldn't find a Power Off widget or app that allows me to click on a icon to shutdown the phone. There were some in the Google Play Store, but every single one of them requires rooting the Shanzhai phone. And one of the problems that I had with the Shanzhai phone is that I cannot find any information about rooting that no-name Android phone, so all these apps or widgets that require root access are out.

Interestingly, the  Redmi Note has built-in Lock and Power Off toggles that can be activated either from the Toggle Notification Shade, or placed as shortcuts on the Home Screens. 

Thus, MIUI allows me to simply tap on an icon to quickly lock the phone, or to shut it down completely, all without requiring rooting the phone, or downloading a 3rd party app from the Play Store. And something that I just couldn't do (power off via an icon) on all my other Android devices is a built-in function on my Xiaomi phone.

Alarm will ring even if phone is shut down

I read about this from the internet, and verified this to be true. If the Redmi Note is shutdown, it will automatically power on and then play the alarm sound at the preset time.

Neat!

Amusing/Amazing Tools

The "Tools" folder contains a number of useful apps. The interesting thing about many of the tools is the skeuomorphic designs of some of them that make them look like iPhone apps. 

The "FM Radio" app looks like a white iPod.

The "Recorder" app has this very nifty animation of a cassette tape being wound when recording or playback takes places.

However, all the tools are useful. 

The "Explorer" app has a built-in [FTP] button. If you click this [FTP] button, an FTP URL address will be displayed on the phone. You can copy this address into an FTP program running on your PC to allow you to use a PC FTP client program to copy files to or from the PC to the phone. 

The "Torch" app can actually be invoked from the lock screen by simply holding the Home button.

The "Calculator" app looks like an iPhone calculator. It has a "Basic" mode, which is adequate. However, you can switch it to this weird "Scientific" mode, that is not quite there. For example:

• there is [sin], [cos] and [tan] buttons, but no [arcsin], [arccos] and [arctan] buttons
• the [sin], [cos] and [tan] buttons only allow you to specify radians. You cannot specify angles in degrees/minutes/seconds
• there are no [hyp] buttons
• there are [ln] and [log] buttons, but only [e] and no [10^x] buttons.
• there is no [M], [MR] or [MC] buttons. You can't save any intermediate results into "memory".
• there is no [+/-] button to change the sign of a number. If you try to key in a negative number like -123, the screen always show "0-123".

I really don't know why they bother with a deficient "Scientific" mode when there are plenty of good calculator apps in the Google Play Store (for example, Real Calc). Perhaps this is a stopgap for their China market, because in China, users are blocked by the government from accessing the Google Play Store. However, the "Scientific" mode is really useless with the lack of memory functions to store intermediate results. Most people who need to use a scientific calculator will simply not find this useful at all. I don't understand why the scientific calculator has not been improved.

Software Support

However, the MIUI launcher is actually a very nice piece of work. And I think Xiaomi is learning the Apple lesson extremely well, and is thus becoming just as successful as Apple.

One of the major problems with vendors like Asus and Samsung is their lack of software support. For Asus, I was very disappointed when they stopped providing updates for the Asus TF300 tablet. Hence, although Asus is a company that worked hand in hand with Google to make the Nexus 7 tablet, they simply stopped updating their older Asus lines at Android 4.2. There is no news about the important Android 4.3 update, which fixes a fundamental flaw in Android 4.2 and earlier (the missing TRIM support for SD cards. Because Android 4.2 and earlier does not implement TRIM, data that is supposedly erased from an SD card is actually still extant in the SD card, and will continue to occupy space despite reporting to the system that the so called "erased" space is freed. Ultimately, the operating system will crash because the SD card cannot be physically written to, even though the OS sees the SD card space as available. Only reformatting the SD card will actually perform a true "erase" and reclaim the storage.

Samsung is just as bad in terms of software support. I have a pretty high end Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) Edition tablet, but it only runs Android 4.3 instead of the much faster and more optimised Android 4.4 (KitKat). There is practically no news about a firmware update for the tablet to update it to Android 4.4, so I guess there won't be any, just like for Asus. 

In both cases, new devices from Asus and Samsung comes with Android 4.4. Asus and Samsung will just not update their older devices from Android 4.2 to the latest version of Android. I guess they want their customers to buy a new device with the latest Android version. Well, I guess the customers will have to buy new devices then. But for me, I will not be buying products from Asus or Samsung anymore seeing that they do not provide any software upgrades for their hardware.

I am cautiously optimistic that Xiaomi is not as bad as Asus and Samsung in software support. Firstly, I like many of the facilities provided by Xiaomi on their Redmi Note phone. Things like FTP support in the "Explorer" app, Lock and Power Off widgets, a highly customisable launcher, alarms that work even when the phone has been shut down. These really appeal to geeky users like me. 

