Time for a small review...
0. Background story:
I have now been using Galaxy Note for 2 months. I will mainly compare the device to my iPad 2 and to iPhone 3GS/4 since I have personally used almost exclusively Apple mobile hardware for the last 2 years (I switched my Nokia N95 to iPhone 3GS two years ago).
My 3GS got broken last Fall, just two weeks before the iPhone 4S reveal, so I decided to wait and see the next Apple device, as it was my primary option. Before that I had used my friends Galaxy S2 a bit, and was positively surprised how much the larger screen made internet browsing better. It was a huge disappointment for me that Apple's new phone had still only a very small 3.5" screen, so that option got dropped and my remaining options became: Galaxy Note and Galaxy Nexus.
Galaxy Note won the competition because:
a. It had a 42% larger battery capacity (1750 mAh vs 2500 mAh). Battery life has always been really important for me.
b. Note had a 8 megapixel camera (Nexus had 5). One of the things 3GS lacked compared to Nokia phones was a good camera, so I wanted one badly this time.
c. Note was a Exynos based device, and thus had a Mali 400 GPU. In comparison the OMAP in Nexus had an slightly underpowered SGX540 GPU (to run 720p HD screen). The slow GPU is clearly visible in Nexus GPU benchmarks.
d. The dual core Cortex A9 CPU was clocked 200 MHz higher in Note (1.2GHz -> 1.4GHz), making it more powerful than all other phones and tablets.
e. I personally like 16:10 (1280x800) screen aspect ratio better than 16:9 (1280x720). Web pages are optimized for 16:10 viewing (most common PC aspect ratio).
Samsung announced that Galaxy Note ICS (Android 4.0) update was going to be out in Q1 2012. This made my decision easier, as ICS was a huge positive thing going on for Galaxy Nexus. As that difference was gone, I chose the Note. Nexus seems like a very good phone as well. Reviewers really love it.
1. The Display
5.3" 1280x800 AMOLED display (16:10 ratio, 285 ppi). The centerpiece of the device. Offers slightly better viewing angles than the IPS display on my iPad 2, and slightly better color contrast. The display resolution is higher than iPad 2 (1024x768) and equal to the 13" Macbook Pro (1280x800), but the device is over 4 times smaller than iPad 2 (leading to 4x higher DPI). After spending a month with the Galaxy Note display, all the other displays that I liked before now feel lower resolution. Galaxy Note has basically 4 pixels inside every pixel of iPad2, Macbook Pro or my desktop monitor (24" 1920x1200) display.
Disclaimer: Remember that I am upgrading from iPhone 3GS, not from iPhone 4 (and it has a super high DPI display as well). The iPhone 4 owners lurking around the forums can surely confirm that after using a high DPI display for a while, the low resolution standard displays will start to irritate you (it's very easy to see individual pixels now).
2. Battery Life
I was quite skeptical about the battery life, since my wife has a HTC Desire Z Android phone, and it has awful battery life (unfortunately the same is true for many other Android phones as well). So I waited to see the first battery benchmarks before I was ready to buy the device. Samsung crammed in a 2500 mAh battery to the Note, while Galaxy Nexus only got a 1750 mAh battery, and that made my decision a lot easier.
I have been really happy about the battery life of the device. It has always (except for the first day when I installed everything) lasted over 2 days (48+ hours) per charge and it has lasted over 3 days (72+ hours) several times during the last two months. For example I didn't take my charger with me when we got to my parent's house to spend Christmas. The phone lasted fine for 3 days. According to my battery diary, the so far average battery life with my usage pattern is 54 hours (2 days and 6 hours) per charge.
3. Size and weight
The device is very thin (9.65 mm) and lightweight (178 grams) compared to its dimensions. In comparison my wife's HTC Desire Z (3.7" screen) weights 180 grams. iPhone 4S (3.5" screen) weights a 140 grams, and is only slightly slimmer (9.30 mm). Compared to the 7" tablets (only 1.7" more screen space), the Note is less than half of their weight. iPad 2 weights around 3.5x as much as Note (613 grams). It's noticeable that Note's display has almost no bezels. Other phones and tablets have much larger bezels, making them physically larger compared to the screen size. Samsung has done some exceptional engineering in cramming the big display to such as small and lightweight case.
I always carry the phone in my jeans pockets (standard Levi's jeans). I have been riding my bike to work with the phone in my pocket and been driving my car with it on my pocket. Contrary to popular belief, the phone fits perfectly to standard jeans pockets without any problems. If you however have small pockets or very slim jeans, I suggest trying it before buying.
4. Web browsing and typing
This device is perfect for web browsing. It's basically a pocketable tablet that goes everywhere with you. You can browse the net without constantly zooming in/out (in a similar way as with iPad). I have actually noticed that I don't use my iPad 2 at home that much as a browser anymore, since web browsing with Note works just as well (and it's always near me). So if you do not want to carry around both your phone and your tablet, the Galaxy Note might be a really good choice for you. It has basically the same specs and same screen resolution as the large 10.1" Android tablets (1280x800) but is fully pocketable.
