Negative comments regarding the Samsung Galaxy Note’s overall size, and how it’s too large to be a phone and too small to be a tablet, can’t be aimed at the company’s second device to bear the Note name, as it’s a proper tablet that can’t make phone calls.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 has, as the name suggests, a 10.1-inch screen with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution display, but hold on you may be thinking, doesn’t Samsung already make a 10.1-inch tablet?

You’re right, it’s the Galaxy Tab 10.1, however, there is one key difference between them.  Like the 5.3-inch Note, the Note 10.1 (oh Samsung, you and your names) comes with the S-Pen stylus, which works with several unique applications for note-taking, art and photo-manipulation.

Samsung has also included two new Adobe apps, Photoshop Touch and Adobe Ideas, both of which are aimed at tweaking photos and creating art on the tablet.

The stylus is pressure sensitive, meaning the thicker the line the harder you press, and the software is clever enough to understand and change any symbols you may be scribbling down, so you don’t have to be too accurate. The only trouble is, where the 5.3-inch Note has a little slot for storing the S-Pen when it’s not in use, the Note 10.1 has nothing of the sort.

This is due to the increased size of the pen itself, and the slimness of the tablet’s chassis, which measures just 8.9mm thick.

The Galaxy Note 10.1 is powered by a 1.4GHz dual-core processor and comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich installed. The S-Pen is an interesting feature, despite styluses still feeling a bit old-tech, and should work well with the bigger screen especially for arty-types.

It’s set to go on sale in the UK sometime between April and June this year.

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ZTE Corporation has introduced seven Android OS based and two Windows Phone 7.x based smartphones at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. Among the newsly introduced devices include ZTE’s first quad-core processor based Android OS based smartphone – Era.

The Windows Phone based devices include ZTE Tania and ZTA Orbit. While the Android OS based ZTE devices include Era, Mimosa X, Blade II, Skate Aqua, Kis, PF112 HD, N91 and PF 200 along with four Android tablets.

Android Club

The Mobile Indian earlier reported about the ZTE Mimosa X smartphone that arrives with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This smartphone comes with dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 mobile processor, and features 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display. There’s a 5 megapixel camera at the back and a front facing 0.3 pixels.

Following that, ZTE has unveiled the new 7.8mm thickness bearing Era smartphone that features a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 mobile processor and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. This smartphone features Nvidia Icera 450 HSPA+ “> HSPA + modem promising maximum possible data network speeds.

The ZTA Era has a 4.3-inch touchscreen display with qHD (960×540) pixel resolution. This smartphone will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and will debut the ZTE MiFavour user interface. ZTE Era is expected to launch in Europe and China by the second half of this year.

During the week before Mobile World Congress, Panasonic took the wraps off the phone with which it would return to the UK and European mobile market. Named the Eluga, it’s a good-looking, dual-core Android phone, if not anything particularly spectacular.

A rumour then circulated that Panasonic had something a touch more exciting planned for Mobile World Congress, and sure enough, it has given us another device, but it’s not quite what we expected.

The Eluga Power is its name, but despite this it still runs a dual-core processor rather than the quad-core chips favoured by other manufacturers.  That said, it is a Qualcomm 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4, so it’s not going to be left behind in the performance stakes.

What makes the Eluga Power standout is the massive 5-inch LCD screen, which pops it neatly into the fashionable — but divisive — tablet/smartphone hybrid category. The screen has a 1280 x 720 HD resolution too, so it should look fantastic, while the chassis of the phone maintains a very slim 9.6mm profile.

Like its little brother, the Eluga Power meets IP57 standards for water and dust proofing, plus there’s an 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, and an NFC chip too.

Unlike the Eluga, the Power will use Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as its operating system.

Other key features include a quick charging system with 50% of the battery being filled after 30 minutes, 8GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot and a forward facing video call lens.

Panasonic’s press release says nothing about price or a release date for the Eluga Power, but a spring showing doesn’t seem out of the question, as this is around the same time as we expect the standard Eluga.

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Huawei has announced its fastest smartphone ever at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) show in Barcelona, Spain. Named Ascend D Quad, the smartphone will come with a quad core processor and Android 4.0 operating system, along with a host of eye-popping features.

