Samsung Galaxy Note

Very few smartphones  deserve the attribution ‘courageous’. the Samsung Galaxy Note unequivocally does. It is courageous because it is a valiant attempt at breaking down the smartphone-computing device-tablet conundrum that so many of us have faced over the last year or so. But their gamble has paid off handsomely. The Note will go down in history as odd and polarizing, but successful at the same time because it was the first to deal forthrightly with a widely abused word of times-convergence, by trying to bridge the gap between a phone and tablet.                                                                                                                                  FORM FACTOR AND DESIGN-- Don’t let first appearances fool you. While the Galaxy Note is doubt large and looks huge, when placed next to the slimmer Galaxy S II, it  is most certainly not ungainly. There is clearly no evolutionary theme evident in the jump from the Galaxy S II to the Galaxy Note, except that Samsung took  a more mature and practical approach while conceptualizing the note. The phone is about 9.7 mm thick, and weighs around 178 g. it’s not a thick phone , but it is definitely on the heavier side. Coming from the the Galaxy  S II, which weighs an anorexic 116 g, the Note’s near -200 grams is noticeably heavy. You will notice its heft the most when you’re on longer calls. We suggest you get a good Bluetooth headset to negate its weight and size issues. Even with its large size. Samsung has done well by keeping the device relatively slim and potable. It’ll slip right into your pocket without making it uncomfortable. The rounded borders make holding and gripping easy, and using gun metal on the borders makes sense, because those areas will be the most frequent hand contact points. Because such a large potion of the phone is the screen and protective glass that covers it., the front looks typically like an overgrown iphone , except the minor difference in the in the home bottom shape and size. The standard back cover is a flimsy paper-thin piece of plastic, which leaves the protective glass over the camera lens jutting out. It will get scratched the very first time you place it flat on its back. But if you install the Samsung-supplied flip cover, then it gives the Note a professional look and sturdier, thicker back that has a recess area for the camera. The flip cover serves no real purpose, other than to provide the 5.3-inch display with a little more protection. The quality of flip cover though leaves a lot to be desired, and within a few days of use you will see fray along the edges, with the rubberized coating coming off. The Note is designed with a two –handed approach; try using it with one hand and you will stuggle to do basic things. You could try using Samsung’s voice Talk , but it never worked for us with the Galaxy S II and it wasn’t a great experience with the Note either. The placement of the volume and power buttons is a pain; you will keep hitting the volume buttons with your index finger when you press the power button with your thumb. Moving  them just  a couple of centimeters off each other would have solved this . The buttons themselves are too narrow, and then feedback is weak. We also found the main Home key too thin; it tends to see-saw instead of giving you firm feedback.                                                                                                                                                                                              FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE: -- Halfway through the first month of usage, we got a pretty good picture of the Note’s strengths. The large. Vibrant 5.3 inch WXGA screen and 1.4 GHz of duel core goodness have clearly enhanced its usability. And more accommodative 2500mah battery makes it more open to use for extended periods of time. It is this troika of power, battery-life, and screen size that makes the Galaxy Note really leap ahead into a league of its own.  The phone shows no hiccups during its intial usage, but as is the nature of Android, it will bloat up and show signs of impending slow-down. There have been instance when the QS has stuck itself into a loop, and a hard reset was required. These and other Android and Samsung TouchWiz UI problems do occur from time to time. It will sometimes lag behind your clicks, and sometimes start typing after you have finished the sentence. The delay from getting a phone call and the screen lighting up is discernible, as is the delay when you want to disconnect the call. As a pure phone messaging interface, Samsung’s TouchWiz really leaves a lot to be desired. But as a content consumption device, the Note is unstoppably fast. The dolphin HD Browser rips out from the Web. Twitter and Facebook apps work without scroll hiccups, and jumping from app to app is a pretty smooth experience, In terms of sheer performance, its duel-core 1.4 GHz processor does not disappoint Churning out 90.341 MFLOPs in the Linpack benchmark for Android. It demolishes its competition. Higher priced products like the HTC sensational XL are left trailing behind. Its no different with the AnTuTu benchmark. The Note scores an impressive 6320 points compared to the 4500-odd powered devices. So, its very clear that Galaxy Note is more than just marginally faster.