The MIUI launcher is now at version 6 (currently under beta testing for official release in September), and can  be installed on many older Xiaomi devices. Xiaomi really takes care of their early customers with their first generation devices - ensuring that new firmware updates can still be applied to such old devices. This is completely unlike Asus or Samsung which have basically abandon providing firmware updates to devices that are merely 1 or 2 years old, even when the 1 or 2 year old devices have the hardware resources to support a firmware update. 

Both Asus and Samsung makes lots and lots of device variants, and therefore cannot dedicate much time to a single variant. Xiaomi, like Apple, makes only a few device variants, and therefore can spend more time testing their firmware for the few devices they make. Apple do this because they sell their iPhones at very high mark ups and profits, and people who pay top dollar for the iPhone will want a top dollar experience. Xiaomi makes much lower profit as they don't make ridiculously high mark ups like Apple, but still aim to deliver good experiences for their customers despite their customers buying lower end (non-premium) phones like the Redmi Note. And software support such as frequent firmware updates is a great marketing tools for ensuring customer loyalty and repeat sales.

Galaxy Note Tablet - Update

After using my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) tablet for 2 months, I've put together a list of issues with this tablet that mars its otherwise outstanding design.

1. Takes too long to charge

It takes slightly more than 8 hours to charge the device. 

When the battery level reaches 15%, the device will typically shutdown to prevent damage to the lithium-ion battery (li-on batteries can be permanently damaged if their battery level is allow to drop to 0%).  I have charged the battery from 15% to 100% many times, and in almost all cases, it takes slightly more than 8 hours to reach 100%. 

Now, this is ridiculous because the tablet itself typically offers about 8 hours of usage. In other words, it takes just as long to charge it as it takes to discharge it. This is absolutely not okay for a tablet.

With my previous Asus tablet, it only takes 1 hour to charge from 15% to 100%. I can then use my tablet on wi-fi for close to 9 hours. Unfortunately, the Asus tablet uses a proprietary power charger connector, and Asus sells the charger for $69 (price gouging - as typical of Asus).  

With the Galaxy Note, Samsung uses a micro-USB connector for charging, which is better than the proprietary connector. Unfortunately, Samsung provided a USB 2.0 interface instead of a USB 3.0 interface, and this is the problem.

Because of the outstanding hardware on the Galaxy Note (3 GB RAM, outrageous 2560x1440 screen, Exynos 8-core CPU etc), the Galaxy Note comes with a massive 8200 mAH battery to satisfy all this power draining components. Unfortunately, the USB 2.0 interface restricts the current to just 1A, or 1000mA. If the charger can only at charge 1000mA, it will take slightly more than 8 hours to fully charge a 8200 mAH battery. 

If Samsung has adopted a USB 3.0 interface, the interface will allow the charging current to be increased to 1.5A (ie. 1500 mA). Theoretically, this should reduce the charging time to 5 hours, which is admittedly not a lot in terms of time saved, but which is still better than the 8 hours to fully charge the tablet, which is the case now. 

Unfortunately, there is no company in the world right now that offers a design that incorporates USB charging connectors (versus proprietary connector) with fast charging. Just imagine - if the charging current can be increased to 5A (or 5000mA) - then the 8200mAH battery can be fully charged in just 1.5 hours. Unfortunately, despite the massive hardware engineering department that Samsung possesses, it is not able to provide this kind of engineering. Instead, Samsung focuses their hardware engineering on things like more pixels on LCDs, more pixels on camera lenses, bendable LCD screens, more cores on their Exynos CPUs etc. It is a crying shame they have not improve on the battery power technology.

In the future, when consumer electronics become even more commoditised, I think the differentiating marker between different manufacturers of such commodity stuff like tablets or phones will be the battery technology. If you can perform a full charge from 15% to 100% in one hour, and then use the tablet for up to 20 hours, that would be amazing. 

Charging cable is too short

On a side note, the included charging cable is only 1 metre long. Trust me, 1 metre is too short.

Ideally, the charging cable should be at least 2 metres. Samsung used to offer chargers with 2 metre long cables (I have such a charger which came with my Samsung Galaxy S-LCD phone). However, the Galaxy Note tablet comes with a truncated 1 metre cable, probably in the name of costs savings. It is unfortunate because I ended up paying $10 to buy a 2-metre micro-USB cable so that I can charge the tablet in a more convenient environment.

2. Unresponsive User Interface

Although the Samsung tablet comes with a massive 3 GB of RAM, a fast Exynos octa-core CPU, and Android 4.3, the user interface still "stutters" and lags.

Obviously, this is down to the customisations in Samsung's Touchwiz interface that has been much derided in the IT world. Samsung wants to hide the Android interface completely (there is no other explanation for why they offer exact duplicates of what Android is already offering - what with extraneous functions like S-Voice, S-Finder that replicates Google Now, a Samsung App Hub that replicates Google Play etc), and Touchwiz was their solution. Unfortunately, Touchwiz is not well written, and slows down the performance of the tablet itself. If Touchwiz is not such a resource hog, and does not impact performance on such a high-spec machine, people would not complain. But it isn't, and hence the derision.

