Neither Fish Nor Fowl
One step ahead of smartphones and one step behind tablets, Samsung Galaxy Note fails to delve deep into the heart of the users
It is rightly said that all great things come in small packages. However taking an entirely opposite route altogether, Samsung, through its recently launched Samsung Galaxy Note, tried to do things differently but alas seemed to fail badly. After the market saw the launch of large screen devices like Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Evo 3D, Motorola DROID X2, HTC Titan, and Sensation XL, Samsung has tried to overshadow all these in terms of size, but how saleable is the idea or the product, for that matter, is still a debatable topic.
It’s a hybrid that claims to have mixed features of both smartphone and tablet that is sure to get mixed response from the user category. Taking the race to an altogether different height or size to be more specific, Samsung has pushed the envelope further with the Galaxy Note that boasts of a screen size of 5.3 inches. Well, the size of the screen makes the device neither so compatible enough to fit in a pocket nor can you treat it like a tablet that provides a large enough surface area for editing spreadsheets, browsing the web, and playing HD clips. However the display screen boasts of eye-popping colors and is quite lightweight. And it’s not just the external look that is in the elite class—internally; everything is run by a powerful 1.4 GHZ dual-core processor.
You get to store your media files in the 16 GB internal memory, which is expandable up to 32 GB aided by a microsd. Another added feature is its 8.0 mega pixels camera that gives good quality results with its supports like LED flash, auto focus, and digital zoom. The camera can record full HD 1080P videos@24 fps.
However when you hold the device against the ears to make voice calls, you somehow need to stretch your fingers to hold the handset in place if your fingers happen to be of normal size. Moreover, if you try to increase the volume of the phone, you often tend to press the power button placed parallel to the volume key and the call quality too turned out to be strangely unclear and not loud.
Galaxy Note valiantly brings into vogue the stylus, which it calls ‘the S Pen’. Its most striking feature is the S Memo that allows the user to be at complete ease with it and really gets creative with it by scribbling whatever you wish on it with the S pen. However who uses a stylus these days when in Steve Jobs’ language ‘God has given you 10 magnificent styluses, why do you need one more’? Barring few applications, it is not of much relevance, at least not to the hype that the company has created over it. The Galaxy Note has several S pen optimized apps that aid in boosting productivity. There is the Zen Brush that allows you to unleash your creative genie and write or paint using the ink brush.
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Another tool is the Omnisketch that lets you create stunning sketches with minimum efforts, thanks to the mathematical algorithms. Some of the other apps that are in the S pen pipeline include Soonr Scribble, which can transform your smartphone into state-of-the-art productivity tool used for annotating any file, not just the PDF format, and store it in the cloud. Then, there is iannotate PDF that lets you add text notes, highlight, underline, bookmark, save, and share PDF. Another striking feature of the device is that it allows the user to mug shot from the photo gallery and adds it to the Memo.
Well, in a nutshell, this expensive device from Samsung’s Kitty is too large to be used as a day-to-day smartphone and too small to function as a tablet. At a price tag of 34,990, it is to be seen if it can make a similar impact corresponding to its size.
ritus@cybermedia.co.in