Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A vs Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Some products in every market go hand in hand. Such products are known as complementary products with respect to each other. When the sales volume of one product increases, it is logical to deduct that the sale volume of complementary product also increases. Obviously the sales volume is heavily dependent on the price, as well. The most rudimentary example for this is Printers and ink cartridges; when the sales of printers goes up, it’s only logical to deduct for the sales volume of ink cartridges to go up, as well. This relationship is known as negative cross elasticity of demand in economics. However, what we are trying to imply is something that has been argued over and over again by prominent analysts and economists around the world since the tablet culture came to being. Are smartphones and Tablets complementary products?
Unfortunately, there’s no logical explanation on this matter although there are two camps supporting either sides. The way we interpret this question is by looking at the recent developments in the smartphone and tablet market. For instance, it can be seen that the volume of tablets been sold has increased while smartphone sales volume has stayed more or less the same. However, this doesn’t indicate that they are complementary goods. Since the tablets come in different sizes and there is a merge between tablets and smartphones, it’s highly unlikely for the two product categories to be complementary goods. So we will base our comparison accordingly. This is rather important for our discussion today, because we are going to discuss about two manufactures that are pursuing each other aggressively. Samsung is the more prominent brand in the tablet market with a solid market share while Lenovo is trying to gain a sound ground for their sales. We will discuss Samsung’s new Galaxy Note line, which is primarily aimed at taking notes, and hence the name Note. The counterpart we have today will be Lenovo IdeaTab 2110A. Let us see how both going to appease the customers.
Lenovo IdeaTad S2110A Review
The Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A has 10.1 inches IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and 10 points multi-touch, which is a state of the art screen panel and resolution. It has 178° viewing angle. Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A has 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 8960 dual core processor with 1GB of RAM. This beast of hardware is controlled by Android OS v4.0 IceCreamSandwich, and Lenovo has included a completely modified UI called Mondrain UI for their Idea Tab.
Lenovo Idea Tab S2110A comes in three storage configurations, 16 / 32 / 64 GBs with the ability to expand the storage using a microSD card. It features 5MP rear camera with auto focus and geo-tagging with Assisted GPS. While the camera isn’t that good, it has decent performance verifiers. IdeaTab S2110A will come in 3G connectivity, not 4G connectivity, which certainly is a surprise, and it also has Wi-Fi 801.11 b/g/n for continuous connectivity, and this tablet can control a smart TV so they have a variation of DLNA included in IdeaTab S2110A, as well. It also has a micro HDMI port that can be used to connect to a HDTV for full HD viewing.
Following the footsteps of Asus, Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A also comes with a keyboard dock that has some additional battery life, as well as, additional ports and an optical track pad. It’s such a good concept to be replicated from Asus, and we reckon it would be a deal changer for Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A.
Lenovo has also made this Tablet rather thin scoring a mere 8.69mm of thickness and 580g of weight, which is surprisingly light. The inbuilt battery can score up to 9 -10 hours as per Lenovo, and if you hook it up with the keyboard dock, 20 hours of total battery life is guaranteed by Lenovo which is a very good move.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Review
We can start this review by saying that this is more or less the same tablet as Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with some improvements and the S-Pen stylus. The Galaxy Note 10.1 is powered by 1.4GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM. It does sound old school with the Quad core tablets out there in the market, but rest assured, this is one beast of a tablet. Android OS 4.0 ICS is the operating system, and it really does justice to this tablet. It has 10.1 inches PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 149ppi. It perfectly resembles Galaxy Tab 10.1 with the same outline and build quality, same dimensions and same colors. The display panel and resolution are the same, as well. The curved edges enable you to hold on to this device for prolonged periods of time and they equally make it comfortable when writing with the S-Pen Stylus.
Unfortunately, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is not a GSM device, so you won’t be able to make calls from it. However, Samsung has enabled it to connect via HSDPA and EDGE so you can always stay in touch. As a precaution, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n is also included, and it can also act as a Wi-Fi hotspot and share your internet connection with friends. This handset comes with three storage options, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB with the option to expand the storage using a microSD card. It has 3.15MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash and a 2MP front camera bundled together with Bluetooth v3.0 for video conferencing. The camera can capture 1080p HD videos at 30 frames per second and it also has Geo tagging with Assisted GPS. The advantage of the S-Pen stylus is imminent in the preloaded applications like Adobe Photoshop Touch and Ideas. The slate has both GPS and GLONASS and comes with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and on device encryption along with Cisco VPN capability for the use of a businessperson. In addition, it has the normal features of an Android tablet and comes with a 7000mAh battery, so it would score a battery life of 9 hours or more like the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
A Brief Comparison Between Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
• Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A is powered by 1.5GHz dual core processor on Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset with 1GB of RAM while Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is powered by 1.4GHz dual core processor and a variant of quad core GPU.
• Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A runs on Android OS v4.0.4 ICS while Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 also runs on Android v4.0 IceCreamSandwich.
• Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A has 10.1 inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 while Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has 10.1 inches PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen display featuring a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at a pixel density of 149ppi.
• Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A has 5MP camera while Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has 3.15MP camera that can capture 1080p HD videos @ 30 fps.
• Lenovo IdeaTab S2110A scores 9 hours of battery life without the dock and 20 hours with the dock while Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 reports a battery life of 8 hours.
• Lenovo IdeaTab 2110A doesn’t indicate the compatibility with an S-Pen stylus while Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 supports the S-Pen Stylus.
Conclusion
These two tablets have their strong suites in the same sections and possess the same weaknesses. In essence, we had a hard time finding a distinction point for each tablet. Nonetheless, this is our findings. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 can be strongly recommended for note taking purposes because of the wonderful support it shows in using S Pen Stylus. It’s not every day you find a tablet that can take good use of a stylus. On top of that, it has a stylish look and very solid body that is an absolute pleasure to hold on to it. In terms of performance, both of these tablets are on the same ground featuring a dual core processor clocked at 1.5GHz and 1.4GHz respectively. The slight difference in the clock speeds is unlikely to make any difference in the performance. The next important thing that caught our eye is that Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 supports HSDPA connectivity, which will come in handy if you live in an area where Wi-Fi networks are not frequent to come by. Then again, you can just as well use a Wi-Fi device to compensate this, as well.
So what do we have to pay for these two packages? As you can see, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is a premium package offering better versatility and performance matrices. Hence it has a high price tag which may scare off customers. On the contrary, Lenovo IdeaTab 2110A is offered at $384 which we think is somewhat fair for a tablet of this caliber. So we think the purchase decision would depend on the tablet you’re looking for and the investment you’re willing to put on it. Rest assured, both of these tablets aren’t going to be a disappointment.