Posted by Luchiya in For those of you who hate to read long reviews, I’ll cut to the chase: I bought the Samsung Galaxy Note with my own personal funds because Samsung’s US division didn’t have review units available for loan. I thought I’d like it, and it turns out I love it after 3 weeks of use. It’s mine, I’m keeping it, and I’ll tell you why in this review. No, it’s not perfect, and I’ll tell you about that too.
The Galaxy Note is Samsung’s real flagship device for the close of 2011. It makes the Samsung Galaxy Nexus look a little middle of the road. While the Nexus has solid higher end specs, the Note goes for broke with the best of everything Samsung has to offer: a 1280 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED HD display, the fastest version yet of their very fast Exynos dual core CPU and a dual digitizer that supports both capacitive multi-touch and a Wacom pen. But it’s big; the phone has a whopping 5.3″ display, and though Samsung does their usual magic to make it supremely thin and light, it’s still big. I’ve owned a Dell Streak, a phablet (phone/tablet) with a 5″ display, so I can tolerate large smartphones. The Note is more portable but it still makes the Galaxy Nexus with its 4.65″ display seem compact. The Galaxy Nexus is at the large end of the mainstream spectrum given this year’s big phone theme. The Galaxy Note is for those with big pockets, literally and figuratively. While it actually does fit in my pockets, the price tag is steep because it’s currently available only as an unlocked GSM phone from importers. You can use any GSM carrier’s SIM card, but you’ll pay the price: around $650 to $750.
That’s equal to or $100 more expensive than the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus without contract ($650) and about the same as the import Galaxy Nexus. Mind you, the phone will work on T-Mobile and AT&T, and you’ll even get 3G/4G HSPA+ 21Mbps on AT&T, but it won’t work on Verizon and Sprint who use CDMA rather than GSM. I’m using it on AT&T with my standard postpaid 4G data plan and it works great. If you’re on T-Mobile US, you’ll only get 2G for data as well as voice service over GSM.
Like all Samsung smartphones, the Note is very thin and light, and it’s made of plastic. It’s attractive though not high end chic looking, and it fits in the hand and pocket better than you might think. Two disclaimers: I have very large hands for a woman and I don’t wear tight jeans with tiny pockets often. If your hands are small or your attire more trendy than mine, you might find the Galaxy Note is just too big. If you think the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is too large, forget about the Note. This is a big phone, folks.
Our phone is a Euro import, and Samsung describes it as blue, and that means the back cover is a very, very dark blue that generally looks black. The button configuration is pure Samsung: the power button is on the upper right just across from the volume rocker, so it’s easy to accidentally hit both. The headphone jack is up top, and the pen silo and micro USB port are on the bottom. The speaker fires from the lower rear section, and the microSD card slot is under the battery cover.
AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note is Coming
Given the cellular band match-up, it’s no surprise that AT&T announced at the CES trade show on January 9, 2012 that they’ll be selling the Note with LTE 4G. We suspect the AT&T version will drop the insanely fast 1.4GHz Exynos CPU for the LTE-friendly 1.5GHz Qualcomm S3 dual core CPU as they did with the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket on AT&T. Our international unlocked Note is quad band GSM with EDGE, and it works on AT&T’s 3G and 4G HSPA+ 21Mb network (both 850 and 1900MHz bands), so it works fine for calls and texts as well as fast data. Why the switch to Qualcomm? Likely because it interfaces better with LTE radios.
Samsung Galaxy Note Video Review
Here’s our 28 minute in-depth Samsung Galaxy Nexus Video Review:
Display
The phone’s insanely high resolution 1280 x 800 pixel Super AMOLED HD display is easy on the eyes. Android does a good job of scaling UI elements so you won’t need a magnifying glass to see things. After all, 1280 x 800 is the standard resolution for 10″ Android tablets and select higher end 7″ tablets. All those pixels make for supremely sharp text and plenty of detail when viewing high res photos and video. The display uses a Pentile matrix, but we didn’t notice telltale color fringing or jaggy text thanks to the very high resolution. Super AMOLED displays tend to have a blue color cast, but Samsung clearly went with the best display panel they could design, and calibrated colors for nearly neutral tones. Our phone showed no banding when viewing blacks.
The Galaxy Note has a Wacom dual digitizer, and that means it has both capacitive multi-touch and an included S Pen that works with the active digitizer. It’s much more precise and fluid for drawing vs. a capacitive stylus and it supports 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, which artists will love. Samsung ships the phone with several pen-aware apps and there are more in Samsung’s download portal on the phone. If an app isn’t pen-savvy, you’re out of luck. Adobe Reader doesn’t support use of the pen, for example, but there are third party PDF apps that do. Given the Note’s size and pen, it actually feels like a real note pad replacement: nice. The pen stows in a silo located on the bottom edge of the phone. If you’re looking for a pocket digital sketchbook or note pad, the Galaxy Note does the job perfectly.
