Samsung Galaxy Note

I thought for a change I would write about a good thing rather than rant, although I will have a little rant first, so my phone was the HTC Desire and I have had this phone for just under 2 years, and it’s been a good phone, there were a couple of minor issues towards the end of its life, the battery deteriorated but I still almost got a full day out of it, and the screen brightness started to dip randomly. So it was time for an upgrade, I had been thinking about it for a couple of weeks due to the screen fault as it was starting to annoy me. Now I had been keeping an eye on the ASUS Padfone which had been looming for quite some time and this was going to be the ultimate combination phone, tablet and laptop, but I was let down by the total lack of information on a release date and price. Then I saw an advert on the TV for the Samsung Galaxy Note, wow I thought this looks like a good piece of kit, so a couple of weeks after seeing the first ad I decided to contact Orange and enquire about upgrading, I had done a little research online first.

Call to Orange placed, “Hi I would like to upgrade”, “no problem sir, you can have the Galaxy Note for £36 per month and £100 quid up front”, “well I have looked online and can get it for £28.50 per month and the phone for free”, “sorry sir we cannot give you that deal”, “Ok bye”. So loyalty means nothing anymore, I have been an Orange pay monthly customer for about 12 years, I worked for them for 10 years, loyalty bah what’s that. Next I placed a call to phones 4 U, I spoke to one of the most helpful salesmen ever, I told him what I wanted, how much I wanted to pay, (based on what I saw on web site), he put me on hold for about 1 minute, when he came back to me he gave me what I wanted. To me that is a perfect transaction, I call with what I want and I get it, how much smoother could it have been. Just for the record Orange, yes I got this as an upgrade for free at £28.50 per month on the panther 36 plan.

Now the phone, let’s start with the negative, it has two flaws one of which is why I bought it the other needs sorting, flaw one, it’s just too big, but come on that is why I bought it, the second flaw is the same with all large phones the sound quality is not very good when making calls, even using the hands free the sound is a little tinny and I feel like I have been transported into a huge cavern, but I can live with this, it’s not like I can’t hear the other person just the sound makes it more uncomfortable than I would prefer.

The positives, there is so many, let’s start with the big one, the pen……. I have been looking for quite some time for a device around the size of this phone that I can free write notes on. I wish I could do this with my 10” tablet I would use it a lot more in everyday life, in work for taking notes in meetings etc. now here we have a phone with this technology, unfortunately I write a little too big to make this useful in meetings at work but for quick notes at home this is truly awesome. The lack of lag the smooth motion the high resolution all make this a pleasant and useable function, not just something that looks good on the ad, it actually works.  Now Samsung transfer this technology up to the galaxy tab and I will go and buy one. I was so impressed with the Note I did consider getting a Tab but I went to PC World and played with one and after about 30 seconds I did not think it was as good as my ASUS Transformer.

What the pen gives is not just being able to free write notes, it can do so much more, I am using it to write text’s and emails instead of using the keyboard I am using the handwriting recognition and it works really well, again not just a pointless gimmick but a useful everyday tool. Then there is the arty creative side, now I am not a very creative person, but I almost feel like I have to be with this, I can play with pictures cutting pasting editing then sharing with so much ease I feel like a 5 year old with a new pack of crayons and a freshly painted wall to deface. There is so much more, you can annotate on PDF’s quickly open menus, select with so much more accuracy, so when you see the ad and think that looks good but I bet it takes months to master all the tricks, no, you can master the basics in a couple of hours and after a couple of days you are flying through things like they are second nature the whole concept is so intuitive it makes learning it fun.

The camera is the next thing I would like to pat Samsung on the back for, I have never taken photos and videos on a phone with so much depth of colour and clarity the video quality is also so clear if I was any good at recording video I reckon you could easily make ready for TV broadcast quality programs in the phone. And again so easy to use and intuitive, I only have one suggestion, give me an external button for taking pictures, I don’t personally like touching the screen.

Here is an example of the camera quality, let me add I am no photographer.

The screen is beautiful and very responsive just what I expect really but when you couple this screen with the camera it gives you a wow factor not seen in other devices, also using your finger on the screen is still good although one handed operation is a little more difficult due to the size of the phone but you get used to it and Samsung have recognised this and created a one hand keyboard to assist with texting etc. not that I am using it as I said I am using the handwriting recognition, but it’s there if you need it.

Syncing my contacts was a good experience, the phone asked me what to include, so I selected my e-mail accounts, Linked In and twitter and the phone went off and imported everything it could find, sorting the duplicates was a bit of a bore but I ended up with everything all sorted in one place, it even pulled in the profile photos from linked in, I am easily impressed, but really the whole process was so easy and just added to the already growing smile on my face.

Samsung have said they are going to upgrade this to ICS soon and I can’t wait, that will literally be the icing on the cake for me. The battery life is very good, as a new toy I have been using it more than I probably will in a couple of months’ time as I am still learning, I have been removing it from the charger around 5am in the morning and it goes back on charge around 10pm and I usually have just under 30% of the battery left.

So to sum up this is too big and the phone call quality is not great but as an everyday tool it is awesome and instrumental in assisting me throughout the day, the intuitive interface makes using this feel like second nature in no time at all, the camera makes images leap out of the phone without the gimmick of 3D, if I was to mark this out of 10 it would get 9 but if the call quality was better then it would easily be 10.

Last thing I want to say is thank you Samsung I now totally understand why you are number one, you deserve it.