The original Samsung Galaxy Note was the first smartphone with a greater than 5-inch screen
In November 2009, the HTC HD2 was launched with a 4.3-inch screen. At the time, this was the largest screen available on a smartphone, and it caused one reviewer to say that there could never be a larger smartphone screen ever. Time proved that reviewer wrong, and today some Android mini models sport a 5-inch screen. The phone that led the way toward larger and larger Android smartphone displays was the Samsung Galaxy Note.
The Galaxy Note featured a dual-core 1.4GHz CPU and the Mali-400 MP4 GPU. 1GB of RAM was inside with 32GB of native storage, and a 32GB capacity microSD slot was available to those who needed additional storage. The rear-facing 8MP camera came with an aperture of f/2.6, and a front-facing 2MP was used for selfies and video chats.
The Galaxy Note was a success. By March, 5 million units had been shipped. Because the device was unique, Samsung used marketing techniques not seen before, including creating a video showing an elephant playing with the phone (big phone for big animal).
By September 2012, Samsung had released the Samsung Galaxy Note II with a larger 5.5-inch screen. The display offered a 720 x 1280 HD resolution. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 arrived the next year carrying a 5.7-inch display with a 1080 x 1920 resolution. While the size of the display stayed the same at 5.7-inches for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the resolution rose to 1440 x 2560. And that is the same size and resolution used on the current model, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 will be unveiled on August 2nd with a rumored release scheduled for the middle of that month.
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