This is a review of the Samsung Galaxy Note. You can get the technical specs from the usual sites.. I am going to be writing about my experience from having the phone for 1 month+ now
Battery life
- Videos are okay - don't drain the screen too much.
- Heavy games drain battery fast.
- Worst of the lot: Accessing the internet. On Wifi, I get around 1 hour of surfing for 10% of battery life. On Wifi/3G, I'd guess you'd run out of juice in approx 4-5 hours. So wouldn't advise it as an always on mobile internet device.
Android apps - once again a minefield. There are literally too many apps but be carefree and your new app could be the one draining your battery away. The OS has diagnostics showing you what's eating your battery (Your display should figure as #1 on the list most times). However apps sometimes install services, that don't let your phone go into "sleep" mode when not in use.. Get the "betterbatterystats" app to find and uninstall such apps.
Battery life is not a strong point for the note.. but it's a trait of android phones in general. The note is the best one of the android bunch but if you're used to Nokia/BB range of uptimes, you'd be disappointed/
Moderate use of tablet features: The note should easily last you one day.
If you get the screen brightness down, turn off all sync-ing, toggle Wifi/3G/Bluetooth etc on demand and watch your apps, you can get 48 hours between charges. 3 hours for a full charge with the adaptor.
Screen
Gorgeous! Words cannot begin to describe this screen. Yes it employs the Pentile thing (basically it simulates the third color instead of having 3 parts per dot) but I hardly notice it.
The AMOLED high res screen will grab eyeballs if you have a HD video.. especially an animated one with lots of vivid colors.
The 5" screen is the sweet spot for me. Pocketable but not too small for reading (especially in landscape mode).
The 5" screen is the sweet spot for me. Pocketable but not too small for reading (especially in landscape mode).
Media player
The Music player is passable... does its job. Disclaimer: I have been exposed to Cowon's devices so have a pretty high bar. I wouldn't recommend it.
The Video player - I was happy to find out - is very usable with upto 9 hrs of playback on a single charge. The inbuilt app plays almost all of the current formats everything (except .mov, some old .mpg/.avi files. But you can get apps for those too.). It is smart enough to remember where you left off (with each video) and auto-resumes the next time.. Very nifty for stop-go viewing. Recognizes subtitles. Supports fitting the video to screen.
Combine it with the inconspicuous "All Share" preloaded app : you can stream videos off your home Wi-fi network and view it on your phone. Couldn't get subtitles to work though (and vice-versa. You'll need to install the PC version of AllShare). Don't need to be a rocket scientist to set this up. Buh-bye USB Cable and pesky copying.
Browser
Browsing sites is usable on this phone. No issues with any site failing to render/open. Scrolling, Pinch to zoom is super-smooth. Swpye and bookmarks make for a snappy browsing experience. Double tap to fit-to-screen any section of text: Love it!
Notes / Stylus
This was one of my reasons for buying this phone (my 5 year old Sony M600i also had one). It's something I've used the most in the past month.
You can do very detailed work with the stylus, once you get to grips with it. I was afraid of losing the stylus, but it fits nicely in its slot. You have a choice of 4 pen styles and a full palette of colors to cut loose. You have a nice set of backgrounds (e.g. music sheets, graphs, letterpads) to choose from.
Misses:
- There is a slight lag with the stylus (the response time). You can rest the lower half of your palm on screen ; but it's irritating if you accidentally touch the Cancel hard button at the lower right.
- I tried getting around the problem by using it in landscape mode.. there is now a 3-4mm offset from where I lay the pen and where something gets drawn. Try it for yourself - switch to the letterpad background and try drawing over the lines in landscape mode.
- I'd like an "Infinite canvas". Although you can pinch and zoom, the paper size is limited; you can run out of space.
- You can enter proper text in addition to your doodles.. however you can't place labels widgets anywhere you like. So writing some text in the middle of the page is a lot of blank lines followed by some blank space and then your text.
Apart from that, it is really handy to take notes, a virtual whiteboard, draw maps/pictures. You can take a picture, cut out a section to the clipboard and doodle/annotate on top of it (as shown on TV). You can secure your notes with a PIN, sync it to Google docs or share it via email, bluetooth, et. all. Really cool.
Quirk: You cannot do lasso-crop easily with ready made images.. you'd need to take a screenshot (long-tap the pen with it's button pressed) and then you can lasso-crop a section. Go figure!
Handwriting
recognition/Input
Unfortunately, doesn't work perfectly. Surprisingly it can comprehend
cursive english writing, but not if I spell it out character by
character. If you tilt the angle at which you write, it messes up.
Actually using the keyboard (or better Swype) is way faster than trying to get the phone to comprehend your handwriting and fixing its mistakes.
Quirk: You can have either handwriting recognition (Samsung Keyboard) or Swype. Long tap any input field to toggle between the two.
User Interface
Android is no iOS but it gets the job done. Currently on Android Gingerbread, the UI is very responsive. The apps don't have the iPhony consistency to them.. but that's the price for an open development environment and more choice of apps.
Android has a bunch of features that you'll learn with use. e.g.
- you can swipe across the top edge of the screen to control screen brightness.
- you can swipe the edge of your palm from right to left to take a screenshot
- you can swipe a contact entry towards the right/left to call/message.
The settings screen could do with some work. It's currently a rabbit-hole of lists.. non-techies would have a hard time customizing the phone.
You have a set of upto 7? homescreens that you can set up with widgets and shortcuts to personalize. (Beware though animated/live wallpapers and widgets are leeches for your battery).
Camera Photos/Videos
Not a big camera user myself. However the note did produce very good photos - tap to focus and other bells and whistles included. Ditto for videos. Tried recording HD videos at the highest setting a couple of times.. found that the phone got a bit unresponsive - maybe due to load on the CPU.
App Store
The Android App screening / review system is a definite area for improvement.
The Android App screening / review system is a definite area for improvement.
You'd never complain about a paucity of apps at the app store.. however finding good ones isn't easy.
Buying android apps is a breeze. Hook up your card to your google checkout account and off you go. You have 15 mins post purchase to uninstall and get a complete refund (Verified). It's so easy, I enabled PIN-security for app purchases.
Buying android apps is a breeze. Hook up your card to your google checkout account and off you go. You have 15 mins post purchase to uninstall and get a complete refund (Verified). It's so easy, I enabled PIN-security for app purchases.
As a side note, I use the flip-case that comes with the phone. Originally I thought it's a useless bundled-in meddlesome accessory. However once I tool the original cover off the phone and snap on the flip-case, I was pleasantly surprised. The case does a good job - keeps the screen lint-free, has convenient slits to use it for calls while shut (although you have to open it for accepting calls). Feels/looks like a small diary/book.
Verdict
Based on all this, I'd give the Note a definite 8/10. Better battery management would be #1 on my list. The inbuilt apps also need some "finishing touches" to get a 10. That said it's not a phone for everyone. Try one before you buy one. I stand by my choice : 32K for a 5 inch high-res vivid screen, 2500mAH battery, a pocketable tablet and does calls.