Actually, there are many interesting stuff in Touchwiz. I especially like the multi-tasking view which allows running 2 apps side by side. It is most unfortunate that all this features cannot be optimised to provide a "fast and fluid" interface that the Android Jelly Bean update was all about.

3. Lousy Clock Chip

I discovered that the Samsung tablet has a very lousy clock chip. I have only been using the tablet for just 2 months, and already, the internal clock has slowed down by a massive 5 minutes. On my Asus tablet, the clock was off by only 1 minute after years of use.

Some people claim that if the internal clock is wrong, it affects the reading of the GPS. Not sure if this is true, but I seldom use GPS on the tablet, so GPS is not a concern. However, in this day and age, I do not expect clocks to keep such lousy time. Samsung prides itself on things like smartphones and smartwatches. Yet the clock on this tablet loses 5 minutes after just 2 months?

On my Windows notebook, Microsoft has a function that automatically sets the computer time to that from an atomic clock on the internet. This is very useful on many older PCs/notebooks whose internal clock battery have been completely depleted. Although the computer will start up with the clock set to 1 January 1980, I only need to configure the PC to run an atomic clock synchronisation command during startup to automatically synchronise the PC's internal clock, and everything will be right as rain. 

When I look at the Android settings on the Samsung tablet, there is no function to synchronise the internal clock with an atomic clock over the internet. The only way to change the clock is to do so manually.

I decided to download an app to synchronise the internal clock with an "NTP server" (Network Time Protocol server). I installed one called Smart Time Sync from Masterco. However, when I tried to run the app's function to synchronise the internal clock, an error message popped up saying that because "root access" is not available, I need to change the internal clock's time manually.

This is rather stupid, don't you think? Even with Windows, I will be able to synchronise the internal clock with the NTP server using an app despite not running as Administrator. Yet with Android, I need "root" to allow a clock app to synchronise the time.

Unfortunately, because Samsung does not provide the capability to synchronise the clock with an external time server, this has become another minus. 

But why "root" access?

But why should installing "root" access void the warranty? This isn't the case with Windows PC, where owners have the right to run as "Administrator" to install any software they like on the PC. Why should a tablet be any different?

Indeed, I think power users should be allowed to install "root" access to make the tablet more like a PC. Having "root" shouldn't void any hardware warranties on the tablet. Although this is not the case with Samsung, perhaps in the future, other manufacturers may make this a "feature" and selling point on their tablets. Why buy a "restricted" tablet from Samsung when a competitor is selling a less restrictive one?

Repairing my Asus Transformer TF300 Tablet

I went to the Asus Service Centre at Burn Road on 7 March 2014 (a Friday) to send my TF300 tablet for servicing. The problem with the power switch button had worsened tremendously, and no matter what technique I tried to depress the button, I just could not get the tablet to power on. I had called the service centre earlier, and was told that because the warranty had already expired, there will be a $60 diagnostic/labour charge. Replacement parts will be charged separately, should I decide to have the unit repaired after their initial investigation. I decided to risk a $60 gamble to send the tablet for repair. If it can be repaired, then I will regain a working tablet for only $60. If the replacement parts were too costly and I decide to not proceed with the repair, then I will only be out by $60.

Trivex Building at Burn Road is just 200 metres from the new Tai Seng MRT station (Circle Line), so getting to the service centre by public transport was relatively easy. The service centre was relatively quiet. There were only 2 customers ahead of me, so I was attended to within 5 minutes.

I showed the service officer the problem with the power switch, and told him that I had been able to, occasionally, power on the tablet. I also told him that if the tablet screen turns off due to sleep mode, it will be very difficult to turn it on because of the power switch problem. The service officer took the tablet, and told me that I will get a call within 5 working days with a quote for the repair.

On the evening (around 4 pm) of 14 March (the next Friday), I got a call from the Asus Service Centre. The service officer told me that there was some problem with the circuit board on the tablet, and a replacement board will cost $848!

Of course, this makes repairing the tablet pointless. At recent electronics fairs held at the Singapore Expo, the TF300 tablet was being sold for just $399. And that is with both the tablet and the keyboard dock. If you exclude the cost of the keyboard dock (which has its own battery), then the tablet itself is probably worth $299. It is a mockery to charge $848 for a replacement motherboard, when buying a brand new device will cost just one-third the amount.

I told the service officer that it does not make sense to repair the tablet. I also told him that I can give the faulty tablet to him so that he can salvage it for spare parts to repair other faulty TF300 tablets. But he said rules and regulations does not allow for this. He then said he will reassemble the tablet, and send me an email later to collect my unit.

Of course, I was pretty disappointed that it was so costly to repair something that appeared so trivial. To me, it is just a problem with the on/off switch, and the fact that I could occasionally get the tablet to turn on doesn't strike me as a cataclysmic fault on the motherboard that required its wholesale replacement.

