While we are reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, we saw it fit that we compare it with the other small tablets in our labs. The Apple iPad mini is the one and only smaller iPad with a cheaper price as well as better portability obviously, so how does it fare when compared to the Galaxy Note 8.0? Lets find out. Here’s the in-depth video comparison and read past the break for the text –
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA6JVdlvpSs
The Galaxy Note 8.0 falls in the much loved Note range of devices, comprising mostly of phones but some tablets too. Is this a phone? or a tablet? We want to call it a tablet because of the screen size. There are some compromises in hardware though, we will talk about it below. The iPad mini the smaller iPad from Apple, made to compete with all the small tablets, like the Nexus 7 or the various other Android models.
The design of the Note 8.0 reminds us so much of the Samsung galaxy s3, white overall with chrome like plastic on the sides. Glossy plastic and white means the back is a finger print magnet and gets dirty easily, and the devices feels really cheap in the hands. On the other hand, the iPad mini is built with classic Apple-premium aluminium, and is really a better fit in your hands and feels very awesome.
Coming to the dimensions, the Galaxy Note 8.0 is 8mm vs the iPad mini’s 7.2 mm thickness. Not a big difference actually, both are really thin. The Note 8.0 weighs 338g vs the iPad mini’s 308g weight. Again, not a huge difference but the iPad mini felt a lot lighter, and we are not sure why, considering only 30g reduction in weight. Overall, build quality is obviously better on iPad mini.
Talking of the display, the Galaxy Note has a 8 inch screen with a 1280×800 resolution and is of the IPS TFT. It has 189 ppi of pixel density and as a bonus from the Note series, it sports a wacom digitiser for pen input. The iPad mini on the other hand has a 7.9 inch 1024×768 screen made of the IPS TFT type, and due to the low resolution, it has 163 ppi of pixel density. Both are equally bad in pixel density, and equally good in every other parameter, they are both good in colour reproduction, colour quality and viewing angles. Both are amazingly bright and bright enough for reading outdoors.
Talking of the internals the iPad mini is just the iPad 2 with a Apple A5 1 GHz dual core processor and dual core PowerVR graphics with 512 MB of RAM. The Galaxy Note sports a 1.6 GHz quad core Exynos 4412 Mali 400 MP 2 GB of RAM. 16GB internal memory and 3G connectivity options available on both, but the Note 8.0 can make calls too and has an ear piece in the calling version. The performance equally good on both, blazing fast, even though iPad mini is older hardware and definitely lacks in raw performance over the Exynos chip. But the OS optimisation is all that matters.
The cameras on both the devices are very similar with 5 Megapixel photos and 1080p full HD recording, with similar front facing cameras too. While we like the iPad mini’s camera better, we feel that tablets and their rear cameras are not meant to be used as a standalone camera, but otherwise, they perform adequately well and the front facing cameras are great for video calls too.
Speaking of the OS, the iOS vs Android situation in tablets is very much talked about already. You can see that in our various iPad mini companions earlier. There might be a dearth of tablet apps on the Galaxy Note, but this being a Galaxy and a Note, it has lots of Touchwiz features like multi screen, pop-up play, stylus apps etc The creative part of having able to access various Stylus apps is a decent advantage for the Note 8.0, especially with its large screen. And of course, iOS has all the amazing tablet apps that are still not surpassed by any other tablet, so we will give Apple that crucial advantage of apps.
In the end, both are targeting different markets. If WiFi versions alone are to be considered, the iPad mini is better. It is cheap and has a lot of games and apps, but if you want to make calls or use the Stylus for creative manipulation, then the Galaxy Note 8.0 with 3G, which is priced only slightly higher than the 3G iPad mini is a good deal.
And that’s it for our opinion, what do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.