Performance and Horsepower
It’s no secret that Samsung’s dual core Exynos CPU is one of the fastest mobile CPUs available. The Galaxy Note currently has the highest clocked Exynos, and it runs at 1.4GHz (same as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus tablet). The Note benchmarks higher than all other Android smartphones and tablets we’ve tested so far (even faster than the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime overall). Here are the numbers:
Quadrant 4088
AnTuTu 6468
Linpack multi-thread: 105
Sunspider 1920
How about perceived performance? The phone feels very fast, though we noticed occasional micro-lag when navigating the home screen and launcher. The Note does run the latest version of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, which may weigh down the phone a bit, but we actually like what Samsung has done with TouchWiz, so we won’t complain. The Galaxy Note has no trouble playing HD video including 720p to the internal panel and 1080p to the internal panel and an HD TV via MHL adapter (not included but you can pick one up at carrier stores for $20).
The smartphone runs Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread with a promised upgrade to Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It has a gig of RAM and 16 gigs of internal storage plus an available microSD card slot under the battery cover.
How fast will the AT&T version be with the likely 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm CPU? Given the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket’s performance running the Qualcomm, it should be quite good though not as fast as Exynos. Will you notice the speed difference? Probably not so much, but we’ll reserve final judgment when we receive the AT&T version for testing.
Phone and Data
The Samsung Galaxy Note is sold in the US as an unlocked import quad band GSM world phone. It has 3G and 4G HSPA+ 21Mbps on the 850/900/1900/2100MHz bands, and that means you’ll get 3G/4G HSPA+ overseas and on AT&T but not T-Mobile in the US. Our download speeds on AT&T averaged 6Mbps down and 1.3Mbps up according to the Speedtest.net app, which is average for HSPA+ AT&T phones in our area. That’s plenty fast for responsive web page downloads and app downloads from the Android Market. I don’t miss LTE when using the phone itself, but when using the mobile hotspot feature I would prefer LTE (and thus waiting for the AT&T version with LTE).
As a voice phone, the Galaxy Note is wonderful. It has very clear incoming and outgoing voice and better than average volume. Samsung’s Galaxy S II phones have had very good voice overall, and the Note takes it up a notch better vs. the Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket on AT&T. The phone likewise sounded good with a variety of Bluetooth headsets like the Jawbone 2 and Motorola H730 as well as our BMW built-in Bluetooth.
Camera and Multimedia
The Samsung Note uses the same 8 megapixel rear main camera module as the Galaxy S II phones, and it takes colorful and sharp photos as well as pleasing though not groundbreaking 1080p video. The camera is prone to overexposure in high contrast brightly lit outdoor settings, just as with the S II, but otherwise we have no complaints. Indoor photos show relatively little noise, and the flash doesn’t overexpose subjects at close range. 1080p video looks smooth at 30fps, and has a good amount of detail and color saturation, though there’s some motion blockiness typical of camera phones. The 2 megapixel front camera worked well with Google Talk video chat and Skype in our tests. We looked clear with good illumination over HSPA+ and WiFi.
For such a large phone, you’d think there would be room for some serious stereo speakers. Instead the Note has a decent mono speaker that’s decently loud but not louder than the pack of 4.5″ and above smartphones. Sound is reasonably full but you’ll want to plug in a set of headphones for best audio quality, or stream to Bluetooth speakers. The phone has a 3.5mm jack and an FM radio with RDS.
WiFi and Connections
The Samsung has WiFi 802.11b/g/n with average reception for a smartphone and it has Bluetooth 3.0 + HS. You get Kies Air syncing over WiFi and WiFi Direct as well as DLNA for streaming media. HDMI out comes via an optional MHL adapter that plugs into the phone’s micro USB port. The phone can mount as a standard mass storage device (thankfully for Mac users), and it can do Samsung’s Kies syncing over USB and WiFi to Windows machines plus MTP. Samsung says the micro USB port supports USB Host (with a USB host cable, aka USB OTG cable). We checked with our trusty USB host cable, but couldn’t get this feature to work with flash drives, hard drives, keyboards or mice.
The phone has a GPS with A-GPS and Glonass (the Russian GPS satellite system), and it ships with the usual Google Maps, Navigation and Places. The Note quickly found our location indoors and proved a trustworthy companion for in-car navigation. The Galaxy Note has a digital compass.
Battery Life
You’re thinking: big screen, really fast CPU and HSPA+, battery life must stink. But battery life is actually competitive with other HSPA+ smartphones currently on the market. It helps that the phone has a large 2500 mAh Lithium Ion battery, and that Samsung’s CPU is very good at power savings.
Samsung does go a little overboard with the display power management, and there’s an option that’s turned on by default that adapts backlight to colors currently displayed (all Galaxy S II smartphones have this feature). That means light and white backgrounds trigger power management to further dim the display and web pages can look a bit too dim. Likewise, the ambient light sets the display too dim for my tastes, rendering it useless indoors. It does do a good job of increasing brightness to combat outdoor light, however.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Note is the best Android smartphone of 2011. It has a superb display running at an extremely high resolution, a very useful Wacom digitizer with pen for pressure sensitive writing and drawing and a very fast dual core CPU. It’s thin, attractive and though very large, can still fit in a pocket as well as medium to large hands.
Voice quality for calls is excellent whether using the handset or a Bluetooth headset, HSPA+ speeds are very good and the GPS is solid. There’s really nothing we don’t like about the phone, but it is too expensive and too large for some. AT&T’s version with LTE should be a phone to watch, and it will be much more affordable with a contract option.
Source: MobileTechReview.com
