Technology has been a big part of my life for more than 30 years. Challenging technology and ponder new ways to utilize its potential is a hobby of mine. I often come in contact with new gadgets and I will try to share my thoughts about them and the way they will impact our life on this site.
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Samsung Galaxy Note - What makes this Galaxy different
Samsung Galaxy Note
As some of you might have noticed, I have gotten my hands on a Samsung Galaxy Note, and have been using it for some days now. This post will not be a real review, the reason being that the unit I’m testing is a sample and the software is not a final version. I will instead take a look at what makes the Galaxy Note different from the rest out there and talk about different usages scenarios. That said, I must say that for a sample the build quality is impressing, and the same goes for the software. There is things that need to be fixed, but all things considered its surprisingly close to, what I would suspect is, the final experience.
Okay let’s get to it. I’m sure that there is one or two questions that is on everybody mind, they were on mine anyway. The first one is, is the Galaxy Note a phone or a tablet. The Samsung Galaxy Note is very much a phone. Its build to be used as a phone and Samsung have used a lot of time, I would imagine, to setup the user interface so its looks and feels like what you know from the Galaxy S II, but more on that later. The second question, is it possible to use a unit with a 5,3” screen as a phone. Again, yes the Galaxy Note is a phone and is easily used as one. The design and the thinness of the unit secures that it fits in any pocket I have come across. The large footprint of the screen will make it more noticeable in a pants pocket, but it fits and it’s not uncomfortable to have in the pocket. Secondly its low weight adds to the comfort of carrying it in any pocket. It is a tat big holding to your ear and I’m sure that it looks a little funny, but it holds well in one hand and you can easily use it for this function. So to add it up. The Galaxy Note is a phone, a big phone I agree, but the way its set up, in design and software it definitely not a tablet. But it is definitely not, not a tablet. You can easily use it as a mini tablet, since reading and browsing is easy and comfortable on the large bright screen.
The screen is another thing that is surprising good on the Galaxy Note. The first time I turned it on it felt like it jumped out at me, with all its brightens and amazing colors. It’s actually sad that you get used to it in a day or two, the 5.3” Super AMOLED screen should be admired every day like it was the first time you ever saw it. The brightens of the screen is not all there is to the Galaxy Notes. On top of it, it has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. That is a lot more than the Galaxy Tab 7 or the HTC Flyer, and they are both 7” tablets. Considering the very high screen resolution you would think that normal Android 2.x apps would look really bad. But as I said Samsung have been hard at work to compensate for this on the Galaxy Note user interface. As they did with the Galaxy Tab 7, icons, fonts, and everything else in the UI is scaled so they look as they would on a normal resolution phone. This is excellent news as every app, even the ones you get of the Market, look right on the large screen and not like weirdly scaled versions of them self. I looked at this phenomenon in a earlier post, Status på Android som Tablet OS (in Danish). It’s my guess that this problem will be eliminated in Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), but we will have to see. There is one downside to the scaling Samsung have build in to the OS on Galaxy Note, and that shows when you connect the Galaxy Note to a monitor via the MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) link.
To me the MHL output via the microUSB port is one of the Galaxy Notes most important features. This makes it three for one in possible usages scenarios. The possibility to output HDMI to an external monitor can turn the Galaxy Note into not only a phone or a mini tablet, but also a netbook. Add a wireless keyboard and you have an Android driven 1280x800 netbook up and running. This is where the scaled UI on the Galaxy Note is not really welcome. I tried using it on a 22” monitor and everything looks really big. I had hoped that there was a function to minimize the fonts and icons when using it on a monitor, but no luck. Anyway using Android as the primary OS on a netbook is not perfect, and this is where the Cirtix client comes in handy. I dialed in to my company Citrix server and suddenly things looked a lot different. The Citrix client utilizes the full resolution of the Galaxy Note to give you a ‘normal’ size desktop. This is going to be an important if you aim to carry just one device to meet all your computing needs.