In my mind, the replacement motherboard should at most cost $120. Together with the labour charge of $60, I estimated a maximum repair cost of $180 (I was willing to pay up to $200). But now, the total cost would be a ridiculous $848 + $60 = $908 to repair an already outdated device! Even Asus itself is selling their latest TF701 table for just $700 (brand new and with one year warranty).

But what hankered me most was the fact that I now have to pay the $60 labour charge to get back my non-working tablet. Although I knew this was a possibility before I sent my tablet to the service centre, the outcome still stung when it came true.

On Tuesday (18 March), Asus sent me the email to collect my tablet from the service centre. I went down the next day (19 March), resigned to the fact that I will have to pay $60 for nothing. However, I have already decided that the best way to make of this situation is to trade in the faulty tablet at the next computer show for a new gadget. Although Asus does not have a trade-in program, HP does, and during the last computer show, HP was offering a $50 trade-in for non-working tablets. If the trade-in promotion is still on, I will trade in the faulty TF300 tablet for one of HP new slates.

After the service officer handed my tablet over to me, I asked him wasn't I suppose to pay the $60 diagnostic fee first? I have seen the other customers ahead of me making payment for the repair charges at a separate cashier counter before they could collect their unit. He smiled and said there is no charge, since no repairs were done.

Immediately, the $60 cloud that had been hanging over my head disappeared, and my spirits were lifted. I thanked him for waiving the $60 charge. It is amazing just how happy a company can make their customers feel by simply doing the right thing, and not charging for something as nebulous as a "diagnostic fee". Sure, Asus have to spend money to run the service centre and to hire the staff to run it, and charging a "diagnostic" fee is not an unscrupulous thing to do to maintain the service centre. But surely this (the cost of maintaining a service centre) is peanuts compared to the advertising cost that they expend  routinely to promote their products? By waiving the $60 fee, Asus goodwill has created a happy customer in me, and I will be more likely to promote Asus products in the future because of this.

And the service centre itself is also a facet of the public relations department for Asus. Unfortunately, Asus service centre is still not top notch. Every one knows that it is ridiculous to charge a customer more for repairing a unit than buying a new one. If Asus is smart, then they should also have their service centre advising the customer to buy a new device, say with a discounted price (e.g. trade-in discount for the faulty device), and allowing the new device to be purchased on the spot. But the Asus service centre does not have a section for conducting such sales, so the opportunity is lost.

If a customer determines that it is ridiculous to pay more to repair than to buy a brand new device, the customer may decide to buy a COMPETITOR's device for the replacement instead of another Asus device. Asus then loses in 2 areas:

1. The customer will be dis-enchanted with Asus for "gouging" on repair charges. Good will/feeling with the Asus brand is lost.
2. Asus will lose the sale of a new device to its competitors.

Happy Postscript

Back home that evening, just as I was about to box the tablet and shelf it into the cupboard, I decided to depress the tablet's power on switch one more time just to confirm that the tablet is truly dead.

And a strange thing happened.

The tablet powered on immediately, displaying the usual lock screen with all my contact information.

I couldn't believe it. Didn't the service centre say that the tablet had a faulty motherboard, and that it was not repaired?

But there it is. The tablet is working, right as rain. And has been doing so for the past 4 days since it came back from the service centre. Some how, when the service centre reassembled the tablet to return it back to me, they must have inadvertently fix the on/off switch problem.

So, Asus had some how "repaired" my tablet despite everything. And thanks to the goodwill from Asus of waiving the diagnostic fee, I did not have to cough out $60 to get it repaired!

I am very happy now that the TF300 tablet is again in good working condition. But since I have now endeared myself to my new Samsung Galaxy Note tablet, I probably won't be using the Asus tablet on a daily basis any time soon.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Tablet

I bought this gizmo last week (01 March 2014) at the IT Show 2014 held at Marina Bay Sands. This is my THIRD Android tablet, and wow, the hardware specifications for this is the most souped up of all the tablets I've owned. If there is one thing about Samsung, they really know how to jazz up the hardware specifications.

Why?

I have been living comfortably with the Asus TF300T Transformer tablet for the past one 1.75 years. However, like the Archos tablet before it, the Asus tablet has been stricken with a power button problem. On the Monday evening of 24 February, I found great difficulty pressing the power button to turn on the Asus tablet display. I tried depressing the power button for 10 seconds to force a reboot, and occasionally, the tablet will reboot and then proceed to function normally. But once the tablet goes to sleep, I will face the same difficulty in getting the tablet to turn on again.

As the tablet is already one year and nine months old, the warranty has expired. So this was a great opportunity to excuse myself to splurge on a new tablet.

I wouldn't mind getting the Asus TF701T tablet as I like the build of Asus tablets. But unfortunately, the Asus TF701T is stuck with an outdated version of Android 4.2.

Ever since Google introduced Android 4.3 last year (July 2013), I had been waiting for Asus to come up with their firmware update for this. Android 4.3 fixes a very critical flaw in earlier versions of Android (4.2.x and earlier) with regard to Flash Memory support. The earlier versions of Android did not implement a function known as TRIM, which is critical for the proper functioning of computing devices using solid state storage. 

