Samsung is one of the biggest smart phone manufacturers in the world, and they have been in news for some time now, especially for their new phone/tablet Samsung Galaxy Note.

I bought the phone in second week of March, and after much experimentation with the phone, here’s my review.

It took my seven days to decide if I really want to buy a Galaxy note or not, but in the end, with help of my fellow bloggers and friends, I figured out it is one of the best phones in the market.

Looking at a dummy does not give you a very good feeling, but holding a working phone in your hand does. The 5.3’ HD Super AMOLED display showcasing a resolution of 1280×800 is simply great. Even though the phone is bigger than usual phones, which creates a block in minds of many on how and where they will keep it, the display size and the way different elements are displayed simply take your heart away. Great clarity, even better touch. With 1080p Full HD video recording and playback, you can not only transfer HD videos and movies on your phone, but actually record stuff in HD.

Display – 10/10

 

The camera of this phone is easily one of the best in the market, and until we see what Nokia’s 41 mp camera holds, this can be considered as one of the best phone cameras available in the industry. An 8 megapixel camera with LED Flash is more than enough for a budding photographer. You can select between various modes including the panorama while clicking pictures. The phone also has a 2 megapixel front camera which satisfied most of the needs, including video calling (yes I did try it, but over Skype)

So the camera gets a 10/10 too.

 

The operating system is something that I feel could have had been better. Current operating system is the Gingerbread (2.3) which keeps getting upgraded automatically. Sometimes, an operating system like 2.3 sounds ancient when OS 4.0 is reaching people, but then, the 1.4 GHz dual core processor makes up for the loss of OS (though they are very different things). The speed of the device is more than just awesome, but as you keep updating and installing more apps, the overall speed diminishes and you can experience some lags from time to time.

OS + Processor +Speed = 7/10

I am not really fond of using a 3G service, thus one of my main concerned was about the network, but an HSPA+ 21Mbps 850/900/1900/2100 and EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1900/2100 compatible network relieved me of tension. I currently use 2G (Airtel) on my phone, and I am quite happy with it.

Audio, is one of the main factors kept in mind during purchase of a phone, and some of the biggest problems include the type of music files. The music player of note is MP3, AAC, AMR, WMA, WAV, FLAC, OGG compatible, thus making it an almost versatile music player.

The S Pen

Samsung focuses on S pen as one of its features while promoting the phone, and to an extent, they are right. The S Pen is a great tool. With the combination of AMOLED display, soft designing and the S pen, you can actually draw curves, images, etc. and share them with friends.

The S pen would easily get a 9/10. The only reason there is one less is because sometimes there is a gap felt between the pen and the creative, which results in editing the image.

I got my phone fitted with an external memory card of 32 GB. Thus, would recommend people to buy a card and put it in. trust me, it will help in more than one ways.

The battery is something that I am not too proud of. One look at the size of the battery, and you can imagine a phone not running out of battery for next one week, but the battery backup of this phone is not too good. Even though Samsung declared a back-up of a good amount of time, once you start using the phone, you realize that you need to charge it more often.

 

All In all, I would love to give this phone a 9 on 10. Do let me know if I have forgotten any point in here, and I will try adding it to the list.

 

Samsung galaxy note (image via Fonearena)
Samsung galaxy note (image via Fonearena)