Ascend D Quad features a 4.5 inch 720p high definition touchscreen display with 330 ppi (pixels per inch) resolution. It also features a 16 core GPS (for location) that offers twice the performance of normal GPS, according to Huawei.

The phone has an 8 megapixel BSI (backside illumination) rear camera with 1080p full HD video capture, and it has a 1.3 megapixel front camera for video calling. The phone will come with 1 GB RAM and 8 GB internal memory. Ascend D Quad will also get an 1800 mAh battery, but with a quad core processor. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts on a single charge. Notably, the phone does have Huawei’s proprietary power management system, which claims to save 30 per cent power.

The Ascend D Quad has Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and Audience earSmart voice technology. Besides, it provides 3G HSPA+ “> HSPA + with 21 Mbps download speed and 5.76 Mbps upload speed, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.

Apart from Ascend D Quad, Huawei has also announced Ascend D Quad XL and Ascend D1 smartphones. The Ascend D Quad XL comes with a 2500 mAh battery which lasts two to three days of normal usage. The Ascend D1 runs on a 1.5 GHz dual core CPU and has a 1670 mAh battery.

While Ascend D1 will be available from April 2012, other phones will arrive across the world a few months later.

Mobile World Congress 2012 kicked off in Barcelona this morning, although several manufacturers held press conferences late on Sunday, including Sony and HTC, where a variety of new phones were unveiled.

As exciting as the event has already been, there’s an almost bewildering amount of news which comes from the show, so we’ve collected some of the top stories from the first day into a handy roundup post to keep you fully informed.

Ixonos

Technology company Ixonos has unveiled a customisable reference design smartphone, which can be sold to companies wanting a branded high-quality phone built to its own specifications. Most aspects of the phone can be customised, and as it will run Google Android 4.0 as standard, Ixonos can create special interfaces and apps for customers too.

It will be interesting to see who takes Ixonos up on this, but we’d expect some automotive manufacturers to jump at the chance of offering an exclusive, branded Android phone with its top-end models. Tesla perhaps?

Vimeo

Popular online video service Vimeo used Mobile World Congress as the launchpad for version 2.0 of its iOS application. Already quite impressive, the new Vimeo app adds native support for the iPad, plus uploading and downloading of videos, basic editing tools and new content discovery options. It’s available from today for free inside the iTunes App Store.

Samsung and SRS Labs

Samsung has used SRS Labs’ audio enhancements on a variety of its products over the years, but has now announced it has expanded its agreement with the company to include more tech on smartphones and tablets. The new terms specifically include SRS’s latest innovations, including the 3D audio TruGaming system.

Audience earSmart eS110

Audience has announced a new voice processor specifically designed for feature phones. Named the earSmart eS110, it will work in a similar way to noise-cancelling microphones on top-of-the-range smartphones, by banishing background noise and cutting down on echoes.  The new technology should be available by the end of the year.

No Windows Phones from LG

LG had a mega pre-MWC week, revealing a wide range of Android phones, however anyone hoping for a Windows Phone device is going to be disappointed. Speaking to AllthingsD LG’s smartphone unit director said that sales of its Microsoft operating system-driven phones were lower than hoped for, and that development would continue, but no new phones would be coming at MWC or in the near future.

Nokia BH-221 Bluetooth Headset

In addition to a generous haul of new phones, Nokia has also launched the BH-221 Bluetooth headset, a clever little gadget that provides Bluetooth connectivity while still using your own wired earphones, or those supplied with it. It’s a standalone FM radio too, and has a small OLED display for showing the station details and the battery level. If your phone has NFC, then the BH-221 only requires a tap to pair them together.

Qualcomm Confirms Updated Snapdragon S4 Pro chip

The new Snapdragon S4 Pro chip has been confirmed at Mobile World Congress. It’s the same super-powerful 28nm Krait processor as before, but with the new Adreno 320 GPU, making it suitable for very high resolution displays and the latest power-hungry games. Qualcomm indicated it would be released during the second half of the year, and that it has been optimized for Windows 8 hardware.

Official Nokia 808 PureView Picture Album

If you’re excited about the new Nokia 808 PureView, then you’ll want to take a look at Nokia’s example images taken in South Africa.  Nokia has promised to add more examples over the coming weeks, so lets hope for some low-light snaps to go along with these stunning daylight pictures.