When you erase a file from the internal storage, the space that was previously occupied is marked as free for use. However, the storage space cannot actually be reused unless the flash memory is first "erased". Because Google forgot to implement TRIM support in Android 4.2.x and earlier, the storage space that can actually be used became lesser and lesser, even though the OS indicates that there is plenty of "free space". And the only way to "erase" the flash memory to reclaim the "free space" was to do a factory reset of the tablet.

With my old Asus tablet, running Android 4.2.1, I had performed this factory reset twice to clear the flash memory problem. After every 6 to 9 months, the device will slow to a crawl because the OS cannot find any real "free space" in the flash memory to write new files, even though the OS was reporting 16 GB of "free space" - all bogus. After the factory reset, the tablet will run like the wind for the next few months, until all the flash memory is filled up again.

With TRIM support in Android 4.3, the OS is able to "erase" the flash memory properly and reclaim the space dynamically. This eliminated the gradual slowdown of the tablet after a few months of use. 

Unfortunately, Asus appear to have diverted its attention to Windows 8 tablets, and have stopped the Android support for their flagship products like the TF300T. There is no Android 4.3 firmware update for every single Asus Android tablet excepting the Nexus 7 (Google provides the firmware updates for the Nexus devices). When Google released Android 4.4, which boasts of more efficient memory use, and Asus is still introducing Android tablets with Android 4.2, I decided to abandon Asus for a manufacturer who is more current with providing the latest versions of Android.

Strangely enough, in Singapore, the only manufacturer of Android tablets (non-Nexus) with Android 4.3 or later is Samsung! (Lenovo, Acer, Sony, Toshiba, as well as Asus - only had Android 4.2 tablets).

It is imperative for me that any new Android purchase include the Android 4.3 OS as a minimum, given my experience with the TRIM problem with flash memory. This means that my choice had been narrowed to just Samsung.

Now, although the Nexus devices will always have the latest Android version, I have already discounted Nexus devices because they do not have a MicroSD card slot. Despite all proclamations by Google, a MicroSD card slot is a must-have if you intend to keep a lot of media files like MP3, JPG/PNG, MP4 on your device. The internal storage of the device is never sufficient. The promise of cloud storage is absolutely bogus because transferring a GB of files over wi-fi is extremely slow, and if on 3G or LTE, you will pay through the nose for each GB of data you transfer over those networks. 

So for me, devices without MicroSD slots are ruled out.

Coincidentally, my Asus tablet failed on the same week as the IT Show 2014. And at the exhibition, Samsung introduced a new 12.2 inch tablet (the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 Wi-Fi) retailing at S$1098, and slashed the price of the Galaxy Note 10.1 Wi-Fi (2014 Edition) by S$100 (from S$798 to S$698). Their internal specs were comparable, so I decided to get either one of them. However, because I mainly use my tablet as an e-book reader and for browsing the internet, the 12.2 inch tablet was actually too large to use comfortably. It weighed 750 grams, and will be unwieldy to hold while standing in the MRT train. The 10.1 inch tablet only weighed 540 grams (which is actually 110 grams lighter than the Asus TF300T tablet), and whose smaller form factor is one that I have already grown accustomed to, and would also be easier to handle inside a crowded train. The fact that it is S$400 cheaper than the 12.2 inch tablet also clinched the deal for me.  

Impressions

A comprehensive detailed specification for the tablet can be found at various sites:

• GSMArena
• Samsung

There are also very comprehensive reviews about the tablet by professional news organisations. So, I will not cover them in this post. Instead, I will describe my personal opinion about the ones that I care about most:

3 GB RAM

This tablet comes with a whopping 3 GB of RAM. Most other tablets have only 1 GB of RAM. As most users should know, performance is better with more RAM.

However, despite the provision of so much RAM, the user interface on the tablet still stutters. There are comments that this is due to Samsung's TouchWiz interface being too resource hungry/poorly programmed.

In fact, I don't face the kind of lag/stuttering on my Asus Transformer.

Another interesting thing is the reappearance of frequent Forced Close issues when running programs. I have not experience this problem for a long time with my Asus Transformer tablet, and that has a meagre 1 GB of RAM. But the Samsung tablet faces this problem very frequently. In fact, I am encountering a Forced Close problem almost daily.

The Asus Transformer comes with a very lightly tweaked interface, so the bulk of the OS is almost pure Android. TouchWiz modifies Android quite heavily, so I suspect that all these Forced Close issues - despite the generous 3 GB RAM, must be due to poor memory handling by the TouchWiz interface.

Hopefully, future software updates (including Android 4.4) will fix these TouchWiz problems.  

2560 x 1600 pixel 10.1 inch Super LCD Screen

Small fonts are easier to read on this screen than the Asus TF300T, which only has a 1280 x 800 pixel 10.1 inch screen. Letters are indeed sharper and more legible. 

