It’s been a while since we got to review a decent phone. But we did get our reward for waiting, as we got our hands on our third device-Samsung Galaxy Note. And yep, if you noticed, it is going rather slow for us, partly because markets here rarely lend any devices for more than ten minutes and partly because we are still…unknown.
But we don’t care. And so what we did this time round is get our hands on one of my dear friends ‘own’ Galaxy Note for a couple of hours. Not a pin-point review here but an in-depth one nonetheless.
But we don’t care. And so what we did this time round is get our hands on one of my dear friends ‘own’ Galaxy Note for a couple of hours. Not a pin-point review here but an in-depth one nonetheless.
Stuff like this sells like gold!!!
Now, since ‘we’ are from the Middle-East, you should know that big-men with big money are not rare. But when it comes to electronics and sensitive materials like that people, usually stick with boring Vertu’s and Blackberry’s. So beating them in a scarce yet heavily-contested arena of luxury phones is something the Note will have to do.
By first looks, the Note looks very-very similar in size to the Galaxy Tablets (Hello!!! They are the same anyways). So we weren’t quite sure as to what the main purpose of this device was. We did notice in advertisements that Samsung was portraying this phone to be aimed at the business market. So we had some, but very little clue as to how the phone would behave before we went into our test.
The phone (quite large in size) is very well built, with polished metal cocooning the sides. However the back is entirely plastic, but that does not spoil the looks or feel in anyways. The cover provides enough grip; minimal but just enough to prevent you from dropping. But by all means, this beast seems sturdy.
By first looks, the Note looks very-very similar in size to the Galaxy Tablets (Hello!!! They are the same anyways). So we weren’t quite sure as to what the main purpose of this device was. We did notice in advertisements that Samsung was portraying this phone to be aimed at the business market. So we had some, but very little clue as to how the phone would behave before we went into our test.
The phone (quite large in size) is very well built, with polished metal cocooning the sides. However the back is entirely plastic, but that does not spoil the looks or feel in anyways. The cover provides enough grip; minimal but just enough to prevent you from dropping. But by all means, this beast seems sturdy.
Now coming to the design. The Note sports in the front its flagship HD Super AMOLED screen, along with tiny inserts for the 2 megapixel front camera, proximity sensor and light sensor on the top. Again Samsung has given the Note, same light sensitive touch controls like on the rest of the Galaxy range.
The sides of our tester remained bare however. The right side sports the Lock key which couples as the on/off button, and the left side holds the volume rocker.
The plastic rear holds an 8 megapixel camera and a small LED flash. Yep, a speaker is also present on the back. A 3.5mm jack for your ear-phones is situated on the top, whereas the USB port on the device is on the bottom along with the much publicised Smart-Pen, which we will talk about later. Another strong point on the Note is that it does not collect excessive finger-prints like our Galaxy S Plus tester.
Coming to the more interesting parts. The Galaxy Note sports a marvellous looking capacitive touch, HD Super AMOLED WXGA screen. The screen has a maximum resolution of 1280x800, and that along with the 285ppi Pentile screen, is a joy to behold. To be honest it is an exquisite piece of gadget that one must try out at some point of time.
Anyways, comparing specs, the Note overshadows the SII, iPhone 4S, HTC Sensation in terms of brightness, but it does fall behind the Nokia’s 701 AMOLED by quite a long way. The screen again, like any Android powered Samsung supports 7 homescreens with a possible 6 rows of widgets. Switching between the screens can be done simply by swiping.
The screen is protected by the wild Corning Gorilla Glass. So the phone screen is virtually indestructible, as we showed you using some videos. If you missed it, just click here…
The Galaxy Note is powered by Dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor with an Exynos chipset. An impressive Mali-400MP GPU is also added to the user’s disposal, so one can easily run any premium HD game or video on the Note.
Anyways, comparing specs, the Note overshadows the SII, iPhone 4S, HTC Sensation in terms of brightness, but it does fall behind the Nokia’s 701 AMOLED by quite a long way. The screen again, like any Android powered Samsung supports 7 homescreens with a possible 6 rows of widgets. Switching between the screens can be done simply by swiping.
The screen is protected by the wild Corning Gorilla Glass. So the phone screen is virtually indestructible, as we showed you using some videos. If you missed it, just click here…
The Galaxy Note is powered by Dual-core 1.4 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor with an Exynos chipset. An impressive Mali-400MP GPU is also added to the user’s disposal, so one can easily run any premium HD game or video on the Note.
The phone we tested ran on Android OS v2.3.5 (Gingerbread), but we believe the planned upgrade to v4.x (Ice Cream Sandwich) is already out, so users will now be able to get the best out of their device. Samsung also adds its magic by adding the wonderful TouchWiz interface, which makes interaction with the device work like a 'finger on crystal clear water'.
