HD Digital Camcorder Reviews

Hard working fast phone, February 21, 2012

By 

Thomas M. Taylor “runman” (Phoenix, AZ) – See all my reviews

  

I have not been this excited about a cell phone since waiting for the original iPhone one to come out. Yes, I am a early adapter.

I love the huge screen. Yes it is big and to some that is a draw back, but I use my phone a lot, but rarely to make phone calls. I am going to school and like to place my PDFs, books, Tabers medical dictionary and other school books on the phone. It really beats having to carry them around, or carrying a separate phone and tablet. I am a little older and my vision is not sharp as it used to be, but the screen is really clear and easy to see. The phone will fit in my dress shirt pocket and any pants or shorts front pockets that I wear.

As for the “wow!” factor. If you remember, I said that I was attending school. The younger students thought the phone was huge and the females thought it was to big for them to carry. But when they saw the PDF notes and the information for the classes I was able to keep on the phone, there still wasn’t a “wow” factor or even an “I am impressed” moment, but maybe they understood a bit more. But I did not buy the phone to impress a bunch of young 20 something ladies. So, minus one star for the pretty ladies being unimpressed. LOL

I use the phone a lot for the GPS function. The GPS is very fast to pick up the satellites and find my position. Since the screen is so large, I can easily see where I am going. The screen has wonderful sharpness and contrast. I will not comment of the color quality since I cannot see colors.

Processor speed: I did a bench mark test on the CPU, and CPU coupled with the GPU is fast. Bench marks do not mean to much because they are just numbers, but the dual core processor is pretty quick once in the application and out of the touch whiz interface.

The Samsung interface is a real let down, especially with the included bloatware provided by our friends at ATT. If you are willing to root your phone, you will pick up speed in the main screens and apps screens. I had mine for less than an hour and rooted the phone. I have also modded the lock screen, it is not hard to do. With that mod I can get to my text messages, camera, main menu or adjust the ringer settings with a swipe of the finger instead of having to get to the home screen and then choose what I want to do. But regardless of rather you root your phone; from time you press on the app from the time it launches is fast. My last phone was the infuse, which is very slow and the GPS is even painfully slower.

Stylus: I have played with the stylus a bit and I really cannot see a real use for it except maybe jotting down a short note. I am not going to use the stylus to scroll through screens and pick apps to launch. I makes a nice easy way to write “I love you” to your wife during church. Other than that it is not very useful to me.

Battery: The battery is more difficult to get to then the other phone that I have owned, save the iPhone. Plus, getting the battery cover back on is even harder. I have been playing with my new phone like a child would play with a new toy, so the battery does not seem to last long, but longer than the Infuse or the Skyrocket II. I really wish Samsung would have used the extra real estate, due to the [hones size, to put a little beefier battery.

Conclusion: I really do like the phone. More icons per screen and larger items are easier to see. I spend a lot of time on my phone with internet, apps and texting so ease of use is a huge bonus. I no longer need to carry around a separate tablet or laptop, I have all the information in one place. With the few customizations that I have done, the phone is fast and user friendly. The phone is wide and the need for big hands is a must. The stylus for me is a big looser.

Update:

After have the phone now for almost A week, i had some extra thoughts about the phone:

The stylus is about worthless, I used it once to make a short grocery list and that is it. But i really do like the phone. I also purchased the car dock for the phone and “Waze” GPS application (free) from the android market place and the GPS is really neat and easy to use. I can also put some of my school books on the phone too. Ice Cream Sandwich is supposed to be released in March. I will post another update then.

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It Doesn’t Get Much Better Than This, February 25, 2012

I pre-ordered this device through AT&T on February 5, 2012 and have been waiting for it to come out since it’s release in Asia.

***Screen***
This is obviously the highlight of the device. You can’t see any pixels to the naked eye and contrary to many of the reviews, none of the colors appear “burned in” or over-saturated. From my bed to my dresser, I have been able to prop up my phone and watch Netflix relatively easily.