I was expecting the larger screen would improve my typing speed a bit. It was one of the things I wanted of my new phone. With Galaxy Note the you hold the phone with both of your hands in landscape orientation and type with both of your thumbs (when you type long messages such as e-mails). It's basically the same grip you use when you use physical phone keyboards (sliders). I gave the phone to a few of my friends who prefer physical phone keyboards, and all said typing with Note was the best they have experienced on any touchscreen device. However the consensus among them was that it's still not as good as a physical keyboard, but it's getting close.
Note: If you prefer to use your phone mainly with a single hand (holding it in your palm while using the screen with the same hand's thumb), the Galaxy Note is not for you. Compared to other tablets, the Note is better for single hand use, but it's not a pleasure to use that way.
5. Gaming
The device is very good for gaming, as the dimensions (and display size) are very near the PSP dimensions (a device designed solely for gaming). Note is very good to hold with both hands in landscape orientation for long gaming sessions, and as the screen is bigger, your thumbs do not cover up so much of the screen. Games that have virtual thumbsticks are now a pleasure to play (compared to the small 3.5" screen). This is one of the best handheld gaming devices in the market currently (I have two PSPs also at home, so I have compared them extensively).
Games run very well as expected. The 1.4 GHz dual core Cortex A9 and the Mali 400 are the best in any Android device (including tablets). Compared to iPad 2, Note has faster CPU, but a slower GPU. Modern Combat 3 runs very smoothly on both, but the iPad 2 version seems to have slightly higher resolution textures than the Android version (PVRTC texture compression vs 565 uncompressed maybe?) and the motion blur effect is used more on iPad. Otherwise the game looks very similar on both devices.
6. Software
The phone is currently running on Android 2.3.6 with TouchWiz 4.0 UI. The TouchWiz UI is GPU accelerated, so the main UI doesn't suffer from the same hiccups as many other Android phones do. However there are still some minor hiccups in applications. ICS update is coming up very soon (Samsung confirmed Q1 2012), and it brings GPU accelerated UI to all applications. Galaxy Nexus reviews confirm that ICS update should fix the application UI hiccups.
Steve Jobs once said that the Android UI is copied from iOS. I have to mostly agree. So it generally works very well (just like iOS). Some of the things that work differently are slightly annoying, but I really like the customization options Android (TouchWiz) offers to the home screens. I would dare to say, I like the Android a bit more after my own customizations (but I must admit the big screen also holds so much more icons, so I might be slightly biased). The customization however requires lots of time and effort and I still have some minor nitpicks that I haven't solved.
Android Market currently has lots of applications and huge majority of the popular iOS apps and games are available (the situation has improved a lot in two years). However I have to warn all iOS owners about one thing: If you have a large app/game collection (like I do), you have to buy everything again if you move to an Android device (iOS TomTom navigation software alone was 60 euros). My situation is even worse, since I also have my iPad 2, and from now on I have to buy the apps/games from both AppStore and from Android Market. This was one of the things why I wanted Apple to release a device with a bigger screen so badly...
7. Stylus
Galaxy Note has a pressure sensitive screen (128 levels) and a stylus to use it. Samsung released the S-Pen SDK a month ago, but I haven't yet found any high quality painting programs using it, so I have been mostly using the Samsung's own painting software. The stylus shows promise. It works technically perfectly, but there's not yet enough good software to say it's anything else than a gimmick in its current state. ICS has native support for stylus input, so hopefully it will bring more developers to create stylus/pressure enabled software in the long run. The 5.3" 1280x800 screen is good for painting even without the pressure sensitivity (however the software catalog isn't as large as for iPad). If you are intending to buy this device just for its pressure sensitive screen & stylus, I'd suggest you wait and see how things proceed. Currently I would say iPad 2 is a better choice for artists (or alternatively a Samsung Series 7 Slate if you have a spare 1100$: It has real Wacom pressure sensor at 1024 levels + a full sized wacom pen, 1366x768 screen, 4 gigs of memory and it runs real Photoshop very well).
8. Conclusion
Galaxy Note is a really good mobile device combining the best tablet and phone features. It's the best pocketable web browser currently in the market, and it's also perfectly suitable for gaming, multimedia consumption, reading (academic pdf white papers) and typing long e-mails. It's exceptionally slim and lightweight compared to it's display size and powerful hardware specs and it has good battery life (in normal everyday usage). It's actually pocketable in standard jeans, but if you are unsure, test before you buy it. Not recommended for users that need to use their phone with a single hand.
Galaxy Note has been selling very well in Europe and Asia. In the first two months million units were sold. The device was really hard to get before Christmas, as all stores were constantly sold out. I ordered my device from Expansys (one of the biggest companies selling to whole Europe). Their selling price (unlocked) was 550 euros back when, but now the price has risen to 630 euros. In Finland the device is selling for 649 euros (but the stocks are still really limited). When I ordered my Note, it was the most sold item to Finland in Expansys catalog. We Finns really seem to like big, expensive and powerful phones (too bad our own Nokia isn't anymore the number #1 choice). It will be interesting to see how the phone is received in the US, since Nexus got first to US, and it was the other way around here in Europe.
I guess it is a waiting game and all my questions will be answered but still...patience is not one of my strong suits! And I am looking to get a kickass Android based tablet.
