Samsung Galaxy Note vs Nokia Lumia 900

We compare two larger phones this time with Nokia's Lumia 900 Windows-powered handset against Samsung's Galaxy Note Android device.

Form
Samsung Galaxy Note - 146.9x83x9.7mm, 178g
Nokia Lumia 900 - 127.8x68.5x11.5mm, 160g

Stylistically there are a lot of similarities between the Galaxy Note and its smaller stable mate, the Galaxy S2. Both have a slab-like rectangular appearance with slightly rounded corners and a textured back panel which is otherwise highly minimalist.

The result is a very clean and contemporary look which stacks up well against the rest of the competition. Of course, the thing which really stands out with the Galaxy Note is the sheer scale of the thing.

For some it may be too cumbersome for normal phone tasks and might instead be used as a small tablet. We also think there's something a bit odd about holding a phone of this size to the side of your head when using it for calls. You might be able to get round this with the consistent use of hands-free kits, but apart from that it's a bit weird.

For what it's worth, you can now get the Galaxy Note in a flashy white version, as well as the conventional black.

Nokia's Lumia 900 may be the biggest Lumia device to date but it's not quite on the scale of the Galaxy Note. Generally it's a much more comfortable size in the hand.

Design-wise, Nokia has kept the sheer rectangular sharpness of the Lumia 800 and Nokia N9 style body shell, which is a solid unibody construction made from a tough, high quality polycarbonate.

True to form, Nokia has gone with some bright colour choices alongside the usual black and you can get the Lumia 900 in the same bright magenta pink or cyan blue as the Lumia 800, or there is even a limited distribution white model available at some retailers.

We think the Lumia 900 has the edge here, it's a more manageable size for the phone aspect of a smartphone's duties and the overall shape, style and build quality is excellent.

Winner - Nokia Lumia 900

Display
The Lumia 900 features a 4.3-inch AMOLED multi-touch display with Nokia's ClearBlack technology and Corning's Gorilla Glass. The resolution is 800x480 pixel WVGA and gives a pixel density of 217 pixels-per-inch (ppi), which has fairly decent clarity, very good contrast, strong blacks and good colour depth.

Samsung's Galaxy Note is a step up on size, resolution and screen tech with a 5.3-inch Super AMOLED multi-touch screen using a 1280x800 pixel resolution and Corning's Gorilla Glass.

The higher resolution results in quite a high pixel density, even on a screen of this size, it clocks in an impressive 285 pixels-per-inch for sharper visuals than its rival, and because it uses Super AMOLED has even better colours, blacks and contrast too.

Winner- Samsung Galaxy Note

Storage
Onboard the Lumia 900 has 16GB of space available and, typically of Windows Phones, has no card slot for expandable memory. For the processor to work with there's 512MB of RAM.

Samsung has two different storage variants available for the Galaxy Note. The first offers the same 16GB as Nokia's challenger, but you can get much more room for your apps and multimedia with the 32GB model. With either option there's also 1GB of RAM for processing tasks and micro SD capability for cards up to 32GB.

The Galaxy Note easily takes the winners podium here with a much higher top-end of storage space, plus the flexibility of cards and more RAM to boost processing speeds.

Winner - Samsung Galaxy Note