Samsung Galaxy Note review

The box may not allude to it, but the Samsung Galaxy Note is big. Some may even say comically big. But it’s not just big on the outside, it’s big on the inside too.

It packs dual-core 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor along with a Mali-400 MP GPU. This is backed by 1GB of RAM and 16GB/32GB of storage (we had the 16GB model) that can be upgraded by an additional 32GB via microSD.

AnTuTu benchmarking gave it a whopping score of 6394.2. The closest phone competitor was the Samsung Galaxy S2 which scored 5334.3, while the closest tablet PC competitor was the Samsung Galaxy Tab which scored 4782.6. Clearly this phoneblet means business.

For connectivity, it supports WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, and 21Mbps HSPA+.

Design and build quality

The Galaxy Note seems to borrow a lot from the Galaxy S2 in terms of design. It makes sense, seeing as they’re both from the same “family” of devices, and it’s also good to see a manufacturer stick to designs that work (with slight modifications where things don’t work).

The front of the Note is mostly screen, which we’ll get to later. Below the screen, in the middle, is the hard home button. To the left and right of that are “Menu” and “Back” buttons respectively.

Above the screen is the speaker grille, to the right of which you can see the front-facing camera. The sides of the Note appear to be a chromed plastic of sorts. Surprisingly, it’s not a fingerprint magnet. On the left side, at the top, is the volume rocker, while on the right side you’ll find the power/wake button.

On top is the 3.5mm audio jack, while the bottom holds the microUSB port for charging and data transfer along with a spot to hold the stylus. Maybe I’m one of the few, but I prefer having the audio jack on the bottom as with the Nexus S.

The back is made of a textured plastic, which feels good and grippy when holding the Note, but seemed rather flimsy when taking it off to get to the battery/SIM/microSD slot. At the top, in the middle, is the 8 megapixel camera with the LED flash to the right of it. At the bottom, slightly to the left, is a speaker.

It’s a simple and elegant design, and the only thing missing is a hardware camera button. With dimensions of 146.9mm x 83mm x 9.7mm, it’s not like there wasn’t space for one.

The entire package weighs around 178g, but honestly, it feels like it weighs 50g lighter.

On the topic of size, the Galaxy Note is big. The measurements don’t really convey the message across properly – you have to see it to understand just how big it is.

Using it one handed was tricky as I could barely reach the “Menu” button on the one side and I couldn’t reach the far corners without letting the phone dangle precariously.

Samsung Galaxy Note

Screen and responsiveness

The 5.3″ Super AMOLED (no Plus) screen is capable of 1280×800 resolution and it is absolutely gorgeous. Colours are vibrant as only a Super AMOLED can make them, while text was clear and crisp.

Reading, browsing, gaming, and sometimes just sitting and admiring the screen, were all a pleasure.

There are concerns about Pentile displays, but with the Note, you’d have to look very closely (by which I mean that you need CSI-style zooming capabilities) to notice the difference. This is not to say that a non-Pentile display wouldn’t have been better, but in user-land the difference is negligible.

Another thing worth noting about the screen is that it is Gorilla glass and it is indeed scratch resistant – we tested (somewhat involuntarily, but still).

Responsiveness on the screen was good, but the UI did sometimes lag behind certain gestures. This is especially noticeable on the lock-screen: if you swipe quickly, you may not even see the prompt indicating where to swipe before the screen is actually unlocked.

Sound and call quality

Sound quality through the rear speaker was good, though the bundled headphones were slightly disappointing.

Call quality was good on our end, and recipients said that everything sounded fine on theirs too.

Cameras

The rear-facing 8MP camera is capable of taking 3264×2448 shots. Shots were rich in colour and detail, even in low-light conditions, which definitely makes the Note’s camera one of the best available on a smartphone.

The rear-facing camera is capable of 1080p video recording, and it too gave excellent results even when faced with low-light situations.

The 2MP front-facing camera performed admirably, and should be more than adequate for video calling (or a Google+ Hangout).

