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08/16/2012 05:30 AM

New Samsung Tablet Uses Pen, Has Options Galore For Artists

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Samsung is the latest company to unveil a new tablet this summer and it's hoping consumers agree that the pen is mightier than the finger. NY1's Adam Balkin filed the following report.

In a summer where it seems a new tablet is being unveiled every week, the just-unveiled Galaxy Note 10.1 is Samsung's latest ideal for grabbing some market share from iPads.

The new 10-inch Note boasts features like the ability to truly multitask by splitting the screen side by side or having one floating screen, as well as lots of the content-sharing capabilities its Galaxy SIII phones have. But developers hope the big draw is the ability to draw really well with the S Pen that comes with it, an instrument Samsung insists is too precise to simply be called a stylus.

"The S Pen that comes with the Galaxy Note 10.1 has over 1,000 levels of pressure sensitivity," said Travis Merrill of Samsung. "Electromagnetic resonance actually sends S Pen's position to the display via radio waves because power is generated by the screen. No batteries are needed."

How hard you press it determines how thick the line you're drawing is. There are also lots of apps and functions built in to take advantage of drawing and handwriting, like those that clean up your shapes or translate your handwriting into legible text.

Features like the S Pen and built-in Photoshop will be appealing to the creative types out there. But is that enough to draw in others who do not consider themselves artists?

"It is a niche product for artists, drafts people, anyone who uses a pen to draw with pressure sensitivity, the addition of Photoshop Touch included in the product at no additional cost," said Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis. "It's going to be a challenge for Samsung to sell this beyond that niche."

The Wi-Fi only Galaxy Note 10.1 is on sale now. It costs about $500 for the 16GB version and $550 for 32GB.