The Return of the Stylus
The Samsung Galaxy Note is 5.3 inch phablet with a resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels – which is what people are calling oversized phones that can function as smallish tablets. This is much the same size screen I had when I used a Motorola Envoy but at 2x+ the resolution (480 x 320 pixels). The Motorola Envoy ran the MagicCap operating system and was quite frankly was my all time favorite mobile device. I know, I know this dates me but it irks me that I still don’t have a device as good as the device I used back in the early 90s. The Galaxy Tab is the closest thing I’ve seen to device nirvana.
Right now I am experimenting with using the Galaxy Note as a replacement for a notepad in meetings and for business-type tablet activities, especially accessing sites and applications I rely upon on a day-to-day basis to run Open Marketing and to handle my client’s business. For my phone, I currently use an iPhone and am having some trouble getting accustomed to Android.
Here’s what I like about the Samsung Galaxy Note
- Beautiful large, crisp display
- Incredible battery life
- Stylus bay – meaning you can tuck the stylus away into the device neatly
- Ability to write notes in “ink” – as back in my MagicCap days … I don’t particularly need handwriting recognition
- Addressable file system – meaning I can send documents back and forth to the file system and figure out where stuff goes
- Wicked fast
- Great integration with Google
- Tethering
What I don’t like
Or at least am having trouble getting used to
- Android. I know, I know. That’s supposed to be the point. Normally, I move from one operating system to another quite fluidly but Android and iOS are similar enough yet different that I am having problems. The biggest issue is that Android applications all work differently. Plus the myriad of home screen options / launchers is very confusing … at least to me.
- Integration with Microsoft Active Exchange is awkward
Samsung has sold 1M of these puppies since the product launched in September 2011 which is a large number in a relatively short time. I purchased mine through Amazon as an unlocked phone and then went down to my local smoke shop (really) and bought a SIM card from Simple Wireless ($40/month no contract). My experiments with the phone suggest that without a SIM card, you cannot change the language from the default German to English and get the language changes to stick … but on this I may be wrong.
Will I move off my iPhone and onto the Galaxy Note as my main phone. I don’t know yet. Right now I’m going to use both phones, one as a phone (my iPhone) and one as a tablet (the Galaxy Note) and see how I feel. I’m traveling to Europe shortly and will pick up a screen charger at that point. For those of you on AT&T, the Galaxy Note is expected to come to AT&T sometime in the first half of 2012. I moved off of AT&T to Verizon in April 2011 so there’s more involved here than a simple switch of one phone to another. I’d also have to change carriers yet again.
Relevant Links
- Solid reviews of the device are here from TechRadar in the UK and video review here from Slashgear
- Article from Tech Crunch on sales velocity and the formation of a new category