Samsung Galaxy Note LTE Review

Introduction:

Taking a trip back to memory lane, it was hard to imagine smartphones packing displays anything larger than 3.5-inches a few years ago, but as reality has proven time after time, it seems that we have an insatiable desire to keep moving forward. In fact, our jaws all dropped in unison when the HTC HD2 came romping onto the scene flaunting a then larger than life 4.3” display. Soon afterwards, we’ve all come together as a society to regard devices with these sized displays to be the norm.

Well, the Samsung Galaxy Note came to fruition back last fall pushing the limits of how big is too big for today’s modern smartphone. The insanely large device is finally making its way to AT&T’s lineup with 4G LTE connectivity in tow to match its prestigious status as being a formidable Android powered smartphone. Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time we’re seeing a device on AT&T’s lineup breaking the barriers with a 5-inch display of some sort – as the Dell Streak from 2010 brought BIG to the masses. Having spent an astronomical amount for a fancy Super Bowl commercial, Samsung clearly has high expectations for the Galaxy Note, so let’s see how this version fares!

The package contains:

• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• Quick Start Guide
• Health & Safety and Warranty Guide

Design:

Let’s get the obvious out of the way – again! This isn’t a handset fit for those with small hands, because honestly, it’ll inevitably prove to be too much, as frustration to hold and operate the device settles in. Wide figured and all, we find it necessary to have a two-handed operation approach when handling the Samsung Galaxy Note, especially when our thumb is unable to encompass every corner of its display. In all fairness, the handset’s sheer size is conveniently its most prized feature, since people take notice of it more than anything else. Actually, it’s the kind of fresh device that’ll circumvent conversation from random strangers who are intrigued by simply looking at it from afar.

Overlooking its beastly figure, the Samsung Galaxy Note bears many of the same design characteristics that have been established by the Galaxy S II family. Sporting that typical Samsung construction, with its all-plastic casing and all, it’s hardly anything that stands out, but we’re grateful to find it retaining the same streamlined (0.38” thin) appearance of the international GSM version – especially when it’s packing an LTE radio. With its accompanying weight (6.45 oz), it’s minutely heavier than the original version, but warranted in giving it a solid sense of durability.



You can compare the Samsung Galaxy Note LTE with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Overall, there isn’t a whole lot different with the handset’s design, but it now features the usual set of Android capacitive buttons beneath its display, as opposed to finding the physical home button like before. Additionally, it bears AT&T’s name below its earpiece, with its front-facing 2-megapixel camera positioned nearby.

There’s nothing out of place with the rest of the handset, since we find its volume rocker, power button, 3.5mm headset jack, noise cancellation microphone, and microUSB port around its sides. With the latter, we gain video-out functionality with the aid of an optional MHL adapter.

In the rear, its 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash is perched in its usual spot, while yanking apart its plastic rear cover grants us access to its SIM card slot, microSD card slot, and generous 2,500 mAh battery. Inconspicuously hidden away, the included S Pen (don’t call it a stylus, says Samsung) is firmly held in place within its slot, which is located in the bottom right corner of the device.



Display:

Equally as eye-catching as its ginormous size, the 5.3” WXGA (800 x 1280) Super AMOLED display of the Samsung Galaxy Note is undoubtedly blessed with so much real estate. Magnificent in so many ways, some might be bummed to know that it utilizes the less favorable PenTile matrix arrangement, but nevertheless, we’re impressed by its immaculate detail (285 ppi). Furthermore, it exhibits all of the qualities we adore with Super AMOLED displays in general – like its overly saturated color tones, deep contrast, wide-viewing angles, and a noticeably bluish tinge. Combining all of those elements, it removes the shock factor of being so large in size for a smartphone, but rather, it culminates all together to reel in prying eyes from afar to take notice of its polarizing beauty.

Interface:

Sounding like a broken record, we’ve voiced our disappointment on numerous occasions when we find devices running anything except for the most up-to-date experience in Ice Cream Sandwich – so yeah, we can say the same thing here with the Samsung Galaxy Note. Regardless of that, we have to accept it for what it is, since it still offers all the exceptional personalization aspects of Android as a whole. Needless to say, not everyone is going to be wowed by the TouchWiz interface running on top of Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread (of course, update to Android 4.0 is expected), but some might take fancy by its heavy usage of widgets that encompass the size of a single homescreen.  Luckily, we’re thankful to now find an option for an alphabetical grid style option with its app menu, seeing that original lacked it.



