Samsung Galaxy Note review

Remember the display on your first mobile phone? If you've been chatting on the go for as long as we have, it was probably barely big enough to fit a complete telephone number -- let alone a contact name or text message. And your first smartphone? Even displaying scaled-down, WAP versions of web pages was asking a lot. Now, those mobile devices we couldn't live without have screens that are much, much larger. Sometimes, though, we secretly wish they were even bigger still. Samsung releases 1.5GHz Exynos processor and 16MP CMOS for mobiles, if you're nice Samsung's Galaxy S II for T-Mobile proves that unicorns do exist (hands-on video) Samsung Galaxy Note announced: 5.3-inch display, built-in-stylus, custom 'S Pen' appsSamsung's new GT-N7000 Galaxy Note is the handset those dreams are made of -- if you happen to share that dream about obnoxiously large smartphones, that is. It's as thin as a Galaxy S II, lightning fast and its 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED display is as gorgeous as it is enormous; the 1280 x 800 pixels you once could only get with a full-size laptop (or in the Galaxy Tab 10.1) can now slide comfortably into your front pocket. Its jumbo display makes it the perfect candidate for a notepad replacement and, with the included S Pen stylus, you'll have no problem jotting notes on the fly, marking up screenshots or signing documents electronically. But, is that massive display too much of a good thing? You'll need to jump past the break to find out. With support for 21Mbps HSPA+ (850, 900, 1900, 2100Mhz), LTE, EDGE and GPRS (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz), the Note is first and foremost a mobile phone -- one that would be quite happy on AT&T if you wanted to import. You could carry it in one pocket with your celly in another, but you don't need to. It's running Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) powered by a 1.4GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor, which performed incredibly well during our benchmark tests (more on that later). The Note offers a full suite of sensors, including an accelerometer, compass and barometer, along with proximity and light. There's also A-GPS and GLONASS for enhanced positioning -- even in Russia. There's an earphone grill up top, just above the Samsung logo, followed by ambient light and proximity sensors to the right, then a front-facing cam near the edge. A single rectangular button at the bottom peeks out from beneath the display, flanked by touch-sensitive backlit return and menu controls. On the top right of the sleek silver bezel you'll find the power button, with a 3.5mm headphone jack up there too and volume slider on the left. The micro-USB connector is centered at the bottom, just to the left of where you slide in the S Pen. That's flush with the Note's flimsy plastic rear panel, which will only need removing when you want to insert a SIM or microSD card -- or swap out the generous 2,500mAh battery. 1280 x 800 pixels in a smartphone display is quite a feat, and it's just as impressive to behold as it sounds. The Note's 5.3-inch Super AMOLED screen is incredibly bright, vibrant and detailed, thanks to its 285ppi resolution. It doesn't have the highest pixel density in the world (the smaller Galaxy Nexus trumps it slightly, as does Apple's Retina panel in the iPhone 4 and 4S), but it's enough to make graphics amazingly smooth -- you'll have a hard time seeing individual pixels with the naked eye. Viewing photos and graphics, web pages and even newspaper articles in PressReader is quite the treat when you have this much visual real estate to work with. Colors on the Note pop just as they do on the GS II, that eye-pleasing contrast and saturation we've come to love from Samsung's AMOLED displays, and little vibrancy is lost when viewed from the side. However, color accuracy does start to wander a bit. This is indeed a PenTile display, just like the upcoming Galaxy Nexus, and so there are more green sub-pixels than any other color. This gives everything an ever-so slightly sickly tinge, especially when viewed off-angle. Still, you'll have no problem watching videos or reviewing your sketches with a group of friends -- assuming none of them are hue purists. If you fall within the camp of smartphone users that absolutely swears off onscreen keyboards, the Note's display may just win you over. A larger display means larger keys, which are easier to see and simpler to tap accurately -- if you can reach them. You can also use the S Pen to replace the keyboard entirely, letting you write in individual letters or entire words. Character and handwriting recognition isn't perfect, but it is quite good. When we scribbled "hello" as you can see in the picture below it was recognized perfectly, though less common words (particularly web addresses) were a little less reliable. Loudspeaker / earpiece The Note's speaker sure is loud, though Samsung hasn't pulled any magic tricks out of the hat here when it comes to audio quality. Do you like listening to music or watching movies through tinny desktop speakers? Well, then you might not mind the Note. There's nothing exceptional about the little tweeter inside here besides its volume, so you'll want to take advantage of that 3.5mm headphone jack whenever possible. The only accessory Samsung included with our review sample was a UK power cord, so we can't speak to the pack-in headphones the company will provide, but unsurprisingly our own pair worked just fine. There's an FM radio app, just in case you run out of stored tunes or want to leave the playlist generation up to a professional. You'll need to plug in a set of earphones to use as an antenna and our generic buds naturally seemed to do the trick -- though we could only pull in a half dozen stations while standing next to a window in Central London, and the ones that we did get were mostly static.