NVIDIA's Tegra Note 7 LTE and Tegra 4i Devices: Hands On

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• ddriver - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link

  Check my last post above containing a handwriting sample from the tegra note from AT's own review. It is abysmal at best - squiggly lines and cursor misposition all over the place. I haven't tested the note 8, but I have note 3 and note 10.1 2014 and the perceived lag is not higher than the terga note, while accuracy and smoothness are tremendously better for the samsung note series.
  
  Equal accuracy? That activates my hilarity unit :D
  
  Keep in mind note 8 is pretty weak in terms of hardware, that might be the reason for the lag you talk about.
  
  But hey, to each his own, according to your standards that might be "good performance" but according to my own standards it is pretty bad. That device does not justify the "note" moniker, and the worst part is nvidia is well aware of that, but still decided to use it as a marketing stunt to fool people after the samsung note series gathered popularity. The rest is just lame PR and suck-up reviewers. I've read so many superlatives about the stylus of this device that when I got my and tried it out I felt like smashing it into the ground. Good thing it is cheap.

• deppman - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link

  See my note above why the handwriting looks bad with the default stylus tip. If the author had used a finer tip, I am confident the handwriting would have looked much better.
  
  Changing to a harder, finer tip provides excellent results. It is vastly better than a standard capacitive stylus. The default chisel tip is more like a fat marker nib, and is just as hard to write with. The good news is there are a number of inexpensive options to use a more precise tip.

• Anders CT - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link

  As for the Tegra Note I think you must have ha a defective unit. I can write fine handwriting on my Tegra note easily.
  
  As for the Galaxy Note 3, yes, it is a superior device. But it is also more than three times as expensive. The display of the Galaxy Note 3 alone is probably more expensive than the entire bill of materials for the Tegra Note 7. And I don't find the galaxy Note 3 (unfortunately I don't own one) to be laggy at all, I just think that theres is a tiny bit more output latency when using the stylus. When drawing, the drawed line is trailing the stylus a little bit more on the Galaxy Note than on the Tegra device, I think.
  
  I have been using Wacom drawing tablets since before there were capacitive touch, and I thought I could never use a passive capacitive stylus, but the Tegra Note I find to be a joy to use, considering how inexpensive it is.

• wiconley - Tuesday, May 13, 2014 - link

  "That device does not justify the "note" moniker" And you are the authority on this,eh? It's a tablet with a stylus, thus the 'Note' aspect is legitimate, even if it is not the best implementation.

• ddriver - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link

  BTW once you turn off the bunch of useless gimmicks on the samsung note series, the latency of the pen is decreased to almost real time, honestly no more than about 10 milliseconds. By stock it is a little laggy, but I have rooted, de-bloated and turned off all useless stuff and it literally flies. Latency is better than that of a full fledged standalone wacom tablet.

• bubblesmoney - Saturday, March 8, 2014 - link

  sorry but you are wrong. i have the note 1 and note 3 and nexus 7 2012, 2013 and 3 tegra note 7 tablets. the tegra note 7 stylus is more responsive than the note 3 and note 1 stylus and miles better than any other capacitative stylus. there are enough apps around on the play store that work well with handwriting recognition input that will beat the note 3 handwriting recognition. either you dont own the tegra note 7 or havent bothered to use proper apps for hand writing. YOU CAN WRITE NORMAL HANDWRITING AS ON PAPER AND FAST. my handwriting is bad and sometimes even i cant read it but the tegra note with handwriting recognition apps does a faster and better job than my note 3 or note 1. note 3 is my daily driver and the note 1 before than for my phone. dont use my 3 nexus tablets much ever since i bought 3 tegra note 7 tablets.

• deppman - Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - link

  Actually, the stylus can be far superior to a typical capacitive stylus. The accuracy and sensitivity is fantastic. I own one, and it works great.
  
  The default stylus tip, however, does give the impression that the stylus is less precise and accurate than it really is: it is "floppy" and gives a bit as you change direction. While the tablet is technically both highly accurate and precise in measuring the location of the tip, the result is it doesn't perform like a ball point pen, but more like a floppy paint brush.
  
  Why did nVidia do this? Well, it is a matter of compromise. The default tip is fairly good at drawing, and shows off the ability to change stroke widths with ease. AFAIK, Wacom does not provide actual brush tip sensing the same way nVidia does, and they probably wanted to highlight that.
  
  If you want something that acts less like a brush and more like a ballpoint pen, the simple solution is to change the stylus tip. Here are three excellent options:
  
  1. Turn the stylus over and use the edge of the eraser to draw. This edge has almost no give.
  2. Get the pro stylus, available for $19.95. It has a little more give than the eraser edge, but it is far better than the default chisel point
  3. Use an all-graphite pencil. This won't harm the screen and provides the ultimate in precision.
  
  Compared to the Wacom stylus, here is my assessment, which I think is quite fair:
  
  + Less Lag
  + Tip shape detection
  = Comparable accuracy and precision
  - No hover detection
  - Less impressive palm rejection (but not bad)
  
  In all, not bad for 30% the cost of a Note 3, considering the TN7 is a bit faster and has better sound too :)

• ddriver - Thursday, February 27, 2014 - link

  Nvidia should give you a medal, such good boy. Lag is not less, precision is not comparable, your only valid pro point is tip shape detection, but it is still way too low res for actual artistic applications, even calligraphic. Surely, it is cheaper, but its display is much worse, much less ram, no LTE, less storage, inferior cameras - no surprise it is cheaper.
  
  A little more on brush tip - in my artwork I use like 20 different brushes with varying sizes - how much pens or tips do I have to carry around to make use of tip shape detection? There is a good reason even 1000+ $ professional tablets do not utilize tip shape detection - it is not applicable, nvidia are bragging about it as a feature, but it is merely a byproduct of the limited technology they use and pimp as something much better than it really is.
  
  And I really don't want to waste technicalities on someone who might or might not understand it, but the approach of nvidia in inherently less precise, because it uses discreet positioning, whereas wacom technology acts more like continuous and uses interpolation to give much higher resolution than a capacitive approach can offer.

• __bear - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link

  Thank you for keeping up the fight. I wish people were not so easy to contempt and fast to forget.
  The screenshot you posted definitively looks like crap and given nVidia track record on the mobile I'm 100% convinced that their implementation is, again, shitty at best.
  
  I have been burned by both the Tegra 1 (god...) and the Tegra 2 (the HD chip that could hardly decode 720p) and I'm not buying mobile nVidia crap ever again. But I wish they were somehow slapped in the face from time to time for their cheap deception tactics.
  
  It's a little bit depressing really. I remember reading reviews all over the place about the incredible screen of the Z1 then buying one only to realize I should never read or trust anything I see online. Only now that the Z2 is coming up you can read about the "mediocre" Z1 screen...

• __bear - Friday, February 28, 2014 - link

  I wish people were not so easy to contempt and fast to forget.
  The screenshot you posted definitively looks bad and given nVidia track record on the mobile I wouldn't be surprised if their implementation is, again, inferior.
  
  I've had both Tegra 1 and the Tegra 2 (the HD chip that could hardly decode 720p) devices and that made me very careful about nVidia on the mobile.