Samsung Galaxy Note
Apr 3rd, 2012 | By SimonThe testing of a phone for a review is a new concept for me and we’re going to cover the topic in two different steps. In the next few lines I’ll show a few benchmarks comparing the Samsung Galaxy Note to my Galaxy Nexus (ICS 4.0.2) and Galaxy Tab 10.1. I choose three benchmarks, all free and available on Google Play: Smartbench 2011, Quadrant Standard Edition and AnTuTu Benchmark. I ran each benchmark four times and averaged the results.
Smartbench 2011
Quadrant Standard Edition
AnTuTu Benchmark
There isn’t one clear winner in all of the benchmarks but for the most part the Galaxy Note is definitely first or not too far behind. The variability between the benchmarks due to the fact that the Galaxy Note has a stock firmware whereas my Galaxy Nexus has a custom firmware and kernel to boost performance.
When independently analyzing the Galaxy Note, there’s a lot to consider. Starting with the display, the picture quality is extremely vibrant and lively. The resolution is 1280×800 and with a 5.3″ display you won’t be squinting at your HD videos. Here is a screen capture of I am Legend.
When it comes to reading, the 5″ screen is great for digital content: news paper, e-books, magazines. The screen is large which allows for full pages to be displayed in a reasonably sized font. I managed to read the Hunger Games without any problems.
The one catch with the screen being 5.3″ in size would be if you tried to using the Swype feature. It’s too big for you to really drag your thumb across the entire keypad in a single swipe. I find it best to either stick with typing using your thumb or holding the phone in one hand and swyping with your index finger.
The next big deal with the Galaxy Note is the stylus or S Pen. At first I wasn’t quite too sure what to do with it but I’ve come to realize the usefulness. For starters, it is more accurate than my finger. Second, I can scribble significantly faster than I can type. Third, the shift key on the stylus enables quick screen captures. Last but not least, it makes for a great doodling device. From a third party application perspective, the S Pen is becoming more commonly used and will be supported in Android 4.0 (ICS).
When listening to music, I found the Galaxy Note to be on the quiet side. The quality of the audio was excellent and this carried over to when I was using the phone to talk to people but for movies and music I wished I could have cranked up the decibels. At close range the audio is good but if you want to put the phone down and have to supply some background music while you worked outdoors, I didn’t think it was quite good enough.
The Galaxy Note comes with an 8MP camera at the back and a 2MP forward facing camera. The 8MP camera can record 1080p video and I found the camera to be surprisingly well. At 8MP it can definitely replace some small point and shoots. The picture quality from both at a distance and macro were respectable and the flash. I found it to be much better than my Galaxy Nexus which only has a 5MP.
When using the phone at a day to day level, the voice quality was good. No one ever complained about poor audio and my folks are one to say something negative real fast as I’ve had my fair share of crappy VOIP providers. The big screen is definitely nice for when I look something up on the web or needed to pull up a quick map of an area. In running a few battery tests I found the Galaxy Note had about 100 hours of standby with a few background apps running with WiFi enabled. On a day to day basis I was able to squeeze two full days out, this included using the phone for a few text messages, phone calls, e-mails and general web browsing. This is a big improvement over my 30 hours that I get from the Galaxy Nexus. What this means is that if you forget to plug in your phone one day, it won’t be dead the next morning you get up!
Overall, I have been very pleased with the Galaxy Note. At first I thought the 5.3″ screen size and the use of a stylus would be a bit ridiculous. However, the 5.3″ screen size still fits in my jeans and any jacket pocket and the S Pen has its place. It certainly doesn’t come out often but doesn’t actually impact the performance if it stays holstered. Where Samsung goes with the Galaxy Note is anyone’s guess but I certainly hope two things happen, they release the Android 4.0 updated as soon as possible and don’t consider going too much bigger than 5.3 inches!
- Advantages
- 5.0″ screen size great for browsing and reading
- Great battery life
- Amazing Super AMOLED screen
- High quality camera pictures
- Disadvantages
- 5.3″ screen size might be too big for some to carry
- Large screen difficult to swype
I’d like to thank Samsung for making this review possible.