Our phone had 16GB internal memory and an external 4GB SD card. But you can upgrade the entire package to 32GB, to total up at a massive 48GB. So, it should pair up as your phone, tablet, Xbox, laptop or even your TV (this thing is incredible). Also at your disposal is 1GB of RAM, so forget about killing apps to save memory.
Anyways, over the years we all know that priorities have changed, leading to people carrying along phones in place of their large Canon’s and Nikon DSLR’s to parties, office’s, parks or anywhere for that matter. So we know that the camera is an integral part on one’s phone. And happily, the Note ticks that box.
Our phone had 16GB internal memory and an external 4GB SD card. But you can upgrade the entire package to 32GB, to total up at a massive 48GB. So, it should pair up as your phone, tablet, Xbox, laptop or even your TV (this thing is incredible). Also at your disposal is 1GB of RAM, so forget about killing apps to save memory.
Anyways, over the years we all know that priorities have changed, leading to people carrying along phones in place of their large Canon’s and Nikon DSLR’s to parties, office’s, parks or anywhere for that matter. So we know that the camera is an integral part on one’s phone. And happily, the Note ticks that box.
The same stock 3264x2448 pixels 8 megapixel Auto Focus camera with Action, Beauty, Panorama and Smile shot found on the SII and SIII is included on the Note. Also on the list are smile, face detection and geo-tagging.
Obviously, we did like the Android interface. Again, the pictures produced were nice. The noise levels were down, and compression was bearable. Although there is the question of missing dedicated camera key.
The flash is also quite impressive. There is an option to reduce the intensity of the light as well, so you don’t have to worry about over or under-lighting.
Here are a few unedited shots using the Galaxy Note's 8 megapixel camera...
Obviously, we did like the Android interface. Again, the pictures produced were nice. The noise levels were down, and compression was bearable. Although there is the question of missing dedicated camera key.
The flash is also quite impressive. There is an option to reduce the intensity of the light as well, so you don’t have to worry about over or under-lighting.
Here are a few unedited shots using the Galaxy Note's 8 megapixel camera...
The cam also shoots 1080p videos at 30 fps. The videos produced were impressive, but nothing to rave about considering the quality on the iPhone 4S and the Pure View 808. Nevertheless, image stabilisation does kick in, to produce an even recording. Again, compression is minimum in videos, so expect your videos to cross the 100MB mark after a couple of minutes of shooting.
Here is a sample video shot using the primary 8 megapixel camera at 1080p (source: youtube)...
Here is a sample video shot using the primary 8 megapixel camera at 1080p (source: youtube)...
The Samsung Galaxy Note uses the standard Android gallery rather than the custom TouchWiz one. The gallery automatically locates the images and videos no matter where they are stored and produces it to the main gallery. It also imports online photos from photo sharing sites like Picasa.
Aside from that it also displays full resolution images and two-finger tilt zoom. Double tap and pinch zoom are also standard.
Sharing is easy on the device as you can setup social network accounts to post your images straight away. Additionally there is a My Files app which is quite simple to use. It can move, copy, lock and rename files in bulk or even send multiple files to other devices (But My files is limited to browsing the memory card and the internal storages).
Aside from that it also displays full resolution images and two-finger tilt zoom. Double tap and pinch zoom are also standard.
Sharing is easy on the device as you can setup social network accounts to post your images straight away. Additionally there is a My Files app which is quite simple to use. It can move, copy, lock and rename files in bulk or even send multiple files to other devices (But My files is limited to browsing the memory card and the internal storages).
When it comes to music, the Samsung Galaxy Note does use the standard TouchWiz player (like the usual range), which is quite an impressive software considering that it packs in everything one needs from an electronic device. Samsung has also enabled equalizer presets, including a custom mode, along with the sound-enhancing DNSe technology and 5.1 channel.
There is also an option to share any track you are listening to over Wi-Fi, or any of the social networks one has set up on the device.
There is also an option to share any track you are listening to over Wi-Fi, or any of the social networks one has set up on the device.
The awesomeness carries on with the video player as it offers a simple list-based interface, which is is excellent in most ways. It displays all video files stored on the phone and you can sort them by name, date, type or size (thankfully).
The video player also remembers the last viewed position of your video, so you can resume exactly where you left off. It also lets you choose between three crop modes for how you want the video to fit in the screen. Additionally, subtitle support is included. You can change font size and adjust subtitles sync (move them back or forward a few seconds) but there’s no option to manually load subtitles.
Now coming to the applications, there is no short of it, at all, and one can easily download them from Google Play or Samsung’s in-house app store over PC, WiFi or any available networks.