The brightest setting on it is tremendously bright, almost to an uncomfortable degree, but this makes outside viewing very easy. As with any Android device, I am not a fan of the “auto-brightness” battery saving feature since it can be erratic in situations where the light is constantly changing (such as in the shade of a tree on a breezy day… sounds romantic, right?). By contrast, the dimmest setting is incredibly low which is a big feature to me. Sometimes if I am checking my phone late at night, I hate being blinded by a phone set to it’s dimmest setting and still being bright enough to see in a well-lit room.

No complaints.

***Handling/Feel***
Holding the device with one hand isn’t a problem for unlocking and scrolling between screens which is much of what I do throughout the day (checking for updates on my home screen widgets or for e-mails. I have “average” sized hands (about 7″ long) and I can “just barely” manage opening apps and typing with one hand, but I don’t feel comfortable enough to do this while standing or over a hard surface. Fortunately there is a significant number of “swype” styled apps to make “one finger” typing just as fast and easy.

I’ve never used “split keyboards”, but every review I see says it’s a “must”.

The white Galaxy Note has the glossy, smooth backing on it but isn’t so slick that it falls out of your hand. It’s extremely attractive and is actually keeping me from slapping a cover on it… why would I want to cover up something that sexy. Making phone calls feels perfectly nature and doesn’t seem awkward at all. This is one of a few unfounded criticisms I have seen about this device. If anything the larger profile of the phone actually makes it much EASIER to hold to your face.

***Stylus***
Cool gadget that is useless is 90% of what you do, but if you experiment with it there will be things you do, apps you operate, and games you play that you can’t believe you every used without it. I actually like the stylus less as a writing device (which is how it’s being marketed), and more as a “precision tool”. A good example is a tower defense game. Having the larger screen allows me to play it in “zoomed out mode” the entire time and just use my stylus to select different items and perform functions that would otherwise be too small on such a high-resolution screen in the mode I’m using. That’s a very specific example, but it let’s you know what kind of utility the stylus has.

A criticism I’ve seen of the stylus (even before the phone came out) is that it’s moving technology bad to the days of the old Palm Pilots. This is a load of biased crap that I can only explain as individuals with agendas trying to make fun of something they haven’t used. I would urge readers to think of the stylus less as a “out-dated Palm Pilot” device and more as a “Nintendo DS” device. If you don’t like the stylus; don’t use it. It’s an amazing device without it. By stepping outside of the box and experimenting with the stylus you’re liable to find something you like about it.

***Battery Life***
With average use, I unplug my device at around 7AM every morning and still have a charge on my device into 9PM and 10PM at night. That “average” day includes leaving Bluetooth off all day (I don’t use it), and turning WiFi off when I’m not in range of my home network. I sync my e-mail and weather every 30 minutes and social networking every 15 minutes. If the battery life isn’t good enough, Mugen Power manufacturers a battery with 80% more capacity than the standard Samsung provided battery.

***Appearance***
Everyone has the same reaction to the device. “Holy crap, that’s a big phone……… wait, where can I get one?” The initial shock freaks everyone out, but I haven’t had anyone look at it skeptically and when I’ve had it to my ear, I didn’t notice anyone staring at me (I paid attention to this the first few days I owned it). In my humble opinion, people think the white one looks a lot more attractive than people who have seen the “carbon blue” (whatever…. it’s black) model.

CONCLUSION: Great phone. I am going to give this 5 stars, but not because I’m a ‘fanboi’ or just opened it 10 minutes ago and wanted to brag about my new toy. This really is a very well thought-out device. I could write 5 pages about this device, but if you want that then just look at any other combination of reviews already online. I would…

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Once you the Note, you’ll “get” the Note, April 21, 2012

That line I read could have come from me. But it did not and I give credit to a post I read on a forum that said that succinctly.

