My darling picked up a Samsung Note 8 for me recently. The whole compact tablet thing has left me pretty cold, even though I'm a died in the wool technophile. The ones I've seen have been poor substitutes for the full size tablets and over priced to boot. Apple is and will remain no-go for me and so is Microsoft's attempts at taking on the mobile world. That leaves the Android market as the only option, and as mentioned they haven't had much to get my attention. Then the Note 8 popped onto my radar and my wife found out and decided to pick it up for my birthday.

When shopping for a tablet it helps to ask yourself "what would I use it for?". That narrows things down a lot. The main advantage of the Note 8 is the decent processor and reasonable amount of RAM it has. This makes it quick and easy to run rather than lagging behind your thought process. It's got a useable camera for video chat and a halfway decent camera for picture taking. But what really drew my attention is the build in stylus. It is capable of taking your handwriting and translating it into text. This can be used for taking (legible) notes and even for surfing the web and such. I can still type faster and more accurately than I can use the stylus, but it beats trying to type on a touch screen all hollow. Some might prefer the larger 10" screen version, but it's too bulky for my use most of the time. The 8" fits into my bag and is light weight and stays out of the way until needed. It'll run all kinds of Android apps, but also comes with some nifty ones designed for use with that stylus. One can even combine the text function with sketches for jotting down ideas/concepts. The quality of the video and the pictures on the screen is quite decent. It's not one of the cheap ones, by any means, but if you are looking for a good tool in the tablet area, it's well worth taking a look at. She got me the WiFi only version, it'll tie into my cell phone data plan when I need 'net connection away from home/office and doesn't require a separate SIM card with monthly bill to run.