Anyways, there are lots of applications to be downloaded, so I assure you that there is no need for a second thought between Nokia Store or Apple Store. However, we did not get any exclusive pre-loaded apps like our S Plus tester. But you should still get All Share, Layar and Latitude. We did have a few 'user-downloaded apps', which were impressive (We did find the Crayon Physics application on our phone really interesting).
Well, since we had the phone for some time, we did (obviously) use that as an opportunity to check out and test the Smart Pen.
The video player also remembers the last viewed position of your video, so you can resume exactly where you left off. It also lets you choose between three crop modes for how you want the video to fit in the screen. Additionally, subtitle support is included. You can change font size and adjust subtitles sync (move them back or forward a few seconds) but there’s no option to manually load subtitles.
Now coming to the applications, there is no short of it, at all, and one can easily download them from Google Play or Samsung’s in-house app store over PC, WiFi or any available networks.
Anyways, there are lots of applications to be downloaded, so I assure you that there is no need for a second thought between Nokia Store or Apple Store. However, we did not get any exclusive pre-loaded apps like our S Plus tester. But you should still get All Share, Layar and Latitude. We did have a few 'user-downloaded apps', which were impressive (We did find the Crayon Physics application on our phone really interesting).
Well, since we had the phone for some time, we did (obviously) use that as an opportunity to check out and test the Smart Pen.
The Smart pen is basically a stylus, like the ones used in the old resistive, touch devices. But this one can only function on the newer capacitive screens.
It certainly erases the need for using your finger, but still manages to pull up a few tricks. Well we couldn’t exactly test all the bits out but, what we can say is that the S Pen will also allow you to operate your phone without pressing any hardware keys, thereby coupling with the device to provide a totally hands-free interface.
Another nice addition is the ability of capturing screenshot without the need for an external download. One can simply swipe his/her palm over the entire screen to capture an image. Also interesting is the ability to save images/pages from the internet for further editing using the in-house software (also by swiping the entire palm).
It certainly erases the need for using your finger, but still manages to pull up a few tricks. Well we couldn’t exactly test all the bits out but, what we can say is that the S Pen will also allow you to operate your phone without pressing any hardware keys, thereby coupling with the device to provide a totally hands-free interface.
Another nice addition is the ability of capturing screenshot without the need for an external download. One can simply swipe his/her palm over the entire screen to capture an image. Also interesting is the ability to save images/pages from the internet for further editing using the in-house software (also by swiping the entire palm).
With that it’s almost time to sum up. Yeah, we don’t cover each and every intricate bits, because we believe short and crisp is always better and also because there is nothing very ground-breaking here. But I am sure we have covered all the important things you need to know before throwing your hands at this baby.
Overall, this thing does contain a lot of features straight from S Plus or SII counterparts; like the Application manger which kills apps with the push of a button or even the wonderful stand-by widgets, messengers. You know, stuff like that.
But again, there still is a lot more into this that gives a tablet like experience. Like, the deadly-accurate GPS receiver (Expect 2D maps, because Android still uses Google Maps) or the wide-range of premium apps. Also exclusive is the 4G compatibility and that SPen.
Nevertheless, we are quite happy to see a phone like this because we think that it is as close to owning a tablet, without actually having one.’ Yep, in reality this thing is quite big to be called a phone but comparitively small to be called a tablet, and at Omani Riyals 210/ US $550 the package isn’t cheap either.
But as mentioned in the start, if you are one of those big-time businessmen wanna-be who wants to apply the basics of a tablet with the basic interface and functionality of a Samsung phone, but at the same time don’t like being classified as owning a Tab because everyone in the world has one, then you may have found your perfect match.
And as they say “Phone? Table? Feel free, because its the Galaxy Note.”
Overall, this thing does contain a lot of features straight from S Plus or SII counterparts; like the Application manger which kills apps with the push of a button or even the wonderful stand-by widgets, messengers. You know, stuff like that.
But again, there still is a lot more into this that gives a tablet like experience. Like, the deadly-accurate GPS receiver (Expect 2D maps, because Android still uses Google Maps) or the wide-range of premium apps. Also exclusive is the 4G compatibility and that SPen.
Nevertheless, we are quite happy to see a phone like this because we think that it is as close to owning a tablet, without actually having one.’ Yep, in reality this thing is quite big to be called a phone but comparitively small to be called a tablet, and at Omani Riyals 210/ US $550 the package isn’t cheap either.
But as mentioned in the start, if you are one of those big-time businessmen wanna-be who wants to apply the basics of a tablet with the basic interface and functionality of a Samsung phone, but at the same time don’t like being classified as owning a Tab because everyone in the world has one, then you may have found your perfect match.
And as they say “Phone? Table? Feel free, because its the Galaxy Note.”
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