Let me just say this right upfront :
It is NOT the best of a tablet and the best of a phone. It is the best CONVERGENCE implementation of a tablet and phone.

I’m going to be covering several aspects : Pocketability, Performance, Display, Stability, Camera, S Pen

If you’re reading this review or any other reviews about this device, chances are you’re seriously considering the device. You WANT a big screen. So is it big ? Is it huge ? Is it a phone ? Is it a tablet ? My God, somebody shouted “phablet” !!!! Grab your children and run.

There is no simple answer to to this. You’ll hear critics saying it’s too big to be a phone and too small to be a tablet. They’ll even point to their Exhibit A evidence : Look, this is what the official Galaxy Note ad claims. So why do they advertise it as such. Because there is no other device like it on the market that does the things it does and would get scored at the same level. But we must score devices in the same category. You cannot rate a sedan, race car and hybrid at the same level. They all perform a common primary function : Transport. This is a new pseudo-category of device. I say pseudo because there is no law that says what a tablet size should be. Unless it was written on Moses’s tablet. You could say it’s the large SUV of the cell phones. They offer you a very good mix of 2 critical functions : transport and cabin space. The more cabin space you have, the better it is. You will still be able to park it in a parking spot. In terms of size alone, It won’t be as easy to park as a Camry (Galaxy Nexus), a Corolla (Skyrocket, Lumia 900 and other good phones with a nice size) or a Minicooper (iPhone). But the mini cooper sure looks cute. Dinky and cute.

We’ve covered pocketability. But to be more explicit, it will fit in your trouser pockets easily. It will not bulge because the phone is beautifully slim. You can fit it in DRESS shirt pockets that are even of M/L sizes and have the phone completely fit inside it. That’s not a typo. It will jut out of T shirt pockets for sure though. So yes it is big in that sense. If you’re a woman, forget about putting it inside your smaller pockets. If you shop in the “Boys department”, then it might not fit. It will fit in skinny jeans. Here however, YMMV. You need to test it yourself.

Phones like iPhones are not the perfect size FOR ALL. They are simply built for the lowest denominator. Even a child can hold it. That makes it easy for the mfgr to keep things simple for them and costs down. They benefit. You lose. If you were to like a larger device. You may think you do not like a larger device and you wonder why others do. Then you should watch the Malcolm Gladwell TED talks show on spaghetti sauce. It will make you understand this once and for all.

Performance :
—————
The AT&T version features a slower CPU than the international version. It was done because the Exynos chip does not support LTE. So the Snapdragon processor was used instead. On paper, it has a higher clock speed than the Exynos. However, the clock speed is not the ultimate decider and it IS slower than the lower clocked Exynos. But what does that mean to a user. Probably not much as some might make it out to be. Especially once ICS (Android 4) comes out that will support hardware acceleration. As it stands, you might see some lag when you move between HOME SCREENS that have widgets. If you go to the app drawer mode (which is like the boring grid of icons in the iPhone), it is flawless and has zero-lag.

Display:
————
At first, when reports came out that the display was an AMOLED Pentile display and not AMOLED Plus (true RGB), there was a lot of scepticism. Well now that has been laid to rest. The screen is simply gorgeous. Colors are vivid and saturated. You can even control the saturation (in the International models). They may have already done this with the AT&T version. Or there might be an app that controls this. I’ve not checked. If you’re a purist, then AMOLED does tend to have slightly saturated colors. It won’t look bad; on the contrary, it will look stunning to the avg user. But technically, it’s not the most accurate. This difference however is marginal. AMOLED panels also have another drawback. In bright light, they deteriorate more. You can always use the “Auto brightness” adjustment feature to compensate. This will consume more battery power. The best in this sense is the panel in the Lumia 900 which uses their “Clearbrite” polarizing filters tech to make the screen still very readable under bright light. Next best are the S/LCD panels found on several devices incld. the excellent display on the iPhone 4S. Last is the AMOLED panel. In situations where there is no bright light (like sunlight,…

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