On my Asus tablet, I typically set the screen brightness to 10%. For this Samsung tablet, I need to set the brightness to 20% for the same level of reading comfort. 

2560 x 1600 pixel (approx 299 pixel per inch) may be overkill for reading, and drains more battery power. But this is the trend for displays.

Also, I suspect that the high resolution display is partly the cause of the lagginess/stuttering problem with the user interface. The Asus tablet, despite its lower 1280 x 800 resolution, never has the laggy/jerky/stuttering problem that I find with the Samsung tablet. The jerkiness is especially noticeable when browsing a big web site.

Also, I believe that the high resolution display is responsible for the "warmness" of the tablet. Even when I am just running my e-reader (CoolReader) or my browser (Dolphin) program (with "Power Saving" mode enabled), the tablet feels warmer to the touch than the Asus tablet.  

32 GB Built In Storage / SDHC microSD Slot (supports up to 64 GB)

The tablet comes with 32 GB of built-in storage, like my old Asus tablet. However, because of bundled apps ("bloatware"), the Asus tablet gave me only 27 GB free. The Samsung tablet was bundled with bigger apps, and out of the box, I only had 25 GB free.

This is why it doesn't make sense to get tablets with built in storage of 16 GB or less. With 7 GB already taken up by the system and bundled apps, a 16 GB machine will only be left with 9 GB of storage. 9 GB is probably insufficient if you intend to load a lot of programs or store lots of files (particularly media files). I am curious why Samsung bother to even produce tablets with only 16 GB of built-in storage. For such premium products, surely 32 GB should be the minimum?

I like the fact that there is sliding door cover over the microSD slot. In the Asus and Archos forums, there have been reports of people losing their microSD cards when they pressed the card in the microSD slot accidentally and ejected the card out of tablet. On the Samsung, this will not happen because of the cover door.

Unfortunately, the price of 64 GB microSD cards are still very expensive. While I can get a 32 GB microSD card for $22, a 64 GB card retails for $70. For $70, I can buy three pieces of 32 GB microSD cards (96 GB of storage in total).

Exynos Octa-Core CPU

The tablet uses Samsung's Exynos CPU, which contains 4 cores of Cortex-A15 running at 1.9 GHz, and another 4 cores of Cortex-A7 running at 1.3 GHz. And although there are 8 cores, the CPU can only activate either the four A15 cores, or the four A7 cores, but never the 8 cores simultaneously. The faster (and more battery draining) A15 cores are used for "heavy/resource intensive" tasks (playing games, multi-tasking), while the slower A7 cores are used for light tasks such as downloading emails in the background/maintaining the alarm clock.

In comparison, my Asus tablet runs on an Nvidia Tegra 3 CPU with a quad core Cortex-A9 running at 1.2 GHz. 

However, as I have enabled "Power Saving" mode on my Samsung tablet, I presume that to mean that the CPU will typically use only the four Cortex-A7 cores running at 1.3 GHz, which might speed-wise be the same as my Asus tablet.   

S-Pen

I won't be using the S-Pen stylus much, since I am primarily using my tablet as an e-reader. However, I like its availability. There are many possibilities for using a stylus if you are doing sketching, or if you prefer to jot down notes in freehand. I can also see commercial applications making use of the stylus for signatures. However, if I were to develop an Android app using the stylus, it may be restricted to just the Galaxy Note tablets manufactured by Samsung.

Another problem I have with the stylus is that my worry that it will "scratch" the screen. This is a common problem with the Windows Mobile PDA/phones and the Palm Pilots I owned many years ago. It is necessary to protect the screen from stylus scratches by affixing a screen protector. However, in the user manual, Samsung do not encourage using a screen protector as it will cause the Wacom digitizer (the S-Pen) to not work properly. Perhaps the famed Gorilla Glass is "scratch" resistant, and is thus less proned to scratches unlike the earlier devices. But I won't test this out as I simply won't be using the S-Pen that constantly.

Magnetic Sensor / Tablet Casing

One advantage of buying a Samsung tablet is the range of third party accessories available. For my Archos and Asus tablets, I simply could not any tablet cases from third-party manufacturers, and always had to buy the "expensive" ones from the manufacturer. The Archos case was actually $80 (although I bought it at $45 at a clearance sale after a year of waiting), while I bought my Asus sleeve case for $68.

For Samsung tablets, third-party cases were widely available, and at the IT Show, I saw a fair number of cases for the Galaxy Note 10.1. However, Samsung actually produced an earlier "Galaxy Note 10.1" (model N8000) and the new "Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition)" (model SM-P600), and their form factors are just different enough that a case that fits the N8000 will not fit the SM-P600. Luckily, I did a Google search and learnt of the difference, so I made sure I bought a case that fits the SM-P600 model.

The case that I bought is from a manufacturer called Kakusiga. It is a pretty nice white "book cover" case for a reasonable price of $25.

