Samsung's Galaxy Note 12.2 has been rumored for quite a while, but its launch seems imminent as the 3G version has just passed through FCC. The tablet has the codename Samsung SM-P901 and supports the 850/1900MHz bands.

The tablet is supposed to have a resolution of 2560×1600, just like the Nexus 10 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, which makes its display "retina", even though at 12.2" it will have a PPI of 247, but the large iPad never had over 300 PPI either (only 264), and people believed Apple when they said it doesn't need 300 PPI since it's larger than an iPhone and further away from you.


The tablet is also supposed to arrive with a quad core 2.3 Ghz Snapdragon 800 chip, 3GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, 8MP camera on the back, and 2 MP camera on the front. It will have Android 4.3 on board, which is not ideal, and I would've preferred if they had waited for KitKat, especially if the tablet is arriving in December for the holiday season, and Samsung had early access to KitKat ahead of launch. Hopefully it will still receive KitKat in a few short months from now.


The Galaxy Note 12.2 will definitely not be a tablet for everyone. First off, most regular tablet users will probably think it's too large for them, second they may not need a tablet with an S-pen, which makes it unnecessarily more expensive for them, and third will have a high price. If the Note 10.1 is already $600, I have a feeling Note 12.2" will be at least as much, even though I don't think it should be, and Samsung should be able to make a decent profit on it, even if it cost $500.

That being said, the Note 12.2" might be a better device for those who already loved the Note 10.1, and wanted something larger to do their work on it, whether they intend to use it as a hybrid along with a keyboard case, or they needed more real estate for their drawing. If those are the use cases for you, then the Note 12.2" could be the best tablet on the market, soon enough, and it should be worth the wait.

My only disappointment with it would be that that it doesn't have an ARMv8-based chip, therefore it's not future-proof enough, and we'll have to wait a whole other year until the next version comes out with one. But if that's not an issue for you, then the upcoming version should be good enough.