Samsung GALAXY Note Review

This is a review of the European version of Samsung Galaxy Note. Click here for the review of the AT&T LTE variant

Introduction:

Have you ever wondered how big could phone screens get? Judging by recent trends, manufacturers seem to be constantly raising the norm as they continue to produce bigger and bigger handsets. We've already seen many such offerings, sporting 4+” screens, like the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola DROID X2, but one product easily overshadows them all, in terms of size.

Of course, we're talking about the Samsung Galaxy Note. This beast of a phone actually carries a 5.3” display – the biggest you can find on a device, marketed as a “phone”. We can already see the debate over whether the Galaxy Note should be considered a giant phone or a mini-tablet, however, we'd prefer to stay away from this, and rather focus on the unique capabilities of the handset, in order to see if it has a chance in this cruel world. After all, not many smartphones today come with a special stylus of their own, designed to ease the process of note-taking. Unfortunately though, none of the U.S. carriers has announced plans to carry the Galaxy Note yet.

Anyway, let's see if Samsung's Galaxy Note has the potential to become the next big thing in wireless!

The box includes:

• Samsung Galaxy Note
• Wall charger with detachable microUSB cable
• Handsfree headset with three pairs of eartips
• Some papers

Design:

So, um... what should we say? The Samsung Galaxy Note is one monster of a phone! It is gigantic, and it doesn't feel like anything you've used before. And if you're the type of person who'd say that the Galaxy S II is just too big, then wait until you see this guy. Don't think you'll be able to use it just like you use your typical smartphone – you can't fit the Galaxy Note comfortably in your pocket. Well, you can carry it in your pocket, but don't try to sit while it's in there. It's by no means heavy, but it is too cumbersome to handle normally. This “phone” is designed for the biggest of hands, but we don't believe that it will fit well even in such hands.



The Samsung Galaxy Note is made of plastics, but it doesn't feel cheap at all. The device is solid, and even the capacitive stylus stays very firmly in its spot, and requires a bit of force to be removed. No wiggle whatsoever.

Now, let's turn our attention to the gargantuan 5.3” display of the Galaxy Note. It is, of course, of the capacitive type and utilizes the Super AMOLED technology, which translates into rich colors, deep contrast levels wide viewing angles and... a bluish tint on top, mostly visible when displaying white. Having so much real estate however, means that screen resolution should also be abundant, in order to keep a respectful pixel density. This is one area where the Galaxy Note performs admirably, having an 800x1280 pixel res, which translates into 285 ppi. We're happy to say that everything on the screen is very clear and easily readable.

All the keys around the device are comfortable to press, while the special capacitive stylus is positioned at the bottom of the device. As we said, it requires a bit of force to have it removed, but that's fine, as it wouldn't have been better if it was wiggling. The stylus itself is long enough, and more importantly – isn't too thin, so overall we are happy with its design.

Interface and Functionality:

The Samsung Galaxy Note runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is of course disguised with the custom TouchWiz user interface. It is nice that TouchWiz has been tweaked for the Note in a number of ways, so that it better fits the 5.3” realities. For example, the icon grid now allows for five, instead of four icons on a row.


In addition to all the standard Android and TouchWiz stuff, however, Samsung has cooked some apps especially for the Galaxy Note and its stylus. This is to be expected with a device, centered around the experience of note-taking via a digital pen. S Memo is the special notes app, which will allow you to leverage the possibilities of the included stylus. It features some nice options such as brush type, thickness and color. You can also insert text using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The app is pretty decent, and it isn't hard to use. Writing with the S Pen takes a little getting used to, but ultimately we found the experience to be satisfying. Note, however, that you should set from the Settings app if your dominant hand is the left or right one, because this seriously affects the performance of the stylus. You can also take screenshot notes by pressing the key that is on the stylus and holding it on the screen for a couple of seconds.


Another new app is S Planner, which is here to substitute your typical calendar app. Basically, S Planner is just a facelifted calendar, having a more professional feel.


Don't be fooled by the presence of the S Choice app – it's just a renamed Samsung Apps. Still, you do get the Photo Editor app, which allows you to tweak your photos and images, and also draw with the stylus on top of them. It's not much, but at least it comes for free.


There have been no changes made to the Contacts and Messaging apps to differentiate the Galaxy Note from other TouchWiz devices. Speaking of messaging, it's interesting to comment on the typing experience of the Note. First off, the portrait QWERTY is a nightmare. You can't hold the handset comfortably between your hands and type normally on that keyboard. Switching to landscape takes care of the problem for the most part, although there's still just a little bit of that feeling of inconvenience when reaching for the letters in the center.


Internet and Connectivity:

So, browsing on a 5.3” screen with a resolution of 800x1280 should be pretty cool, right? Well, it is, but it's just marginally better than browsing on a 4.3” screen. We weren't blown away by any means. Samsung says that the Galaxy Note minimizes the need of scrolling, but rest assured, there's nothing big in this – you'll still have to scroll, and more importantly, you'll still have to zoom in, in order to make the text comfortably readable. Flash Player support is, of course, available, and works flawlessly. One thing we don't like about Samsung's Android browser is that it doesn't enable the pan function while doing pinch-to-zoom.


