Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 vs Samsung Galaxy Note ~ GoAndroid

We pit Samsung's new 5.3-inch Galaxy Note smartphone against it's larger cousin, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

Form
The Galaxy Tab has two faces really, on the screen side you’ve got a stylish shiny black bezel which is evenly spaced round the whole display for a very clean look.
Turn the device over and you’re presented with a much more raw looking surface of brushed silver-coloured aluminium.
Either way you flip it there’s not a lot of noise or disruption going on, Samsung has kept visual clutter to a minimum and the shape is appealing to the eye as its corners are neither too soft nor too angular.
The Galaxy Note immediately looks good thanks to a super thin bezel along two of its edges – a design feature which in our view makes for instant visual flair when applied to any gadget with a screen.
The back panel is particularly nice thanks to a slight curvature and a textured surface, apart from this just like the rest of Samsung’s designs it is quite minimalist, which is a look that works well here.
We think both devices look equally good.
Winner - Draw

DisplayBoth devices feature Samsung’s own Super AMOLED technology for their displays, although it should be noted the Galaxy Tab 7.7 uses the upgraded Super AMOLED Plus version while the Galaxy Note is on the brand new Super AMOLED HD variant.
The Galaxy Tab 7.7 has a cunning clue in its name regarding the size of its capacitive touchscreen, with a 7.7-inch display and an 800x1280 pixel resolution, the Galaxy Tab sports a pixel density of 196 pixels-per-inch (ppi).
It’s loaded with Samsung’s TouchWiz UX user interface (UI), supports multi-touch and is fitted with an accelerometer and gyro sensor for screen rotation.
Samsung’s rather large smartphone, the Galaxy Note, has a slightly smaller capacitive touchscreen at 5.3-inches, made from Gorilla Glass and with multi-touch support.
A modified TouchWiz 4.0 UI is pre-installed and allows for things like split screen menus and app screens, as well as supporting the innovative S Pen stylus included with the device.
It also has accelerometer and gyro sensors built in.
Screen resolution is the same as the larger Galaxy Tab 7.7, but the smaller size means a higher pixel density of 285ppi.
The Galaxy Note’s display is our first choice here thanks to the unique S Pen stylus support and interface tweaks which really make the best use of the vast screen space.
Not only that, but it also has a much higher pixel density and the added bonus of superior Super AMOLED HD.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy Note

StorageSamsung’s 7.7-inch tablet has three internal storage options for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of space, each with 1GB of RAM and microSD support up to 32GB.
The Galaxy Note is similar, the only difference is it doesn’t have that top-end 64GB onboard storage option.
The Galaxy Tab 7.7 wins this round by having more storage to play with.
Winner – Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

Processor
Processor setups on these devices are identical – each has a 1.4GHz dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor on the Exynos chipset and running a Mali-400MP graphics processing unit (GPU).

Winner - Draw

Operating System
These are both Android devices, the Samsung Galaxy Note runs Gingerbread 2.3 while the larger Galaxy Tab 7.7 uses the tablet-specific 3.2 Honeycomb build.

Gingerbread is generally showing its age now compared with other operating systems and indeed subsequent Android builds currently on the market.

What is commendable is the multi-tasking and app management capabilities, as well as the performance, which is fantastic on the Galaxy Note.

Apart from this it feels a little lacking in features, the browser doesn’t have tabs which is just plain odd.

However, with the interface modifications made by Samsung specially for the Galaxy Note there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening here.

Web pages are viewed full size and most native app menus and interface features include split screen modes. Generally Samsung has tried to make the best possible use of the vast screen space.

It also has some nifty tricks with the S Pen, including a double-tap Memo feature and a quick-swap overlay to allow you to make notes on top of web pages and documents.

Honeycomb’s native state feels more complete than Gingerbread. Performance wise we’d say it’s on a similar level to Gingerbread, particularly as both devices are equally powerful, you’re probably not going to notice a difference as both will be smooth.

It also features the same great multi-tasking and app control capabilities, but actually has a much better quick app switching feature built into the interface.

One really annoying thing is the touch keyboard, because although it’s good there’s a key to close it right next to the key used to toggle between letters and numbers.

We’re sure you can imagine how frustrating it is to repeatedly have your keyboard close in the middle of typing.

Apart from this, we’d say Honeycomb is better. The Galaxy Tab wins.

Winner – Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

Camera
Tablets are often slightly lacking in the camera department and sadly this is also the case with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.

It packs a 3.15-megapixel primary camera at 2048x1536 pixels and capable of 720p video capture.

It’s video call-friendly and also sports a 2-megapixel secondary camera on the front.

Features include geo-tagging, autofocus and an LED flash.

The Note is far better equipped, but then it is one of Samsung’s top-of-the-range smartphones even if it is approaching tablet size.

It uses an 8-megapixel primary camera at 3264x2448 pixels able to record video at 1080p. It also boasts a 2-megapixel secondary camera with video calling capability.

It’s also loaded with more features than its larger cousin, it has the same LED flash, geo-tagging and autofocus, but stacked on top is touch focus, image stabilisation, multi-shot, face and smile detection and panoramic capture mode.

The Galaxy Note has a clear victory when it comes to cameras.

Winner – Samsung Galaxy Note

Final Thoughts
We’d say overall these are fairly evenly matched devices, particularly when you boil it down to the bare bones with things like the processor setup.

The Galaxy Note has a better camera, a better display and the delights of the unrivalled S Pen stylus.

Meanwhile the Galaxy Tab 7.7 has superior storage capabilities, at least if you buy the 64GB version, and a better ‘vanilla’ operating system.

Though it must be said Samsung’s revamp of Gingerbread for the Galaxy Note is some very persuasive stuff indeed.

The most important thing is that the smaller size, portability and S Pen stylus on the Galaxy Note mean it is a totally different experience from the Galaxy Tab 7.7, which is at the end of the day a regular 7-inch tablet, albeit a rather good one.