While I worked on this post Google and Samsung revealed Ice Cream Sandwich, and it would be my guess that the Galaxy Note might just end up launching with ICS or getting the upgrade very shortly after it’s launch. ICS could correct some of the things that I have pointed out here and it will surely make Galaxy Note an even better phone. Either way I’m in love with all the Galaxy Note brings to my daily phone use. Having a great screen to read mails, news and generally browse the net on is a blessing. There is no doubt that at 5.3” we are very close to how big a phone can get before it gets ridiculous, but the Galaxy Note pulls it off. The speed of the unit and the UI is almost perfect and the camera produces good quality pictures and video. So if you are looking for a phone that can make carrying around a tablet unnecessary, and that ones in a while can dub as a netbook, the Galaxy Note is very definitely for you.
I would like to thanks Samsung for letting me play around with the Galaxy Note for a couple of days. Its now, sadly, safely returned to Samsung, but if you should have any questions for me, drop them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them for you.
Thanks for this valuable information, i want to know how is the web browsing in portrait and landscape mode do you need to zoom or you can browse without the needing to zoom in
and also what about the qwerty keyboard in portrait and landscape is it easy and accurate
In portrait the standard zoom sets the font fairly small. If you double tap to zomm in it helps, but its still a small font. If you turn to landscape mode after the zoom letters are easy to read. It is possible, in the settings, to set how much zoom to use as standard. I do miss the HTC word wrap function when you use pinch to zoom. The keyboard is good, but I do not find it better than the one Samsung use for the Galaxy Tab 7 (latest update). The big screen helps typing on the Galaxy Note, and especial portrait typing is a lot easier then on a 'standard' phone.
Thanks for a nice post! I have a few questions: How do you feel the battery will fair considering the large screen? Will it last for a full day with average use? What do you think of the writing recognition? Does it for instance work with other languages than English? (I'm from Sweden) Thank you!
The battery is actually really good. I would say that it should easy last you a workday, including travel time, but as with all smartphones, it will need a charge at night to work the next day. It has a good power saving menu with lots of options to help conserve the last 30% of the battery. I did not test writing recognition, for two reasons. Firstly my handwriting is no good and I have never used it to input text in any device. Secondly Samsung told me that one of the things that they where still working on was pen accuracy. So on that point I don know, sorry. I can tell you that I never felt the need to use the pen, but recognize that a lot of people would find it helpful.
Thanks for writing this post, it was really interesting. I wish I could read Danish so I could understand more of your posts! I'll give Google Translate a try.
Hope you don't mind a few questions. Did you try using the Note one-handed, using your thumb to control it, or is it too big for that? Did you try the Samsung email app? I've seen pictures of it elsewhere and it looks quite dark, and as if it won't actually show that many emails in the list on the left in landscape orientation. I'm hoping the Gmail app (maybe in ICS) will do this. Last but not least - and I realise I'm sort-of tempting you into writing a full review now! - how would you feel about using it all the time as your main phone?
Thanks again.
(PS. not sure if the images are meant to link to bigger ones but they don't seem to work)
I used the Galaxy Note as my primary phone for about a week, so I used it a lot with just one hand. I don't if I have big hands, I would guess normal for a man, but I find that it's very possible to use the Galaxy Note one-handed. There is, of course, places you can not reach, but about 70% of all functions in android and the apps I installed was accessible holding it in one hand. Samsung have put optimized versions of the email, calender and contacts apps on the Galaxy Note. They give you the tablet like functions i landscape mode. I did not find them dark, but you are right. The UI is made easy to read so it will not show a hole lot of mails in the left side list. This point is one of my main problems with Android (its seems that its still a problem in ICS), and I'm working on a post about this very problem right now. Its in Danish, but who knows, it might just turn up in English too. I was very sad to let the Galaxy Note go, and I will surely try to get my hands on one after its released. To me it seems like a close perfect phone and when Samsung loads ICS on it, it should be perfect (all depending on ICS). I did not mind the size, to me it is a very small price to pay for all the features you get in return. Lastly, your comment made me think about writing more in English, I have done some post, in the past, in English, but I'll consider moving them to an all English blog site in the future.
Did you have any chance to try teamviewer application on Samsung Galaxy note. since we have to support our customer all the time sometimes it is very important to conect customers while not in office.
I never had the chance to play with the SGS2, but from what I hear it do great pictures. The picture and video quality from the Galaxy Note is good. It's never going to be the reason to get one, but if you get one you will very happy with the pictures and video you take. Since the software was not finished I did not want to review the camera, and quality could get even better in the final version.
