Faulty Tablet

Alan.W

Hi,

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet for £260 online from Tesco Direct. The unique point of this tablet is it comes with a pen which is pressure sensitive (it basically has a digitiser built in), and it's sold with the following claim "Precise versatile S Pen enables you to get a premium experience for note-taking, sketching, drawing, and other forms of creative expression." and also "Exact pointing".

On my tablet, a number of areas of the screen there is nothing exact about it, the pen writes in an area you don't touch, and as I paid a premium for such a feature, I expect a straight line to be straight!

I sent this back to Samsung as Tesco said it would be better to deal with them, and Samsung paid for all the postage. I enclosed clear instructions, and even included an example for them on the device, as well as talking them through it on the phone.

Samsung deny there is a problem and have sent it back to me (it's in transit now). This is despite them telling me this morning they would retest and I could phone tomorrow for an update.

Bearing in mind Tesco will probably only send it back to Samsung too, where do I stand in getting a resolve to this? I've had the tablet for 4 months, but this problem became evident about 2 months ago, but I have been back and forth with Samsung during this time.

Thanks,
Alan.

unholyangel

How does the screen work when using something other than the pen? Is the screen calibration off perhaps?

Alan.W

Hi,

There is no calibration as such, you can adjust the pen's sensitivity but this doesn't affect positioning, only how hard, if at all, you need to press to get it to register. You can use your fingers like a normal tablet, but not with the precision you should get with using a finely pointed stylus, and using your fingers doesn't register a pressure. When using my fingers, it's fine.

Samsung did send me a second stylus (of the wrong colour I may add) but it exhibits the same problem.

The way it works with the stylus is similar to a graphics tablet on a computer and works based on an electromagnetic field and registers many 100s of pressure levels.

DevCoder

How far off is the marks compared to the stylus?

I ask because all tablets bar the surface use capacitive methods (we'll ignore the blackberry ). Thus they need a certain amount of "screen pixel coverage" to gain a good calibration for what is pressing where.

On the IPad for example only the byZero stylus works with a fine point stylus less than 5mm and this is only due to the plugin ir and ultrasonic adaptor that is scanning for the stylus which it then translates into "pen movements" for the application.

The Galaxy tab, nexus 7, nexus 10 and even the new Sony are the same.

ThumbRemote

Film the problem and email it to them, or post it on their Facebook page if they have one?

Alan.W

The main point is that for 95% of the screen, it's perfect, but certain areas of the screen are off. These areas are mostly down the centre.

So if you imagine drawing a straight line, with a ruler, which I have done, you end up with something like this:

----____

---

_----____----

Ignore the gap between the hypens, but you get the point, the pen suddenly jumps leaving a very odd line.

The Note 10.1 includes a "Wacom digitizer" and the capacitive touch screen therefore is irrelevant when using the stylus.

Alan.W

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Film the problem and email it to them, or post it on their Facebook page if they have one?

The funny thing is I did leave an example on the tablet for them to see.

But it sounds like they just wiped all the content, despite my notes online and in the box telling them to look at the example before doing such a thing. (You can record as you draw, so they'll have seen the sudden jump).

It's a good point though, I think I will just take it to Tesco and let them see it happen against one of their display models (if they care, bearing in mind it was Direct I purchased it), then let them argue with Samsung.

indieemu

In all honesty, the guys in the store can do very little. All electrical goods have to go though the Tech Support line of there is an issue and be given a fault reference before they will be accepted for replacement or refund. If Samsung have already said that there is no problem, you'll have to take the issue up with Samsung again and try and convince them there is a problem.

Alan.W

I should probably point out it's "A Novo UK Ltd" who I assume are Samsung's appointed repair company, when I say "Samsung said".

I'm also not sure they're used to dealing with tablets, because:

1. They always talk to me about my phone, when it's a tablet.
2. The packaging they sent was too small for a tablet.
3. They told me to remove the battery and sim card from my sealed tablet with no 3G!

ThumbRemote

indieemu wrote: »

In all honesty, the guys in the store can do very little. All electrical goods have to go though the Tech Support line of there is an issue and be given a fault reference before they will be accepted for replacement or refund. If Samsung have already said that there is no problem, you'll have to take the issue up with Samsung again and try and convince them there is a problem.

Although that might be the policy of Tesco, it's not the OPs legal standing. Their statutory rights are against Tesco, not Samsung.

If Tesco really do refuse to act the OP would need to take them to court.