The Samsung Galaxy Note supports 4G HSPA+ at up to 21 Mbit/s on the downlink. Unfortunately, as of this writing, Samsung has not yet unveiled plans to bring the Galaxy Note Stateside.

The built-in GPS receiver works very well and manages to fix our locations very quickly. This being an Android 2.3.5 device, it supports Google Maps Navigation – the free turn-by-turn navigation service by Google, but of course, it requires you to be connected to the internet.

Camera and Multimedia:

There's an 8MP camera employed by the Samsung Galaxy Note, coupled with a single LED flash. The camera interface is the standard one for TouchWiz 4.0, which is a good thing because it works pretty fast. It also offers some nice goodies such as Anti-Shake function, different Scene modes, etc.


Outdoor images taken with the Samsung Galaxy Note turn out OK. We're not fascinated by the stills from the 8MP camera, but they are passable. The camera tends to easily overexpose brighter areas, and while the images aren't exactly short on fine details, those aren't in abundance either. Colors get properly reproduced, delivering an overall natural-looking picture.


The Galaxy Note does well when it comes to indoor photography. While this will certainly depend a lot on the situation, we liked what we saw on our test shots. Of course, things do get somewhat noisy in darker conditions, but it's relatively tolerable. The LED flash will get the job done if you're shooting at a relatively close range, but don't expect anything spectacular. It isn't strong enough to illuminate bigger rooms.

Video can be recorded at up to 1080p, and we've got to say that it does look pretty good. The image is rich on colors and details, although there's some distortion observed if you move the camera too quickly. If you aren't in a hurry though, you should end up with some pretty nice footage.

Samsung GALAXY Note Sample Video:



Samsung GALAXY Note Indoor Sample Video:



As you might guess, one area where the Galaxy Note is very strong is multimedia consumption. Naturally, watching movies on the big 5.3” Super AMOLED screen is much better than doing it on a 4” one, for example. Samsung Galaxy Note managed to play all kinds of codecs we threw at it, including MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid and H.264, at resolutions of up to 1080p. Actually, there were just a few skipped frames in the beginning of the H.264 video, but everything went smoothly after that.

The Galaxy Note is also a great smartphone for game-playing – due to its sheer size, all images are larger, and so there's less strain on your eyes.

Performance:

Believe it or not, the Samsung Galaxy Note is also meant to be used as a phone. Taking this thing and putting it next to your head is certainly not beautiful, but it's possible. Unfortunately, the earpiece is disastrous, as it fails to emit tones with decent loudness, plus it makes voices coming through it sound muffled. The microphone isn't very strong, but it does pick up your voice well, so at least the person on the other end of the line won't have that much trouble while conversing with you.

With such a huge display, it's only natural for us to be a bit worried about the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy Note. Thankfully though, the manufacturer has managed to fit a pretty decent 2500mAh battery inside, which should be able to provide 13 hours of talk-time and about 24 days of stand-by – a remarkable achievement indeed.

Conclusion:

It should be clear that the Samsung Galaxy Note is a niche product. It's not a phone designed to take over the mass market. Why is that? The big dimensions of the Note make it much more uncomfortable to handle and use than any other smartphone. Some people with extraordinarily large hands may have a chance of finding it okay, but those cases will be extremely rare. Just to give you an example, the device's size means that it's absolutely impossible to use it with one hand only. As a matter of fact, it also makes some normal everyday stuff like typing out messages and emails too much of a hassle.

Of course, the bigger screen has its benefits. Important areas such as internet browsing and multimedia consumption have gained the most, though this doesn't mean that the experience is light-years ahead from that of a normal 4.3" smartphone like the Galaxy S II, for example. If you are a mobile gamer, the Galaxy Note will be a very suitable solution as well. However, where this handset shines is in the process of note-taking, which has been made more intuitive thanks to the ability to write with the special stylus. If you're looking for just this kind of handwriting experience, then the Galaxy Note is sure to appeal to you.

Leaving the enormous screen and dimensions aside, the Samsung Galaxy Note is a pretty decent smartphone, equipped with powerful hardware, delivering zippy performance with all tasks. It's very well feature-packed, although some of its aspects haven't been executed in the best possible way. For example, call quality is very poor, while the camera is fine, but nothing industry-leading.

As far as alternatives go, we would recommend that you consider the HTC Sensation XL, which offers a 4.7" screen, as well as all variants of the Samsung Galaxy S II. If you are in the States, Sprint's Epic 4G Touch and T-Mobile's Galaxy S II come with 4.52" displays, while AT&T will soon join the party with its 4.5" Galaxy S II Skyrocket. And, if you can wait a little longer, we believe that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus and its 4.65" screen will also prove to be a pretty decent solution. By the way, if the enhanced experience of taking notes is what you're after, you should also check out Sprint's EVO View 4G (or Europe's HTC Flyer), which is a 7" Gingerbread-powered tablet by HTC, having the very same idea as the Galaxy Note, complete with the stylus.

Software version of the reviewed unit: Android 2.3.5, Build: GINGERBREAD.XXKJ4

Samsung GALAXY Note Video Review: