New iPad vs Galaxy Note 10.1: Will Apple Beat Samsung’s Best Bet?

Apple has finally launched its much-awaited iPad - the New iPad. Stunning features, zippy processor and an amazing HD display, all that you wanted to see in your tablet, are now packed in Apple's latest iPad. But are they enough to compete with its Android rival Samsung?

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 tab, with its innovative pressure-sensitive Wacom stylus support, will be one of the finest Android tablets available in the market once it is released.

However, Apple CEO Tim Cook's use of a Galaxy Tab to demonstrate Android's weak Twitter app during the iPad launch event, evoked Samsung's agitation and the Korean electronic giant has retaliated by sending out a comparison chart demonstrating how the New iPad falls flat on the face against the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

Samsung, as expected, has pointed out that the Note 10.1 is optimized for precision writing/drawing and allows you to write as you would with pen/pencil and paper using the bundled S Pen.

Galaxy Note 10.1, which was unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is the second entry in the company's pen-and touch-capable Galaxy Note line and Samsung's latest tab packs some great features. But the New iPad comes with some never-seen-before features and modifications in the back cover and ergonomics.

Let's check out the specification of both these tablets and see whether Samsung gets a chance to take a bit out of Apple.

Dimensions: The New iPad has dimensions of 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4 mm and weighs about 662 grams, in comparison with Samsung Note 10.1 which has dimensions of 256.7 x 175.3 x 8.9 mm and weighs about 583 grams.

Display: The USP of the 9.7-inch New iPad is its ultra-high resolution Retina IPS LED-backlit display which comes with 2048 x 1536 pixel resolutions at 264 pixels per inch, the most ever in a mobile device say the Apple. The new display has as much as 44 percent greater color saturation with an amazing 3.1 million pixels, which is four times the number of pixels in iPad 2 and about a million more than an HDTV. According to an Apple marketing honcho, Until you see it, you can't understand how amazing it is.

The new tablet also boasts of a scratch resistant glass and an improved oleophobic coating.

On the other hand, Galaxy Note tab will come with a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixels Widescreen PLS TFT capacitive touchscreen display with 149 ppi pixel density.

Operating System: The New iPad supports the latest iOS 5.1, which was released at the same event and is just a minor update bringing a refreshed camera app, multi-language dictation and a personal hotspot function. An IPSW version of iOS 5.1 is already out via Jailbreak.

Galaxy Note 10.1, on the other hand, runs on Google's latest Android OS, version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Camera: Apple has finally addressed the poor camera issue with the New iPad. Though the specifications are equally good for Samsung, yet the Apple tablet has brought into some extraordinary features that might give the Cupertino based company an upper hand over the Samsung tablet.

The New iPad has arrived with a primary 5 megapixel, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus rear-facing camera with iSight and CMOS sensor setup, and features such as Touch focus, geo-tagging, HDR, face detection and more with video capabilities of 1080p at 30fps and video stabilization. A front-facing secondary VGA camera is also available. The new camera has features like backside illumination, auto-exposure, autofocus, face detection in still images, video stabilization, a fifth lens and hybrid IR filter.

As for the front-facing videoconferencing camera, Apple has maintained the same FaceTime camera with VGA-quality photos and video at up to 30 frames per second.

On the other hand, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has a primary 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, LED flash camera with geo-tagging and video capabilities of 1080p at 30fps. An additional front-facing 2 megapixel camera for video chat is also available.

Processor: Apple, as promised, has packed in a much faster processor in the latest iPad than its predecessors. The New iPad runs on a dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9 CPU and Apple A5X chipset. A PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU has been added to give some extra boost in the performance.

Galaxy Note 10.1, however, will come with a 1.4GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM.

4G and WLAN and Bluetooth: The New iPad's WLAN features include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, and supports LTE; Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps speed. Bluetooth version 4.0 has been provided with A2DP and EDR.

Galaxy Note 10.1, in comparison, also comes with Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Wi-Fi hotspot. The device offers Bluetooth version 2.1 with A2DP and EDR and HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps speeds but surprisingly for a company like Samsung, their latest tab may not support 4G LTE.

Memory: The New iPad has arrived with its usual 16, 32 and 64 GB internal storage memory and no extra external memory expansion option. Galaxy Note 10.1, however, offers only 16 and 32 GB. But the memory of the Samsung device can be expanded up to 32 GB via microSD card.

Battery Capacity: New iPad has arrived with a standard Li-Po 42.5 Wh (watt-hour) providing standby up to 720 hours and talk time up to 10 hours. Galaxy Note 10.1 will come with a standard battery, Li-Ion 7000 mAh.

Exclusive Features of the New iPad - With the latest iPad, Apple has provided some killer apps, including voice dictation, Apple Care+, iPhoto, GarageBand and iMovie.

Galaxy Note, however, boasts of stunning features like viewing two apps at a time, work with two apps side by side and an S-pen that is 10x more accurate with 255 levels of pressure sensitivity than a normal capacitive screens and that precision S-pen works for editing apps too.

Apple's iPad will hit the market next week whereas the release date of Galaxy Note 10.1 is still uncertain. By the time Samsung gets ready to launch its device, Apple will already sway the market with its stunning New iPad. To give Apple a rock-solid competition, Samsung needs to release its device as early as possible.