Samsung Galaxy Note 8 vs Nexus 7vs iPad Mini, Will Samsung Win?

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 has finally been unveiled at MWC 2013 (Mobile World Congress), which is undoubtedly give a boost to the tablet market specifically aiming at Apple’s iPad Mini and Nexus 7.

When Samsung is obviously the ruler of the global smartphones market, will it get the same success in tablets? We know, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is the very awesome one, so what’s this one? Maybe one interesting way of appreciating its future success is a comparison with its strong contenders Nexus 7 and iPad Mini.Just let’s have a look at the Galaxy Note 8 vs iPad Mini vs Nexus 7 battle.

Design & Display
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 keeps the classic design of the Note line-up with round edges and plastic back lid, boasting an 8-inch 1,280 x 800 pixels display. Nexus 7 is superior to Note 8 with an elegant design, a textured back for the best grip and a 7-inch 1,280 x 800 pixels screen while Apple’s iPad Mini excels with its premium-looking body, solid construction and a 7.9-inch display with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels.

For portability, Nexus 7 is the most suitable one, second iPad Mini, last Galaxy Note 8. But iPad Mini is the thinnest and lightest one, and also Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is about 2.5 mm thinner than Nexus 7.But for display, Nexus 7 is inarguably the winner, and Note 8 failed in this game.

OS & Software
Running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, Note 8 also features the optimized apps for the S Pen stylus, which allow you to easily draw or edit photos in Photoshop Touch with Handwriting support. Also, the TouchWiz UI of Note 8 offers the popular features on Samsung Galaxy S3 or Note 2 like Pop up Play, Smart Stay. Via Smart Remote app, you can even use Note 8 as a remotecontrol.

Coming with pre-loaded with Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, Nexus 7 is the one of the few device which can upgrade to Android 4.2.2.

The iPad Mini certainly runs iOS 6 out of the box, but it can upgradable to iOS 6.1.2 now.

CPU, RAM & Storage
Note 8 sports the Samsung’s proprietary Exynos 4 Quad chipset based on a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, Mali 400 MP GPU and 2GB of RAM, which is really powerful to make the Note 8 a very fast tablet. It will come with 16 or 32 GB of internal storage, with up to 64GB expanded storage.

Nexus 7 comes with a quad-core 1.2 GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset ,1GB RAM and16GB/32GB models, and iPad Mini only includes a dual-core 1 GHz A5 processor , 512 MB RAM and 16/32/64 GB models.Both of they have no SD card port.

Obviously, Note 8 owns the most powerful hardware platform of the three. But remember although the iPad Mini does badly in this specs term, iOS still runs pretty smooth without the multitasking and other Android features.

Battery, Connectivity & Camera
Note 8 includes a 4,600 mAh battery while iPad Mini and Nexus 7 packs with the same 4,325 mAh battery .In this factor, the three ones is pretty close.

Note 8 uses a 5MP rear camera and a 1.2MP front camera and offers WiFi, 3G and 4G, just the same as iPad Mini while Nexus 7 can only offers WiFi and 3G and a front facing 1.2MP camera.

Verdict
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 definitely is the powerful and attractive device with higher technical specs. And Samsung may become stronger on the tablet market. However, Google and Apple will reportedly upgrade their tablets in 2013, and it is still the beginning of the battle. But until then the Note 8 is an important competitor for both Nexus 7 and iPad Mini.

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CES 2013: An 18.4-inch Asus Transformer Aio Announced for both Android and Windows 8?

Now 2013 CES is arrived and the mystery devices start coming to the surface. And at present the impressive devices mainly the tablets covering the astonished and large Panasonic’s 20 inch 4K Windows 8 tablet, Vizio’s 10 inch Android 4.2 and Tegra 4-based gaming tablet, the called “impressive outside and inside” 9.7 inch Archos 97 Platinum HD tablet ,the first "interpersonal PC" IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC and others.

But the biggest surprise is likely to be 18.4-inch Asus Transformer Aio, the so-called All-in-One device. So what are exactly the features of this device? Just let’s have a look.

Part tablet and part All-in-One PC maybe the very fresh feature of Transformer Aio. Previously, we have known that the software Ubuntu for Android and Ubuntu for phones can let you enjoy both the desktop experience and tablet performance. And we also know that you can match a touch cover like Surface RT to let tablets like a notebook, but Transformer Aio is the first one that combines desktop PC and tablet.

But the most notable feature of Transformer Aio is probably that it comes with a Windows 8 touch-screen desktop and the detached 18.4-inch full HD display which can be as a standalone Android tablet. That is to say, you can experience either Windows 8 or Android and exchange the system on device. Asus promises that the device can run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with a built-in Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and run Windows 8 apps by using "wireless remote desktop technology", Intel's WiDi.

The Transformer AiO will be released in the first quarter of this year with the price of $1,299 with an Intel Core i3 processor, and that Core i5 and i7 versions will also be available. More details are waited to be announced.

When we think that tablet is going towards small, Lenovo and Asus seem to give the new opinion on tablet. The All-In-One is big as a tablet, but it is indeed useful for many of us ,maybe it will be the real replacement of PC. But who knows?

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Best of Tech in 2013: What to Expect From Tablets and Smartphones?

So, now we have to wave our hands to say goodbye to 2012.In terms of tech, 2012 is full of surprise with so much great devices, in which the most notable are tablets and smartphones. So, what exactly can we expect from tablets and smartphones for best tech of 2013?

Cheap but Advance Tablets and Smartphones
The success of Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 no doubt shows that cheap but advance devices are what people really demand and makes it possible to make everyone own a smartphone. Although Apple’s products still rule the market with a higher price, but we can believe Apple will go the trend of cheap and advanced device according the appearing of iPad Mini.

Devices Merging Tablets and Smartphones called phablet
The biggest difference of tablets and smartphones? You can easily think of the question that is tables cannot be used for calling people with a phone card. But things will change. The developer HTC is planning to release the Windows RT tablets which can make phone calls like phone. If this becomes popular, maybe the smartphone will be replaced by the tablet.

Windows 8 Tablets and Smartphones
Nokia recovers its market share with the launching of Windows phone Lumia 920, which without question proves the bright future of windows device. Many famous device producers such as Samsung, HTC, Asus, and others will announce their own windows devices in the first quarter of 2013. It is likely that Windows will be the third wheel in the market.

Retina display iPad mini and iPhone 5S
2012 we ushered in The New iPad, iPad Mini, iPad 4, and what’s in 2013? Rumors say that Apple will bring the Retina display iPad mini in March and iPhone 5S in September. iPad Mini gives people the best small iPad so what will improved with the Retina display iPad mini?Can the iPhone 5S make surprise? Just wait for the last answer.

BlackBerry 10 Devices
RIM is in the same position of the previous Nokia. Nokia restores its market share with Lumia 920 and RIM want to restore its power with the Blackberry 10 devices. It is not fresh news that Blackberry 10 will come up to us, but the phone and the playbook which run the latest blackberry 10 system will be release in 2013. Things go well to RIM with the launch of new system, but whether RIM can hit the market or not is still the doubt.

Google Devices
It is not over that Google Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 are far beyond our expectation. The new system that the device runs also gives us perfect experience. So what’s the next of the nexus and the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean? No statistics. We can just say that we will not disappointed.