Samsung Galaxy Note review: first look

Samsung is launching the Galaxy Note this November, a new 5.3-inch device which the Korean manufacturer claims is the optimum halfway point between a smartphone and tablet.

The main emphasis of the Galaxy Note is its large screen and combined touchscreen and S Pen stylus input.

The expansive 5.3-inch Super Amoled HD capacitive touchscreen is certainly impressive to behold with its 1280x800 pixel resolution.

Not only is the screen HD quality but because it uses Super Amoled it offers good power efficiency while delivering brighter visuals and richer colours than regular LCD displays.

Samsung has managed to squeeze a rather high pixel density from this unusually large phone screen and it clocks in at 285 pixels-per-inch (ppi) which means everything you see on screen is crystal clear.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread overlaid with the company’s own TouchWiz 4.0 user interface (UI).

Generally we’re not in favour of custom overlays as they tend to dilute the Android experience, however, what we did notice is some of the unique additions to the Note which make a great deal of sense.

For example, Samsung demonstrated the in-built ‘Memo’ feature – when using the S Pen, a double tap on the screen at any time will bring up a Memo, which you can write on with the stylus and save to the phone’s storage. You can also open and link multiple Memos, creating kind of linked scrap-book of related notes.

A thoughtful feature is that when you have a note opened over an app, such as the Webkit based browser, you can press down outside of the note with the pen and it will go back to the program you have running, for as long as the pen is held – releasing it takes you back to the note to allow you to continue writing.

It’s a great feature for taking quick notes from web pages and presentations.

The sole purpose of the S Pen and its integrated abilities, which include native art, design and note-based apps, is to allow for hand written and hand drawn content, but rest assured this is still a fully functional Android build complete with multitouch input and a touch keyboard.

It is just as much at home being used as a regular smartphone though - the S Pen is simply a bonus addition but potentially a tremendously useful one depending on your hobbies or line of work.

We can imagine it being pretty handy to not have to take a paper notepad to events, for example and the big, clear screen is excellent for showing and sharing things with colleagues.

<< Previous | 1 | 2 | Next >>