Samsung Galaxy Note

Battery life

Battery life was excellent. After a full day of use that involved some reading, lots of picture-taking, and lots of browsing and social networking, the battery was at 27%. With less use, we could make it through two or three days.

In our video loop test (with WiFi on and brightness set to about 65%), the Galaxy Note managed a very impressive 8 hours.

Pen and notes

The Galaxy Note comes with a stylus, which is there to, well, take notes.

The pen itself is compact and has it’s own holding space in the Note. On the pen is a button (that’s quite hard to find) that is used to perform three additional functions.

The first is to hold the button down and hold the pen on the screen. This will take a screenshot and will take you to a screen where you can edit it and/or write on it.

The second is to hold the button down and move from right to left. This is equivalent to pressing the back button.

The last is to hold the button down and move it from the bottom up. This is equivalent to pressing the menu button.

The pen can also be used to write with (shocking!), and this is best done in the app preloaded by Samsung called “S Memo”.

Writing with the pen was probably as good as can be expected and using the Memo app can be useful for taking quick notes. However I don’t see someone using it to take a lot of notes in one sitting because the pages are fairly small, which means that you can’t fit a lot on one page, and creating a new page actually takes a few seconds as it has to save the current one before moving on.

Overall, the implementation of the pen is good, but I think it will really only appeal to those that don’t think the stylus is dead yet.

Software

The Galaxy Note comes with Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread), which (at the time of writing) is the latest major release of Android for phones. Word on the blogosphere indicates that it will receive Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), and hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later.

Naturally, it comes with TouchWiz (version 4), which some love, some hate, and many love to hate.

The lockscreen has been changed from the previous “Sweep to unlock” (which required you to basically move your finger from one end of the device to the other without any indication of when you’ve gone far enough) to something that more resembles the Honeycomb lockscreen.

Placing your finger anywhere on the lockscreen will cause two discs to appear around your finger – one with a small radius and one with a larger radius. To unlock, you swipe to the outside of the second disc. As I said, it’s much like Honeycomb, except that you can start from anywhere; that the smaller disc doesn’t follow your finger; and that it seems laggy in practice.

The default homescreen, app drawer and most of the bundled widgets are quite good, with the only complaint being that the homescreen doesn’t support 3rd-party scrollable widgets (which is true of pretty much every manufacturer and even stock Gingerbread).

The music app seems to sort music alphabetically instead of by song number and there doesn’t seem to be a way to change that. This means that songs play in alphabetical order instead of the order that they appear on an album.

The Social Hub (an app that links your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and email accounts) is better – it’s now integrated with the Android “Share” menu. Unfortunately it doesn’t do URL shortening, which is a pain for Twitter users, and the widget is extremely laggy. As I’ve said before, the Social Hub idea is a good one, but it still needs a lot of work.

The Readers Hub is more or less the same as it was before. The Music Hub was notably absent.

Samsung have also added some additional power saving features, which is great news for those who want to push the battery life on the Note even further.

Another interesting feature is motion controlling, which includes things like “Tilt to zoom” and “Shake to update”. Some may find them useful, but most will feel that it’s a gimmick and will be irritated at the popups that jump out asking if you want to enable the feature (which will only not reappear again if you explicitly tell them to).

Conclusion

With all this said, what is the Galaxy Note? It’s a device with one of the most impressive spec sheets out there, that runs like a dream, is placed in an excellent package, and boasts a pile of great multimedia capabilities. It’s a very compelling device.

With that said, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Galaxy Note is the bastard sword of smartphones: you need a hand and a half to use it effectively. And the size of the Note can either be boon or bane.

For those with smaller hands (and pockets), the Galaxy Note can be frustrating to use as it makes you feel clumsy. For those with larger hands, the Galaxy Note will be a pleasure, as there is finally enough room for you.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is an excellent device, of that there is no doubt, but it makes size a very relevant factor.

If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, and you’ve decided to go big or go home, the Samsung Galaxy Note, which has an RRP of R8,499 – R8,999, should be at the top of your list.