The past 12 months have been very heavily focused on the idea of mobile computing. Tablets and high-powered smartphones have dominated sales, taking spends to unprecedented levels. Samsung has released devices in both these categories that have had excellent reviews.
And now we have the Samsung Galaxy Note — with a screen size of 5.3 inches, it sits snugly between a phone and a tablet. It's smaller, lighter and slimmer than many of its kind, with a capacity and feature set exceeding that of many notepads on the market.
In typical minimalist Samsung style, the Note doesn't feature anything more than a single Home button on the front. On the side is the power button and a volume rocker, with the top featuring a 3.5mm sound jack. The bottom has the USB connectivity port and the S-Pen that lets you add notes to this pad, but more on this later.
For its size, the Note — at 178 grams — is much lighter than you would expect it to be and this comes as a welcome surprise. While the device is considerably bigger than most smartphones, it still remains fairly pocketable.
On its internals, the phone is an absolute beast. Featuring a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, 8-megapixel camera with support for 1,080p video and 16GB internal memory with support for expansion, this notepad isn't one to lose a battle on specifications.
On the exterior, the 5.3-inch screen features a resolution of 1280x800, which is very impressive. Browsing and watching multimedia content on it is a pleasure. With a screen of that size, the battery life can be a concern, but Samsung is battling that by including a considerable larger battery powered at 2,500mAh.
The defining feature of the Galaxy Note is the S-Pen though — the use of which has been baked into the operating system very well.
Featuring support for gestures and applications, the Note will let you use the S-Pen quite extensively within the interface. You can create and save handwritten notes on the screen and the crayon app gives the device a playful element and a few actions let you access menu functions rather quickly.
The Samsung Galaxy Note is undoubtedly a powerful device. However, one of its strongest features — its large screen size — may also end up being a deterrent. Most people wouldn't need, nay, want such a large phone. One can't help but feel that this may be useful only to a select few. Those going for a larger tablet are unlikely to forego that purchase for a Note. As a result, the Note runs the risk of being adopted only by a niche segment; but for those who do, will undoubtedly find joy in it.
Bhavishya Kanjhan is a digital marketing professional and an early adopter of all things digital. Follow his tweets on @bhavishya
