Apple iPad Air vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014: Center of gravity
Center of gravity
Synthetic benchmarks
Even low-end phones are getting to the point of "good enough" performance, but we're not looking for that here - we want leading processing power from the Apple iPad Air and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 as they're going to have to runs some complicated apps, not to mention the latest 3D games.
The two run on completely different platforms. The iPad Air has Apple's custom A7 chipset based on the new ARMv8 architecture. The specs sound misleadingly modest - a dual-core CPU at 1.3GHz. The GPU is from the latest PowerVR series from Imagination, Apple's usual GPU partner. The tablet makes do with just 1GB RAM, but limited RAM has never proven to be an issue for iOS.
Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 comes in two versions. One uses the Snapdragon 800 chipset that's ubiquitous on the Android high-end. It has four Krait 400 cores clocked at 2.3GHz an Adreno 330 GPU designed by Qualcomm itself. The other option is Samsung's Exynos chipset with four Cortex-A15 cores (and four power-saving Cortex-A7s) plus a Mali-T628MP6 GPU, all designed by ARM. Both tablet versions have roomy 3GB of RAM.
Note that we're testing the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 with the Exynos chipset.
So, what do all those model numbers mean? It turns out that the processors of both tablets are virtually equal, despite the big core count and clock speed advantage of the Note 10.1. The Samsung tablet comes out ahead in Geekbench 3, while the Apple tablet wins in Linpack, so there might be small variations depending on the exact workload but devs generally have the same amount of horsepower to work with.
Since these tablets will be running full blown Office suites and other complicated apps (like, CAD apps), all that oomph is there to ensure smooth operation.
Geekbench 3
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
2937 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
2743 -
Apple iPad Air
2688 -
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
2670 -
Sony Xperia Z1
2638 -
Apple iPhone 5s
2561 -
Apple iPad mini 2
2512 -
LG G2
2243 -
HTC One
1972 -
HTC One Max
1899 -
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
1869
Linpack
Higher is better
-
Apple iPad Air
1008 -
Apple iPhone 5s
970 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
969 -
Apple iPad mini 2
940 -
Apple iPhone 5
546 -
Apple iPhone 5c
532
Even serious business people will have to admit that gaming makes up a big part of a tablet's usage. We ran off-screen test with GLBenchmark and found out the iPad has slightly more 3D rendering power than the Note 10.1 This is bad news for the Galaxy tablet as it has a higher resolution screen. Apple have always been ahead in terms of GPU and things aren't changing here.
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
-
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
68 -
Apple iPad Air
63 -
Apple iPad mini 2
63 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
60 -
Sony Xperia Z1
60 -
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
60 -
Apple iPhone 5s
56 -
LG G2
54 -
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
43 -
HTC Butterfly S
42 -
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
41 -
HTC One Max
41 -
HTC One
37 -
Apple iPhone 5
30 -
LG Optimus G Pro
30 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
17 -
Samsung Galaxy Note II
17
GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
-
Apple iPad mini 2
27 -
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
26 -
Apple iPad Air
25 -
Sony Xperia Z1
23 -
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
23 -
Apple iPhone 5s
23 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
22 -
LG G2
22 -
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
17.1 -
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
17.1 -
Apple iPad 4
16.8 -
HTC Butterfly S
16 -
HTC One Max
14 -
Google Nexus 10
13.9 -
Sony Xperia Tablet Z
13 -
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
6.3 -
Samsung Galaxy Note II
4.9
Basemark X (off-screen)
Higher is better
-
Apple iPad Air
15.727 -
Apple iPad mini 2
15.456 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
11.446
3DMark - Ice Storm Unlimited
Higher is better
-
Apple iPad Air
14991 -
Apple iPad mini 2
14221 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
13415
Anyway, it's the on-screen tests that matter - 1080p is no longer an impressive resolution for a tablet and most games will run at native resolution (though some have an option to upscale from a lower internal resolution). Both tablets run GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt at playable framerate, but struggle with the newer 2.7 T-Rex. Benchmarks are always ahead of the curve, but it still shows iPad game devs have more room for graphics eye candy than Android game devs.
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (on-screen)
Higher is better
-
Apple iPhone 5s
53 -
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
53 -
Apple iPad Air
49 -
Apple iPad mini 2
49 -
LG G2
48 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
43
GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (on-screen)
Higher is better
-
Apple iPhone 5s
37 -
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
26 -
LG G2
22 -
Apple iPad Air
21 -
Apple iPad mini 2
21 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
14
Basemark X (on-screen)
Higher is better
-
Apple iPad Air
13.651 -
Apple iPad mini 2
13.77 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
7.769
The web also plays a huge role in our modern day lives and it's one of the primary reasons to get a tablet. Both fast JavaScript and good HTML5 rendering performance is needed for complicated web apps to run satisfactory.
Apple has a highly tuned JavaScript engine that outperforms Samsung's by some margin, despite the similar CPU performance. The lead only extends when the browser has to handle rendering complex web pages.
SunSpider
Lower is better
-
Apple iPhone 5s
403 -
Apple iPad Air
421 -
Apple iPad mini 2
421 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
569 -
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
587 -
Apple iPhone 5
694 -
Apple iPhone 5c
704 -
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
750 -
Sony Xperia Z1
845 -
LG G2
908 -
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
1046 -
HTC One
1174 -
HTC One Max
1295
BrowserMark 2
Higher is better
-
Apple iPad Air
3659 -
Apple iPhone 5s
3549 -
Apple iPad mini 2
3500 -
Galaxy Note Note 10.1 2014 Edition
3138 -
Samsung Galaxy Note 3
3041 -
Apple iPhone 5
2825 -
Apple iPhone 5c
2799 -
LG G2
2718 -
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
2438 -
Sony Xperia Z Ultra
2419 -
Sony Xperia Z1
2398 -
HTC Butterfly S
2378 -
HTC One
2262 -
HTC One Max
2243 -
Sony Xperia Tablet Z
2170 -
Google Nexus 10
1773
Winner: Apple iPad Air. It looked close for a moment, but the iPad Air leads in 3D and web performance.
That's not to say that there are tasks the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 can't handle. Still, if cutting edge performance is what you are after, the iPad is a nose ahead.
Reader comments
- Greenkhan
- 05 Sep 2021
- uLc
Wow, someone who thinks of Apple like I do. Bang on what I always tell people.
- tekno12
- 17 Nov 2016
- PSv
While this is a good review for both units, the reviewer seemed more "excited" and a little biased favoring galaxy note 10. From my observation, the descriptions and technical details is almost always longer for the samsung unit. It's as if the revie...
- SeanF
- 16 Oct 2015
- ruf
Having access to both older units and watching the iOS vs. Android battle rage on, after owning both a Apple iPad 2 and a Samsung GTab p5100 I can for sure say the iPads outlast the droids by a long way. As the OS evolves often the droids run out of ...