Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
When you first switch on your Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 you'll see that it's pre-loaded with all of the native Google applications such as Google Play, Gmail, Google Maps, People, Google+ and Talk.
Samsung has also seen fit to pre-install a number of its own apps that it thinks does Google's job better. You'll find ChatOn, Email, S Note, S Planner, S Suggest and Samsung Apps. None of these offerings are outstandingly brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, although S Note will come in handy with your S-Pen.
Also pre-loaded are AllShare Play, Crayon Physics, Dropbox, Games Hub, Learning Hub, Music Hub, Polaris Office, Smart Remote and Video Hub. Which ones of these you enjoy or delete are entirely up to you - although it's well worth syncing up your Dropbox account, even if only for the 50GB of free cloud storage for two years.
In order to get the most out of your Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, you'll be making numerous visits to Google Play up with all the latest must-have apps and games. You can download and install APK files if you wish, but we'd recommend keeping within Google's app portfolio, or at least using reputable third-party app stores.
Samsung also highlights some of its favourite apps through the S Suggest portal, and the Game Hub is constantly updated with titles that the company thinks that you might like.
Getting your game on with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is great, not just because of the quick performance of the quad-core processor, but because the tablet is light and easy to hold.
This means both onscreen-controlled games and accelerometer-based titles are suitable, and we didn't experience any lag, even with more demanding titles.
Perhaps the killer app of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 setup is the inclusion of Adobe Photoshop Touch out of the box. By combining this premium app (which usually costs £6.99) with the S-Pen, you could be knocking up works of arts in the comfort of your living room in no time.
