Samsung Galaxy Note Pro and Tab Pro hands-on: First look

Introduction

Traditionally Samsung hasn't been the most exciting company to watch at CES, but this year the Koreans are really making their presence felt. Bringing the big tablet guns, the company definitely has some of the hottest hardware of the show at its booth.

As a welcome change of pace, we aren't just treated to TVs and Smart home appliances. Samsung has the Pro range of tablets on display, which spans across two families of ultra-high-res powerhouses.

The Samsung Galaxy Note Pro leads the charge and there are three Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro slates to cover its back. Here's the kicker - we have a new tablet size in town - 12.2 inches. That's not very surprising of Samsung, as the company has been keen on experimenting with new form factors and sizes, some of which have yielded amazing results - take the Galaxy Note line-up of phablets, for example.

The new standard is offered on two different slates - the S Pen-enabled Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and the conventional Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2. Those two are joined by the more straightforward Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 and another new size for Samsung with the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4. The latter is a direct competitor to the LG G Pad 8.3 and we're eager to see whether it's a worthy one.

Anyway, we have met with all of them at the CES 2014 and we're ready with our first rundown. Before that though, let's take a look at what the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and the variously sized Galaxy Tab Pro slates offer.

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 at a glance:

• Form factor: Tablet
• Size: 295.6 x 204 x 7.95 mm, 750 g
• Display: 16M colors 12.2" Super Clear LCD capacitive touchscreen of 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution
• OS: Android 4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz UI
• Chipset (LTE): Quad-core 2.3GHz Krait 400 CPU, Adreno 330GPU, 3GB of RAM, Snapdragon 800 chipset
• Chipset (3G, Wi-Fi): Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7, Mali-T628 MP6 GPU; 3GB of RAM, Exynos 5420 chipset
• Camera: 8MP main camera; 2MP front-facing camera
• Video camera: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@120fps video capture
• Memory: 32GB/64GB of inbuilt storage, microSD card slot, up to 64GB
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 3.0 port with backwards compatibility with microUSB 2.0, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, NFC, Ethernet connectivity via adapter
• Battery: 9500mAh
• Extra features: S-Pen support, S Note, Scrapbook, Action Memo, Air Commands software to take advantage of S Pen, free subscriptions to various services including Dropbox, Evernote, Bitcasa, NY Times, LinkedIn, Remote PC, Cisco WebEx Meetings and more

Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 at a glance:

• Form factor: Tablet
• Size: 295.6 x 204 x 7.9 5mm, 732 g
• Display: 16M colors 12.2" LCD capacitive touchscreen of 2560x1600 pixel (WQXGA) resolution
• OS: Android 4.4 KitKat
• Chipset (LTE): Quad-core 2.3GHz Krait 400 CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, 3GB of RAM, Snapdragon 800 chipset
• Chipset (Wi-Fi): Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7, PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU, 3GB of RAM, Exynos 5410 chipset
• Camera: 8MP main camera; 2MP front-facing camera
• Video camera: 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@120fps video capture
• Memory: 32GB/64GB internal memory, microSD card slot
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, 30-pin connector
• Battery: 9500mAh
• Extra features: Scrapbook, free subscriptions to various services including Dropbox, Evernote, Bitcasa, NY Times, LinkedIn, Remote PC, Cisco WebEx Meetings and more

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 official photos

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 at a glance:

• Form factor: Tablet
• Size: 343.1 x 171.4 x 7.3mm, 469 g
• Display: 16M colors 10.1" LCD capacitive touchscreen of 2560x1600 pixel (WQXGA) resolution
• OS: Android 4.4 KitKat
• Chipset (LTE): Quad-core 2.3GHz Krait 400 CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM, Snapdragon 800 chipset
• Chipset (Wi-Fi): Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7, PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU, 3GB of RAM, Exynos 5410 chipset
• Camera: 8MP main camera; 2MP front-facing camera
• Video camera: 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@120fps video capture
• Memory: 16GB/32GB internal memory, microSD card slot
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, 30-pin connector
• Battery: 8,200mAh

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 official photos

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 at a glance:

• Form factor: Tablet
• Size: 128.5 x 219 x 7.2 mm, 331 g
• Display: 16M colors 8.4" LCD capacitive touchscreen of 2560x1600 pixel (WQXGA) resolution
• OS: Android 4.4 KitKat
• Chipset (LTE): Quad-core 2.3GHz Krait 400 CPU, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM, Snapdragon 800 chipset
• Chipset (Wi-Fi): Quad-core 1.9 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7, PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU, 3GB of RAM, Exynos 5410 chipset
• Camera: 8MP main camera; 2MP front-facing camera
• Video camera: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60/30fps, 720p@120fps video capture
• Memory: 16GB/32GB internal memory, microSD card slot
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 4.0, 30-pin connector
• Battery: 4800mAh

Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 official photos

In terms of hardware, the lineup is as impressive as it gets and the fact that it's powered by Android 4.4 KitKat with the latest TouchWiz enhancements makes it almost too tempting. The WQXGA resolution is impressive whichever way you look at it. First introduced by the Google Nexus 10 more than a year ago, Samsung tested the display with the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 before bringing it to the Note Pro and Tab Pro slates.

Samsung also unveiled the Galaxy Camera 2, an Android-powered point-and-shoot. It's mostly unchanged from the original version though.

Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 at a glance

• Form factor: Point-and-shoot camera
• Size: 132.5 x 71.2 x 19.3 mm, 283 g
• Display: 4.8" Super Clear LCD capacitive touchscreen of 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution
• OS: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with TouchWiz UI
• Chipset: Quad-core 1.6GHz CPU,
• Camera: 16.3MP effective resolution; 1/2.3" BSI sensor
• Lens: 21x optical zoom, optical image stabilization
• Video camera: 1080p@30fps, 720p@60fps, 512p@120fps video capture
• Flash: pop-up xenon flash, AF light
• Memory: 8GB of inbuilt storage, only 2.8GB user-available; microSD card slot, up to 64GB
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, microUSB 2.0 port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack
• Battery: 2,000mAh
• Extra features: Tag & go, remote viewfinder

Samsung Galaxy Camera 2 official photos

Follow us onto the next page, where we take a look at the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 and see if it's as cool in real life as it is on paper.