S Pen

In addition to all the standard Android and TouchWiz stuff, however, Samsung has cooked some apps especially for the Galaxy Note and its S Pen. This is to be expected with a device, centered around the experience of note-taking via a digital pen. S Memo is the special notes app, which will allow you to leverage the possibilities of the included S Pen. It features some nice options such as brush type, thickness and color. You can also insert text using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The app is pretty decent, and it isn't hard to use. Writing with the S Pen takes a little getting used to, but ultimately we found the experience to be satisfying. Note, however, that you should set from the Settings app if your dominant hand is the left or right one, because this seriously affects the performance of the S Pen. You can also take screenshot notes by pressing the key that is on the stylus and holding it on the screen for a couple of seconds.


Strangely, the S Planner app found on the original is absent on AT&T’s version of the Note, but instead, the main Calendar app switches in favor to utilizing the layout of the S Planner. Basically, S Planner is just a facelifted calendar, having a more professional feel.

Functionality:

Some of us have this innate ability to effortlessly type messages with one hand, but honestly, even the best of individuals with this special skill will find it nearly impossible to do with the Galaxy Note. Simply, it’s so wide that the only way to type comfortably with great accuracy and precision is to use both hands, which others are so inclined to do so already. Presented with three options, the stock Gingerbread, Samsung, and Swype keyboard, they’re all graced with spacious layouts to reduce accidental presses. Interestingly, the Samsung keyboard looks very similar to the stock Gingerbread one, but we wholeheartedly prefer Samsung’s offering mainly because we have more difficulty in handling the squished look of buttons with the stock one.


Do we really need to get into the email experience, since of course, it functions like all other devices before it? Aside from the obvious things, we do enjoy the fact that Samsung has optimized its layout in landscape, as the standard email app (not Gmail), employs a 2-panel layout that displays our inbox and email content simultaneously.



Processor and Memory:

Since this variant is packing support for AT&T’s 4G LTE network, its processor has been changed from the original’s 1.4GHz dual-core Exynos processor to a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 processor. As much as some people might take comfort in its faster clocked speed, it’s hardly negligible seeing that we do notice a sluggish performance when it’s tested by graphically intensive live wallpapers. However, it fares significantly better with static wallpapers, seeing that it exhibits fluid responses with most basic tasks. Still, its sluggish performance at times is nowhere close to the level of making the handset unusable or unstable – yet, we sorely wish to see it maintaining a peppy response.

Advertised as having 16GB of internal storage, it actually breaks down to 10.84GB of free storage for media and another 1.7GB for “system storage,” which is primarily reserved for apps. If that happens to be insufficient, you can always load a microSD card to supplement its capacity.


Internet and Connectivity:

Inadvertently being overlooked because of the handset’s physical stature, we have to remind ourselves that this bad boy is packing 4G LTE connectivity for blazing data speeds. However, the network is yet to go live in our neck of the woods, so we’re essentially left to indulge on HSPA+ speeds instead, which is still surprisingly fast. Complementing its ability to effortlessly load complex sites, we’re presented with buttery smooth responses with all of its navigational controls. Even better, it rarely misses a beat when there’s an abundance of heavy Flash content on screen. Beyond that, it’s also able to display more things without compromising details since its resolution is remarkably adept in maximizing every inch of its large display.


Global trotter will surely appreciate AT&T’s version of the Samsung Galaxy Note, well, that’s because it’s enabled to work in most places around the globe – while still dishing out HSPA+ speeds with most locales. Testing it out with AT&T’s HSPA+ network, we’re satisfied with getting speeds as much as 8Mbits/s down and 1.5Mbits/s up in high coverage areas. Meanwhile, it’s packing all the usual connectivity suspects – like aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and mobile hotspot functionality.

Camera:

There's an 8MP camera employed by the Samsung Galaxy Note, coupled with a single LED flash. The camera interface is the standard one for TouchWiz 4.0, which is a good thing because it works pretty fast. It also offers some nice goodies such as Anti-Shake function, different Scene modes, etc.


Coughing up the same level of quality produced by the original model, we’re content with the photos snapped by AT&T’s version as well – though, they’re nothing more than passable. Just as we found out before, the handset has a tendency to overexpose brighter areas, while producing some average looking details. However, we do like how it’s able to cast very natural tones with its color production. Indoors however, its quality is naturally diminished due to its noisy and bland appearance – albeit, its LED flash counteracts it all with its potent light.


Luckily, its 1080p high definition video recording quality is much more pleasant looking, and as a whole, we find it to be extremely sharp looking. Sprucing up things, its quality is exponentially kicked up thanks to its sharp details, neutral colors,  smooth capture rate of 30 frames per second, and clear audio recording. Unlike before, it seems that it also handles panning a lot better, since there’s barely any evidence of any artifacting or distortion. Very nice indeed!

