Samsung Galaxy Note review

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Neither. It’s a tablet. Or a phone. Or both. We really don’t know – but it has some of the best specs around and Samsung’s hoping this will ship by the bucketload.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a phone/ tablet hybrid that doesn’t really sit in any category – we’ve reviewed it as a smartphone simply due to the fact it can make calls, but Samsung is definitely trying to create a new category of device with this 5.3-inch screened behemoth.

It’s funny how mobile trends can change. Just a few years ago, manufacturers were falling over themselves trying to outdo each other to to provide the smallest handset in the world. Motorola got them pretty thin with the RAZR line and Samsung’s own D500 was titchy.

Samsung Galaxy Note

Then something happened and big became cool. Yet, we don’t seem to mind any more.

Samsung Galaxy Note in hand

Just as well really, because the Galaxy Note is just that – big. Falling somewhere between the tablet and phone goalposts, it’s not as enormous as pictures may imply. But it is larger than your average smartphone.

Its dimensions come in at 146.85 x 82.95 x 9.65mm yet, at 178g, it’s fairly light considering how heavy it could have been. This is a trait we’ve come to expect with the Galaxy line with both the Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S2 handsets also being light as a feather.

Samsung Galaxy Note side view

To look at the Note, it looks just like a larger version of the S2. The front is incredibly minimalist with only a Samsung logo and homescreen button visible to the eye (the homescreen button is a little more rectangular than that of the S2, almost in an effort to make it seem less iPhone-like.)

Samsung Galaxy Note homescreen button

The front facing 2MP camera and light sensor are there but almost impossible to see on the black model. The left hand side holds only a volume rocker, the top houses the 3.5mm headphone jack and there’s a power/lock-unlock button on the right. The micro USB charging and syncing port can be located on the bottom.

Samsung Galaxy Note front facing 2MP camera and light sensor

The 8MP camera with LED flash is located in the centre of the rear portion in the same way it is on the S2 although, bizarrely, Samsung has, once again, chosen to have the actual glass covering of the lens protruding.

The 8MP camera with LED flash

We can’t understand why it’s not recessed as this merely makes the already vulnerable camera more prone to being scratched when the Note is placed on a surface.

The speaker is located near the bottom of the rear and just above the dock for the ‘S-Pen’ (i.e. fancy stylus) that Samsung appears to be so excited about.

The speaker & S-pen

The crowning glory of the Note is the screen: 5.3″ of WXGA goodness (1280 x 800) and it is a belter. Samsung has always been renowned for its good screens with even the Galaxy S giving us that wow factor last year.

We were bowled over by the S2′s Super AMOLED Plus but the Note just blows that out of the water. 285ppi is what it gives us and not only are colours vibrant and sharp, but it looks easily as good as anything that Apple produces with a ‘retina’ label, even though it’s obviously a lot bigger.

the screen: 5.3" of WXGA goodness (1280 x 800) and it is a belter

Under the hood, you’ll find a dual-core 1.4GHz processor powering this beast and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage (which you can also expand by another 32GB with removable memory.)

A 2,500mAh battery should give you plenty of juice – but considering the size of the screen, which is always the biggest drainer, it may not go as far as one hopes.

2,500mAh battery

It’s difficult to see just who the Note is aimed at – mainly because it’s hard to give it a label and put firmly in the camp of being just a phone or just a tablet. Samsung claims it’s the kind of device a lady could carry around in her handbag but it doesn’t feel like something that has been solely designed with the girls in mind.

The nearest device we can think it compares to is the HTC Flyer though that’s been out a while now and is already being reduced in price. For some buyers it could very well be a choice between the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S2 and with the only real differences being size and the ‘S-Pen’, there’s not much in it.

At the time of writing, you can pick the Note up sim-free for a shade under £600 which places it firmly at the top end of the spectrum and comparable with an unlocked iPhone 4S 32GB.

You can of course pick one up on contract as well – but due to its specs and positioning, it’s not something you’ll get for free unless you’re willing to pay more than £40 a month. And that’s on a two year deal.

It's almost identical to the version on the Galaxy S2 though has some minor tweaks. For example, to take advantage of the extra screen real estate, there are now five icons to a row rather than four. You'll also find a little blue glow when you scroll to the top or bottom of a menu.

Plus there are a couple of new live wallpapers and when adding widgets, you now go back to the beginning of the list when you reach the end rather than just not being able to go any further.

The Note offers the usual multiple Android homescreens with the ability to delete or rearrange them but not add any more than seven in total.

You can pinch in to show an overview and navigate to what you want that way or you can swipe from left to right. Doing so at the bottom of the screen where the page number is displayed will get you between screens even faster.

Widgets can be displayed in any place – and in any way. Samsung offers the ability to resize them although this only allows you to do it to certain ones (compared to some third party launchers which let you resize everything and make it look low-res).

There’s also a rather snazzy ability to resize web pages by holding your finger on two points and tilting the phone towards or away from you. It looks cool but is completely pointless since you can just pinch to zoom to do the same task more effectively.

Whizzing between homescreens is fast thanks to that processor though we did notice that the more we filled it up with apps, the longer it would sometimes take to go back to the homescreen when hitting the home button from within an app.

Not so much that you’d become annoyed with it, but we were looking out for it having experienced the same delay on the S2.

Pulling down on the Android notification bar gives you access not only to your notifications but also a really helpful shortcut menu that will let you toggle things like wifi/gps/Bluetooth/sound/auto-rotate.

It’s similar to the offering we get in HTC’s Sense but is more easily available on the TouchWiz implementation. We would have liked the opportunity to customise this a little and add our own shortcuts though.

Application drawers can be a little hit and miss on Android handsets depending on the vendor but TouchWiz is one of the good ones. Apps can be reordered as you like and can even be placed into individual folders although it’s a little more convoluted than the automatic dropping system of the iPhone.

Here, you have to go into editing mode and then create your folder and drag them in. Crucially, you also have to do options->save afterwards. If you don’t and just hit the home button like an iPhone user, prepare to see all your changes disappear which can be annoying if you’ve just spent ten mins doing a little bit of app admin.

Apps can also be deleted easily via the drawer in editing mode rather than forcing you to go through the settings menu as some Android handsets do.

It’s a great, intuitive system and fantastic for new users. It may lack the feeling of having your hand-held that an iDevice gives a novice but after 20 mins of playing around with a Note, even the most amateur of Android users will be comfortable with how it all works.