Some Samsung Galaxy NotePRO models are made in Vietnam, not in Korea. Does it matter?

Announced at CES 2014 last week, the Galaxy NotePRO is Samsung’s largest tablet to date, sharing this honor with the TabPRO 12.2. It’s definitely one of the most interesting tablets we’ve seen lately, coming jam-packed with high-end specs like a 2560 x 1600 pixels display and 3GB of RAM. It will be available later this quarter in both LTE and Wi-Fi-only flavors.

Samsung usually manufactures high-end products in its home country (South Korea), so we were surprised to find that one of the NotePRO’s Wi-Fi versions, namely the SM-P900A, is made in Vietnam. Not long ago, we told you that Samsung intended to move its smartphone production from China to Vietnam in order to cut costs. Now it appears that some of its high-end tablets are also included in this plan.

How do we know that the SM-P900A is made in Vietnam? Well, the FCC approved the tablet over the week-end, revealing its “Made in Vietnam” label. A couple of months ago, the FCC also approved the Galaxy NotePRO SM-P900, which is made in Korea. There doesn’t seem to be any differences between the SM-P900 and SM-P900A, except for the country of origin.

When the Galaxy NotePRO arrives in stores, should you be careful about which version (Korea-made, or Vietnam-made) to buy? Probably not. It’s hard to believe that there will be significant differences between them, quality-wise. Plus, the model manufactured in Vietnam might be distributed only in South Asian markets. But that’s just a guess, we can’t know for sure.

We already previewed the Samsung Galaxy NotePRO, and we’ll likely review a retail unit soon - so stick around if you want to know more about this new and huge Android 4.4 KitKat tablet.


source: FCC (1), (2)