And where does that kooky-cool throwback S Pen stylus come in? The Galaxy Note's wand can take screenshots, jot your notes and respond to pen pressure — all good stuff. Yet, if you never release the S Pen from its snug plastic tunnel, you won't miss out on the Note's essential smartphone features.
So forget worrying about the Galaxy Note as a tablet, and think of it as the phone that it is. A good phone, too. If you like the idea of an oversized Galaxy S II device with a high-quality 8-megapixel camera and a huge honking screen for watching movies, reading ebooks and doing other things that you might do on a smartphone or a tablet, then this is a great device. If you enjoy the artistic promise of digital sketching, you might likewise keep it in the running. However, if 5.3 inches seems too ungainly for your hands, then leave this one be, and seek out its smaller cousins, the still large Samsung Galaxy S II, for example.
Design
Which Samsung engineer accidentally spilled Miracle-Gro on a Galaxy S I? That's what the Galaxy Note looks like, in the nicest possible way. At 147mm tall by 83mm wide by only 9.7mm thick, it resembles a shingle with rounded edges.
The 5.3-inch HD screen on the Samsung Galaxy Note is a real whopper. That extra-large pen accessory is much more comfortable than the original stylus, but it costs an extra $50.
Let's kick things off by addressing the elephant in the room: the Galaxy Note's size. The footprint is big, no doubt about it, and it's a bit of an awkward strain to hold in smaller-sized hands. There's no way this baby is slipping into our jeans pockets, but it's fine for a purse.
Although it's a big phone, it's pretty easy on the eyes, and the slim build keeps it looking light and lean. As with the rest of the Galaxy series, the Note's body is made from plastic materials. This doesn't make for the particularly premium experience that we would expect at this price, but we can't complain about the general aesthetics.
While plastic may not seem upscale, it does offer its own brand of durability over glass parts that can shatter, or paint that can chip off metal fixtures. It weighs a chunky 178g, but that heft also lends it a greater sense of structural strength.
The Galaxy Note's crowning glory is its 5.3-inch HD Super AMOLED screen, with its 1280x800-pixel resolution (that's WXGA, by the way). Samsung's family of AMOLED screen technology always looks bright, vivid and saturated in colour. The Note's behemoth is pretty similar, although pixel density appeared a little lower, and the image was noticeably softer and less bright than on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, which also has an HD Super AMOLED display. Photos looked crisp and alive, videos played back smoothly on the large, high-def screen and ebooks were easier to read than on smaller smartphone displays.
The rest of the phone looks a lot like others in the Galaxy S II family. You'll find a 2-megapixel front-facing camera above the screen; below it, there are the four customary touch-sensitive navigation buttons for Menu, Home, Back and Search. The volume rocker is on the left spine, and the power button is on the right. On the bottom are the the Micro-USB charging port and the hollowed-out slot for the Note's S Pen stylus. You can plug your headphones in to the 3.5mm jack up the top. If you're worried about losing it, the S Pen clicks firmly into place and stays there.
Interface and slap-happy tricks
For navigation, you've got the most recent version of TouchWiz, Samsung's custom interface that rides over Android; in this case, Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Samsung is fully expected to update the Note to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, although there's no public timeline yet.
As a reminder, here are some things that you can do with TouchWiz: pull down the notifications menu to access system settings; pinch the screen to see an overview of your seven customisable home screens; and cycle through them crazily fast by holding down and swiping along the row of dots. On the Note, you can also take a screenshot by swiping the edge of your hand left and right across the screen. The latter didn't always work seamlessly, and may take a little getting used to. It felt a little unnatural to us, and we can't see ourselves using that method, but having an extra way to perform a task never hurts. (You can also capture a screenshot by pressing the Power and Home buttons, or by using the S Pen.)
Screenshot swiping isn't the only gesture that Samsung has added. Rotate your finger over a gallery photo, and the image will rotate, too. Shake the device to trigger a search for Bluetooth devices. Then there's my favourite: flip the phone over or press your hand over its face to pause a song or video, or to mute an incoming call. These are all fun, clever ways to interact with the device in addition to the usual finger-tap settings.
S Pen stylus and memo apps
Let's move on to the phone's most controversially thrilling facet: the stylus. Physically, it's a wisp of a thing, just a couple of inches tall, with a button on the side that serves as a shortcut to perform a handful of tasks. The S Pen is reasonably comfortable in the hand, but it's so slim and light that holding it sometimes feels like grasping at air. There's also the distinct possibility that once it's unsheathed, it'd be easy to drop or misplace.
We do like the tool for converting handwriting into text. It works better the more neatly you write, and it won't work perfectly every time. We also appreciate the undo and eraser tools in the memo apps, as well as the setting for lefties.
Although we've said that the S Pen isn't necessary for using the Galaxy Note (unlike those styluses of yore), there are some advantages beyond keeping your greasy, grimy digits off that huge smudge magnet of a screen. Samsung has programmed a pair of memo apps to work with the S Pen, and is encouraging other developers to create their own compatible apps, as well. There will be about 20 of these apps at launch.
The S Pen isn't for everyone. First, there's the learning curve of creating legible notes. We also have yet to see if it can fit our particular work flow after the novelty wears off. We can, however, see how artists and people with more free-flowing thought processes might appreciate the flexibility with which they can express their ideas. We especially see the benefit of quickly and easily creating and sharing digital sketches on the fly, like these caricatures that Samsung used at CES to publicise the Note.
Conclusion
There are two main questions at hand: is the Samsung Galaxy Note a phone worth buying, and, if so, can it satisfy the need for a tablet?
So long as you're all for supersizing, we can emphatically answer "yes" to the former. It has all the high-flying specs that we loved in the original Galaxy S II, but an even larger, HD Super AMOLED screen. While its size could make carrying the phone awkward, the screen real estate is ideal for interacting with HD games and multimedia, and for reading websites and ebooks.
When you add in the S Pen, there's so much more potential for creative drawings and games. Whether it's little more than a party trick or whether you'll use it on a regular basis depends on you. We think the screen size, rather than the stylus, will make it or break it for most buyers, but we do worry about the long-term comfort and security of the skinny pen if you don't feel like dishing out for a US$50 pen-holder accessory — a price we feel is a lot to ask.
Given the 5.3-inch screen, some people could indeed find the Note to be a workable smartphone/tablet hybrid device, or at least those who have casually considered buying a more budget tablet. Depending on the tablet size you'd be eyeing, a 5.3-inch screen is a far cry from a 10.1-inch display. There's really no comparison on that level, but there is an argument for people considering a 7-inch tablet. Still, with so many options already available, we can't help but think that the Galaxy Note will remain niche.
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