Samsung Galaxy Note LTE Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Well, there’s nothing out of place with the TouchWiz music player, since it’s the same one employed by the majority of Samsung’s devices running the customized Android interface. Of course, we’re very forgiving to its cookie-cutter presentation, but our ears are pleasantly surprised by the powerful tones put out by its single speaker. However, there are some screechy tones evident at the loudest volume setting. Fine tuning things, we’re presented with a solid listing of equalizer options to better adapt to specific genres of music.


As you might guess, one area where the Galaxy Note is very strong is multimedia consumption. Naturally, watching movies on the big 5.3” Super AMOLED screen is much better than doing it on a 4” one, for example. The Samsung Galaxy Note manages to play all kinds of codecs, including MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid and H.264, at resolutions of up to 1080p. Essentially, this is the kind of device that delivers a very tasteful experience.


As much as we dearly enjoy viewing multimedia content on its large and lovely looking Super AMOLED display, we can just as easily share it on the big screen with the aid of an MHL adapter – thus, giving us that all too useful mirrored experience. For those who prefer a  wireless route, the DLNA functions found with the AllShare app will prove to be a reasonable alternative.



Software:

Knowing that this behemoth can entice anyone by sheer presence alone, it has been stocked to the brim with an assortment of bloatware. First and foremost, AT&T’s presence is clearly established by apps such as AT&T Code Scanner, AT&T FamilyMap, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Ready2Go, myAT&T, Featured Apps, and Live TV. Secondly, Samsung is also in for the ride not surprisingly with things like Kies air, Media Hub, and Samsung Apps. Rounding things out, its preloaded third party apps include Polaris Office, Qik Lite, and YPmobile. Also, you can sharpen your pointing moves by playing the Crayon Physics game, which so happens to work best when you use the S Pen to draw shapes.

Performance:

We weren’t particularly thrilled by the calling quality on the original Note, but this time around, we do notice a slight improvement. Specifically, voices are deliciously distinctive and clear on both ends of the line – however, its earpiece is still exhibiting the same weak volume tones as before. Conversely, there’s no difficulty in hearing voices with the speakerphone since it’s so strong, but we do notice a bit more muffling with it.

Showing very little fluctuation during our testing, the smartphone is able to pull out a signal strength of -77 dBm under high coverage areas. Moreover, we didn’t experience any dropped calls during our testing – so yeah, it’s pretty much solid in this aspect.

Now don’t get too ahead of yourself in assuming the worst with battery life on the handset, well, that’s because we’re happy to report that it’s not much of a concern with this one. Testing it out primarily under HSPA+ connectivity, we’re able to get close to two days with light usage on a full battery, which is pretty exceptional in our books. Knowing that, it’s blatantly obvious that it’s going to be reduced under LTE connections, but we’d fathom seeing it putting out at least a solid working day on a full charge.

Conclusion:

Reiterating the obvious (again), the Samsung Galaxy Note isn’t for everyone, and in fact, it might take some people a good amount of time to get used to accepting its glorified status as being some kind of hybrid device. But simply, that’s where we find all of its allure, as it’s able to come off as being something totally fresh from the usual set of smartphones we’ve been seeing. Yes, it’s pretty much like any other ordinary super spec’d smartphone when you look under the hood, but its sheer size is exactly what makes the Galaxy Note extremely intriguing in the first place. In fact, we’re amazed to find so many random people publicly coming up to us asking, “what is that?”

Of course, there’s always the matter of pricing, which will set you back $299.99 with your signature on a 2-year contract. Hands down, it’s one of the most expensive devices to be sold by AT&T, but then again, when you factor in its high-end hardware, ridiculously large display, and 4G LTE connection, it’s all very justified – even more when it excels in a variety of key areas. Besides its physical traits, the Samsung Galaxy Note has proven itself to be a balanced offering to appease even the most demanding users out there. And on top of that, this version is seeing some improvements over the original – with the inclusion of 4G LTE connectivity being the most profound one of them all.

Despite that, it all comes full circle back to its size, and to tell you the truth, there’s no escaping that whatsoever. When you think about it, this could’ve easily been a forgettable device if it were packing a 4.5” display, but instead, it’s forever going to be remembered for pushing the limits thanks primarily to its size. Furthermore, when you look at the landscape right now, there are few devices that are able to jump out so blatantly – so we have to give kudos to the Note for standing out. Heck, you never know, we might all look back at the Note a few years from now and call it “average” in size for smartphones. Scary to even believe that, but if history has anything to do with it, we can attribute the Note as being the device to popularize this new size.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
Android Version: 2.3.6
Build Number: GINGERBREAD.UCLA1
Kernel Version: 2.6.35.11

Samsung Galaxy Note LTE Video Review: