Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Style and stylus
The AnTuTu benchmark app returned a score of 6483 which is impressive enough - the Note is ahead of everything but the yet-to-ship Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime - but rather more so is the Note’s ability to play 1080p video irrespective of codec or container. Audio is equally well supported with the stock music player handling Flac files with aplomb.
Internal storage is a reasonable 16GB with 2GB of that available to the user for app storage. If you need more space you can use a Micro SD card to add up to 32GB more. Unlike the annoying Nexus you can connect the Note up as a mass-storage device.
Stylistically, the Note is every inch a Samsung, which means it’s a bit dull compared to the best from Motorola or Sony Ericsson. I’m not a fan of the physical home-button that Samsung seems wedded to. It looks old-fashioned and cheap, in my opinion.
To be fair, though, it’s a very clean and solid device and Samsung has found space for a stylus bay at the bottom though it’s a firm fit and teasing it out requires some careful work with a fingernail.
Scribble away
A stylus? Yes indeed. Whip out the pressure-sensitive Wacom-made digitiser 'S Pen' and you can write, paint, draw and doodle to your heart’s content. You can even take and annotate screen grabs, which I suspect will be the most popular use. Grab an image of a map, circle a spot, scribble "meet you here" on it, save and send.
The bundled S Memo notepad software’s handwriting recognition was a bit hit-and-miss too, but my penmanship is utterly terrible so that proves nothing. For creative sorts or kids, the Samsung app store has lots of free drawing and painting apps that work with the pen. I’d recommend Zen Brush to start with.
Next page: Galaxy Note Apps in Action
COMMENTS
@whatever.....
You sir are a twat and a troll.
Have a nice day :)
Couldn't wait for this review...
...as much as I trust El Reg, I just went with my gut and got one of these for £36pm on Voda about a week and a half ago.
It's incredible.
I admit, some of my excitement is due to coming from a borked Symbian handset (SE Satio U1, anyone? Sigh... ordered before Android 'took off' in a big way). Having had to deal with other people's Blackberry handsets and iPhones and associated tat at work and not been impressed, I had a quick fondle with the Sony Arc S and thought that Android was for me and for a time, I ever considered not dumping Sony Ericsson as my handset of choice for the first time since the Razr V3 days.
It was the lack of decent video file handling that put me off the Arc a little, just enough that when I read the Galaxy SII reviews I thought that in a toss up between those two, the Samsung might just nick it.
Then the Note appeared on the horizon - all that great SII spec plus lovely screen real estate, a stylus (which keeps my greasy fingers off the screen) and a bit of extra oomph under the bonnet.
It is everything I hoped and then some - so far, I've already played back 1080p blu-ray standard video without a hic-up, controlled my desktop PC via a VNC app, Swyped entire blog posts, integrated my facebook, google and old phone contacts via bluetooth in about two minutes flat... Android is such a joy for customising and doing things the way you want, not the way an OS tells you to.
I've stupidly shaped legs... big thighs I inherited from my mother. I tell you this so that you can be happy in the knowledge that this sits in my trouser pocket more happily than even my lil K800i used to; it's so thin and curvy that the size, X & Y axis, is not an issue when holding or putting away and it's just such a boon in use... well, I've not used my netbook since I got it, put it that way.
Battery life is smashing - yeah, I was worried on day 1 when it fell to 30%... and then I realised I'd been sat on wifi for about 4 hours streaming iPlayer and pulling files across my DLNA network with the screen on almost full whack with bluetooth headphones and GPS silliness on - once you've gotten to know it (with the simple toggles for all your battery drainers) you'll get a full day out of it easy and nearer two if you don't use it instead of your laptop... but you will! It's that awesome. Micro USB charging means easy top ups though and well, it's just wonderful.
If you think you'd like this kind of device, but are just holding back because you're just not sure but don't really know why, hold back no more - El Reg hath spoken and I concur - the Note is awesome! iPhone? Pffft...
48 hours
according to a recent article by award winning, UK based publication The Register.
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