The Galaxy Note has its European launch event in London at 7pm tomorrow. The livestream will be at http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=7556. And I'm going to be at a meeting while it's going on :(
Thanks for this valuable information, i want to know how is the web browsing in portrait and landscape mode do you need to zoom or you can browse without the needing to zoom in
ReplyDeleteand also what about the qwerty keyboard in portrait and landscape is it easy and accurate
In portrait the standard zoom sets the font fairly small. If you double tap to zomm in it helps, but its still a small font. If you turn to landscape mode after the zoom letters are easy to read. It is possible, in the settings, to set how much zoom to use as standard. I do miss the HTC word wrap function when you use pinch to zoom.
ReplyDeleteThe keyboard is good, but I do not find it better than the one Samsung use for the Galaxy Tab 7 (latest update). The big screen helps typing on the Galaxy Note, and especial portrait typing is a lot easier then on a 'standard' phone.
Thanks for a nice post! I have a few questions: How do you feel the battery will fair considering the large screen? Will it last for a full day with average use? What do you think of the writing recognition? Does it for instance work with other languages than English? (I'm from Sweden) Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe battery is actually really good. I would say that it should easy last you a workday, including travel time, but as with all smartphones, it will need a charge at night to work the next day. It has a good power saving menu with lots of options to help conserve the last 30% of the battery.
ReplyDeleteI did not test writing recognition, for two reasons. Firstly my handwriting is no good and I have never used it to input text in any device. Secondly Samsung told me that one of the things that they where still working on was pen accuracy. So on that point I don know, sorry.
I can tell you that I never felt the need to use the pen, but recognize that a lot of people would find it helpful.
Thanks for writing this post, it was really interesting. I wish I could read Danish so I could understand more of your posts! I'll give Google Translate a try.
ReplyDeleteHope you don't mind a few questions. Did you try using the Note one-handed, using your thumb to control it, or is it too big for that? Did you try the Samsung email app? I've seen pictures of it elsewhere and it looks quite dark, and as if it won't actually show that many emails in the list on the left in landscape orientation. I'm hoping the Gmail app (maybe in ICS) will do this.
Last but not least - and I realise I'm sort-of tempting you into writing a full review now! - how would you feel about using it all the time as your main phone?
Thanks again.
(PS. not sure if the images are meant to link to bigger ones but they don't seem to work)
I used the Galaxy Note as my primary phone for about a week, so I used it a lot with just one hand. I don't if I have big hands, I would guess normal for a man, but I find that it's very possible to use the Galaxy Note one-handed. There is, of course, places you can not reach, but about 70% of all functions in android and the apps I installed was accessible holding it in one hand.
ReplyDeleteSamsung have put optimized versions of the email, calender and contacts apps on the Galaxy Note. They give you the tablet like functions i landscape mode. I did not find them dark, but you are right. The UI is made easy to read so it will not show a hole lot of mails in the left side list. This point is one of my main problems with Android (its seems that its still a problem in ICS), and I'm working on a post about this very problem right now. Its in Danish, but who knows, it might just turn up in English too.
I was very sad to let the Galaxy Note go, and I will surely try to get my hands on one after its released. To me it seems like a close perfect phone and when Samsung loads ICS on it, it should be perfect (all depending on ICS). I did not mind the size, to me it is a very small price to pay for all the features you get in return.
Lastly, your comment made me think about writing more in English, I have done some post, in the past, in English, but I'll consider moving them to an all English blog site in the future.
Picture links should work now.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteDid you have any chance to try teamviewer application on Samsung Galaxy note. since we have to support our customer all the time sometimes it is very important to conect customers while not in office.
Sorry I did not test the teamviewer app.
ReplyDeleteHi Faaborg,
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy your "review". I am looking forward to get this device ASAP.
Tell me please how can you compare the Note with SGS2 regarding cam/camcorder quality?
I never had the chance to play with the SGS2, but from what I hear it do great pictures. The picture and video quality from the Galaxy Note is good. It's never going to be the reason to get one, but if you get one you will very happy with the pictures and video you take. Since the software was not finished I did not want to review the camera, and quality could get even better in the final version.
ReplyDeleteThe Galaxy Note has its European launch event in London at 7pm tomorrow. The livestream will be at http://global.samsungtomorrow.com/?p=7556. And I'm going to be at a meeting while it's going on :(
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update, I'll try to check in for a look at the final version.
ReplyDelete