Samsung Galaxy Note: First Look

Introduction

They used to be big, later they became redundant. As soon as smartphones were ready to offer the same features, PDAs were on the way to becoming extinct. With a device like the Samsung Galaxy Note though, one can't help but wonder if they're making a comeback.

It's got a big touchscreen for reading and entering text, with a stylus for jotting down notes and sketches, with powerful hardware that beats most phones in processing power and features. Sounds like a new-age PDA to us.

Samsung Galaxy Note official photos

The screen is part of the new HD SuperAMOLED line and boasts the impressive 1280x800 pixel resolution. It uses a PenTile matrix, but with 285ppi you can't really tell. Stretching over a whopping 5.3 inches, it makes browsing those web pages an almost tablet-like experience.

The Samsung Galaxy Note shares the Exynos chipset with some of its Galaxy siblings, but it's the one with the 1.4GHz dual-core CPUs. We've already had a look at its performance and we can say it's blazing fast.

If it's becoming hard to keep track of all the features, here's the gist of the Galaxy Note specs in summarized form:

Samsung Galaxy Note at a glance

• Form factor: phone/tablet crossbreed
• Dimensions: 146.9 x 83 x 9.7 mm
• Weight: 178g
• Display: 16M-color 5.3” Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of WXGA resolution (1280 x 800 pixels)
• OS: Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, TouchWiz UI
• Chipset: 1.4 GHz dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU, Mali-400MP GPU, 1GB of RAM, Exynos chipset
• Camera: 8 MP autofocus camera, 1080p video recording, LED flash, 2 MP front-facing camera
• Memory: 16/32 GB internal memory, expandable via a microSD card slot
• Connectivity: quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and quad-band (850/900/1900/2100 MHz) UMTS with 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi direct, Assisted GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, microUSB connector
• Battery: 2,500mAh
• Misc: S Pen, Gyro sensor, accelerometer sensor for auto rotation, ambient light sensor, Adobe Flash Player 10.3 support, DivX/XviD support, TV-out (adapter required), optional GLONASS, optional NFC

The Samsung Galaxy Note packs the same camera as the Galaxy S II, giving you 8MP stills and FullHD video recording. If the image quality is on par, the Note should easily beat its tablet competitors in the photography department.

One important area is portability - Samsung have made the device as small as possible (there's hardly any bezel around the screen) but 5.3" is pretty big. Figuring how to carry the Galaxy Note around will be a challenge, but if you find a way you can leave your phone at home - the Note has top of the line droid specs and full phone functionality too.

Specifications

GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

Announced 2011, September

Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2011

SIZE Dimensions 146.9 x 83 x 9.7 mm

Weight 178 g

DISPLAY Type Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size 800 x 1280 pixels, 5.3 inches (~285 ppi pixel density)

- Gorilla Glass display

- TouchWiz UI v4.0

- Multi-touch input method

- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate

- Touch-sensitive controls

- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off

- Gyroscope sensor

SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

Loudspeaker Yes

3.5mm jack Yes

MEMORY Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall

Call records Practically unlimited

Internal 16GB/32GB storage, 1 GB RAM

Card slot microSD, up to 32GB, 2 GB included

DATA GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps

EDGE Class 12

3G HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps

WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth Yes, v3.0+HS

Infrared port No

USB Yes, v2.0 microUSB (MHL), USB On-the-go

CAMERA Primary 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash

Features Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization

Video Yes, 1080p@30fps

Secondary Yes, 2 MP

FEATURES OS Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)

CPU Dual-core 1.4GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos chipset

Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS

Browser HTML

Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS

Games Yes

Colors Black

GPS Yes, with A-GPS support

Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

- S Pen stylus

- NFC connectivity (optional)

- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic

- NFC support (optional)

- TV-out (via MHL A/V link)

- SNS integration

- Digital compass

- MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player

- MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player

- Organizer

- Image/video editor

- Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)

- Google Search, Maps, Gmail,

YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration

- Adobe Flash 10.1 support

- Voice memo/dial/commands

- Predictive text input (Swype)

- Samsung ChatON

- Barometer sensor

BATTERY Standard battery, Li-Ion 2500 mAh

Stand-by

Talk time

MISC SAR US 0.16 W/kg (head) 0.96 W/kg (body)

SAR EU 0.34 W/kg (head)