Samsung Galaxy Note Gt N7000 Review – iG Video and Pics

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The Time for a change, in the way we look at smartphones, has come to India, funnily enough technology has started to come to our shores than faster the time it takes to penetrate the Western Hemisphere.

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a device that is being targeted as a Hybrid device and trust us, its doing wonders for Samsung aswell. So why does the Samsung Galaxy Note spin a different note? We’ll tell you why!

Build Quality

The Galaxy Note is simply well built, with an awesome bezel that looks like metal – feels like metal – is strong like metal, but is actually a plastic composite. The back cover is a larger version of the flimsy plastic we saw on the S2 Review, somehow it seems a bit more durable on the Note. The front of the Note features a gorilla glass-type reinforced display, which is a very tough, scratch and impact resistant glass. But, its not invincible and the glass is raised above the bezel, which makes it a point of worry for us considering the large size of the Note (5.3 Inch Display).

Hardware

In terms of specs, the Note is really top notch. check out the full list below.

Manufacturer	Samsung
Phone Style	Touchscreen + Hybrid Pen Input
OS	Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread + Touchwiz
Thickness	9.7 mm
Length	146.9mm
Width	83mm
Weight	178g
Built-in Memory	16/32GB, 1 GB RAM
Additional Memory	Up to 32GB, 2 GB included
High-speed Data	GPRS, HSDPA,Wi-Fi,
Connectivity	Bluetooth, USB
Screen Size	5.3-inch screen Super-Amoled Display
Processor	Dual-core 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 proccessor
Screen Colours	16M colors
Camera	8 megapixels + LED flash + HD Video 1080p

Radio	Yes
Speaker	Yes
Internet	Yes
Browser	HTML
Games	Yes
Battery	Li-Ion 2500 mAh

Display, Camera and Multimedia

One of the most beautiful displays to cross our paths the Note has a gorgeous 5.3 inch Super AMOLED display which has a resolution of 1280x 800 px. The display replicates black on the screen and the depth of color actually shows on the screen. Pioneers in the AMOLED display industry, Samsung has really proved their point. Watch movies or play games, the end resultant is stunning Visuals. The MultiTouch capacitive display has 10 point input system, which makes for a brilliant touch experience. Fruit Ninja anyone?

The camera has an 8MP sensor that does wide angle imaging and a stunning video at full hd 1080p. The endless list of settings in the Note allow for users to really tweak their cameras before they go about snapping the world or themselves using the 2MP front camera.

Sound quality from the device is good, the speaker is loud enough and media is simply amazing considering the large AMOLED monster of a display. The movies playback really smooth and its actually an experience to watch on this device. Brilliance in all multimedia aspects, including the most unused feature of an FM radio.

Tablet-Phone and S PEN.

The device is not quite a tablet and is definitely much more than a simple phone, hence a hybrid title. The device has the most impressive form factor to deal with both aspects. Although it runs Android 2.3 GB, it going to be one of the first devices to get ICS by Samsung. The TouchWIz user interface cleans up the Note to a much deeper level than ever possible on Android. The custom editing and look of the device when you power it on is very clean and therefore is preferred by users.

From Editing documents , to making presentations, the Note has the screen real estate and the juice to do what the work demands. Combined with the realistic and lifelike S Pen the Note actually hands you a Magic Wand to play around with. We detailed the S Pen in a video you will find in the links below, but to sum it up, you can crop, edit, scribble, write and draw, convert writing to text and even sign documents with the SPen, great job Samsung!

Phone Calling and Messaging

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a brilliant phone, considering it comes with a loud earpiece and a very good quality mic. The network reception on the Note is also very solid. With no dropped calls and excellent network connections including HSPA and 3G , we were impressed with the network handling of the chipset within the Note.

The screen is large enough to accommodate the largest of fingers, and with a 10 point input, its practically impossible to miss the keys while typing. The standard keyboard includes swype for the drag and type – types. The Samsung keyboard can also be replaced with a host of others available in the Android Marketplace for free as well as a minor premium.

Internet and Battery Life

We found the performance of the Galaxy Note great in all aspects especially the internet and data transfer access. The Note handles all apps in a wonderful fashion so allows the full use of the World wide web and its applications. The device is a great bit of joy to read your books on , or even get the latest news, get updates on your stock purchases all with the flick of your wrist.

Battery life was bit of a shocker initially, especially when we got really low run times with a massive 2500 mAh battery pack. The culprit was data usage, and the OS is not optimized in the best possible fashion to handle media. A few tweaks of the background data usage setting and we got the following usage life :

	2G Usage	3G Usage	Wifi Usage
Calling	7 Hours	4.8 hours	– NA-
Standby Time	3 Days	2 Days	7 Days
Internet	7 Hours	4 Hours	11 Hours
Gameplay Multiplayer	4 Hours	3.75 Hours	5 Hours

Conclusion

The Galaxy Note is an amazing device, the best possible device, but only if you plan to use it intensively the way its meant to handle the usage. The S-Pen adds functionality we only dreamt of on devices during the time of i-mate and O2 XDA phones. Its definitely a great device for a business user, also for a person looking to make a consolidated investment b/w phone and Tablet. The screen is beautiful the performance great and the experience difficult to replicate with any other device available today. The device is slim enough to fit a pocket, yet large enough to feel awkward when you hold it to your face.