By: TECHTOWN    1:23:00 AM  No comments

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro vs. Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2, 10.1 and 8.4

By Will Shanklin

Samsung is about to unleash a whole mess of high-end tablets on us. With four Galaxy Pro tablets – the Galaxy Note Pro, Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2, Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1, and Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 – to choose from, we thought we'd line them up and take a look at their features and specs.

Size

The two 12.2-in tablets, the Galaxy Note Pro and Galaxy Tab 12.2, are enormous. Just consider that the Tab Pro 10.1 is roughly the same size as the iPad Air, and it looks pretty small next to the two 12-inchers. The Tab Pro 8.4, a bit larger than the iPad mini, is absolutely dwarfed by them.

For the rest of this comparison we're going to prop up the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 in portrait mode. Apparently that's how Samsung sees you using it, as it's the only one in this bunch with its navigation buttons positioned below the screen for portrait use.

Weight

All of the tablets feel very light relative to their respective sizes. The most interesting item to note here is that the Galaxy Note Pro is a little heavier than the Tab Pro 12.2, despite the two slates being almost physically identical. Maybe Samsung included the Note Pro's S Pen (stylus) with its official weight?

Build

It's pleather all around, as Samsung's new favorite material adorns all of the new Galaxy Pro tablets.

Colors

All of the slates are available in both black and white color options.

Display

The two 12-inchers give you much more screen real estate than the other two, but is all that screen necessary? For the majority of customers, we imagine the 10.1-in screen will be more than enough space. It will be interesting to see if many shoppers respond to these humongo-tablets.

If you prefer mini-tablets, then the Tab Pro 8.4 has one big advantage. With the same 2,560 x 1,600 resolution squeezed onto a smaller display, it's the sharpest of the bunch with a terrific 359 pixels per inch.

Stylus

This is the big differentiator between the Note Pro and the Tab Pro 12.2. You get Samsung's famous S Pen (familiar from other Galaxy Note phablets and tablets) and all of the stylus-based software tweaks that go along with it.

Software

All four tablets run Android 4.4 KitKat with a thick layer of Samsung TouchWiz slapped on top. This time that includes the new Magazine UX, which puts Windows 8-like live tiles on your home screen.

The Note Pro and Tab Pro 12.2 also feature a pretty generous selection of bundled premium services, including Dropbox, Bitcasa, NY Times, Evernote, Bloomberg Businessweek＋, Blurb, and Cisco WebEx Meetings. Samsung says that these services are worth around US$700.

Storage

The big boys also have higher storage tiers than the two smaller (relatively speaking) tablets. All four support microSD cards, a Samsung standard – even as most of the mobile world has moved past microSDs.

Wireless

As you'd expect, we have both Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi with LTE models for all four tablets.

Cameras

It looks like we have the same cameras in all four tablets as well. The 8-megapixel resolutions on their rear cameras are higher than most competing tablets.

Battery

We'll have to wait before jumping to any conclusions about actual battery life, but all four tablets hold quite a bit of juice.

Processor

At least three of the four tablets are sold with different processors, depending on the wireless configuration you pick. For the Tab Pro 8.4, Samsung only lists the Snapdragon 800, but adds the footnote "the selection of [application processors] will be different by markets."

RAM

The twin towers give you an extra 1 GB of RAM over their two little brothers.

Starting prices

Is a stylus worth an extra $100? Of course the cheap piece of plastic known as the S Pen isn't, but perhaps you'll decide that the software-based perks of using a stylus are.

The Tab Pro 10.1 matches its biggest rival, the iPad Air, at $500. And go figure, the Tab Pro 8.4 matches its biggest rival, the iPad mini with Retina Display, at $400.

For more on Samsung's new tablets, you can check out our hands-ons with the Note Pro and Tab Pros from CES.