Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 review: Second time lucky

Google Maps and unlimited navigation, in supported countries

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with a GPS receiver, which got a satellite lock in under two minutes with A-GPS turned off. A-GPS can speed this up quite a bit, but requires Internet access. We gotta say, we didn't experience any issues with signal reception.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 comes with Google Maps and Navigation. Voice-guided navigation has become a viable solution since the v5.0 update. Vector maps are smaller and way easier on your data plan and 3rd party SatNav apps are in danger.

For now though, turn-by-turn voice guidance using Google Maps Navigation is only available in select countries and unless you live in one of them, the best you can do is plan a route in advance and keep an eye on your current location during travel.

Google Maps with vector maps does a bit of 3D

Quite naturally, the app also supports the Street View mode. If it's available in the area you're interested in, you can enjoy a 360-degree view of the surroundings. When the digital compass is turned on it feels like making a virtual tour of the location.

Vector graphics

If Google Maps Navigation doesn't do it for you, you can grab an alternative app from the Android Market - there are both free and paid ones.

Google Play and Samsung apps, Hubs for books and music

The Google Play Store offers a huge number of apps, so you can be sure that you won't be having a shortage of software to install on your Galaxy Note 10.1. The only problem is the portion of the apps designed to work on a 10" WXGA screen is relatively small, especially when compared to the number of apps in the Apple App Store optimized for the iPad. S

Google Play store

There are featured apps, editors' picks and staff-recommended apps in addition to the usual top free and top paid.

The top new paid and top new free lists are worth checking out too and you shouldn't forget the trending apps. Naturally, there is a built-in search and categories for the different types of apps so you don't get lost. Recommendations are also based on your location to make it even easier to spot a quality app in the new Android market.

And if by some reason, the Google Play repository on the market isn't enough for you, you might want to check out some of the alternatives. Amazon has set up its own appstore and so has Opera, plus a few more minor app stores here and there. Choice is one of the best parts of the open platform.

Samsung's own store called Samsung Apps is also on board. There you can get a lot of free apps for your tablet.

Samsung Apps

Music Hub is here too. It has quite the music collection and the prices are pretty much the same as on the iTunes Store.

Another interesting store is the Readers Hub. There you can purchase subscriptions (or single issues) of newspapers (PressDisplay service), magazines (Zinio service) and e-Books (Kobo service). It's really comfy to have this entire functionality in a single reading app - good job, Samsung!

The Readers Hub