After I inserted the tablet into the casing (some force is needed to seat the tablet inside the plastic protective shell - watch this Youtube video for an idea on how the plastic shell looks like), I discovered that I was actually able to turn off the tablet by simply closing the lid over the front of the tablet. Apparently, there is a magnet embedded in the lid, and when the tablet's magnetic sensor detects the magnet, the tablet turns itself off. When the cover is opened, the tablet will automatically turn itself on.

Although it was quite magical to see the automatic turning on and off of the tablet by simply opening or closing the lid, I discovered 2 big problems.

1. When opening the cover, I will flip the lid from the front of the tablet all the way to the back of the tablet. Unfortunately, the tablet's magnetic sensor is too strong, and it detects the presence of the magnet even when the lid is over the back of the tablet, and powers off the tablet.
   
   This has been really problematic because I need to fold the lid over the back of the tablet so that I can hold the tablet with one hand for my e-reading. So every time I open the lid and fold it over to the back of the tablet, the tablet will power on, and then immediately power off. I have to press the Home key to power on the tablet again.
    
2. Even though the tablet is now powered on, because the tablet detects the presence of the lid's magnet, Samsung's TouchWiz software is "tricked" into thinking that the lid is covering the front of the tablet. Because of this, TouchWiz will not allow me to open the Android Notification Tray by swiping down from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen. If I want to open the Notification Tray, I must first flip the lid away from the back of the tablet so that it doesn't touch the back of the tablet.
   
   This is really irritating because when I receive an e-mail notification, or if I wish to activate or deactivate wi-fi/bluetooth/flight mode, or if I want to adjust the screen brightness, I cannot easily open the Notification Tray via the downward swipe if the lid is touching the back of the tablet. I must first separate the lid from touching the back before I can open the Notification Tray. But if I then fold the lid back over the tablet's back, the magnetic sensor will then proceed to power off the tablet.

I searched the forums, but was not able to find any suggestion about a software setting that can disable the magnetic sensor. Despite the plethora of settings available to configure TouchWiz, there is not a single one for disabling the magnetic sensor to automatically power on or power off the tablet. 

In fact, most of the other people who have been aggravated with the same problem resorted to buying a new tablet case - one without a magnet on the lid. However, as the current case costs $25, buying a non-magnetic case seems a waste of money. Hopefully, Samsung will provide some way to disable the magnetic sensor in a future update in the firmware.

I was hoping that there was an app that will provide this capability. I found one called Magnet Unlocker  by Rubber Big Pepper that seemed to fit the bill, but unfortunately, I can't get it to disable the magnetic switching. The app itself was a bit confusing. There is a checkbox called:

[  ]  Unlock device using magnetic field sensor

[  ]  Lock device using magnetic field sensor

And there are 2 buttons labelled [Enable Unlocker] and [Disable Unlocker]

I tried all combinations that are possible, but it didn't perform what I wanted. I think this app is designed for tablets that have a magnetic sensor, but whose firmware do not provide the magnetic switch on/off capability. For such tablets, running this app will provide the capability to turn off the tablet by closing the lid. Unfortunately, this app cannot disable the magnetic switch on/off functionality provided by another program such as the TouchWiz that is already running.

Charging via the Micro USB Port

One of my complaints with my Archos and Asus tablets were their use of proprietary chargers. With the Note 10.1, I can finally charge the tablet via its micro USB 2.0 port. As Asus was charging $60 for the proprietary TF300 charger, I gave up on the idea of buying a 2nd charger to carry around with me. I do not have this problem now that I can charge from anywhere using just a standard micro USB 2.0 cable. The ability to finally charge the tablet via the micro USB 2.0 port was a godsend.

However, charging over the micro USB 2.0 port is extremely slow. The Asus tablet can be charged from 15% to 100% in just 1 hour using its proprietary charger. With the Samsung tablet and its provided USB charger, it took almost 1 hour to charge from 15% to 25% ! Charging the tablet to 100% took another 7.5 hours. 

Also, Samsung provided a micro-USB cable that was just 1 metre long. That is too short. Asus did the right thing with its proprietary charger by providing a cable that was 2 metres long. Trust me, if the power outlet is near the floor, a 1 metre long cable will not be able to reach the top of the table. 

As I did not want to put my tablet on the floor every time I need to charge it, I spent $10 to buy a 2 metre long micro USB cable from the Popular Book Store at Northpoint. It is really surprising that the Challenger outlet at Northpoint did not stock micro USB cables (they had a lot of Apple iPhone cables though). The other computer retailer, CyberActive, did sell micro USB cables, but they were only 1 metre long (and cost $10 too), which was what I already had. Thus, I was really surprised that I could get what I wanted - a 2 metre long micro USB cable - from a non-computer retailer such as Popular.

Battery Life - 7.5 Hours

Due to the premium hardware specs on this tablet, the battery depletes pretty rapidly. According to many review sites, a full battery charge will run down in approximately 7.5 to 8.5 hours. Coincidentally, that is also the amount of time I took to charge the battery from 15% to 100%.

