Normally I do film reviews for Sundays, but thanks to my recent travels to Rome and family visits for Easter and my birthday, I haven’t seen a first-run movie in over a month.  I’ll get back to it this week, but again thanks to my birthday and my trip to Rome, I decided that I needed to rethink my tablet needs when family asked me what I wanted as a gift.  My iPad is the original release version, which is almost as heavy as a laptop and almost as bulky when in a case with a bluetooth keyboard.  I left it at home when I went to Rome, relying on my Macbook and paper notebooks for jotting down quick takes (and on my cellphone for GPS needs).  I wanted a tablet option with lighter weight, more speed, and preferably small enough to carry in my Canon camera bag while on assignment.

At first, the obvious option would be the iPad mini.  I’m familiar with the interface, the Retina display is best in class by far (see update below), and using the Mac as my computing platform makes it more convenient.  However, I preferred to go outside of the Apple world because I still plan on making use of my iPad. Why own two of them at a time? Also, I had begun to scope out some other tablet options in the Windows 8 and Android markets, especially from Samsung, and liked having the option to use MicroSD chips to expand storage; none of the iPads have that option.

Unfortunately, none of the other tablets came in the same size as the iPad mini.  The one I preferred was the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, but that had a 10.1″ screen, almost the same size as my iPad. Samsung and others had 7″ tablet options, but the power and performance scaled down considerably (although the price was a lot lower, too).  I had all but resigned myself to an iPad mini when a Best Buy associate tipped me off last weekend that Samsung had an 8″ tablet ready for release in a few days, one that had the same capabilities as the Galaxy Tab 2 — the Galaxy Note 8, which I picked up on Thursday, for $399 on its first day of availability.

The Galaxy Note 8 was easy to start using, in part because I already own a Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone.  Thanks to the Google Play management system, all of my current apps migrated automatically to the Note, along with the wi-fi networks saved (but not the passwords). Oddly, the only two I needed to redownload were Amazon apps for the Kindle and for on-line shopping. Otherwise, the process took place without any intervention on my part.  I added a 32GB MicroSD card to immediately bump up the capacity from 16GB to 48GB, but the device will take a 64GB MicroSD card.

Most of the tablet’s functions will be so similar to that of other tablets as to make them irrelevant for a review.  The iPad Mini’s biggest advantage, its Retina display, is almost irrelevant, too. The Note’s display is crisp and colorful, with no chunkiness or pixilation at all.  Without question, the iPad Mini is superior, but the difference isn’t really all that significant for practical use.  I downloaded an HD movie from Xfinity (John Carter) and watched the action sequences, which come through brilliantly.  I’ll probably only rarely use the Note for this purpose, though, and the e-mail, web-surfing, and note-taking functions look very sharp and crisp.

The one big difference is the use of the S-pen stylus system. When I go on the road to conferences (and conclaves), I take paper notepads and pens with me to jot down notes, as both a laptop and an iPad is rather inconvenient for that purpose.  I also am attending school, and I use the iPad, the bluetooth keyboard, and Evernote to take my notes.  The Galaxy Note allows me to handwrite my notes and converts them into text immediately in any application, which the iPad Mini does not.  I thought that might be a little gimmicky, and it does have its quirks.  However, I used it for a two-hour class yesterday (in Evernote), and I believe it may have been a little more efficient for note-taking than the iPad/Bluetooth keyboard. Plus, it doesn’t require a tabletop, which is sometimes an issue in this school.  I also used this function for Twitter (Tweetcaster) and e-mail for the last three days, and it has been almost as good as the iPad/Bluetooth keyboard combination, and a lot better than the iPad alone or smartphone touch-typing option.  I may never go back to touch-typing on tablets at all, in fact.

Two words of caution about the stylus, however.  It has a function button located conveniently where you’d normally grip a pen, but that creates a lot of inadvertent function calls.  It takes a while to get accustomed to it. Second, I made the mistake of buying the Zagg Invisible Shield with the tablet ($29). If you plan on making a lot of use of the stylus, the shield is a very bad idea.  It snags the stylus, and the stylus will immediately leave grooves all over the shield.  Spend $49 and buy the cover, which should be sufficient for protecting the tablet. Also, one last pro tip: turn the tablet upside down when using the handwriting functions.  Right-handed users will have the side of their hand landing on the back button, which will create all sorts of frustration.

Another function that’s more fun than productive is the Galaxy Note’s SmartPeel universal television remote.  It takes a short time to set up, but it works well as long as you’re close enough to the devices. The app will look up the cable or satellite-TV schedules and present you with options in genres of your choosing in both movies and TV shows.  It spotted a documentary that I would have otherwise missed the very first night I used it, for instance, so it’s already proven itself valuable. The app will store multiple rooms for controls, too. (The power-saving settings may interfere with this function, so be aware of that when troubleshooting.)

The Galaxy Note has two cameras, front and back, and both can take video; the rear camera can handle 720 HD.  The cameras on the Note are slightly better than the iPad Mini, but neither are anywhere as good as my Canon DSLR. Nevertheless, it takes a decent picture, as these two photos will show. The first is an indoor picture using the rear camera:

This was taken with the front camera:

Again, these aren’t portrait quality, but they’re not bad for snapshots and breaking-news images.

The look and feel of the Galaxy Note 8 is very pleasing.  It’s not too heavy, but substantial enough to avoid feeling cheap.  With the cover — I chose white to match the tablet — it is very convenient, and even fits within the front pocket of my Canon camera bag, as I’d hoped.  So far, this is exactly what I had in mind for a working tablet option, and I’d highly recommend it for anyone shopping in this price range.

 Update: l stand corrected: the iPad Mini doesn’t have the Retina display. Also, I wrote this update with the stylus on the tablet.