Samsung Galaxy Note Review: Is Bigger Really Better? Discussion

[Jen Edwards]

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a hybrid smartphone/tablet that has a 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display, Google's Android OS, dual cameras with LED flash and auto-focus, and 4G LTE wireless networking. It also comes with a pressure sensitive S Pen that promises to transform the way you interact with (and enter text into) your smartphone. Whether it fulfills that promise is another question.

At the time of this review, it is available from AT&T for $300 with a new two-year contract and a minimum $20 a month data plan.

Read the full content of this Article: Samsung Galaxy Note Review: Is Bigger Really Better?

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[weegie]

So they make different versions of the Note as well the one here looks exactly like a bigger scaled SII [the original version] with a big hardware home button.

It surprises me more people on this site aren't into this given their pda type backgrounds, I guess it's the size and the fact it's perma connected to the Googleverse via a compulsory data plan in the US, I read it is very popular, but wonder if a 4" model would have been more so.

Is there any way of getting the written notes onto a PC ?, Phatpad used to have a desktop application for their winmo app that I thought was extremely useful where you could view,edit and create then sync them between the two devices

[hal]

This device is getting my attention since I saw it on a Best Buy catalog. My first interest is that it looks great to take notes on a big screen of a size yet still small enough to be considered mobile. Mobile as in able to be carried on the waistband. Shoot, I've carried much more cumbersome devices on my waistband, like HP 48 series calculators.

Being a cellphone, I really wonder to what extent would it be good, but again the ability to concentrate the mobile devices into one still fits me. Anyway, as much as I can like smartphones, I still belong to the PDA trend. And I still insist in having excellent PDA functionality above the cellphone functionality. I will remain updated on the information provided about this device, it feels like it will finally convince me.

[Varjak]

This review is dated 2/23; but isn't it new? I can't believe I missed it before, but I don't recall seeing it before.

I'm into it; and plan on looking at it; but the video-out part disturbs me.

I actually prefer the headphone jack on top (if it's on the bottom and you use a wired headset, the cord generally tugs and eventually will break). But the stylus silo on the bottom seems extra odd. I'd always worry it would fall out.

[hal]

I actually prefer the headphone jack on top (if it's on the bottom and you use a wired headset, the cord generally tugs and eventually will break). But the stylus silo on the bottom seems extra odd. I'd always worry it would fall out.

Haha, it shows you come from PDAs right away. As I don't actually like to use the styli, cause I prefer a multi-purpose pen with a stylus, I don't really wear them that much so they fit loosely into the silo. But then some, it doesn't mean it will never fall down, and get broken or lost.

Just last Thursday I was talking to a friend that is around on a visit, and during the conversation he pointed out that at his work they're focusing on Android for job-issued mobile devices. He uses a Moto-Blur. He pointed out that his boss uses a Note, and my friend, being the IT administrator, has had several issues configuring the email to this device. It seems that Android either doesn't have a native Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync implementation, or it does but it's all wretched. FWIW, it must be for a reason that DataViz sells RoadSync for Android. And if we're right, it was kind of an expected lack. Android is still young in the corporate segment, so features that are already commodities in other platforms are yet to be fully implemented in it.

Things as they are, the Galaxy pulls my attention, but I hope they get the MS-EAS working fine cause I ain't putting money up front in order to... lose functionality. My Treo 680 is my benchmark. Either the Note has at the least the same excellent MS-EAS implementation, or I'm gonna make fun of Samsung for the rest of the decade

[Deslock]

After playing with the Note, my impression is mixed.

The stylus is nifty and there are a few things it's useful for, but for all of those things you'd be better off with a larger tablet. So its inclusion isn't especially significant (heresy at an old-school PDA site like brighthand, I know)

The screen is intoxicatingly beautiful. It has effectively 46% more area than my Galaxy Nexus for everything except for videos (see footnote below), and the difference feels like it's even more. The problem is that though the enormous screen is an absolute joy to use, the Note dwarfs my GN, which is already my limit for pocket-ability or one-handed use (sometimes, even the GN needs two hands).

It's just way too big for a cell phone.

footnote: Physically, the Note's screen has 37% more area which increases to 46% if you exclude the portion used by the GN's soft-keys. For widescreen videos, the Note is only 23% larger because the extra screen area from its different aspect ratio isn't utilized (and the GN's soft-keys disappear).

[Radon222]

I have had the AT&T Note for a Week now. So far l am pretty happy with it. I'm even writing this the Spen. My handwriting still sucks.

[hal]

After playing with the Note, my impression is mixed.

The stylus is nifty and there are a few things it's useful for, but for all of those things you'd be better off with a larger tablet. So its inclusion isn't especially significant (heresy at an old-school PDA site like brighthand, I know)

The screen is intoxicatingly beautiful. It has effectively 46% more area than my Galaxy Nexus for everything except for videos (see footnote below), and the difference feels like it's even more. The problem is that though the enormous screen is an absolute joy to use, the Note dwarfs my GN, which is already my limit for pocket-ability or one-handed use (sometimes, even the GN needs two hands).

It's just way too big for a cell phone.

footnote: Physically, the Note's screen has 37% more area which increases to 46% if you exclude the portion used by the GN's soft-keys. For widescreen videos, the Note is only 23% larger because the extra screen area from its different aspect ratio isn't utilized (and the GN's soft-keys disappear).

Very interesting. The reviews that I've found online are kinda polarized. Either they talk only heavens about it, or they totally deprecate it. It seems that the whole argument is falling down to the size of the device. Either too big for a smartphone, or too small for a tablet, but they miss the rest of it, as screen usability, general comfort, speed, behavior, I mean you know what I'm talking about.

So you say the screen is beautiful; take notice that I use a Treo 680, so my current screen experience is at most, clear, but not in sunny spots cause it flops down to zip. Regarding usage fashions, I wear a wired hands free on a daily basis cause reality dictates that if oneself is willing to use a smartphone for both calls and notes, there will be the occasion in which you gotta take notes at the same time that you're in the middle of a phone call. Either you speak in open yells as you input text, or you hold the device in front of your chin as you type/jot/whatever and talk like if you were speaking with a soap bar. A wired hands free solves the conflict.

[Varjak]

I think the size argument (either way) is ridiculous. You should know going in whether it suits your needs for pocketability, handiness, etc. Whether the other stuff works or not (software, hardware, etc.), that's fair game.

[LandSurveyor]

Varjak, I expect you will have no worries about the stylus. My Imagio had the same thing and I was concerned just as you were but it had a spring-loaded retainer in the silo that clicked into a circular groove around the stylus. Unbelievably for me, I never lost it and never needed the spare that HTC thoughtfully included.

I miss the stylus. I still use one on my work device (Topcon GRS-1) and every time I attempt to type on my Galaxy S, I'm reminded of how much easier it was "toothpick typing" by comparison.

Even in landscape mode, typing with my fat fingertip is frustrating.


I think anybody who is interested in the Note is already wishing for a larger screen in the first place and has decided that the extra bulk is worth it.