The wi-fi is a big drain. With wi-fi activated, I lose about 10% of battery per hour. If I activate Flight Mode - which turns off all wi-fi radios - the battery loses only 5% per hour. The battery duration is not as fantastic as the one on the Archos (10+ hours with wi-fi) or the Asus (9+ hours with wi-fi). Battery life is a price we pay dearly with for all this fanciful hardware that comes with the tablet.

In fact, Asus was selling the Asus T100 Windows 8.1 tablet for a mere $599, which boasts of an 11 hour battery life. Lenovo was selling an Android Yoga tablet for just $529 which claims an 18 hour battery life. However, the Asus T100 runs Windows 8.1, and I despise the Metro interface (I prefer the home screens and icons and widgets design of Android). The Lenovo was interesting, but its specs were very similar to my spoilt Asus Transformer TF300T, and having already used that for close to 2 years, I just wanted a tablet that was more powerful than the Asus TF300T. How nice it would be if the powerful specs on the Note 10.1 tablet was also accompanied by an 18 hour battery!

The Note 10.1 tablet uses an 8220 mAh Lithium polymer battery. One of the free gifts with my tablet purchase was a 9000 mAh Power Pack. Samsung was wise to include a Power Pack that has enough capacity to fully charge the tablet. However, this 9000 mAh power pack is bulky and heavy. Also, it took almost a full day to charge it with the Note 10.1 USB charger. According to the manual, it requires 18 hours to charge the battery pack using the USB charger! 

It is unfortunate that Samsung is not able to provide faster charging for these tablets. The new 12.2 inch tablets from Samsung (the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2) comes with a micro USB 3.0 port. I wonder if the new USB 3.0 port on the Note Pro 12.2 provides faster charging than the Note 10.1 USB 2.0 port.

Software

Samsung provided its own Samsung Apps store. I discovered that the tablet came with the following freebies which were useful to me:

• 50 GB of Dropbox for 2 years
• Evernote Premium for 1 year

The full list of software freebies can be seen here. There were quite a number of free software (New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek), but I don't find them as useful. They were automatically downloaded and installed from the Samsung Apps store after I have set up my tablet.

The presence of this alternative app store just serves to highlight how amazing the Google Play store is. It is possible to use the web site of Google Play to download apps to any of my Android devices. However, this is not possible with the Samsung Apps web site, so apps that I want to install from Samsung Apps must be done via the app already pre-installed on the tablet. Also, some of the apps require using KIES to download and install on the tablet. That is not really user friendly.

Samsung did this because they wanted an independent store that will also work with their Windows Phone and Tizen devices besides Android. However, the execution is quite mediocre. It reminds me of the TouchWiz experience. Although TouchWiz has a lot of things going for it, its laggardly behaviour is quite disappointing, reflecting poorly on the polish of Samsung software/programming skills. The Samsung Apps store is another facet of this.

However, Samsung has come a long way. When I bought my first Samsung feature phone (the Ultra Edition 8.4), the software that accompanied it was absolutely dreadful. Later, when I bought the Samsung Galaxy S (Super LCD), the software was still bad, but significantly improved. Although the software/firmware on the Note 10.1 is bloated and suffers from sluggish performance, stuff like Multi View, Air View and Air Command are nothing short of amazing.

As I don't use the stylus much, I don't use Air View or Air Command as extensively. But Multi View is something that I use almost every day, as it allows multi-tasking (2 concurrent apps) on Android, something which even Google Nexus devices do not have.

Multi View is how Microsoft should have done their original Metro multitasking interface when Windows 8.0 was first launched. In Metro, the widths of the 2 running tasks were hardcoded to 75% and 25% of the screen width. Multi View allows the user to decide how to resize the width of the 2 concurrent windows.  

In Air Command, you can use the stylus to draw a Pen Window to run another app in a user resizeable/moveable window. Pen Window however is restricted to running a few apps within the small window, unlike Multi View which seems to support a larger number of apps.

I do have a quibble. The S-Pen software doesn't seem to offer a good handwriting recognition utility that will work with any third party app. In the Windows 8 tablets, there is a pretty good handwriting recognition utility that will work with Notepad, Wordpad, or any other program. The S-Pen handwriting recognition seems to work only with the S Note app, but not with other apps.

 

Final Thoughts

The pace of hardware innovation on tablets is slowing. New iterations of tablets generally come with more RAM, more storage, more screen area, more CPU cores, more camera mega-pixels. There isn't any new breakthrough component that will make one gasp with excitement. 

With hardware improvements plateauing, the only way for manufacturers to stand out is with more gimmicks (thumb print scanner), or with more innovative software. As the hardware that Samsung is providing is already top notch, Samsung should strive to improve on the firmware/software by optimising the tablet for performance or battery life. I hope Samsung will roll out the update to Android 4.4 for the Note 10.1 quickly, and to vastly improve its responsiveness.